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Famous faces of Lancaster alumni
Nathalie Farrugia
News Editor
P
erhaps one of the most
famous of the alumni is
James May, who was a
former member of Pendle
College and graduated in 1985
with a Music degree. He began
working in journalism, contributing to several motoring magazines as well as having a weekly
motoring column in the Daily
Telegraph. May has presented a
variety of TV shows but is best
known for his presenting role
on popular motoring show Top
Gear, alongside Jeremy Clarkson
and Richard Hammond. As well
as this, May has also written an
array of different books, from
motoring to his ‘Toy Stories’ collection.
Another well-known Lancaster alumnus is Andy Serkis who,
as a member of County College,
graduated in 1985 after studying Visual Arts and Theatre. After
graduating in 1985, he worked in
the Duke’s theatre and then for a
number of theatre companies before moving to TV and film. He
is probably best known for his
computer-generated characters
like Gollum in The Lord of the
Rings trilogy and The Hobbit as
well as the titular role of King
Kong in Peter Jackson’s adaptation. He also starred in the Rise
and Dawn of the Planet of the
Apes. For his work, Serkis has
received an Empire Award, a National Board of Review Award,
two Saturn Awards and a Screen
Actors Guild Award.
Actor Ralph Ineson graduated from Lancaster in
1991 in Theatre Studies,
having been a member
of Furness College. He
is perhaps most famous
for his role in the TV
series The Office, but
has had many other
roles in TV and film,
not least as Dagmar
Cleftjaw in Game of
Thrones, as well as
in Coronation Street,
Playing The Field and
Great
Expectations.
Ineson also starred in
the last three Harry Potter films as the death eater Amycus Carrow.
Andrew Miller, who graduated in 1995 with a PhD in
English and Creative Writing,
has gone on to become a successful author, winning the 2011
Costa Book of the Year award for
his novel Pure. Prior to this, his
first novel, Ingenious Pain won
the International IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award, the Premio Grin-
zane Cavour and the James Tait
Black Memorial Prize.
Kath Durrant studied History
at Lancas-
Photo courtesy of The Mirror
ter
and
graduated in 1988. Since then,
the former Lonsdalian has become the first ever women to
have made it onto the executive
team of Rolls Royce, and is the
Group Human Resources Director
for the company. It was in 2009
when Durrant joined Rolls Royce
as HR Director – Global Resourcing and Development and she
was appointed Ѽ