Tony Atherton is a British actor born in Southend on Sea Essex but now resides mostly in the Highlands of Scotland. Following several acclaimed High School performances he considered applying for drama college but was talked out of it in favour of University and a "steady job". He attended London University where he achieved a Bachelors and Masters degrees in geology. This led to a long and successful career in the Oil and Gas Exploration industry. Tony maintained his love of acting throughout this period, performing in numerous local theatre productions. In 2018 he decided to take early retirement from the industry to pursue a second career in TV and Film. He is best known for his first screen role as as Gilbert Hughes in the award nominated short film "Here Lies Adelia Hughes" Sky192/Amazon Prime "The Short Film Show". This was shortly followed by his Soap debut in BBC One Scotland's River City. He has since appeared in another 3 episodes of River City to date. Other TV appearances include Peaky Blinders series 5 ( 4 episodes), ITV's Emmerdale, S4C/BBC4 Hidden (Craith) series 2, BBC Scotland's "Guilt" and "Elizabeth is Missing". Film work includes the 2020 Scottish indie Film "Our Ladies". Work in production includes "The Crown" series 4 and Julian Fellowes's Belgravia as Lord Derby. Tony is married with three children and lives in Aboyne Aberdeenshire. He is father to West End actress Lindsay Atherton.