Patrick Barlow (born 18 March, 1947) is an English actor, comedian and playwright.
His comedic alter ego, Desmond Olivier Dingle, is the founder, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the two-man National Theatre of Brent. The role of his assistant (or as Desmond likes to call him, "my entire company") has been taken by different actors over the years, including Jim Broadbent (as Wallace), Robert Austin (as Bernard), and John Ramm (as Raymond Box). Their 1998 production Love Upon the Throne (featuring Barlow as Prince Charles and Ramm as Lady Diana Spencer) was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Comedy. Barlow has written two books in the character of Desmond Olivier Dingle, Shakespeare: The Truth! and All the World's a Globe: From Lemur to Cosmonaut.
Barlow has appeared in several feature films, and made regular appearances in comedy and drama series on British television and radio, including co-starring with Imelda Staunton in Is it Legal?, and playing the part of the vicar in Jam & Jerusalem. He has also written and directed for television.
Patrick Barlow also wrote a stage adaptation of John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps, which opened in London's Tricycle Theatre in 2006, and after a successful run transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly.
(1998) (theatre) With John Ramm, performed as the "National Theatre of Brent"
Appeared in the Rolo television commercial where a honeymooning couple are travelling on a train with a loveheart drawn on the carraige window in the condensation. There is one last Rolo left in the wrapper and they are both smiling at each other all lovey-dovey. They go through a tunnel, he looks at the sweet, not there! He looks at his wife who is chewing the last sweet innocently, he angrily wipes the loveheart from the window. He didn't love her enough to save her his last Rolo!
His comedy, Love Upon a Throne, was nominated for a 1999 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Comedy of 1998 season.
