Shakespeare & Hathaway series 5 episode 5 cast includes groundbreaking soap star for football-themed episode
A killer is on the loose as a football team tries desperately to earn promotion
Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators series 5 continues with episode 5 and the guest cast harbours a groundbreaking TV star amidst the sporting carnage.
We catch up with investigative trio Luella, Frank and Sebastian as they’re tasked with unmasking a saboteur at Avon FC. Hired by the team’s manager Sam Albany, the boys suit up as assistant coaches on the touchline while Lu poses as a photojournalist.
With a win in the last match of the season set to secure promotion, the stakes have never been higher for the footy club. Yet captain Kyle Kabir and his girlfriend Leah Grace (who sponsors the team) are upset about something.
Elsewhere, Avon FC owner Dan Kressick seems out of his depth as rival manager Howard Harvey keeps showing up to stir the pot. When Sam’s strangulated body is discovered though, the group must come together to find his killer. So where have you seen this Shakespeare & Hathaway series 5 episode 5 cast before?
Who plays Sam in the Shakespeare & Hathaway series 5 episode 5 cast?
In the part of dead-man-to-be Sam Albany, it’s actor Steven Hartley. A regular fixture on EastEnders during the late 80s, the actor played Matthew Jackson across 65 episodes. Villainous Matthew was kicked out of the house by wife Carmel after turning violent and never returned.
The Shipley-born actor, 65, went on to play Superintendent Tom Chandler in The Bill, a role he portrayed between 1994 and 2002. Steven then switched his broadcasting allegiance back to the Beeb by joining Doctors as Jack Ford.
Fleeting stop-offs in Marple, Merlin, The Borgias, Happy Valley, Shadow and Bone, and Brassic helped Steven to branch out into less soapy territory. Her played an ill-fated Santa in the Christmas special of Death in Paradise in 2024, too.
Tracy Beaker star adds some glamour as Leah Grace
East Sussex’s Amy-Leigh Hickman is the glamorous partner of team captain Kyle for this episode of Shakespeare & Hathaway on U&Alibi.
In the industry from a young age, she made her television debut as Carmen Howle in the CBBC series Tracy Beaker Returns, a role she reprised in the sequel series The Dumping Ground.
From there, the now 28-year-old graduated to eye-catching parts in EastEnders (as Linzi Bragg) and Ackley Bridge (Nasreen Paracha). Her latter character was notable for being a lesbian in the Muslim community.
Netflix introduced her to global audiences via Harlan Coben’s Safe and psychological thriller You. Military drama Our Girl and Tin Star offered her the chance to brush shoulders with Michelle Keegan and Tim Roth on screen.
Nathan Graham plays Kyle Kabir
Football skills are really transferrable when it comes to acting, just ask Nathan Graham.
After wearing the boots of Coronation Street’s James Bailey for over 150 episodes, he’s moved on to become Avon FC’s main man Kyle.
Since leaving the hallowed cobbles of Weatherfield, the now 34-year-old has appeared in two TV dramas. Those were autistic detective story Patience and ITV’s four-parter Platform 7.
Based on Louise Doherty’s novel, Platform 7 focused on a ghost who can’t find her way out of the train station she died in.
Who plays Dan Kressick?
As the football team’s seemingly financially-troubled owner Dan Kressick, we have James Sheldon.
Making his TV debut in Doctors a decade ago – catch him as Ed Turnham in two episodes – James’ next job came via Casualty five years later. He reprised his policeman character Adam Striker most recently in a 2023 instalment.
Sherwood viewers will be familiar with him from the crime drama’s second series, where he appeared as Officer McLeash.
In BBC One’s long-running period detective show Father Brown, which follows a crime-solving Roman Catholic priest, James played Charles Radler.
Doctors actor steps into the murder-mystery world as Howard Harvey
And finally, groundbreaking soap star Ben Jones completes the Shakespeare & Hathaway series 5 episode 5 cast.
Prior to his latest TV role as troublemaker Howard Harvey, he worked steadily in stage productions. Yet it’s the 53-year-old’s days on Doctors that culturally stand out.
Over a four-year period, Ben filled the shoes of Greg Robinson. His character’s marriage to Rico Da Silva was the first same-sex wedding to ever air on UK screens.
Fast-forward to 2024 and the soap itch was still there to be scratched. The actor arrived in Walford as divorce lawyer Roger Peel. Blink and you’d miss him, but Ben also had the pleasure of acting in one of this year’s most star-packed series, MobLand.
It saw Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan living in a gangster’s paradise.
Cast list for Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators series 5 episode 5:
Jo Joyner is Luella Shakespeare.
Mark Benton is Frank Hathaway.
Patrick Walshe McBride is Sebastian Brudenell.
Steven Hartley plays Sam Albany.
Amy-Leigh Hickman plays Leah Grace.
Nathan Graham plays Kyle Kabir.
James Sheldon appears as Dan Kressick.
Ben Jones appears as Howard Harvey.
