Fish On Productions Dean Andrews



Dean Andrews, best known for his role as D.S. Ray Carling in BBC drama Life on Mars (and its follow up series Ashes to Ashes), describes himself as a fly fisher who acts to fund his fly fishing.

An interview with Trout Fisherman magazine (issue 379) sums up Dean’s philosophy with the headline “The BAFTAS didn’t half mess up my fishing”.

An angler since childhood Dean was introduced to fly fishing by his father-in-law in 2004 while visiting him in Scotland. To quote Dean “I was hooked from the first cast. There’s an intoxicating blend of the technical with the traditional”.

Dean spent his initial outings as a fly fisherman on stillwaters but a chance meeting with fellow angler John Pearson on the banks of a local lake changed the fishing habits of both anglers. The pair discussed their mutual interest in making the transition to rivers and their next outing saw them on the banks of the Derbyshire Wye.

After that first outing on running water it’s probably fair to say that passion turned to obsession for both anglers and the constant thirst for knowledge led them to a weekend of instruction with John Tyzack.

Several outings later the trio had become great friends and it wasn’t long before conversation came round to instructional DVDs. John Pearson knew an old friend who worked as a film maker and a business meeting was scheduled. The rest, as they say, is history and Fish On Productions was born.

Dean seems destined to be surrounded by fly fishing in his career, not just with Fish On productions either. Earlier roles in his career saw him alongside Robson Green (an equally passionate fly fisher) in Wire in the Blood and before that a vicarious connection to A River Runs Through It came in the form of his role in Between the Sheets where Dean starred alongside Brenda Blethyn (who played the wife and mother to the MacLean family of fly fishers).

More recently Dean found himself talking trout with Ashley Pharaoh and Matthew Graham the creators of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes and (you guessed it!) both keen fly fishers. As if that wasn’t enough, on the set of Ashes to Ashes Dean met and shared a few fishy tales with the legendary British actor and fly fisher Geoffrey Palmer, presenter of TV series The Compleat Angler.