[3] In 1978 he married actress Sue Jenkins, who played Gloria Todd on Coronation Street, 1985–1988, and Jackie Corkhill in the Channel 4 soap Brookside, 1991–2001.
[4] Fleeshman has appeared in and directed numerous plays around the UK and abroad, including Arthur Miller's The Price, for which he won best actor in a supporting role at the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards in 2005.
[6] Fleeshman's major television roles include Boys from the Blackstuff, Edge of Darkness, Silent Witness, and Trial & Retribution, comedy classics such as Only Fools and Horses and A Bit of a Do, as well as stints in Coronation Street, Brookside, Doctors, Emmerdale, and EastEnders.
From 2013 to 2015 he toured extensively with the Royal National Theatre's War Horse, which played to audiences at venues throughout the United Kingdom, Dublin and South Africa.
From 2016 to 2019, he directed the Christmas pantomimes Aladdin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Peter Pan (starring Cannon and Ball and Chico Slimani), performed at Crewe Lyceum Theatre.