James Michael Aloysius Bradford (born 16 March 1954), known as Jimmy Nail, is an English singer-songwriter, actor, film producer, and television writer.

James Michael Aloysius Bradford was born in Newcastle upon Tyne to father Jimmy and mother Laura.

While opening a crate of glass he stood on a six-inch spike that went through his foot and thereafter was called "Nail",[1] a name he later adopted professionally.

[4] His sister Val McLane is an actress who co-founded the Live Theatre Company in Newcastle in 1973 and later became Head of Drama at Sunderland University.

In 1982 Nail's partner, Miriam, encouraged him to audition for a television show, and although he had no experience as an actor,[4] he won the role of "Oz" Osborne in the BAFTA-nominated Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, an ITV comedy drama about UK construction workers working abroad.

In 1989 Nail and Ian la Frenais began work on an idea which became the BBC television drama series Spender.

In 1994 Nail created, executive produced, wrote and starred in the BBC television drama series Crocodile Shoes.

Another series saw the brickies holed up in Havana, and the final two-hour instalment, set in Laos, broadcast over Christmas 2004 attracting over seven million viewers.

[6] In 2008, Nail created and starred as Phil Parker in Parents of the Band, a six-episode series on BBC1, broadcast between November 2008 and January 2009.

The series revolved around a group of teenagers who formed a band just for their own enjoyment, and their parents, who fully expected them to be the next Led Zeppelin.

In 1985, he recorded the album, Take It Or Leave It, which included the single, "Love Don't Live Here Anymore", a cover of the Rose Royce hit.

The album featured guests such as Gary Moore, David Gilmour, Elliot Randall and George Harrison.

[10] Nail sang on the film soundtrack for Evita and received a double-platinum disk in recognition of 600,000-plus sales of the eponymous album.

After some time away from the limelight, Nail joined Sting on stage during a show at Sage, Gateshead on 5 February 2012 to sing on "Every Breath You Take".

69-70, 133, 175-176) he confirms his involvement in the movie, albeit momentarily, and how he got to joke about that "moment" some years later with Get Carter director Mike Hodges when the two worked together on Morons From Outer Space (1985).

The film's main theme, "The Flame Still Burns", performed by Nail, was nominated for a Golden Globe award.

On Broadway, when ticket sales began to drop, Sting replaced Nail to try to save the musical, but it ended after a short run.

[16][17][18][19][20] Nail played Parson Nathaniel in a twelve week run of the Bill Kenwright production of War of the Worlds alongside David Essex and Michael Praed at the Dominion Theatre, London in 2016.

The show's producer Karl Sydow stated: "After protracted negotiations carried out in good faith, we regret to announce the production's offer of employment to Jimmy Nail has been withdrawn.

The lawsuit concerned false and defamatory allegations made two years before in an article in News of the World and Nailed, a biography which was the newspaper's source for the claims.