[3] Tierney's father, Ernest, was a boilermaker and trained draughtsman, from Warrington, who worked at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

While working as a textile designer and printmaker, he became involved in amateur dramatics at the Little Theatre, in Bolton, which had been set up by John Wardle, father of the drama critic Irving Wardle, whose wife, Norma, became a mentor to Tierney.

[3] As a result, he began a scholarship with the Rose Bruford Training College of Speech and Drama, in Sidcup, Kent, in 1958 and landed his first acting job in 1962.

[4] Tierney's roles included the part of Captain Monk Adderley in the original Poldark series, Tommy McArdle in Brookside between 1984 and 1987, Charlie Gimbert in Lovejoy (26 Episodes 1986 and 1993), Geoffrey Ellsworth-Smythe in A Bit of a Do, Patrick Woolton in House of Cards and Chief Const.

[5] In science fiction, he appeared, uncredited, as the Imperial officer who questions the disguised Luke Skywalker and Han Solo on what they are doing with Chewbacca in Star Wars in 1977, and guested in the Doctor Who serial The Trial of a Time Lord (Terror of the Vervoids) in 1986.