'' premiere in 2009 Bradley joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company and performed at
Laurence Olivier's
National Theatre Company in the early 1970s. He first appeared on television in 1971, as a police officer in the comedy
Nearest and Dearest. He was awarded a
Laurence Olivier Award in 1991 for his supporting role as the Fool in
King Lear at the Royal National Theatre. He appeared in the Royal National Theatre's 1997 production of
The Homecoming, as well as productions of
The Caretaker at
Sheffield Theatres and the
Tricycle Theatre from 2006 to 2007. In 2005 he played the title role in
Nicholas Hytner's production of Henry IV Parts One and Two at the Olivier Theatre, London. Bradley played fictional
Labour Member of Parliament Eddie Wells in the 1996
BBC Two serial
Our Friends in the North. Also in 1996, he appeared as gangster Alf Black in
Band of Gold. In 1998, he appeared in the BBC adaptation of
Vanity Fair as the miserly Sir Pitt Crawley, and
Our Mutual Friend as the villainous Rogue Riderhood. Other television appearances include the 2001 series
The Way We Live Now, directed by
David Yates, who would work with Bradley five years later on the
Harry Potter films. From 2002 to 2004, Bradley starred as Jake in the
BBC comedy series
Wild West. Bradley acted in the 2004 musical drama serial
Blackpool on
BBC One. He appeared in the 2005 BBC drama
Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle, playing a morose coach-driver who takes an unruly party of pupils on a trip to
Salisbury Cathedral, and the 2006 BBC drama
Sweeney Todd. He had a small role in a 2006 episode of the series
Taggart. In 2003, he played Tom in the
Midsomer Murders episode "The Green Man". He appeared as the
electrolarynx-using gangster Stemroach in the BBC comedy series
Ideal and as Electric in the BBC's
Thieves Like Us, as well as the BBC One series
True Dare Kiss in 2007–08. in London's
West End in 2008 Bradley appeared in the 2002 film
Nicholas Nickleby which was based on
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by
Charles Dickens, and had a small role in the 2007 comedy film
Hot Fuzz as a farmer who illegally hoards weapons. He played
Cohen the Barbarian in a
Sky One adaptation of
The Colour of Magic in 2008. That same year he appeared as Spooner in a production of
Harold Pinter's ''
No Man's Land'' at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, which later transferred to London's
West End. In 2009, Bradley appeared in
Ashes to Ashes, playing an
animal rights activist, and in
The Street, both on
BBC. Bradley portrayed
Will Somers,
Henry VIII's court fool, in an episode of the
Showtime series
The Tudors in 2009. In 2010, he appeared in the film
Another Year, which earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from the
London Film Critics Circle Awards. From 2011 to 2017, Bradley appeared as the villainous
Lord Walder Frey in the
HBO series
Game of Thrones. Bradley played Solomon, a ruthless buccaneer, in the 2012
Doctor Who episode "
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". He previously provided voice work for
The Sarah Jane Adventures serial
Death of the Doctor. It was announced in January 2013, that Bradley had been cast as actor
William Hartnell in
An Adventure in Space and Time, a BBC
docudrama about the creation of
Doctor Who in 1963. The special aired in November 2013, adding to the buildup to the
50th anniversary episode of
Doctor Who later that month. He also appeared in the first series of
Broadchurch, for which he won the
British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2013, he also appeared in ''
The World's End, a follow-up to Hot Fuzz
in the Three Flavours Cornetto'' trilogy, this time portraying "Mad" Basil, an eccentric local man from the fictional English town Newton Haven. From 2014, Bradley played a leading role as Professor Abraham Setrakian, a Holocaust survivor turned vampire hunter in
Guillermo del Toro's TV series
The Strain. In 2015, Bradley became a public supporter of Chapel Lane Theatre Company based in
Stratford-Upon-Avon. In 2017, Bradley joined the cast of
Guillermo del Toro's animated Netflix series
Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia playing the role of Merlin. In 2021, he received an
Annie Award for Best Voice Actor in a Television Role for his role in the final chapter of the trilogy,
Wizards: Tales of Arcadia as the wizard Merlin. In 2017, in the final episode of the
tenth series of
Doctor Who, "
The Doctor Falls", Bradley returned to portray the
First Doctor, having previously portrayed Hartnell, who originally played the character. He reprised the role in the 2017 Christmas special, "
Twice Upon a Time", in an audio series for
Big Finish Productions titled
Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures alongside his
An Adventure in Space and Time cast, and in the
immersive theatre show
Doctor Who: Time Fracture. This makes him the third actor to play the role in the television programme, after William Hartnell and
Richard Hurndall since the premiere of
Doctor Who in 1963, and at the age of 75, he is the also the oldest actor to play the role of the Doctor on television. He again played the First Doctor in the final episode of the
2022 specials, "
The Power of the Doctor". From 2019 to 2022, Bradley played Ray Johnson, the demented father of Tony (
Ricky Gervais) in the
Netflix series
After Life. In 2021, it was announced that Bradley would be joining the cast of
Allelujah, a
film adaptation of
Alan Bennett's
play of the same name directed by
Richard Eyre, which will star
Jennifer Saunders,
Bally Gill,
Russell Tovey,
Derek Jacobi, and
Judi Dench. In 2022, it was announced that Bradley would voice Fowler in
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. ==Personal life==