Tony Hirst
Tony Hirst is an English actor, theatre director and narrator best known for playing Mike Barnes on the soap opera Hollyoaks and in Coronation Street as List of [Coronation Street characters introduced in 2010#Paul_Kershaw|Paul Kershaw], the love interest of Eileen Grimshaw. Hirst also narrates the UK version of How It's Made, shown on Quest and the Discovery channels, and various programmes for Channel 4.
Filmography
Hirst's acting roles include Mike Barnes from Hollyoaks, Martin Gooch from The Ghost Squad and Steve Kingsley from Holby City. He has narrated TV documentaries such as Blueprint for Disaster, 2005, The Garage, Smash Lab, and How It's Made since 2001. He also narrates some of the programme trailers on Fox and Channel 4. Hirst appeared as a fireman called Paul on Coronation Street during the show's 50th anniversary in December 2010. Paul returned to the soap as a regular character during October 2011. It was revealed on 24 February 2013 that Hirst would be leaving Coronation Street in 2013 at the end of his contract. In 2014, Tony Hirst narrated two seasons of Food Factory and in 2015 narrated season 1 of Home Factory both on Discovery science.| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2025 | Riot Women | Jerry Booth | |
| 2023 | Old Guy | William | Feature Film |
| 2023 | Brassic | Dougie Ratcliffe | Series 6 |
| 2023 | Boiling Point | Philip | |
| 2022 | Better | Howard | |
| 2021 | Everything [I Know About Love (TV series)|Everything I Know About Love] | Mike | |
| 2021 | Red Rose | Martin Taylor | |
| 2021 | Pistol | Tom Cook | |
| 2021 | Stephen | Bill Vaughan | |
| 2017 | Broken | Sergeant Denis Kilcaid | |
| 2015 | Casualty | Andre Benson | |
| 2014 | Glue | Simon Kendle | |
| 2011 | Coronation Street | Paul Kershaw | Series Regular |
| 2010 | Law & Order: UK | Michael Raines | |
| 2006 | Hollyoaks | Mike Barnes | Series Regular |
| 2005 | The [Ghost Squad (TV series)|The Ghost Squad] | Martin Gooch | |
| 2005 | Hard Hat | Doug Grimes | Short Film |
| 2005 | Holby City | Steve Kingsley | |
| 2003 | Shameless | PC Dave Whiteley | |
| 2003 | No Angels | Peter Good | |
| 2003 | Doctors | Jim Taylor | Guest Lead |
| 1999 | 99-1 | Wilson | |
| 1998 | Brookside | Gary | |
| 1997 | The Specials | Warren Lawson | |
| 1996 | Sharp End | Gazza |
Other TV appearances
Hirst appeared on Ready Steady Cook, on BBC Two on 5 March 2008, and lost to Zoë Lister, who played Zoe Carpenter in Hollyoaks. He played the part of Rom, a Roman man, on CBBC children's history programme The Romans in Britain shown on BBC2 and "Uncle Jake" in the BBC children's programme The World Around Us. He played the part of a policeman in the first series of the Channel 4 show Shameless. He appeared on the Channel 4 show No Angels as an "ambulance chaser" in the first series.Hirst narrates Benefits Street and the UK versions of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs and How It's Made on Discovery channels and Murder, Mystery and My Family on BBC. Hirst portrays a man sent back from the future to warn of an impending alien invasion in an ad being aired on Discovery Science to promote their Out of this World campaign.