Jail changed Tomlinson into an opera lover

Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson was set to marry his long-term love today.

Tomlinson, 62, was tying the knot with partner Rita Cummiskey at Liverpool Marina’s Harbourside Club.

Many of his Royle Family co-stars were expected to attend along with old friends from his Brookside days.

:: Tomlinson was born in 1939 and brought up in Liverpool – where he still lives, in a two-bedroom flat in Waterloo Dock.

:: In 1972 the ex-plasterer was jailed for two years for organising flying pickets in the national builders’ strike in Shrewsbury.

:: While serving time in 14 prisons Tomlinson organised a strike over meals and was put in solitary confinement because of his naked protests.

:: The experience of jail changed Tomlinson; he developed a taste for classical music, opera and Radio 4.

:: Tomlinson was blacklisted by the building trade when he was released from Stafford jail so he went to work as a stand-up comic, calling himself Hobo Rick.

:: His big break came in 1980 when director Alan Bleasdale – who witnessed Tomlinson’s stage routine – cast him in the series Boys From The Blackstuff.

:: He went on to make his name as Bobbie Grant, the shop steward in Brookside and then as a bereaved father in Jimmy McGovern’s Hillsborough.

:: In 1998, Tomlinson, who has never been taught how to act, became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Jim Royle in The Royle Family.

:: He recently turned down a part in Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002) for Mike Bassett: England Manager (2001).

:: Tomlinson remains a staunch socialist and trade unionist to this day - supporting striking firefighters last year by visiting a picket line.

:: He has also campaigned on behalf of Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party, standing against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool.

:: After his prison sentence, MI5 tracked Tomlinson and files recently made public branded him a “political thug“.

:: Time Warner is reported to have signed a £800,000 (€1.2m) advance deal for Tomlinson’s autobiography.

:: Tomlinson divorced his wife Marlene, with whom he has three children, in 1986.

:: He met his new wife-to-be 10 years ago when he was out of work, having quit his part in Brookside, and she was a social worker.

:: The nuptials will not be the usual glitzy bashes enjoyed by celebrities, Guests will dine on the likes of chicken supreme or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, with starters of prawn cocktail or soup and dessert of profiteroles, chocolate fudge cake and strawberry gateau.