Name	British Comedy Awards
Imagesize	168px
Caption	British Comedy Awards 2006 Logo
Description	Most popular in Comedy
Presenter	Michael Parkinson (1990)Angus Deayton (2008)Jonathan Ross (1991-2007, 2009-)
Location	The London Studios
Country	United Kingdom
Year	1990
Website	http://www.britishcomedyawards.com/

The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.

History

The awards were shown live on ITV in December from 1990 to 2006, after which the broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 was suspended by ITV due to allegations of irregularities and deception in the awarding of the 2005 People's Choice Award and then ongoing related investigations about the 2007 British television phone-in scandal resulting in Ofcom's subsequently fining ITV a record £5.675 million for its misuse of premium-rate telephone lines. Compliance for the show is the responsibility of the ITV Compliance Unit of ITV Network Limited (consisting of members from ITV plc, SMG plc, UTV Media plc, and Channel Television Ltd).

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway received the People's Choice Award 2006 at the British Comedy Awards 2006. According to a report in the The Sun, viewers telephoned a premium-rate number to vote for the People's Choice Award in the 2005 Awards during what was claimed to be a live broadcast; yet, at 22:30, the show went to a news broadcast, so that when the show returned, viewers thought it was still live, and thus still phoned the number, when the last half-hour was in fact a recording as the vote had already finished, rendering the call-in votes given during the recording pointless and a misuse of the callers' money.

ITV announced that they have postponed the British Comedy Awards 2007 due to the voting irregularities. In a statement, the company said: "Pending conclusion of the investigation, broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 will be postponed. ... ITV will not make any further comment regarding this matter until the conclusion of the investigation." The 2007 awards did take place on 5 December 2007, but that show was not televised. In early May 2008 Ofcom announced its fining and sanctioning ITV plc in a press release.

On 15 August 2008, it was announced that a similar scandal could have been committed in the award ceremony in 2004 Awards. Ross returned to presenting the awards in 2009.

See also

If.comedy award

British Comedy Guide Awards

Notes

External links

British Comedy Awards – Official website hosted by Unique Communications Group, the parent company of British Comedy Awards producer Michael Hurll Television (MHTV); site provides annual lists of winners.

Comedy Awards Category:Comedy and humor awards Category:ITV comedy Category:British television awards Category:Lifetime achievement awards

Imagesize	140px
Caption	Baron Cohen at the E! after party, January 2007
Birth name	Sacha Noam Baron Cohen
Birth date	October 13, 1971
Birth place	Hammersmith, London, England
Occupation	comedian, actor, writer
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	His family is Jewish. By the early 1990s, he was hosting a weekly programme on Windsor cable television's local broadcasts with Carol Kirkwood, who later became a BBC weather forecaster. In 1995, Channel 4 was planning a replacement for its series The Word, and disseminated an open call for new television presenters. Baron Cohen sent in a tape of himself in the character of Kristo, a fictional television reporter from Albania (who developed into the Kazakhstani Borat Sagdiyev), which caught the attention of a producer. Baron Cohen hosted Pump TV from 1995-1996. In 1996, he began presenting the youth chat programme F2F for Granada Talk TV. The late nineties saw Baron Cohen make his first feature film appearance in the British comedy The Jolly Boys' Last Stand, then in 2000 Baron Cohen played the part of Super Greg for a series of TV advertisements for Lee Jeans which never aired, yet the website for Super Greg created an internet sensation. Addressing the same topic in an NPR interview with Robert Siegel, Baron Cohen says "...and I think that's quite an interesting thing with Borat, which is people really let down their guard with him because they're in a room with somebody who seems to have these outrageous opinions. They sometimes feel much more relaxed about letting their own outrageous, politically incorrect, prejudiced opinions come out." Regarding the enthusiastic response to his song, "Throw The Jew Down The Well", he says, "Did it reveal that they were anti-Semitic? Perhaps. But maybe it just revealed that they were indifferent to anti-Semitism."
- style	"text-align:center;"
Name	Baron Cohen, Sacha
Alternative names	Sacha Noam Baron Cohen
Short description	English comedian and actor
Date of birth	13 October 1971
Place of birth	Hammersmith, London, England
Place of death	}}

Category:1971 births Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:English comedians Category:English film actors Category:English film producers Category:English Jews Category:English people of Welsh descent Category:English screenwriters Category:English television writers Category:English television producers Category:English voice actors Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish comedians Category:Living people

Category:Old Columbans (St Albans) Category:Old Haberdashers Category:People from Hammersmith Category:Pranksters

Name	Kevin Bishop
Birth date	June 18, 1980
Birth place	Orpington, Greater London, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actor, screenwriter,
Yearsactive	1994 – present
Medium	Television
Genre	Sketch comedy
Subject	Celebrities, media
Spouse	(2006-present)
Children	2

Kevin Bishop (born 18 June 1980) is an English actor comedian and screenwriter, best known for his own programme, The Kevin Bishop Show, which he co-writes with Lee Hupfield, and role of Jim Hawkins in Muppet Treasure Island.

Life and career

Bishop's first role was in Grange Hill. He gained his second television role aged 16 playing young London ruffian Ben Quayle in the hit crime/ forensic drama Silent Witness. He also played Stupid Brian in My Family'' he appeared in 3 episodes. He also starred in the muppets treasure island as Jim Hawkins. In 2002 he played the lead character of Dick in the pantomime Dick Whittington. In 2005 he played comedian Dudley Moore on stage in , a drama charting Moore's turbulent relationship with Peter Cook, which debuted at the Assembly Rooms as part of the Edinburgh Fringe before transferring to The Venue in London's West End in March 2006. That same year, he could be seen in the Channel 4 British Comedy Awards 2006 winning comedy Star Stories. Bishop also worked for channel 4 on the satirical spoof documentary Being Tom Cruise from the series Star Stories first aired on Channel 4 on 2 August 2007, in which he portrays Tom Cruise. |- |2006 |British Comedy Awards |Best Newcomer |Star Stories |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |- | rowspan="2"|2008 |British Comedy Awards |Best New Comedy |The Kevin Bishop Show |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |- |BAFTA TV Award |Best Comedy Programme |Star Stories |style="background: #ffdddd"| Nominated |}

References

Further reading

Interview with Kevin Bishop

EcranLarge.com interview (6 July 2005)

External links

Official website

Category:1980 births Category:English child actors Category:English comedians Category:English comedy writers Category:English film actors Category:English musical theatre actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:Living people Category:People from Orpington

Name	Vic Reeves
Imagesize	250px
Caption	Vic Reeves (right) with Bob Mortimer in 1991 during the Big Night Out tour.
Birth name	James Roderick Moir
Birth date	January 24, 1959
Birth place	Leeds, England
Medium	Actor, writer, comedian, artist, singer, presenter
Active	1989–present
Genre	Surreal humour
Influences	Monty Python, Spike Milligan, Malcolm Hardee, Eric Morecambe, Steve Martin
Influenced	Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, Noel Fielding, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Harry Hill
Spouse	Sarah Vincent (1990-1999) (two children)

James Roderick Moir (born 24 January 1959), better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer (see Vic and Bob). He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour.

In 2003, he and Bob Mortimer were listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, Reeves and Mortimer were voted the 9th greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.The History Channel || Presenter ||

6|| |- | Vic Reeves Investigates: Jack the Ripper || Sky One || Presenter || || |- | Pirate Ship... Live || Five || Presenter || || |- | The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz || Channel 4 || Guest appearance || || |- | || Sky One || Presenter || 21 || Series 5 & 6 |- | Shaun the Sheep || CBBCBBC One || Theme tune "Shaun the Sheep - Life's a Treat" || || |- | Vernon Kay's Gameshow Marathon || ITV1 || Panel member || 1 || Blankety Blank episode |- | 100 Greatest Stand Ups || Channel 4 || Contributor || || |- | The Grumpy Guide to... Art || BBC Two || Contributor || || Spinoff of Grumpy Old Men |- |- | Dale's Supermarket Sweep || ITV1 || Contestant || 1 || |- | Law of the Playground || Channel 4 || Contributor || 11 || |- | The Truth About Food || BBC Two || Contributor || || |- | 2006–2007 || QI || BBC Two || Panel member || 4 || |- | 1998–2007 || Never Mind the Buzzcocks || BBC Two || Panel member || 2 || |- | rowspan="6"| 2006 || ''Turn Back Time || BBC Two || Interviewee || 1 || |- | It's Funny Up North with... Vic Reeves || Tyne TeesITV1 || Presenter || |- | The Story of Light Entertainment || BBC Two || Contributor || 2 || |- | Summer Exhibition || BBC Two || Panel judge || || |- | Comedy Connections - "Shooting Stars" || BBC One || Subject / Interviewee || 1 || |- | Jools Holland's Hootenanny || BBC Two || Intervieweesinger || || |- | 2004–2006 || Richard & Judy || Channel 4 || Interviewee || 3 || |- | 2002–2006 || Friday Night with Jonathan Ross || BBC One || Interviewee || 2 || |- | rowspan="6"| 2005 || The South Bank Show || ITV1 || Subject / Interviewee || 1 || |- | The Best & Worst of God || BBC Two || Presenter || || |- | Final Chance to Save || Sky One || Contributor || || |- | Rogues Gallery || Discovery Channel UK || Presenter || 10 || |- | The Death of Celebrity || Channel 4 || Contributor || || |- | 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches || Channel 4 || Contributor || || |- | rowspan="6"| 2004 || I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! || ITV1 || Contestant (with Sorrell) || 8 || |- | Who Do You Think You Are? || BBC Two || Subject || 1 || |- | Star Sale || BBC One || Contributor || 1 || |- | Hell's Kitchen || ITV1 || Boorish Customer || 1 || |- | Breakfast || BBC One || Interviewee || 1 || |- | Vic's Chicks (BBC Three (via the red-button) || Presenter || 10 episodes || |- | rowspan="2"| 2003 || Auction Man || BBC One || || || |- | Most Haunted || LivingTV || Celebrity guest (with Sorrell) || 1 || |- | rowspan="3"| 2002 || Celebrity Mastermind || BBC Two || Contestant || 1 || Reeves' specialist subject was "Pirates" |- | Surrealissimo - The Trial of Salvador Dali || BBC TwoBBC Four || Paul Éluard || || |- | These Things Take Time - The Story of The Smiths || ITV1 || Voice of animated Morrissey || || |- | rowspan="6"| 2001 || It's Your New Year's Eve Party || BBC One || Contributor || || |- | British Comedy Awards 2001 || ITV1 || Award presenter || || |- | I Love the '90s || BBC Two || Contributor || 1 || "I Love 1991" episode |- | We Know Where You Live. Live! || Channel 4 || Performer || || Four Yorkshiremen sketch |- | Comic Relief: Say Pants to Poverty || BBC One || Presenter || || |- | Top Ten || Channel 4 || Contributor || 1 || "Prog Rock" episode |- | rowspan="5"| 2000 || Vic Reeves Examines || Play UK || Presenter || 8 || |- | Robot Wars || BBC Two || Contestant || 1 || |- | Night of a Thousand Shows || BBC One || || |- | Dale's All Stars || BBC One || Interviewee || 1 || |- | This Is Your Life || BBC One || Contributor || 1 || Episode for Tom Baker |- | 1999 || Clive Anderson All Talk || Channel 4 || Interviewee || 1 || |- | 1996 || TFI Friday || Channel 4 || Interviewee || 2 || |- | 1995 || Children in Need || BBC One || Contributor || || |- | 1993 || British Comedy Awards 1993 || ITV || || || |- |}

Books

For books on or by Reeves and Mortimer, see Vic and Bob#Books Vic Reeves' Vast Book of World Knowledge - a surreal encyclopaedia with text and artwork by Reeves. Atlantic Books, Released in October 2009.

Vic Reeves Me:Moir (Volume One) - autobiography by Vic Reeves, Virgin Books, 2006

Sunboiled Onions - diary, paintings and drawings by Vic Reeves, Penguin Books, 1999

Advertising

For advertisements featuring both Reeves and Mortimer, see Vic and Bob#Advertising

Reeves has appeared in television advertisements for a number of products, both with comedy partner Mortimer, and alone.

An advertisement for Guinness quoted Reeves as saying "88.2% of Statistics are made up on the spot"

He has done (solo) advertising work for a variety of products including MFI, Müller Light, First Direct, Churchill Insurance, Cadbury's Boost, Mars Bar, Fanta, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Domestos bleach, Maryland Cookies, and he cross-dressed for a 2008 advertisement for 888 Holdings' Bingo website 888 Ladies.

Reeves also advertised Jools Holland's 2006 album Moving Out to the Country.

See also

Vic and Bob

References

External links

Sky one Webpage about Vic Reeves Investigates: Jack the Ripper

Vic Reeves Pirates

Driving Ban For Comic Vic Reeves.

Vic Reeves' author page, Conville and Walsh.

Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:People from Leeds Category:People from Darlington Category:Alumni of Middlesex University Category:English radio personalities Category:English television presenters Category:English comedians Category:British radio DJs Category:Virgin Radio (UK) Category:Participants in British reality television series Category:I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! contestants Category:English comedy writers Category:English autobiographers Category:English comedy musicians Category:English television actors Category:People convicted of alcohol-related driving offenses

Background	solo_singer
Height	1,90m
Birth name	Simon John Charles Le Bon
Born	October 27, 1958
Spouse	Yasmin le Bon (nee Parvenah) (1985–present)
Children	Amber le Bon
Genre	New Wave, rock, alternative rock, New Romantic
Instrument	Vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, ocarina
Associated acts	Duran DuranArcadia}}

Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is an English musician, best known as the lead singer, lyricist and musician of the band Duran Duran and its offshoot, Arcadia.

Early life

Simon John Charles Le Bon was the first born son of John Le Bon and Ann-Marie, followed by two further sons, David and Jonathan. His mother encouraged his artistic talent when he was six years old by entering him in a screen test for a Persil washing powder TV advert; he won and starred as the little boy with the off-white shirt, but had no speaking lines.

He was a member of the local church choir from a young age, but was also trained as an actor. He is descended from exiled French Huguenot stock. Simon went to Pinner County Grammar School, the same school that Elton John attended some years earlier. He worked as a theatre porter at Northwick Park Hospital Accident and Casualty, and also auditioned for a punk band at Harrow College. He appeared in a few television commercials and also in several theatre productions including Tom Brown's Schooldays in the West End of London. He worked on a kibbutz – an Israeli collective community – in the Negev desert in Israel in 1978, and then returned to England to study drama at the University of Birmingham before meeting the fledgling band Duran Duran.

Le Bon attended Birmingham University at the same time as Blancmange lead singer Neil Arthur. This fact came up during a Smash Hits interview of Blancmange done by Chris Heath. According to Arthur, Le Bon recognised his old university classmate immediately upon running into him backstage at a Top of the Pops taping, and the two met up for a drink and friendly chat.

Career

Duran Duran

Duran Duran was founded by childhood friends John Taylor and Nick Rhodes along with singer/songwriter Stephen Duffy in 1978, but Duffy left a year later, convinced they weren't going anywhere. The band went through a long succession of lineup changes after Duffy's departure, but finally settled on a guitarist and drummer. The band had a powerful pop sound flavoured with disco, funk and electronics, built on a solid rock rhythm section, and all they needed was a charismatic singer with a distinctive voice.

Le Bon's ex-girlfriend, Fiona Kemp (a barmaid at the Rum Runner nightclub where Duran Duran was rehearsing), introduced him to the band in May 1979, recommending him as a potential vocalist. As band legend has it, he turned up for the audition wearing pink leopard-print trousers, and carrying a notebook containing a large collection of poetry he had written—several of which would later become tracks on the early Duran Duran albums. After listening to the songs the band had already composed together, Le Bon spent some time fitting one of his poems ("Sound of Thunder") to one of the instrumentals, and found they had a good match. Le Bon agreed to "try [Duran Duran] out for the summer"; within six weeks the band was playing steadily around Birmingham, London & Nottingham, and a national tour supporting Hazel O'Connor led to a record deal with EMI Records in December.

The band's first album, Duran Duran, was released in 1981, and they quickly shot to fame as part of the New Romantic movement. Three more albums followed in quick succession: Rio (1982), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983) and the live album Arena (1984). Each album release was accompanied by heavy media promotion and a lengthy concert tour. By mid-1984, the band was ready for a break. Duran Duran's only other work that year was an appearance on the 1984 Band Aid charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas".

Following the departures of Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor, Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor continued on as Duran Duran, recording and releasing Notorious (1986) and Big Thing (1988). The group added guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and drummer Sterling Campbell (his only album as a member of the band) and recorded the album Liberty (1990), but the band's success had begun to wane in the late-1980s.

Duran Duran had a resurgence in popularity in 1993 with The Wedding Album. Several months into the extensive worldwide concert tour supporting this album, Le Bon suffered from a torn vocal cord, and the tour was postponed for six weeks while he recovered.

In 1995, Duran Duran released the covers album Thank You, and Le Bon had the chance to cover some of his favourite artists, (Jim Morrison, Lou Reed and Elvis Costello), but the album was severely panned by critics from all quarters. That year Le Bon also performed Duran Duran's 1993 hit "Ordinary World" with opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti during a "Children of Bosnia" benefit concert for War Child. Le Bon described the event to Jam! Showbiz thus: "If you're talking about name dropping, he's one of the biggest names you could drop, Pav-The-Man."

When bassist John Taylor left the band in 1997, Le Bon and Rhodes remained as the only two members who had been with Duran Duran from the beginning. The successive two albums with Le Bon, Rhodes and Cuccurullo, Medazzaland (1997) and Pop Trash (2000) were not commercial successes.

In 2001, Duran Duran's original five members reunited to record a new album, Astronaut, for Epic Records. Astronaut was released worldwide on 11 October 2004. The album was preceded by the single "(Reach Up For The) Sunrise", their first UK Top 10 single in a decade.

Arcadia

Before Duran Duran reunited in 1986, Le Bon formed the band Arcadia with fellow Duran Duran members Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor. The band had a UK/US top 10 hit with their first single "Election Day", and released one album, So Red The Rose in 1985.

Solo excursions

While Le Bon has been in Duran Duran for the band's entire recording history, he has also dabbled in solo outings. In 1985, for the Whitbread Round the World Race, he contributed a song entitled "Grey Lady Of The Sea" and narrated a video of that year's race called Drum (1987). "Grey Lady Of The Sea" was released as a single in Japan in 1988.

In 1989, for Jonathan Elias' Requiem For The Americas project, Le Bon contributed "Follow In My Footsteps", with The Bangles' Susanna Hoffs on background vocals. The track was released on 7" single in Italy that year.

In 1998, along with friend Nick Wood and wife Yasmin, he set up SYN Entertainment (Simon Yasmin Nick) in Tokyo, Japan. Having first conceived the idea in 1988, Le Bon is currently described as SYN's "Founder and Chairman", while Wood is "Founder, President and Creative Director".

In 1999, Le Bon was reported to be involved in Napalm Death's new album, a collaboration brought about through their shared love of hometown Birmingham.

In 2000, SYN Entertainment founded SYN Records which has released a number of compilations, some of which have included contributions by Le Bon. Another solo track, "Dreamboy", was featured on the SYN-released soundtrack to the Mario Van Peebles movie Love Kills.

Also in 2000, SYN co-executive produced the Duran Duran album Pop Trash along with Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo's side-venture TV Mania.

In October 2005 Dutch trance DJ Ferry Corsten released the track "Fire", with vocals by Simon Le Bon. It was a remix of the lesser known Duran Duran single Serious, from the album Liberty. (full credits: Ferry Corsten feat. Simon Le Bon - Fire (Flashover remix), on Flashover Recordings)

In late 2006, Le Bon became a member of Shinzou Sound, and took part in the Japan-based online manga project, 'Synesthesia', by co-writing the theme song 'Nobody Knows' along with Nick Wood. Shinzou Sound is a group of creative collaborators specializing in manga, music, web design and popular culture. They joined forces with the simple concept of merging their talents in an effort to deliver the new entertainment of music and manga in an innovative way. Exclusive songs, inspired by the manga story were commissioned from international and Japanese DJs, and the story was launched in fortnightly episodes on the Net, with the individual songs available free through iTunes Japan.

In 2010, Le Bon colaborated on the song "Record Collection", the title track from Mark Ronson's third album. In the song, Le Bon is heard singing the chorus, along with Mark Ronson and hip hop artist Wiley. The song does not have a current single release date. Ronson later produced Duran Duran's 2010 album All You Need Is Now.

Personal life

In the early 1980s, Simon was engaged to his then long-term girlfriend, model-turned-actress Claire Stansfield. While still with Claire, Le Bon wooed young fashion model Yasmin Parvaneh after seeing her face in a magazine and phoning her modeling agency to track her down, even as magazines speculated on a possible wedding with Stansfield. Simon and Yasmin married on 27 December 1985. After Yasmin suffered two miscarriages, the couple had three daughters: Amber Rose Tamara Le Bon (born August 25, 1989 - a model like her mother), Saffron Sahara (born September 25, 1991) and Tallulah Pine (born September 10, 1994). The family, along with their dogs, a pug named Luigi and a Chihuahua named Tinka, lives in Putney, South West London.

While Duran Duran was on hiatus in 1985, Le Bon drew media attention when his maxi yacht, Drum, lost her keel and capsized during the Fastnet race, just off Falmouth, along the southern coast of Cornwall. Before being rescued, Le Bon and other crew members were trapped underwater, inside the hull, for forty minutes. Despite the accident, Le Bon and Drum went on to participate in the 1985-1986 Whitbread Round the World Race, coming in third overall in elapsed time. Le Bon and his partners eventually sold Drum; the events surrounding Drum and the races were chronicled in a 1989 movie entitled Drum - The Journey Of A Lifetime.

Twenty years after his accident, in 2005, Le Bon made public his desire to race again. During a touring hiatus in August 2005, Le Bon again raced 'Drum' in the Fastnet race, borrowing the vessel from her current owner (the Scottish multi car garage owner Sir Arnold Clark) to participate, and raising funds for the RNLI charity. Le Bon had to leave the race unfinished, as light winds were slowing 'Drum' (and 'Drum's' competitors), and would have delayed the boat's arrival at Plymouth, interfering with Le Bon's obligation to perform in Japan.

In 2009 Le Bon (who describes himself as a "concerned agnostic") contributed an essay to the book The Atheist's Guide to Christmas, edited by Ariane Sherine.

References

External links

SYN Entertainment official website

Duran Duran official website

Category:1958 births Category:Duran Duran members Category:English male singers Category:English songwriters Category:English pop singers Category:English yacht racers Category:English agnostics Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham Category:Living people Category:People from Bushey Category:People from Pinner Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:British people of Huguenot descent

Name	Simon Bird
Birthname	Simon Antony Bird
Birthdate	August 20, 1984
Birthplace	Guildford, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actor
Yearsactive	2004 - present

Simon Antony Bird (born 19 August 1984) is an English actor, writer and stand up comedian best known for playing Will McKenzie in E4’s BAFTA-winning TV comedy The Inbetweeners.

Early life

Bird was born in Guildford, Surrey. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. He also played for local football club, Onslow FC. He went on to study English at Queens' College, Cambridge. In his final year at Cambridge, 2005–06, he was club president of the Cambridge Footlights where he regularly wrote and performed. He is the son of Graham Bird, an economics lecturer at the University of Surrey. His brother, Alan Bird, is the current Head of Sixth Form at Brighton College.

Comedy rise

While completing an MA in Cultural & Critical Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London, Bird set up the sketch comedy group 'The House of Windsor' with Joe Thomas (who plays Simon Cooper in The Inbetweeners) and Jonny Sweet. They performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 and in 2008 with a show called The Meeting, described as a site-specific comedy installation set in an actual boardroom, which received national media attention and a clutch of five-star reviews. Bird and Thomas were also regulars on series 1 and 2 of The Weekly Show, a podcast for Channel 4 Radio (2006-7).

Bird also performs stand-up comedy and took part in Chortle's national student comedy awards in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, coming second in his final attempt. (He was a finalist in 2006, and was disqualified for deliberately breaking the rules in 2007.)

Breakthrough

In 2008, Bird was cast in E4's teen comedy The Inbetweeners as Will McKenzie, along with Joe Thomas. He won a 2008 British Comedy Award for Best Male Newcomer and a 2009 British Comedy Award for Best Actor. He is the youngest male winner of any award in the event's 19 year history. He was also nominated for Best Comedy Performance at the 2008 Royal Television Society Awards, and Best Male Comedy Actor at the 2009 BAFTA Awards.

Additional work

Towards the end of 2009, Bird began appearing on LE TV shows including Never Mind The Buzzcocks, We Need Answers and The Weakest Link which he won.

Bird recently appeared in a BBC Three comedy panel show The King Is Dead, in which a well-known person is hypothetically killed off and a panel of three TV personalities go head-to-head in a series of satirical quiz rounds and challenges in their bid to replace them. He created, writes and hosts alongside Nick Mohammed and Katy Wix.

Another of Bird's projects recently given the go ahead is Friday Night Dinner - a single-camera comedy, written by Robert Popper, former producer of Peep Show and co-creator of BBC2's Look Around You. It will be made by Big Talk Productions, which made Spaced, and Popper Pictures. Each episode takes place over the course of a Friday night, as twenty-something brothers Adam (Bird) and Jonny (newcomer Tom Rosenthal) go to their parents' house for their traditional Friday night dinner.

References

External links

Digital Spy - Simon Bird, James Buckley (The Inbetweeners)

Virgin Media - Meet the Inbetweeners

Category:1984 births Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Category:English actors Category:English comedians Category:English writers Category:Living people Category:Old Guildfordians

Name	Russell Brand
Caption	Brand performs stand-up at the London Roundhouse, 25 January 2008
Birth name	Russell Edward Brand
Birth date	June 04, 1975
Birth place	Grays, Essex, England, UK
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, radio
Nationality	British
Active	1994–present
Influences	Richard Pryor,Peter Cook, Lenny Bruce,Tony Hancock, Jack Kerouac, Stewart Lee and also went through a period of self-harm. Brand has shown interest in the Hare Krishna Movement and chants the Hare Krishna mantra for drug rehabilitation. During an interview with Ellen DeGeneres on her show in October 2010, Brand talked about his love of the Transcendental Meditation technique.
Name	Brand, Russell
Date of birth	4 June 1975
Place of birth	Grays, Essex, England

Category:1975 births Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:21st-century writers Category:Alumni of the Drama Centre London Category:Big Brother (UK TV series) Category:English comedians Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:English film actors Category:English game show hosts Category:English radio DJs Category:English radio personalities Category:English stand-up comedians Category:English television actors Category:English television presenters Category:English television writers Category:English vegetarians Category:Italia Conti graduates Category:Living people Category:People from Grays Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:The Guardian journalists

Name	Rob Brydon
Caption	Brydon at the 2008 BAFTA Television Awards
Birth date	May 03, 1965
Birth place	Swansea, Wales
Years active	1992–present
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, radio and television presenter
Nationality	Welsh
Ethnicity	White British
Spouse	Claire Holland (2006-present, second wife)
Website	http://www.robbrydon.com/
Parents	Howard and Joy Brydon
Children	2 daughters, 2 sons
Television	Marion and GeoffThe Keith Barret ShowRob Brydon's Annually RetentiveGavin & StaceyWould I Lie To You?The Trip

Rob Brydon (born Robert Brydon Jones; 3 May 1965, in Swansea, Wales) is a BAFTA nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist most famous for his role as Uncle Bryn from the comedy drama Gavin and Stacey, as well as the host of panel quiz shows Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive and Would I Lie To You? and playing Keith Barret in the BBC comedy Marion and Geoff and its spin-off The Keith Barret Show. Brydon has worked with a number of comedians and actors, notably Steve Coogan and Julia Davis.

Biography

Brydon's mother, Joy (nee Brydon), was a school teacher, and his father, Howard, was a car dealer. Brydon grew up in Baglan, in Port Talbot, Wales and was educated at the private St. John's School in Porthcawl and Dumbarton House School in Swansea until the age of 14, then at Porthcawl Comprehensive School, where he became a member of the school's youth theatre group. Whilst at Dumbarton, he once stole fellow pupil Catherine Zeta-Jones' dinner money.

Early career

He attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, but left to join Radio Wales at the age of 20 without graduating from the college. Brydon's career began with radio – his early broadcasts included DJing on BBC Radio Wales, when his Saturday morning shows included contributions from Welsh standup comedian Pete Park-Walker. Also on Radio Wales, where he stayed for six years, he was the main presenter of Rave, one of BBC Radio 5's youth magazine and music programmes, between 1992 and 1994, with Alan Thompson which led to the genesis of the Marion and Geoff story. Following this, in 1994 and 1995, he appeared in numerous episodes of the original Radio Wales version of the cult comedy show Satellite City with Boyd Clack.

Though he stayed with radio as a comedy performer on BBC Radio Five Live's The Treatment, Rob also does occasional stints as a stand-in presenter on BBC Radio 2, where he has even stood in for Ken Bruce, one of the people he impersonates.

Voiceover artist

Brydon was initially known nationally as a voice artist. He provided several voices for the Discworld computer games and continuity announcements for BBC 1. Brydon is also known for his voice-over work on numerous television advertising campaigns, including those for Renault, Tango, The Times, Tesco, Abbey National, Sainsburys, McDonald's, Toilet Duck, Cahoot, Mint Card, Pot Noodle, Domino's Pizza, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, The Observer and Fairy Liquid. Additionally, he voiced the main character, Lewton, in the Discworld computer game Discworld Noir.

Writing breakthrough

In the early 1990s he spent a brief stint presenting for the Home Shopping Network, and began to find small roles in several successful films and television series. He eventually made his mark in television comedy in 2000 with two series which he co-wrote and performed in for the BBC: the Julia Davis co-written Human Remains; and the commercially successful Marion and Geoff.

Since these breakthrough series, Brydon has developed a career path as a character actor, in both comedic as well as serious roles. Brydon portrayed controversial theatre critic Kenneth Tynan in the BBC Four film Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005), opposite Julian Sands as Sir Laurence Olivier.

His character Bryn West in the Ruth Jones and James Corden-written Gavin and Stacey allowed him to return to his Welsh roots. In this role, Brydon performed the 2009 Comic Relief charity single, "Islands in the Stream", with Ruth Jones (both actors appearing as their characters from Gavin & Stacey) and singer Tom Jones. It reached number one in the UK singles chart on 15 March 2009.

In 2010 Brydon starred alongside Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's partially-improvised BBC 2 sitcom The Trip in which both actors played exaggerated versions of their own perceived public personas, (Brydon, affable and always ready to slip into an impression, Coogan, grumpy and frustrated not to be the major international star he believes he should be).

Panelist/chairman

In 2006, he first appeared on the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. His singing voice even earned the unprecedented accolade by the erstwhile host, Humphrey Lyttelton, of being "not bad". When the team went on a tour of non-broadcast stage shows, he filled in as chairman when Lyttelton was in hospital to repair an aortic aneurysm. A message was played to the audience in which Lyttelton commented on his absence. Three days later, Humphrey Lyttelton died in hospital, following his surgery.

In February 2009, it was announced that Brydon would be one of three people to replace Lyttelton as chairman of the 51st series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (the others being Stephen Fry and Jack Dee). Brydon also appeared as guest panelist in the first two episodes of series 52, chaired by Jack Dee.

Additionally, he took over from Angus Deayton as host of Would I Lie To You? in 2009.

Brydon has also presented an episode of Have I Got News for You, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4's panel game Just a Minute.

Brydon also narrated a two-part programme on BBC Radio 4, The Pain of Laughter: The Last Days of Kenneth Williams. It explored the latter part of Williams's life, featuring many of the performer's friends and contemporaries. In other radio work, Brydon sat in for Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 for one day only on 25 August 2008.

He has made a number of appearances on the TV comedy quiz QI. In his first appearance (A series, episode 5), his talent for mimicry was displayed with impressions of Alec Guinness, James Dean and Michael J. Fox. In the 2008 Christmas Special he also provided impressions of Richard Burton and Tom Jones.

Stand-up comedy

In 2009/10 Brydon had his first stand-up tour as Rob Brydon (rather than as a differently-named character) in the UK. The resulting DVD of the 2009/10 show, Rob Brydon: Live, was released on 23 November 2009. Brydon appeared as a host on episode two of series five of the BBC series of 'Live at the Apollo'.

In 2010, Brydon took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.

Personal life

On 6 October 2006 Brydon married Claire Holland, a former producer on the South Bank Show, at Windsor church. They live in Strawberry Hill in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and have a son, Tom, born in April 2008. Brydon has two daughters, Katie, born September 1994 and Amy, born August 1999 and a son, Harry, born October 1996 from his first marriage.

A fanatical golfer, he is also a Swansea City fan and is an ambassador to their 1912 foundation.

Brydon has been mistaken for comedian Ben Miller and vice versa, whom he appeared alongside (and kissed) on QI episode 6.9, Future.

Filmography and television/radio appearances

Other appearances

Discworld (video game) (voice actor – 1995)

(voice actor – 1996)

Discworld Noir (voice actor – 1999)

Black Books (2002)

Top Gear (2003, 2008)

QI (2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

Just a Minute (2004, 2005)

Director's Commentary (2004)

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009)

(2005)

Jack Dee Live at the Apollo (2005)

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (2006–2009)

Have I Got News for You (2006)

100 Greatest Funny Moments (2006)

Heroes and Villains: Napoleon (November 2007)

Rob Brydon's Identity Crisis (March 2008)

Would I Lie To You? (July 2008)

The One Show (December 2009)

Desert Island Discs (May 2010)

Discography

Singles

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 9pt; text-align: center" !rowspan="2"| Year !rowspan="2"| Single !colspan="4"| Chart positions |- style="font-size:90%;" ! style="width:4em;" | UK ! style="width:4em;" | IE ! style="width:4em;" | World ! style="width:4em;" | EU |- |2009 |align="left"|"Islands in the Stream" |align="center"|1 |align="center"|48 |align="center"|36 |align="center"|7 |- |}

References

External links

Official Rob Brydon site

BAFTA Interview with Rob Brydon - April 2010

Rob's twitter

News items

Times February 2008 article

Independent January 2006 article

Telegraph June 2004 article

Observer December 2002 article

Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:21st-century writers Category:Alumni of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Category:People from Swansea Category:Welsh comedians Category:Welsh film actors Category:Welsh television actors Category:Welsh television presenters Category:Welsh television producers Category:Welsh television writers Category:Welsh voice actors

Caption	Gervais at the 2007 BAFTAs
Birth name	Ricky Dene Gervais
Birth date	June 25, 1961
Birth place	Reading, England
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, music, books, radio, podcast
Nationality	British
Genre	Observational comedy, Improvisational comedy, Cringe humor
Subject	British culture, American culture, everyday life, self-deprecation, obesity, body image, race relations, relationships, current events, religion
Influences	Garry Shandling, Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Louis C.K., Woody Allen
Active	1983–present
Domesticpartner	Jane Fallon(1982–present)
Notable work	David Brent in The OfficeAndy Millman in ExtrasHimself in The Ricky Gervais ShowDr. Bertram Pincus in Ghost TownDr. McPhee in Night at the Museum
Website	http://www.rickygervais.com/}}

Ricky Dene Gervais (; On 20 February 2006, after the conclusion of the twelve-podcast series, it was announced that all future episodes would be available from Audible.com at a "nominal fee" (later, these had to be called audiobooks in accordance with iTunes policy). Two more series—-each with six podcasts—-were released between February and September 2006.

In late 2006 three more free podcasts were released. Together called "The Podfather Trilogy", they debuted individually at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. These three were known by Ricky and Steve as "The Fourth season". In October 2007 another free full-length podcast was released through iTunes; this podcast was originally given out for free during a performance of Gervais's Fame tour in London. On 25 November 2007 Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington released another free full-length podcast, which lasted just over an hour.

In August 2008 Gervais, Merchant, and Pilkington recorded their fifth season of audiobooks, totalling 4 chapters, which were released on 16 September 2008.

Television

Gervais has contributed to the BAFTA-winning The Sketch Show (ITV), penning several sketches. His mainstream-TV debut came in September 1998 as part of Channel 4's "Comedy Lab" series of pilots. His one-off show Golden Years focused on a David Bowie–obsessed character called Clive Meadows. Gervais then came to much wider national attention with an obnoxious, cutting persona featured in a topical slot that replaced Ali G's segments on the satirical Channel 4 comedy programme The 11 O'Clock Show in early 1999, in which his character used as many expletives as was possible and produced an inordinate amount of politically incorrect statements. Among the other regular featured comedians on the show was Mackenzie Crook, later a co-star of The Office. Two years later, Gervais went on to present his own comedy chat show for Channel 4 called Meet Ricky Gervais; it was poorly received and has since been mocked by Gervais himself. The Independent newspaper has described Gervais as "obsessed by his own celebrity", but adds, "Who wouldn't want to be Peter Lawford in a comedy Rat Pack?" in reference to Ricky Gervais Meets...; the article, however, also describes him as "a very funny man" who "created one of the great sitcoms".

Throughout this time, Gervais also wrote for the BBC sketch show Bruiser and The Jim Tavare Show, and he had cameo roles in Channel 4's sitcom Spaced; it is speculated that the cameo is indeed The Office character David Brent. However, both series of Spaced finished airing before The Office premiered. Gervais also appeared in a few of Channel 4's 'Top 100...' list programmes, and he voiced the character of Penguin in Robbie the Reindeer's Legend of the Lost Tribe. His voice was redubbed for the US market.

On 5 January 2006, he interviewed Larry David in a one off special, Ricky Gervais Meets... Larry David. On 25 and 26 December of the same year Channel 4 aired similar specials in which he interviewed the actor/comedian Christopher Guest and comedian Garry Shandling. There are no plans for further episodes of "Meets...", although editions with John Cleese and Matt Groening were recorded in 2006, for broadcast in 2007. A source claimed, "The Shandling experience put him off for good".

Gervais and co-writer Stephen Merchant made a film called Cemetery Junction, set in 1970s England, about class, love and fulfillment. The film was released in April 2010.

Other appearances

On 2 July 2005, Gervais appeared at the Live 8 event held in Hyde Park, London, where he performed his famous dance. He produced a series of short films for the cause, linked acts from the studio with Jonathan Ross, and also introduced the group R.E.M..

Gervais also has a role in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, as himself, appearing in his role as a comedian in a comedy club, and as an interviewee on radio station We Know The Truth. For this, a special 3-minute act was written, recorded and fully motion-captured.

Boxing

In 2002, Gervais took part in a charity boxing match against entrepreneur Grant Bovey — known largely by the public due to his relationship with TV personality Anthea Turner. On his Saturday afternoon radio show on Xfm London Gervais and partners Merchant and Pilkington had discussions on both Gervais's attitude towards boxing and training in general, as well as his likelihood of victory against Bovey. Initially, Merchant had questions as to why Gervais was participating in the event, due to his dislike of slight pain and his inexperience with fitness in general.

In the weeks before the event was scheduled to take place both Merchant and Pilkington voiced their doubts as to his fitness due to illness which he had suffered weeks before the event, humorously, by stating that both they and Gervais's family had written up a petition to the BBC stating "Please do not let this man box."

Gervais was trained for the three-round contest by famous boxing trainer brothers Frank and Eugene Maloney, at their Fight Factory gymnasium. It was the second televised charity boxing match, the first being Bob Mortimer against Les Dennis, for Comic Relief. The fight was televised by the BBC, and Gervais came out on top by a split decision verdict. Gervais later said that the experience was the 'most difficult thing' he had ever done. He donated his £5,000 prize money to the training of a Macmillan nurse.

Concert for Diana and Live Earth

On 1 July 2007, Gervais performed at the Concert for Diana in Wembley Stadium, a music event celebrating the life of the late Princess of Wales. Towards the end of the event — after a pre-recorded introduction from Ben Stiller - Gervais appeared along with fellow Office star Mackenzie Crook. They performed Freelove Freeway, a song previously heard in the fourth episode of series one of The Office. Due to a technical problem, Gervais then had to fill time until he was able to re-introduce Elton John to close the show, so he did the David Brent dance again, as well as singing the "Little Fat Man" song as performed by David Bowie in episode two of the second series of Extras.

On 7 July 2007, Gervais appeared at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London. Gervais introduced Rob Reiner appearing in the guise of spoof film director Marty Di Bergi, who in turn introduced Spinal Tap. At the start of the concert, Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, who was acting as compère for part of the event, announced that Gervais would be appearing and performing an 'extended 25-minute set', which ultimately failed to happen. It is unclear whether this was meant as a joke, perhaps referring to the time Gervais had to fill at the Concert for Diana the previous Sunday, or if it was simply cut because of time constraints, but in an off-stage segment later Moyles actually expressed disappointment that it had not occurred. Gervais himself however did reference his appearance at the Diana concert the previous week, saying, 'Now listen, we're running late, so I'm gonna be off this stage in 30 seconds, whether Elton John is fucking ready or not,' making him one of a number of people to swear on live TV at the event.

In July 2007, following Gervais's appearance at the memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales, The Guardian ran a column by Daily Mirror television critic Jim Shelley entitled "Call Me Crazy... But Has Ricky Gervais Lost It?" The following week, The Guardian noted that Gervais had responded with "an exhilaratingly foul-mouthed tirade" on his website, concluding with the words, "Yes I am resting on my fucking laurels you cunt!" In this video Gervais mocked Jim Shelley typing the words "Resting on his laurels" as Gervais jokingly lashed out by stating he was resting on his laurels and that he was not going to make another show for television, quipping "What's the point? What is there to beat?".

Personal life

Gervais currently lives in Hampstead, having moved from Bloomsbury, with his girlfriend of 28 years, producer and screenwriter Jane Fallon. He says they chose not to legally marry because "there’s no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God" or have children because they "didn’t fancy dedicating 16 years of our lives. And there are too many children, of course". In August 2008, they bought a second home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

Gervais is a fervent supporter of animal rights, and has been a fan of wildlife documentaries since he was a child. He has spoken out against fox hunting and bull fighting, and has even written to Gordon Brown urging him to stop the use of black bear fur as caps for the Foot Guards.

He told Kirsty Young that he is an atheist during a 2007 interview for Desert Island Discs, later stating he lost his faith at age eight, and in June 2008 he became an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. In December 2010, he wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal defending his lack of faith. He is also a close friend of American comedian Jon Stewart and is a frequent guest on his programme, The Daily Show.

His main friends are fellow The Office and Extras co-writer and co-director and podcaster, Stephen Merchant; fellow The Ricky Gervais Show star, Karl Pilkington; Flanimals' illustrator Rob Steen; and comedian and warm-up act, Robin Ince.

Accolades

Gervais has received many awards for his work on The Office, most notably two Golden Globes (one for acting, one for the show itself), as well as numerous British Academy Television Awards and British Comedy Awards, amongst others.

Gervais received an honorary award at the annual Rose d'Or ceremony in Switzerland on 29 April 2006. The award is given to "an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the global entertainment business".

On 16 September 2007, Gervais won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his role of Andy Millman on Extras.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

Interviews

Time Magazine (2008). Renaissance Man: Ricky Gervais by Joel Stein

The Independent, et al. (2005). Ricky Gervais: My life as a superstar Electronic Version Independent News Media: United Kingdom

The Guardian Newspaper, et al. (2005). "Second Coming" Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007: United Kingdom

External links

in 2004

Ricky Gervais at the Oxonian Society video

Behind the scenes of The Office on BBC

Ricky Gervais's video interview on Big Think

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:20th-century writers Category:21st-century writers Category:Alumni of University College London Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (television) winners Category:British people of French-Canadian descent Category:English atheists Category:English comedians Category:English comedy writers Category:English film actors Category:English film directors Category:English people of Canadian descent Category:English people of French descent Category:English podcasters Category:English radio DJs Category:English radio personalities Category:English screenwriters Category:English television actors Category:English television directors Category:English television producers Category:English television writers Category:English voice actors Category:Emmy Award winners Category:People from Reading, Berkshire Category:The Office (U.S. TV series) Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

Name	Paul Merton
Caption	Paul Merton
Birth name	Paul James Martin
Birth date	July 09, 1957
Birth place	Parsons Green, London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Genre	Surreal, wit, observational comedy, improvisation
Active	1982–present
Influences	Oscar Wilde, Charlie Chaplin, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers
Influenced	Ricky Gervais, Dara Ó Briain, Jimmy Carr, Neil Mullarkey,
Notable work	Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988–1993)Just a Minute (1989–present)Have I Got News for You (1990–present) (1991–1993)Room 101 (1999–2007) Paul Merton in China (2007)Paul Merton in India (2008)Paul Merton in Europe (2010)

Paul Merton (born Paul James Martin; 9 July 1957) is a British comedian, writer and actor. Known for his improvisation skill, he is well known for his regular appearances as a team captain on the popular BBC panel game Have I Got News for You, as a regular panellist on Radio 4's Just a Minute and as one of Comedy Store's Comedy Store Players.

Early life

Merton was born on 9 July 1957

Merton performed in Paul Merton's Improv Chums at Pleasance as part of Edinburgh Comedy Festival in 2008. He then repeated this successful show in 2009 and 2010.

Television

His breakthrough as a television performer came in 1988 as a result of the improvised comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which moved to TV from BBC Radio 4, although he had previously appeared on Saturday Live, performing stand-up comedy. He remained on Whose Line until 1993. Have I Got News for You started in 1990, and two series of his own sketch show, , followed soon after. In 1996, Merton performed updated versions of fifteen of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's old scripts for an ITV series, Paul Merton in Galton & Simpson's.... Six of these scripts were previously performed by Tony Hancock. These were very badly received by both critics and public, and although a selection of episodes were initially released on VHS, it was not until June 2007 that the complete series was released on DVD.

Also in 1996, Merton took a break from Have I Got News for You during its eleventh series, making only one appearance as a guest on fellow captain Ian Hislop's team. Merton later explained that at the time he was "very tired" of the show and that he thought it had become "stuck in a rut". Nevertheless, he added that he felt his absence gave the programme the "shot in the arm" it needed and that it had been "better ever since". In 2002, following allegations in the UK tabloids linking the show's chairman, Angus Deayton, with prostitutes and drug use, the host was asked to resign from the show. Merton hosted the first episode after Deayton's departure and was described as "merciless" in his treatment of his former co-star.

In 1999 Merton replaced Nick Hancock as host of Room 101, a chat show in which guests are offered the chance to discuss their pet hates and consign them to the oblivion of Room 101. He hosted 64 editions. In 2007, his final guest was Ian Hislop (who became the first interviewee to appear twice, having also been on an edition with Hancock). Hislop's selections purposely included items that Merton was known to like, such as The Beatles and the films of Charlie Chaplin.

Merton is one of the recurring stars from the 4 ITV Panto's. His best role came in 1999, where Merton starred alongside Ronnie Corbett as one of the ugly sisters in ITV's Christmas pantomime of Cinderella. His other co-stars were Julian Clary, Samantha Janus, Ben Miller, Harry Hill, Frank Skinner and Alexander Armstrong.

In the same year, to coincide with the launch of his first stand up tour in 10 years, and this is me...Paul Merton, he was given his own one hour South Bank Show special. The show charted his beginnings in the comedy business, to the development of his improvisational skills, his mental breakdown, and the popularity of Have I Got News For You.

Maltings, after giving a talk on his book Silent Comedy.]]

He was rumoured to be a possible new host of Countdown to replace both Richard Whiteley and his successor, Des Lynam, but decided not to pursue this.

Merton is a keen student of comedy, particularly the early silent comedians and in 2006, BBC Four broadcast Paul Merton's Silent Clowns: a four-part documentary series on the silent comedy craft of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd. Merton examined their respective careers, interspersed with moments from a live show in which he presented clips of their work. Among the audience were many children, who were seeing the performers for the first time. Merton took a stage version of this show to the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in late 2007 took the show on a UK tour. A tie-in book was written by Merton and published by RH Books in late 2007. The Independent described it as "clearly a labour of love" but criticised the exhaustive and overly-thorough plot synopses of the films discussed.

Also in 2007 he presented a four-part travel documentary, Paul Merton in China, which was broadcast on Five from 21 May 2007. His second travel series, Paul Merton in India was transmitted from 8 October 2008 on the same channel. A third series, Paul Merton in Europe began broadcasting on the 11th January 2010, again on Five.

Merton hosted the British version of Thank God You're Here, which aired on ITV in 2008.

In 2009, Paul Merton directed and presented a documentary on the British films of Alfred Hitchcock, in a series of star presented documentaries on BBC Four. In May 2010, Merton temporarily co-presented The One Show for two weeks on Thursday after Adrian Chiles left the show.

Radio

In the late 1980s Merton appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Big Fun Show. After long-time Just a Minute panellist Kenneth Williams died in 1988, Merton (a fan of the show) contacted the producer at the suggestion of the host, Nicholas Parsons. He was invited to participate during the following year and has appeared regularly on the programme ever since. Merton has become regarded as the stalwart of the show, in the same league as the former, much-lamented "Big Four" panellists Clement Freud, Kenneth Williams, Derek Nimmo and Peter Jones. Besides his work on Just a Minute, Merton was a semi-regular guest on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue from 1991 to 1998. Between 1993 and 1995, Merton was among the regular cast members on the Radio 4 improvisational comedy series The Masterson Inheritance. In 2000 he presented Two Priests and a Nun Go into a Pub, in which he interviewed British and Irish comedians who had (like Merton himself) been brought up as members of the Roman Catholic Church. In 2009, Merton started a Radio 4 series in which he reads Spike Milligan's war memoirs in an audio-book fashion.

Bibliography

Merton has written or co-authored four books:

The Joan Collins Fan Club: My Life with Fanny the Wonder Dog: The True Story by Julian Clary and Paul Merton (1989) ISBN 0-333-49926-3

Paul Merton's History of the Twentieth Century (1993) ISBN 1-85283-570-2

My Struggle (1995) ISBN 0-7522-0353-3 (a spoof autobiography, apparently named after Mein Kampf)

Silent Comedy (25 Oct 2007) ISBN 978-1905211708

Acclaim and awards

In a 2007 public poll featured in The Guardian, Merton was voted alongside the likes of Oscar Wilde, Spike Milligan, Noël Coward and Winston Churchill as one of the ten greatest wits of all time. The Comedian's Comedian, a 2005 Channel 4 poll of fellow comedians, saw him voted among the top twenty greatest international comedians in history, with host Jimmy Carr crediting him for being "responsible for more great lines than Angus Deayton's dealer." The Observer's "The A-Z of Laughter", a 2003 special compiled by expert judges which featured the fifty funniest acts in British comedy by letter, applauded Merton for "bringing to Have I Got News for You a genuine surrealism that cuts through the clubbable smugness."

Merton has accumulated multiple awards and honours throughout his career. After seven BAFTA Award nominations for "Best Entertainment Performance", he finally won the award in 2003, defeating fellow Have I Got News for You star Angus Deayton, who had been dismissed from the show the previous October. He has since been nominated for a further three awards – a total of eleven nominations – including a nomination for his travel documentary Paul Merton in China. Merton's appearances on Have I Got News for You have seen him nominated for five British Comedy Awards, winning the 1992 "Top TV Comedy Personality" and 1999 "Best Comedy Entertainment Personality" awards. He has also shared a further three British Comedy Awards with the panel and crew of the show, winning "Best new TV comedy" in 1991, "Best comedy gameshow" in 1999 and "Best Comedy Panel Show" in 2009. He received the 2004 Broadcasting Press Guild Award for "Best Non-Acting Performer", also for his work on Have I Got News for You.

In 2008, Merton presented Bruce Forsyth with a BAFTA Fellowship: Forsyth had given Merton his award in 2003.

References

Further reading

Barratt, Nick. "Family detective: Paul Merton", The Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2007. Retrieved on 3 June 2008.

'I think I'm sane' - Paul Merton The Guardian, 23 October 2007. Retrieved on 10 June 2008

External links

Paul Merton Official Website

Paul Merton at bbc.co.uk

Paul Merton at Comedy Store Players website

Interactive video talk by Paul Merton on early British silent film comedy for the British Film Institute

Paul Merton's Impro Chums at Edinburgh Comedy Festival

Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:English comedians Category:English stand-up comedians Category:English voice actors Category:English television actors Category:English Roman Catholics Category:People from Parsons Green Category:Edinburgh Comedy Festival Category:English people of Irish descent

Name	Nick Rhodes
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Nicholas James BatesMoseley, Birmingham, West Midlands, England
Origin	Birmingham, England
Instrument	Keyboards,analog synthesizerss,digital synthesizers
Genre	Pop, Electropop, New Romantic, Synthpop, New Wave
Occupation	Keyboardist, producer
Years active	since 1978
Associated acts	Duran Duran, Arcadia, The Devils, Kajagoogoo, The Dandy Warhols
Notable instruments	Roland Jupiter-4Roland Jupiter-8Fairlight CMIAlesis Andromeda A6

Nick Rhodes (born Nicholas James Bates, 8 June 1962) is an English musician, best known as the keyboardist of the pop rock band Duran Duran. Rhodes and singer Simon Le Bon are the only members to have been with the band throughout its 32-year professional career. Furthermore, Rhodes is the youngest band member and the only member to have been in the band since its creation in 1978.

Contributions to Duran Duran

The band achieved rapid success, and Rhodes was a driving force throughout. An unschooled musician, he experimented with the sounds his analogue synthesisers were capable of, but shied away from the "novelty" sounds of some other early synth bands. The distinctive warble of "Save A Prayer", the keyboard stabs of "A View to a Kill", and the string sounds of "Come Undone" and "Ordinary World" are some of his most recognizable creations. He also popularised the Crumar Performer on the early records.

Rhodes was also quick to recognise the potential of the music video, and pushed the band to put more effort into their early videos than seemed warranted at the time (before the advent of MTV). Barely twenty when the band hit major stardom, he cultivated an androgynous and sometimes flamboyant image, wore heavy makeup, and changed his hair colour at whim.

By the late 1990s, Rhodes had begun writing lyrics for Duran Duran, as well as music. His digitally altered voice is heard on the title track to the 1997 album Medazzaland.

In 2001, the original five members of Duran Duran reunited to record new music; see Duran Duran for details.

Record production

Rhodes studied production techniques while in the studio with Duran Duran, eventually helping to mix several tracks on the Rio album, and was a co-producer on many of the band's later albums.

In early 1983, he discovered the band Kajagoogoo and co-produced their debut single Too Shy which became a UK no.1 (prior to any of Duran's singles reaching no.1).

Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo wrote and produced three tracks for the Blondie reunion album in 1996; the tracks were not used, but one song called "Pop Trash Movie" was later recorded by Duran Duran for the 2000 album Pop Trash.

In 2002, Rhodes co-produced and played additional synthesizers in nine tracks of the album Welcome To The Monkeyhouse by The Dandy Warhols. In 2004 he produced British-based pop group Riviera F for their debut EP International Lover, published on Pop Cult/Tape Modern (Rhodes & Stephen Duffy’s label).

Side projects

With his bandmates Simon Le Bon and Roger Taylor, Rhodes formed the side project Arcadia while Duran Duran was on hiatus in 1985. The band had a moody, keyboard-heavy sound, far more atmospheric than Duran Duran (or the hard rock of the other Duran splinter group of 1985, Power Station). The band scored a major hit with "Election Day" and the band's only album, So Red The Rose, went platinum in the US but was less successful in their native UK. The band never toured and was dissolved when Duran Duran regrouped in 1986.

Throughout the 1990s, Rhodes worked on a side project called TV Mania with Duran bandmate Cuccurullo. They created a self-described "social junk culture triptych opera" composed of music, dialogue, samples, and "found sound," and hoped to make it into a Broadway play. The music and packaging have reportedly been finished, but they have not found a label to release it.

In 1999, Rhodes reunited with Duran Duran's original vocalist, Stephen Duffy, to create new music based on some of the earliest Duran music the two had written together. The result was the album Dark Circles, released under the name The Devils.

Also in 1999, Rhodes had a small guest appearance (in voice only) as a Canadian bomber pilot in .

In 2006 Rhodes and John Taylor collaborated on the compilation album Only After Dark.

Personal life

Rhodes met Julie Anne Friedman (heiress to the Iowa, USA Younkers Department Store fortune) at a yacht party while on an American tour in 1982, and married her on 18 August 1984. They have one daughter together, Tatjana Lee Orchid (born 23 August 1986). After a brief separation and an attempt to reconcile, they filed for divorce in 1992.

Rhodes became enamoured of the art world early in his career, making friends with Andy Warhol and The Factory crowd, and attending exhibitions worldwide. At the end of 1984, he released his own book of abstract art photographs called Interference. Many of the photos were displayed at an exhibition at the Hamilton Gallery in London.

Rhodes' father, Roger Bates, to whom he was close, died in 2008. Duran Duran's 7 July 2008 concert at the Birmingham NIA was dedicated to Rhodes' father.

Rhodes is distantly in line to the Barony of Cartsburn, his second cousin being the present and fourteenth Baron.

References

External links

DuranDuran.com Official Site of Duran Duran.

Category:1962 births Category:English keyboardists Category:Duran Duran members Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:English record producers Category:Living people Category:English vegetarians Category:Ivor Novello Award winners

Imagesize	235px|
Name	Miranda Hart
Birthname	Miranda Katharine Hart-Dyke
Birth date	December 14, 1972
Birth place	Torquay, Devon, England
Occupation	Comedian, writer, actress
Website	mirandahart.com
Height

Miranda Katharine Hart is an English actress, writer, and stand-up comedienne. She wrote and starred in the 2009/10 BBC Two sitcom Miranda, on UK television. She also appeared in French and Saunders, the BBC television series Hyperdrive and her semi-autobiographical sitcom Miranda Hart's Joke Shop on BBC Radio 2.

Early life

Born in Torquay, Devon, Hart grew up in Petersfield, Hampshire. She was educated at Downe House, where she was a contemporary and friend of the sports presenter Clare Balding, who was a head girl at the school. Her father is Captain David Hart-Dyke RN, who commanded HMS Coventry in the 1982 Falklands War when it was sunk by Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks. She studied politics at Bristol Polytechnic (now the University of the West of England), followed by training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts. Despite studying politics, she always wanted to be a comedienne. In 2002, she did a solo show in Edinburgh and in 2004 she pitched a comedy show to the BBC. At her read-through for BBC executives, Jennifer Saunders was there, laughing throughout.

While appearing on Frank Skinner's Opinionated in 2010, she stated that she was from an upper-class background, but hated saying that and didn't consider herself upper-class. She also added that her family tree has been traced back to the 12th century, and that her aunt and uncle live in a castle which they cannot afford to run.

Live performance

Avoiding the normal stand-up circuit for more character-based comedy, including an appearance in the Edinburgh and touring show The Sitcom Trials, Hart has written her own theatre material for the Edinburgh Fringe. Her one-woman shows include Miranda Hart – Throbs, It's All About Me and Miranda Hart's House Party. She also performed in Alecky Blythe's 2006 play Cruising at the Bush Theatre in London. In 2010 she and six other TV celebrities raised over £1 million for charity by cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End.

Television and film

Hart starred as Teal in two series of the BBC television comedy sci-fi series Hyperdrive, which ran from January 2006 to August 2007. She has also appeared in French & Saunders, My Family and Other Animals, Nighty Night, Absolutely Fabulous, The Vicar of Dibley, Lead Balloon, William and Mary, Smack the Pony (for which she wrote and performed in a couple of sketches and a number of video diaries), Not Going Out and Stupid! She appeared in the third series of Comic Relief does Fame Academy in 2007, and became the second contestant to be voted off the show. In 2009, she appeared in the last ever sketch from French and Saunders, also in aid of Comic Relief.

Hart appeared in a short film by Tim Plester World of Wrestling in which she played Klondyke Kate, a wrestler billed as 'hell in boots'. The film was released in late 2007 alongside its companion shorts Blakes Junction 7 and Ant Muzak.

In 2006, she appeared in an episode of Not Going Out as an acupuncturist. Her performance impressed the producers so much that they wrote a regular role for her in the next series as clumsy cleaner Barbara; a part she continued to play until 2009. However, due to a busy filming schedule, the character will not return for the fourth series, to air in 2010.

In 2008, she recorded the pilot episode of Miranda for BBC Two. The sitcom is based on her semi-autobiographical writing which went on to become a radio series, Miranda Hart's Joke Shop on BBC Radio 2. On 9 November 2009 Miranda, nominated "one of the top 10 forthcoming TV shows for Autumn 2009" by The Sunday Times, began transmission on BBC Two. She appeared as guest host of Have I Got News for You in October 2009. She also presented a BBC spoof programme looking back over 2009 called 2009 Unwrapped with Miranda Hart. A similar show looking back over 2010 was also broadcast in December 2010.

She has also appeared twice on Strictly Come Dancing:It Takes Two. She is a fan of the series Strictly Come Dancing.

Miranda Hart has appeared in the TV series Monday Monday starring Fay Ripley: Miranda played the role of "Tall Karen". She has also appeared in a T.V. advert for Alpen.

In the final quarter of 2009, Heather Small's back catalogue sales increased by 73% as a result of frequent references to her hit single "Proud" in ''Miranda'.

In 2010 she appeared in the final of Old Dears Club as snooty receptionist Beverly Gates.

The second series of Miranda began on BBC2 in November 2010. The series ended with a viewing high of 4.1m and has been re-commissioned by the BBC for a third series to air in late 2011. Hart was described in the FT as "the most original and farcically hilarious female clown since Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

Awards

In 2010 she won the Best Comedy Performance award from the Royal Television Society for her performance in Miranda, and was also nominated for best comedy writing. She and Patricia Hodge were both nominated for "Best Comedy Actress" awards at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival 2010.

References

External links

Miranda Hart's official website

Miranda Hart on Twitter

Miranda Hart's agent

Category:1972 births Category:English comedians Category:English television actors Category:Fame Academy participants Category:Living people Category:People from Torquay Category:Downe House Seniors Category:Alumni of the University of the West of England Category:Women comedians

Name	Katherine Burke
Birth name	Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke
Birth date	June 13, 1964
Birth place	Camden, London, England
Occupation	Actress, comedienne, playwright, theatre director
Years active	1982–present

Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke (born 13 June 1964) is an English actress, comedienne, playwright and theatre director.

Family and upbringing

She was born at the Royal Free Hospital in London, and raised in the Irish area of Islington. Her mother died of cancer when she was two, and she was raised by neighbours (the Galvin family) for the following few years. Subsequently, she returned to live with her father, a violent alcoholic, who died of cancer in the 1990s. Burke attended the Maria Fidelis RC Convent School. She has two older brothers, John and Barry.

Career

Burke's first role was in the controversial 1983 film Scrubbers, directed by Swedish actress Mai Zetterling and featuring Pam St. Clement, Robbie Coltrane, Miriam Margolyes, Honey Bane, Debby Bishop and Eva Mottley. The movie was set in a young offenders' institute for girls and was seen as a female version of the film Scum.

Burke first became familiar to television audiences as a player of minor roles in sketches by better-known performers such as Harry Enfield, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Early TV work included regular appearances on the eponymous chat show hosted by Jonathan Ross on UK Channel 4 in the early 1980s, playing the character 'Tina Bishop'. Bishop was a continually pregnant "expert" offering advice on household chores, always with disastrous results. Along with French & Saunders, she has contributed to two Comic Relief charity singles. She first appeared as a member of Bananarama parody band Lananeeneenoonoo in 1989, and then as a member of Spice Girls' lookalike band The Sugar Lumps in 1997. In real life Burke is a big fan of Morrissey and appeared in the video for his 1989 single "Ouija Board, Ouija Board" and later in the 2002 Channel 4 documentary The Importance Of Being Morrissey.

She quickly became successful in her own right and although mainly associated with comedy, she has played several serious roles including that of Queen Mary I of England in Elizabeth.

Burke won the Best Actress award at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for her role in the gritty drama Nil by Mouth. Since then she has appeared as Perry in Kevin and Perry Go Large, and as Linda La Hughes in Gimme Gimme Gimme. In 2000 She appeared in the cult film Love Honour and Obey with Ray Burdis.

In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Beginning in 2001, she refrained from acting and threw herself into theatre directing; something she considers to be one of her true passions. She said in an interview with Dawn French in Dawn French's Girls Who do Comedy that she no longer felt the same creative energy associated with acting that she used to (she described it as a "feeling in my belly") and that this was the reason she had stopped acting. However, she has done some voiceover work in the past few years, including adverts for Ski yoghurt (in the UK) as well as Flushed Away (2006). She also appeared in the 2007 Christmas Special of The Catherine Tate Show as Nan's daughter.

In 2007, Burke contracted Clostridium difficile while in hospital for an operation, resulting in her having to pass directing duties on Dying for It at the Almeida theatre (which starred Charlie Condou and Sophie Stanton who she worked with on Gimme Gimme Gimme).

In 2009, Burke made her television directorial debut with the BBC Three sketch show series Horne & Corden, starring Mathew Horne and James Corden.

In 2010, Burke completed a short autobiographical film, "Better Than Christmas", for "Little Crackers", a collection of comic shorts. Burke plays a nun.

In 2011, Burke will play Connie Sachs in the film adaptation of the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Film and television appearances

Scrubbers (1983)

A Very Peculiar Practice (Episode 7) (1986)

Sid and Nancy (1986)

Straight to Hell (1987)

Walker (1987)

French and Saunders (1987)

Two of Us (1987)

Work Experience (1989)

The Bill (1989) (Episode: "Leaving")

Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990)

Have I Got News For You (1990)

The Fat Slags (1992)

Absolutely Fabulous (1992)

Mr. Wroe's Virgins (1993)

Harry Enfield and Chums (1994)

Never Mind The Buzzcocks (1996)

"Tom Jones" (1997)

Nil by Mouth (1997)

Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)

Elizabeth (1998)

Rex the Runt (1998)

Ted & Ralph (1998)

Gimme Gimme Gimme (1999–2001) (co-wrote)

Let Them Eat Cake (1999)

Pleasure Island (1999)

Shooting Gallery (1999)

This Year's Love (1999)

Kevin and Perry Go Large (2000)

Love, Honour and Obey (2000)

Room 101 (2000)

The Martins (2001)

Anita and Me (2002)

The Importance of Being Morrissey (2002) (guest appearance)

Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002)

V Graham Norton (2002)

Dawn French's Girls Who Do Comedy (2006)

Flushed Away (2006) (voiceover)

The F-Word (2006) (guest appearance)

The Catherine Tate Show (2007) (Guest appearance)

The Eejits (2007) (As The Virgin Mary)

The Rav Doe Show (2008) (Guest appearance)

Little Crackers (2010) (short film, wrote and directed)

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) as Connie Sachs

Theatre

It's a Great Big Shame! by Mike Leigh (Theatre Royal Stratford East, 1993)

As director

Out in the Open by Jonathan Harvey at the Hampstead Theatre.

Kosher Harry (2002) by Nick Grosso at the Royal Court Theatre.

Born Bad (2003) by Debbie Tucker Green at the Hampstead Theatre.

References

External links

KathyBurke.co.uk – "Everything you could reasonably want to know about the actress and director"

Category:English comedians Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English voice actors Category:English television actors Category:English theatre directors Category:Actors from London Category:People from Islington Category:Women comedians Category:1964 births Category:Living people

Name	Jack Dee
Caption	Jack Dee in 2007.
Birth date	September 24, 1961
Birth place	Petts Wood, England
Active	1986–present
Influences	Larry David
Spouse	Susan Jane Hetherington (1989–)
Notable work	The Jack Dee Show (1992–94)Just For Laughs (1992)'Art' (1998)Jack Dee: Live at the Apollo (2004–06)Lead Balloon (2006–present)

}}

James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee (born 24 September 1961) is an English standup comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.

Early life

Dee was the youngest of three children born to Rosemary A. (née Stamper) and Geoffrey T. Dee, after Joanna Innes Dee & David Simon Innes Dee. Jack Dee was born in Petts Wood, then in Kent, now in Greater London,

In 2008 Dee took part in the 15th anniversary special of Shooting Stars where he replaced Will Self as captain of Team A. The show aired on 30th December 2008 on BBC2.

Dee returned as team captain in series 6 of Shooting Stars on 26 August 2009, and again for the 7th series.

In February 2009, it was announced that Dee would be one of a trio of hosts to replace Humphrey Lyttelton for the summer series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (the others being Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon). Dee subsequently became the permanent host for the 2009 and 2010 series of the programme.

Over Christmas 2009, Dee played the role of John Tweedledum in The News at Bedtime.

In 2010, Dee took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.

Personal life

Dee met his wife, Susan Jane "Jane" Hetherington, in 1986 when he was working as a waiter in Fulham and she was a receptionist at a nearby hotel. They married in Winchester, Hampshire, in 1989. Together they have four children: Hattie Jane Innes (born 1992, Wandsworth, London), , Phoebe Jane Innes (born late 1994/early 1995, Westminster, London) and twins, Miles Lionel Innes and Charles Lionel Innes 'Charlie' (born 1998, Westminster) and live in Wandsworth. They decided to send their children to independent schools.

Dee suffers from depression, and he has claimed that his work is the best therapy for his condition, saying "if you have the impulse to be creative, you ignore it at your peril".

He abused alcohol heavily in the 1980s. Following his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother he had a relapse, though did not attend AA meetings because he did not want paparazzi photographing him leaving the meetings.

In 2007, the Daily Express reported that he was in negotiations with publishers to release his autobiography. He signed with Doubleday in 2008 and the book, Thanks For Nothing: The Jack Dee Memoirs, was released in October 2009, along with an audiobook of the same title which he narrates. According to Dee, "it's really the story of how I got into comedy... It's kind of an autobiography but isn't, as it stops about 25 years ago. It goes right up to the first time I do stand up."

In February 2009 Dee and several other entertainers wrote an open letter to The Times supporting Bahá'í leaders then on trial in Iran.

Awards and nominations

Stand-up VHS & DVDs

Live at the Duke of York's Theatre (1992)

Live at the London Palladium (10 October 1994)

Live in London (10 November 1997)

Live and Uncut (5 November 2001)

Live At The Apollo (18 November 2002)

Live Again (14 November 2005)

Notes and references

External links

Jack Dee at Off The Kerb Productions

Jack Dee – the website for his autobiography, Thanks for Nothing

Guide to Comedy

Jack Dee at the British Film Institute

Category:1961 births Category:Living people Category:Big Brother UK contestants Category:English comedians Category:English stand-up comedians Category:English television actors Category:Never Mind the Buzzcocks Category:Old Symondians Category:People from Petts Wood Category:People from Winchester Category:Reality show winners

Name	Iain Kevan Morris
Birthdate	August 06, 1974
Birthplace	Woking, Surrey, England
Occupation	Writer

Iain Morris (born 6 August 1973)

Category:English screenwriters Category:English comedians Category:Living people Category:1973 births

Name	Garry Shandling
Imagesize	150px
Caption	Shandling at the 39th Primetime Emmy Awards, 1987
Pseudonym	Bingo
Birth date	November 29, 1949
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Active	1978–present
Genre	Observational comedy, satire
Subject	Self-deprecation, human sexuality, everyday life
Influences	Woody Allen, Johnny Carson
Influenced	Ricky Gervais, Judd Apatow, Jon Stewart
Notable work	Garry Shandling in It's Garry Shandling's ShowLarry Sanders in The Larry Sanders Show

}}

Garry Shandling (born November 29, 1949) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show.

Shandling began his career writing for sitcoms such as Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter. He made a successful stand-up performance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and became a frequent guest-host on the show. Shandling was for a time considered the leading contender to replace Carson (other hopefuls were Joan Rivers, David Letterman and David Brenner). In 1986 he created the show It's Garry Shandling's Show for the pay cable channel Showtime, which was nominated for four Emmy Awards (including one for Shandling); it lasted until 1990. His second show, "The Larry Sanders Show," which began airing on HBO on 1992, was more successful. Shandling was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for the show and won in 1998, along with Peter Tolan, for writing the series finale.

During his three-decade career, Shandling has been nominated for 19 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, 11 CableACE Awards, a BAFTA Award, three American Comedy Awards, two Writers' Guild of America Award nominations, and two Satellite Award nominations. In 2004, he was presented with the Austin Film Festival's Outstanding Television Writer Award.

Early life and career

Shandling was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Muriel, a pet store proprietor, and Irving Shandling, a print shop owner. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona and had an older brother, Barry, who died of cystic fibrosis when Garry was 10. Shandling attended Palo Verde High School. After graduation, he attended the University of Arizona, at first majoring in electrical engineering, but eventually completing a degree in marketing and pursuing a year of postgraduate studies in creative writing.

In 1973, Shandling moved to Los Angeles, California. He worked at an advertising agency for a time, and then sold a script for the popular NBC sitcom Sanford and Son. Shandling's script became the November 21, 1975 episode titled "Sanford and the Rising Son," in which Ah Chew (played by Pat Morita) turned junkyard owner Fred Sanford's (played by Redd Foxx) house into a Japanese restaurant. Shandling also wrote the script for the Sanford and Son Episode, "The Committee Man", in which Fred Sanford represents the community of Watts on the Los Angeles Mayor's Committee. In addition to "Sanford and Son," Shandling wrote scripts for the sitcoms Welcome Back, Kotter and Three's Company.

In 1977, Shandling was involved in an auto accident in Beverly Hills that left him in critical condition for weeks. He later turned the accident into part of his stand-up comedy act.

He was born into a Jewish family.

Stand-up comedy

In an interview, he said that he became a stand-up comedian because he was frustrated by situation comedy's formulaic writing. In 1978, Shandling performed his first stand-up routine at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. His persona was an anxiety-ridden, grimacing, guarded, confused man always on the verge of losing control. After a couple of years on the road, a talent scout from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson caught his act and booked him to appear as a guest host on March 18, 1981. Shandling began substituting for Carson on a regular basis, along with Joan Rivers, until 1985.

In 1984, he made his first stand-up special, "," for Showtime, followed by a second televised special in 1986, "," also for Showtime. In 1991, a third special, "," was part of the HBO Comedy Hour.

Shandling is still doing stand up comedy and is touring the U.S. each year. He also continues to perform on various television talk shows. Some of his stand up performances can be viewed on YouTube, including his first appearance on The Tonight Show and some of his Comic Relief act.

TV series

Early career

Shandling began as a television writer in shows such as Sanford and Son, in which he wrote three episodes, one episode of the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, and one episode of The Harvey Korman Show.

It's Garry Shandling's Show

Shandling and co-writer Alan Zweibel went on to create the surreal comedy series It's Garry Shandling's Show in 1985, which ran for 72 episodes on the Showtime cable television network through 1990, with edited reruns playing on the Fox network beginning in 1988.

The series subverted the standard sitcom format by having the characters openly acknowledge that they were all part of a TV show. Building on a concept that harked back to The Burns and Allen Show, in which George Burns would frequently break the "fourth wall," talking directly to the audience, Shandling's show went so far as to incorporate the audience and elements of the studio itself into the storylines, calling attention to the artifice of the show.

Shandling wrote 15 episodes of the show. The show was nominated for four Emmy awards, one time for Shandling. He won an American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performance in a Series, and won four Cable ACE awards, two for Best Comedy Series, and another two for Shandling. The show also won an award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy in the Television Critics Association Awards.

On October 20, 2009, Shout! Factory released It's Garry Shandling's Show: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. The 16-disc set features extensive bonus features including featurettes, commentaries & outtakes. The first season was released individually on April 15, 2010.

The Larry Sanders Show

In 1992, Shandling launched another critical and commercial success by creating the mock behind-the-scenes talk show sitcom The Larry Sanders Show, which ran for 89 episodes through 1998 on the cable network HBO, garnering 56 Emmy Award nominations and three wins. In an interview, he stated that he based the show on his experiences guest hosting The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

The show was a behind-the-scenes look at the world of Larry Sanders, a fictional television host of his own talk show The Larry Sanders Show. It sardonically depicted the talk-show business as a den of vipers, with egomaniacal celebrities, clueless network executives, drug addiction, broken marriages, cutthroat competition and comedic camaraderie.

In 1993, NBC offered Shandling $5 million to take over the late-night talk show Late Night when host David Letterman announced his highly publicized move to CBS, but Shandling declined. The Larry Sanders Show later spoofed the network's efforts to find a Letterman successor, making it appear to be Tom Snyder.

Shandling wrote 38 episodes of the show and directed three in the show's final season and was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for the show; five for acting, seven for writing and six for being co-executive producer with Brad Grey. He only won one Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the series finale Flip. He has also been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) in 1994 and 1995. He won two American Comedy Awards for Funniest Male Performance in a Comedy Series, Eight CableACE awards and a BAFTA Award.

It is the most successful show Shandling has created. The show also influenced other shows such as Entourage, Extras and Curb Your Enthusiasm in which guest stars play (often spoofing) themselves in episodes of the series.

In 2002, TV Guide named The Larry Sanders Show as 38th Greatest Show of All Time. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked the show the 28th Best Show of the past 25 years. It was also included on Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Shows of All Time.

The first season was re-released in 2007 along with a Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show which are Shandling's pick of the best 23 episodes.

On November 2, 2010, Shout! Factory released The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. The 17-disc set features extensive bonus features including featurettes, commentaries & outtakes.

Awards and nominations

Shandling has been nominated for nineteen Primetime Emmy Awards through 1988 and 1998 by his two sitcoms, It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show and has won one time: Outstanding Writing in Comedy Series for the series finale of The Larry Sanders Show. He has received five for acting in The Larry Sanders Show, six for producing The Larry Sanders Show and seven for writing on The Larry Sanders Show and one for writing for It's Garry Shandling's Show. Additionally, he has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for acting on The Larry Sanders Show. He has also won two British Comedy Awards.

He has also been nominated for seven American Comedy Awards, two for It's Garry Shandling's Show and four for The Larry Sanders Show and one for hosting the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning one for It's Garry Shandling's Show and three for The Lary Sanders Show, overall of four wins. He has also won eleven CableACE Awards, seven for The Larry Sanders Show and four for It's Garry Shandling's Show. He has also won a BAFTA Award for The Larry Sanders Show. Also, he was nominated for two Writers' Guild of America Award for The Larry Sanders Show.

Other work

Shandling has appeared occasionally in movies, beginning with a cameo as dental patient Mr. Vertisey in The Night We Never Met. He played supporting roles in the 1994 films Love Affair and Mixed Nuts (a.k.a. Lifesavers), Dr. Dolittle (1998) as the voice of a live-action pigeon, the David Rabe play adaptation Hurlyburly (1998), and Trust the Man. He wrote and starred in director Mike Nichols' What Planet Are You From? (2000), and co-starred with Warren Beatty and others in Town & Country. Again voicing an animal, Shandling co-starred as Verne the turtle in the computer animated comic strip adaptation Over the Hedge (2006)

Shandling hosted the Grammy Awards from 1990 to 1995, and the Emmy Awards in 2000 and 2004. At the first Emmy hosting job, Shandling cracked up the audience by saying "I auditioned to play the Vice President on The West Wing, but they said 'No--too Jewish'", a reference to real-life Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Lieberman during the 2000 Presidential campaign.

In 2006, comedian Ricky Gervais interviewed Shandling for a British documentary, citing him as a comic influence. The reviews of British TV critics were mixed – one Guardian reviewer described it as "the uneasiest interview ever", another as Gervais' most interesting but the general consensus was that it felt "awkward", a hallmark of both the artists' comedic styles.

Shandling starred as himself representing Fox Mulder alongside Téa Leoni as Dana Scully in The X-Files season 7 spoof episode "Hollywood A.D."

Shandling, along with co-author David Rensin, wrote the book Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The Autobiography of Larry Sanders written in the voice of his alter ego, Larry Sanders.

In 2009, Shandling returned to the stand-up circuit. He appeared in Iron Man 2, released in May 2010, as Senator Stern, a man trying to get Tony Stark to hand in his Iron Man armor. The film was a box office success, grossing $300 million dollars in its opening weekend worldwide.

Personal life

Shandling is unmarried and shares little about his personal life. He shared an apartment with actress fiancee and onetime Playboy model Linda Doucett from 1987 through 1994. When they broke up, she filed a lawsuit against Mr. Shandling and Mr. Grey's company for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. To promote "Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show," he appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, where he explained that he plays a lot of basketball and has just started boxing. He was one of a few people to attend Farrah Fawcett's funeral. He has also mentioned on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that he has a pet snake.

In popular culture

In the Butthole Surfers song "Revolution Part 2," Gibby Haynes sings a long chorus of Shandling's name interspersed with those of other famous actors. Haynes said that Shandling was "just one of those people who haunt me."

A few years later, the Butthole Surfers made an appearance playing themselves on the Larry Sanders show in the episode "The Prank".

References

External links

Garry Shandling on Charlie Rose via Google Video (2006)

in 2002

AllMovie.com: Garry Shandling

Museum of Broadcasting: It's Garry Shandling's Show / The Larry Sanders Show

The New York Times (Jan. 28, 2007): "Hey Now: It's Garry Shandling's Obsession", by Jacques Steinberg

The BBC.co.uk Guide to Comedy: It's Garry Shandling's Show

Filmbug.com: Garry Shandling

Newsday (April 15, 2007): "Fast Chat - Garry Shandling", by Frank Lovece

Category:1949 births Category:Amateur radio people Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American television writers Category:Herpetologists Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish comedians Category:Living people Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Tucson, Arizona Category:University of Arizona alumni Category:American Buddhists

Name	Frankie Boyle
Birth name	Francis Martin Patrick Boyle
Birth date	August 16, 1972
Birth place	Pollokshaws, Glasgow, Scotland
Medium	Stand-up, television
Active	1995-present
Genre	Black comedy, observational comedy, improv comedy, political satire
Subject	Scottish culture, Current events
Influences	Bill Hicks, Jerry Sadowitz
Domestic partner	Shereen Taylor
Notable work	Mock the Week
Website

Francis Martin Patrick "Frankie" Boyle featuring a sell-out stand-up performance given at London's Hackney Empire and some additional material, including a documentary about the tour, entitled Fuck You Scotland, and some sketches from the BBC3 comedy Rush hour.

In April 2010, the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee apologised for a joke made by Boyle on Radio 4 panel show Political Animal in which he likened the situation in Palestine to a cake "being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew". Boyle also made another joke where he said that he had "been studying Israeli Army Martial Arts. I now know 16 ways to kick a Palestinian woman in the back". Ofcom have confirmed that Price has issued a complaint and have accordingly launched an investigation into the programme.

Personal life

Boyle lives in Glasgow with his partner, Shereen Taylor, and has two children: a daughter (born 2004) and a son (born October 2007). He has admitted that his career had caused him to neglect his family. He is a recovering alcoholic, having started drinking at the age of 15 and stopping at 26, and former drug user, who is now teetotal.

He is a follower of Noam Chomsky and says that he has had a great influence on his political beliefs, claiming to be even more left-wing than Chomsky.

TV appearances

Media

Games

Starred as a virtual character in Grand Theft Auto 4's first DLC expansion pack; (2009–2010)

Books

My Shit Life So Far (2009)

DVDs

Stand-Up shows

Live (10 November 2008)

Live 2: If I Could Reach Out Through Your TV and Strangle You I Would (15 November 2010)

Mock the Week

Mock the Week: Too Hot for TV (26 November 2007)

Mock the Week: Too Hot for TV 2 (9 November 2009)

Mock the Week: Too Hot for TV 3 (8 November 2010)

References

External links

frankieboyle.com - Official website

Frankie Boyle's column in the Daily Record

Upcoming gigs

Frankie Boyle live review

Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Aston University Category:Alumni of the University of Sussex Category:People from Glasgow Category:Scottish comedy writers Category:Scottish stand-up comedians Category:Scottish columnists Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Scottish autobiographers Category:Scottish television writers

Name	Frank Skinner
Caption	Skinner in 2008 at Wembley Stadium
Birth name	Christopher Graham Collins
Birth date	January 27, 1957
Birth place	West Bromwich, England
Medium	Stand-up, television, Radio
Nationality	English
Active	1992 to present
Genre	stand-up comedy, chat show, sitcom
Notable work	Fantasy Football League The Frank Skinner Show Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned Shane

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Frank Skinner (born Christopher Graham Collins on 27 January 1957 in West Bromwich) is a British writer and comedian. He is best known for his television presenting, often alongside David Baddiel, with whom he also collaborated for the football song "Three Lions."

He is currently a radio presenter on the Saturday morning slot on Absolute Radio.

Career

Youth and early career (1957-1993)

He was born at Sandwell General Hospital, and grew up in a council house in neighbouring Oldbury. He was the youngest of four children born to West Cornforth-born former semi-professional footballer John Collins and his wife Doris. He has two older brothers, Keith and Terry, as well as an older sister called Norah. His father had played for Spennymoor United before the Second World War, and met his mother in a local pub after Spennymoor had played West Bromwich Albion in an FA Cup game in 1937. He attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from September 1968.

He passed 2 O-levels in the summer of 1973 and took A-levels in English Language and Art, along with several O-level re-sits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. He subsequently took 4 A-levels (including English Language and Literature) at Warley College of Technology and graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University) in 1981 with a degree in English. This was followed by a Masters degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick in the following year. After graduating, he spent four years as a lecturer in English at Halesowen College, whilst being a stand-up comedian on the side, before quitting his job in 1989 to pursue his comedy career full-time. During this period a bout of influenza made him give up drinking, and he remains a high-profile recovering alcoholic.

Collins took on the pseudonym Frank Skinner when the actors' union Equity told him there was already someone of the same name on their books (their rules do not permit two members with identical names). He took the name from a member of his late father's dominoes team. Skinner had performed his first stand-up gig in 1987 and made his television debut a year later. In 1990 he co-wrote and starred in a weakly-received sitcom, Packet Of Three, on Channel 4 but continued to see his reputation as a stand-up grow. He won the 1991 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, beating Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard.

Career peak (1994-2005)

He often works with best friend and ex-flatmate David Baddiel, notably on the popular late night entertainment show Fantasy Football League, from 1994 to 2004 and on Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned from 2000 to 2005.

The duo also co-wrote and performed the football song "Three Lions" with the Lightning Seeds and the England national football team for Euro 96, and re-released it for the 1998 World Cup. The song reached #1 in the UK charts both times. In 2001, he released his autobiography "Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner", which became a bestseller. The accompanying TV show, "Frank Skinner on Frank Skinner", in which Skinner showed where he lived as a child and interviews with Skinner, his friends and family members, was recorded and shown on ITV in 2001.

In 1998, he took part in a documentary entitled A Little Bit Of Elvis. He paid over £11,000 at auction, for a shirt which he believed was worn by Elvis Presley at his famous 1956 Tupelo concert. Frank visited the USA to find out if the shirt was the genuine article. After a slightly awkward conversation with Dave Hebler, Elvis' bodyguard, it appeared the shirt did once belong to Elvis, but it wasn't worn at the concert.

From 1995 to 1998 Skinner had his own chat show on BBC One, ending when the BBC refused to meet pay demands of a reported £20 million. After a short break the show found a new home at ITV in 1999, where it ran until late 2005. He has appeared in a number of self-written sitcoms, including Blue Heaven (1994) and Shane (2004).

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Post ITV (2006-present)

In 2005, Skinner announced he was going to leave behind his television work in favour of returning to the stand-up comedy circuit. A second series of Shane had been made, but not shown.

In February 2006, he received an honorary degree from the University of Central England, (now Birmingham City University). Skinner and David Baddiel covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup by podcast for The Times, a British broadsheet. The podcasts received a nomination for the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

In 2007, he performed a new live stand-up tour, his first for 10 years, starting at a warm-up gig at the Swindon Arts Centre, continuing through to the Edinburgh Festival for 2 weeks at The Pleasance, the venue where he won the Perrier Award, and a 69 date national tour including three sold out homecoming performances at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham in the Autumn.

In November 2008 and in the light of senior broadcasting figures such as ITV boss Michael Grade and Sir Terry Wogan calling for TV to clean up its act regarding use of swear words, Skinner decided to experiment with removing swear words altogether from his stand up live act although stated that it would be a shame if 'clever swearing' was lost. He also stood in for an ill Paul Merton as a team captain on the 21 November edition of Have I Got News For You.

From March 2009 Frank started to present the Saturday Morning Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio with his co-hosts Emily Dean and Gareth Richards, produced by Avalon Television. After an initial 12-week stint proved very popular with the listeners, Skinner's contract was extended until summer 2010.

Frank was a guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 11 June 2010.

He hosted a six series show Frank Skinner's Opinionated between April and May 2010, broadcast on BBC 2 on Friday evenings.

In 2007 he ran a course at Osho Leela, a meditation and growth centre in Dorset, UK. Mr Skinner now (late 2010) has a regular column in the London Times national newspaper.

Personal life

In September 2009 Frank Skinner was awarded his second honorary degree, from the University of Wolverhampton.

Skinner describes himself as a political liberal, and is a practising Catholic, fan of post punk group The Fall and supporter of West Bromwich Albion Football Club with an "all-consuming passion".

Skinner was a victim of the credit crunch after investing in AIG, losing millions of pounds as a result.

His autobiography, Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner, was published in October 2001.

In August 2009, he released a book centred on his comedy career - Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and the Queen of the Night.

Stand-Up VHS and DVDs

Live (5 October 1992)

Live at the Apollo (1994)

Live at the Palladium (14 October 1996)

Live in Birmingham (16 November 1998)

Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned - Live from London's West End (12 November 2001)

Stand-Up! Live from Birmingham's National Indoor Arena (10 November 2008)

References

External links

Official Website

Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:English comedians Category:Alumni of Birmingham City University Category:Alumni of the University of Warwick Category:People from West Bromwich Category:People from Oldbury Category:English Roman Catholics Category:Never Mind the Buzzcocks Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics

David Tennant (born David John McDonald; 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant's maternal great-grandparents, William and Agnes Blair, were staunch Protestants from Derry in Northern Ireland and among the signatories of the Ulster Covenant; William was a member of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Tennant's maternal grandfather, footballer Archie McLeod, met William and Agnes's daughter Nellie Blair while playing for Derry City F.C.. He watched almost every Doctor Who episode for years, and he met Tom Baker at a book signing event in Glasgow and spoke to him. The following year he played a role in an episode of Dramarama.

Tennant's first professional role upon graduating from drama school was in a staging of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui co-starring Ashley Jensen, one of a few plays in which he performed as part of the agitprop . Tennant also made an early television appearance in the Scottish TV sitcom Rab C Nesbitt as a transsexual barmaid called Davina.

Tennant's first major TV role was as the manic depressive Campbell in the Scottish drama series Takin' Over the Asylum (1994). During filming, Tennant met comic actress and writer Arabella Weir. When he moved to London shortly afterwards he lodged with Weir for five years and became godfather to her youngest child. He has subsequently appeared alongside Weir in many productions; as a guest in her spoof television series, Posh Nosh; in the Doctor Who audio drama Exile—during which Weir played an alternate version of the Doctor—and as panelists on the West Wing Ultimate Quiz on More4.

One of his earliest big screen roles was in Jude (1996), in which he shared a scene with Christopher Eccleston, playing a drunken undergraduate who challenges Eccleston's Jude to prove his intellect.

Tennant developed his career in the British theatre, frequently performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His first Shakespearean role for the RSC was in As You Like It (1996); having auditioned for the role of Orlando, the romantic lead, he was instead cast as the jester Touchstone, which he played in his natural Scottish accent. || Jim || Glasgow Health Board PSA |- | 1988 || Dramarama || Neil McDonald || Series 6, Episode 13, "The Secret of Croftmore" |- | rowspan="2"|1992 || Strathblair|| Hiker 2 || Series 1 |- | Bunch of Five || Policeman || Episode 5, "Miles Better" |- | 1993|| Rab C Nesbitt || Davina || Series 3, Episode 2, "Touch" |- | 1994 || Takin' Over the Asylum || Campbell Bain || Played a mental patient |- | rowspan="2"|1995 || The Bill || Steve Clemens || Series 11, Episode 128, "Deadline", opposite Honeysuckle Weeks, who he would also appear alongside in Foyle's War |- | The Tales of Para Handy || John MacBryde || |- | 1996 || A Mug's Game || Gavin || Series 1, Episode 4 |- | rowspan="2"|1997 || Holding the Baby || Nurse || Series 1, Episode 2 |- | Conjuring Shakespeare || Angelo || Episode 6 'Like a Virgin' (Open University documentary series on Shakespeare. Tennant appears in a filmed scene from the play Measure for Measure) |- | Masterpiece Contemporary || Host || |- | QI || Rex Alexander || NBC Pilot |- | The Catherine Tate Show || Jimmy Murphy || BBC TV Film |}

Film

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9 |- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" width="10%"| Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" width="20%"| Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" width="20%"| Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" width="50%"| Notes |- | 1996 || Jude || Drunk Undergraduate || Appeared alongside Christopher Eccleston, whom Tennant succeeded in the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who. |- | 1997 || Bite || Alastair Galbraith || |- | 1998 || L.A. Without a Map || Richard || Plays lead opposite Vinessa Shaw. Also features Johnny Depp |- | 1999 || The Last September || Captain Gerald Colthurst || |- | 2000 || Being Considered || Larry || |- | 2001 || Sweetnight Goodheart || Peter || A short film. |- | rowspan="2"|2003 || Nine 1/2 Minutes || Charlie || A short film. |- | Bright Young Things || Ginger Littlejohn || |- | 2005 || Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire || Barty Crouch Jr. || A Death Eater and son of Barty Crouch Sr. ^HP4, played by Roger Lloyd-Pack, who later appeared alongside Tennant on Doctor Who (episodes "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel"). |- | 2006 || Free Jimmy || Hamish || Voice in 2008 English language DVD release |- | rowspan="2"| 2009 || Glorious 39 || Hector || |- | || Sir Piers Pomfrey || |- | rowspan="1"| 2010 || How to Train Your Dragon || Spitelout || Voice Only || || rowspan="2"| |- | Scotland Matters || |- | Hay Fever || Simon|| Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh |- | Tartuffe || Valere|| Dundee Repertory Theatre |- | 1992-3|| Merlin || Arthur|| UK tour |- | rowspan="2"|1993|| Antigone || || 7:84 |- | The Princess and the Goblin || Curdie || Dundee Repertory Theatre |}

Awards and nominations

;Awards 2005 Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland, Best Male Performance: Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger 2006 TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who 2006 National Television Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who 2007 Welsh BAFTAs, Best Actor, Doctor Who 2007 The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2006 Science Fiction Television Episode: Doctor Who: The Girl In The Fireplace 2007 TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who 2007 National Television Awards, Most Popular Actor 2007 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award, screen award 2008 The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode: Doctor Who: Human Nature/The Family Of Blood 2008 TV Quick and TV Choice Award, Best Actor: Doctor Who 2008 National Television Award, Outstanding Drama Performance: Doctor Who 2009 Critics' Circle Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for his role as Hamlet. He will share the award with Sir Derek Jacobi for his performance as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. 2009 Theatregoers' Choice Awards, The AKA Theatre Event of the Year for his performance in Hamlet

2010 National Television Award, Outstanding Drama Performance: ''Doctor Who'

2010 The Constellation Awards, Best Male Performance in a 2009 Science Fiction Television Episode: Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars ;Nominations 1996 Theatre Management Association Best Actor Award: for The Glass Menagerie and An Experienced Woman Gives Advice. 2000 Ian Charleson Award (Best classical actor under 30): The Comedy of Errors. 2003 Olivier Award as Best Actor: Lobby Hero. 2006 Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor award for Casanova, Secret Smile and Doctor Who. 2008 Best Actor in the Royal Television Society Programme Awards for Recovery and Doctor Who. 2008 Best Actor in a Drama Series for the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who at the Satellite Awards given by the International Press Academy. 2009 Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor award for Einstein and Eddington and Doctor Who. 2009 Scottish BAFTA Acting in TV Male for Doctor Who. 2009 Standard Theatre awards, longlist, Best Actor for Hamlet. 2009 Saturn Award, Best Actor on Television, Doctor Who: The End of Time. 2010 Broadcasting Press Guild Best Actor award for Hamlet and Doctor Who.

See also

Andre Tchaikowsky#Skull

References

Further reading

Smallwood, Robert (editor) (2000). Players of Shakespeare 4: Further Essays in Shakespearean Performance by Players with the Royal Shakespeare Company, David Tennant on playing Touchstone in As You Like It, pp. 30–44. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-79416-1

Smallwood, Robert (editor) (2005). Players of Shakespeare 5: Further Essays in Shakespearean Performance by Players with the Royal Shakespeare Company, David Tennant on playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, pp. 113–130. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-67698-3

Goodall, Nigel (2008). David Tennant: A Life in Time and Space. London: John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84454-636-5

Mitchell, Molly (2009). David Tennant. London: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-409-10469-8

External links

"David Tennant Conquers TV" - BBC News Article (16 April 2005)

Profile at the BBC website

Hamlet, (3:05:52), Great Performances, PBS, April 28, 2008 (video-only link)

Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:Scottish Protestants Category:Audio book narrators Category:Paisley Grammar School alumni Category:People from Crouch End Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama alumni Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Scottish film actors Category:Scottish stage actors Category:Scottish television actors Category:Scottish voice actors Category:Shakespearean actors Category:Scottish actors Category:People from Bathgate Category:People from Paisley

Name	Catherine Tate
Caption	Catherine Tate in 2008
Birthname	Catherine Ford
Birthdate	May 12, 1968
Birthplace	Bloomsbury, London, England
Yearsactive	1990–present
Occupation	Actress, writer, comedienne
Domesticpartner	Twig Clark (?–present)
Children	Erin Clark (born January 2003)
Television	Big TrainWild WestThe Catherine Tate ShowDoctor Who
Residence	Richmond upon Thames, London, UK
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	White British

Catherine Tate (born 12 May 1968) Her mother, Josephine, was a florist,

Tate never knew her father, as he left very early on in her life, and consequently, she was brought up in a female-dominated environment, being cared for by her mother, grandmother and her godparents. As a child, Tate suffered from an obsessive-compulsive disorder which centred on word association. For example, Tate was not able to leave a jumper on the floor or it might have brought misfortune to her mother whose name began with the letter "J" like jumper.

She attended St Joseph's, Macklin Street, Holborn, a local Roman Catholic primary school. She then attended Notre Dame High School, Southwark, a South London convent secondary school for girls that was run by nuns. By the time Tate was a teenager, she knew she wanted to follow a professional acting career, and was subsequently sent to a boys' Roman Catholic school, Salesian College in Battersea at the age of 16. The school had the necessary facilities for drama. Tate left school without sitting her A-Levels. She studied there for three years, and until the age of 26, she lived in Holborn and Bloomsbury. Prior to getting a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Tate went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, but left after a week; "Even at that age I realised I wasn't Bonnie Langford. It was very competitive", she stated. and London's Burning. Tate started stand-up comedy in 1996, She played the part of Kate in the unaired pilot episode of sitcom Not Going Out alongside Lee Mack and Tim Vine. In 2001, she returned to the festival with her own sell-out one-woman show, which was followed by roles in Big Train, Attention Scum and TVGoHome. After being spotted at Edinburgh, she was given the role of Angela in the comedy, Wild West, with Dawn French,

Tate has also performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and at the National Theatre. She acted the role of Smeraldina in a 2000 RSC production of A Servant to Two Masters, and another role in The Way of the World at the National Theatre. Two of the show's well-known characters are teenager Lauren Cooper and Joannie "Nan" Taylor, the cockney grandmother. Tate's inspiration for the cockney grandmother came from visits to old people's homes when she was at drama college. Tate won a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Newcomer for her work on the first series of The Catherine Tate Show,

In November 2005, Tate appeared in another charity sketch as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need telethon. The segment was a crossover between EastEnders and The Catherine Tate Show, featuring Eastenders characters Peggy Mitchell, Little Mo Mitchell and Stacey Slater, whilst Tate appeared as Lauren. Tate later won a British Comedy Award for Best British Comedy Actress for her work in the second series of The Catherine Tate Show. Tate immediately denied the rumours, explaining that she was joking about her attempts to act "cool" around Schwimmer, whom she described as "a very funny, personable man, and easy to get along with". On her appearance in the series, Tate commented "I'm honoured and delighted to be joining David Tennant aboard the TARDIS. I was holding out for a summer season at Wigan rep but as a summer job, this'll do." and Scenes of a Sexual Nature. She later appeared in the films Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution, in which she played the title character, and Love and Other Disasters. She later filmed a one-off special episode which aired on Christmas Day 2007. At the TV Quick Awards 2008, Tate was voted best actress for her role in Doctor Who. Tate suffered from postnatal depression, from which she only recovered after the filming of the second series. During this difficult period, Clark gave up his work to care for Erin so that Tate could concentrate on her own work. She also suffers from occasional panic attacks. The family currently has a home in Richmond-upon-Thames, London. She has both a cat and a dog, the latter of which was given to her by Jonathan Ross. Regarding her personal outlook, Tate has said "I'm an incredibly negative person, so any form of success is only ever going to be a relief to me and set my default position back to neutral."

Awards and nominations

All for her work on The Catherine Tate Show unless otherwise stated:

Awards

2004: British Comedy Award — Best Comedy Newcomer

2006: RTS Television Award — Best Comedy Performance

2006: British Comedy Award — Best TV Comedy Actress

2007: National Television Awards — Most Popular Comedy Programme

2008: TV Quick Award — Best Actress in a Drama Series (for Doctor Who)

Nominations

2004: British Comedy Award — Best TV Comedy Actress

2005: British Comedy Award — Best TV Comedy Actress

2005: British Comedy Award — People's Choice Award (polled most votes but award not received) 2005: International Emmy — Best Performance by an Actress

2005: BAFTA TV Award — Best New Writer

2005: BAFTA TV Award — Comedy Programme or Series Award

2006: BAFTA TV Award — Best Comedy Performance

2007: BAFTA TV Award — Best Comedy Programme

2008: Nickelodeon's UK Kids Choice Awards 2008 — Funniest Person

2008: Nickelodeon's UK Kids Choice Awards 2008 — Best TV Actress (for Doctor Who)

2008: National Television Award — Outstanding Drama Performance (for Doctor Who)

Filmography

Television and film

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Title ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1990 | Surgical Spirit | Son's girlfriend | |- | 1993 | The Bill | WDC Palmer | |- |1994 | Milner | Jesson's P.A. | |- |1994 | Men Behaving Badly | Young woman | |- | 1998-2002 | Big Train | various roles | |- | 2000 | That Peter Kay Thing | | |- | 2001 | Attention Scum | | |- | 2002-2004 | Wild West | Angela Phillips | |- | 2004–20072009- | The Catherine Tate Show | various characters | |- | 2005 | Bleak House | Mrs Chadband | |- |rowspan=4| 2006 | Love and Other Disasters | Talullah Wentworth | |- | Starter for 10 | Julie Jackson | |- | Sixty Six | Aunt Lila | |- | Scenes of a Sexual Nature | Sara | |- | 2005 || Marple | Mitzi Kosinski | "A Murder is Announced" |- | 200620082010 | Doctor Who | Donna Noble | "The Runaway Bride"Series 4 (Full Series)The End of Time |- | 2007 | The Bad Mother's Handbook | Karen | |- | 2007 | Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution | Dorothy Ratcliffe | |- |rowspan=4| 2009 | The Sunday Night Project | Herself | Guest Host |- | The Justin Lee Collins Show | Herself | Guest |- | Genius | Herself | Guest |- | Never Mind the Buzzcocks | Herself | Guest |- | rowspan="2"|2010 | Little Crackers | Josephine | Short film, Tate's first directing role. |- | Gulliver's Travels | Queen of Lilliput | |- | 2011 | Monte Carlo | Alice | Post-production |}

Radio and CD audio drama

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Broadcaster |- | 2008 | The Forever Trap | Narrator | BBC Audio |- | 2009 | The Nemonite Invasion | Narrator | BBC Audio |- | 2009-10 | Jonathan Ross | Presenter | BBC Radio 2 |}

References

External links

Catherine Tate at bbc.co.uk/comedy

The Catherine Tate Show at bbc.co.uk/comedy

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:21st-century women writers Category:Actors from London Category:Alumni of the Central School of Speech and Drama Category:Audio book narrators Category:English comedians Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English television writers Category:English women writers Category:People from Bloomsbury Category:People from Holborn Category:Royal National Theatre Company members Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members Category:Women comedians

Name	Angus Deayton
Imagesize	200px
Caption	Mayer and Deayton at the Lighthouse Gala auction in aid of Terrence Higgins Trust.
Birth name	Gordon Angus Deayton
Birth date	January 06, 1956
Birth place	Surrey, England
Nationality	British
Active	1988–present
Medium	Broadcaster, actor, writer, comedian, musician
Domesticpartner	Lise Mayer
Notable work	Patrick Trench inOne Foot in the Grave

Gordon Angus Deayton (pronounced ; born 6 January 1956) is a British actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best-known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave and as the former presenter of the satirical panel game Have I Got News for You, a job from which he was dismissed in October 2002 after a second round of tabloid allegations about his personal life.

Early life

The youngest of three sons to a Prudential plc insurance broker/manager and a home economics school teacher, Paul Merton, a personality on Have I Got News for You, proclaimed he thought Deayton a "dull man" and his sacking was akin to "the Marx Brothers losing Zeppo". Merton has also said he "never got on" with Deayton, finding him "arrogant and aloof". However, Merton refused to condemn Deayton's behaviour in relation to the sex scandals, saying "I wouldn't have done it myself, but disapprove? I don't want to set myself up as a moral arbiter." Merton denied all knowledge of Deayton's allegedly blaming him and co-star Ian Hislop for his dismissal from the programme, revealing that the only time Deayton discussed his predicament with him was when he thanked Merton for making the scandal "funny on television". Merton also stated that despite their differences he wished Deayton well for the future.

Stephen Fry has supported Deayton by refusing to appear on the show again.

Bibliography

Radio Active (with Geoffrey Perkins). Sphere 1986. ISBN 0-722-12806-1 (a book to tie-in with the radio series)

The Uncyclopaedia of Rock (with Geoffrey Perkins and Jeremy Pascall). Ebury Press 1989. ISBN 0-852-23612-3.

In Search of Happiness with Angus Deayton (with Lise Mayer). Macmillan 1995. ISBN 0-333-63061-0 (Companion book for a BBC TV series)

References

External links

Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:English actors Category:English game show hosts Category:English television presenters Category:Old Caterhamians Category:People from Caterham