- published: 20 Sep 2012
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- author: digitalmediafan
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Hollywood
Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema. Today, much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the Westside neighborhood, and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys, but significant auxiliary industries, such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies remain in Hollywood, as does the backlot of Paramount Pictures.
On February 16, 2005, California Assembly Members Jackie Goldberg and Paul Koretz introduced a bill to require California to keep specific records on Hollywood as if it were independent, although it is not the typical practice of the City of Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. The bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor of California on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border can be loosely described as the area east of West Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Boulevard, and Barham Boulevard, and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose Avenue and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. This includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz[citation needed] – two areas that were hitherto considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelenos. The population of the district, including Los Feliz, as of the 2000 census was 123,436 and the median household income was $33,409 in 1999.
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London
London
i/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
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Maudsley Hospital
The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in South London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the country. The hospital's trust describes itself as a world leader in research and also works in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.
The hospital is part of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, provider of an extensive portfolio of mental health services in the United Kingdom, and a research institute working in partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.
The Maudsley dates from 1907, when Dr Henry Maudsley offered London County Council £30,000 (subsequently increased to £40,000) to help found a new mental hospital that would:
During World War I the hospital was a war hospital, not opening as a mental health resource until 1923. It remains notable that a specific Act of Parliament had to be obtained (1915) to allow the institution to accept voluntary patients.
The Maudsley was returned to the control of London County Council after the First World War, and finally opened in February 1923. Its nursing staff comprised a matron, assistant matron, six sisters and 19 staff nurses with at least three years general hospital training, supported by 23 probationers and 12 male nurses. It had a good reputation for training nurses and some applicants even travelled overseas to train there. A report (held at Bethlem's Archives & Museum) from a nurse who trained at the Maudsley shows some of the work of a new trainee: "Apart from observation and simple treatment, nurses are trained in special investigations and therapy. They carry out many of the routine psychometric tests, help as technicians in the ward laboratories, and are instructors in occupational therapy".
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Mitcham
Coordinates: 51°24′03″N 0°09′06″W / 51.4009°N 0.1517°W / 51.4009; -0.1517
Mitcham is a district in the south west area of London, in the London Borough of Merton. A suburban area, Mitcham is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre, Mitcham Common, Mitcham Library, and Mitcham Cricket Green. Nearby districts include Wimbledon, Streatham, Tooting, Morden and Sutton.
Mitcham is on the east side of the London Borough of Merton and is bounded by the London Borough of Wandsworth, the London Borough of Croydon, the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Sutton. Mitcham is close to Wimbledon, Croydon, Streatham and Tooting. The River Wandle bounds the town to the southwest. The original village lies in the west, although expansion has pushed the eastern boundary the furthest. Mitcham Common takes up the greater part of the boundary and area to the south.
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Parsons Green
Coordinates: 51°28′26″N 0°11′57″W / 51.4738°N 0.1991°W / 51.4738; -0.1991
Parsons Green is an area in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
The mainly residential area is named after the village green (the Parson's Green) now called Parsons Green Park where the vicar of Fulham used to live. The area is served by Parsons Green tube station; Fulham football club had their ground in the park for two years from 1889.
It is an expensive area to buy property, as is illustrated by the fact that between April and June 2004, the average price for a terraced house in the area was £654,615 and for a flat it was £290,675. Despite the property slowdown by 2009/2010 prices per square foot have risen to between £750 and £1,000, which is still slightly cheaper than neighbouring Chelsea. The most expensive houses are around the Hurlingham Club, where an Edwardian semi-detached house costs between £2 million and £4 million. The ladder of roads known as the “alphabet streets”, near Bishop’s Park between Stevenage Road and Fulham Palace Road, has four-bedroom semi-detached Victorian houses that sell for between £1.9 million and £3.5 million. Prices of the “lion” houses on the Peterborough Estate, south of Parsons Green, start at £2 million.
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Soho
Coordinates: 51°30′47″N 0°07′52″W / 51.513°N 0.131°W / 51.513; -0.131
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable transformation. It now is predominantly a fashionable district of upmarket restaurants and media offices, with only a small remnant of sex industry venues.
The area of Soho was grazing farmland until 1536, when it was taken by Henry VIII as a royal park for the Palace of Whitehall. The name "Soho" first appears in the 17th century. Most authorities believe that the name derives from a former hunting cry. The Duke of Monmouth used "soho" as a rallying call for his men at the Battle of Sedgemoor, half a century after the name was first used for this area of London.
In the 1660s the Crown granted Soho Fields to Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans. He leased 19 of its 22 acres (89,000 m2) to Joseph Girle, who gained permission to build and promptly passed his lease and licence to bricklayer Richard Frith in 1677. Frith began the development. In 1698 William III granted the Crown freehold of most of this area to William, Earl of Portland. Meanwhile the southern part of what became the parish of St. Anne, Soho, was sold by the Crown in parcels in the 16th and 17th centuries, with part going to Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester.
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Tooting
Coordinates: 51°25′41″N 0°09′54″W / 51.4280°N 0.1650°W / 51.4280; -0.1650
Tooting is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated 5 miles (8 km) south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon origin but the meaning is disputed. It could mean the people of Tota where Tota may have been a local Anglo-Saxon chieftain. Alternatively it could be derived from an old meaning of the verb to tout, to look out. There may have been a watchtower here on the road to London and hence the people of the look-out post.
The Romans built a road, which was later named Stane Street by the English, from London (Londinium) to Chichester (Noviomagus Regnorum), and which passed through Tooting. Tooting High Street is built on this road. In Saxon times, Tooting and Streatham (then Toting-cum-Stretham) was given to the Abbey of Chertsey. Later, Suene (Sweyn), believed to be a Viking, may have been given all or part of the land. In 933, King Athelstan of England is thought to have confirmed lands including Totinge (Tooting) to Chertsey Abbey.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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Wimbledon College
Coordinates: 51°25′08″N 0°13′17″W / 51.4188°N 0.2215°W / 51.4188; -0.2215
Wimbledon College is a government-maintained voluntary-aided Jesuit Roman Catholic high school for boys aged 11 to 19. The school is based at Edge Hill, Wimbledon, London. It was founded in 1892 "for improvement in living and learning to the greater glory of God and the common good". Its seal says in Latin, "College of the Most Sacred Heart".
It is affiliated with the Sacred Heart Church and Donhead, its main feeder preparatory school.
The school stands on a site where in 1860 John Brackenbury had purchased two large meadows below the Ridgway known as Tree and Boggy Fields. Brackenbury had helped to run Nelson House School, in Eagle House, Wimbledon High Street. His success there was such that in 1859 he took out a mortgage on the land below the Ridgway and founded in 1860 the Anglican Preparatory Military Academy, also known as “Brackenbury’s”. The grounds of this college were so attractive that the College used to be opened to the public once a week. Initially a successful school, Brackenbury’s declined under the control of the Rev. Charles Wynn, and closed down in 1887. In 1892 it was purchased by the Jesuits and reopened as Wimbledon College. Among the alumni of the former school were the rugby union international Henry Bryden and Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens the son of Charles Dickens.
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Adrian Chiles
Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British television and radio presenter, currently working for ITV Sport presenting football coverage.
His journalistic training and love of football resulted in the development of a career in two streams of broadcasting when he was at the BBC: fronting general and notably business programmes such as The One Show, Working Lunch and The Money Programme; and sports programmes like Match of the Day 2. His radio programme Chiles on Saturday for Radio 5 Live was awarded the sports category Gold Medal at the Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2002.
Chiles was born in Quinton, Birmingham, to an English father and Croatian mother, and moved a few miles away to Hagley, Worcestershire at age four. A feature of his presentations is his Birmingham accent. He also speaks Croatian, despite having a self-confessed imperfect understanding of the language's verbs, declensions, and cases. Chiles started his education at Haybridge High School, and then worked in his father's scaffolding business, before graduating with a degree in English literature from the University of London (studying at Westfield College, now part of Queen Mary, University of London).
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Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. On 19 April 1955, he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.
Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. Hitchocks reputation as a filmmaker is offset by claims that he engaged in obsessive and controlling behaviour towards many of his leading ladies, and that in some cases this extended to physical abuse and sexual harrassment.
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Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton (/ˈdiːtən/; born 6 January 1956)[citation needed] is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known 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. He is also known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave.
The youngest of three sons to a Prudential plc insurance broker/manager and a home economics school teacher, Deayton was brought up in Banstead, Surrey, and attended Oakhyrst Grange School and Caterham School. He showed early promise as a footballer, and had a trial with Crystal Palace. He was captain of the Caterham U16 Rugby team.
Deayton read languages at New College, Oxford, where he was recruited into the Oxford Revue, performing with them at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This led to the creation of the parody band The Hee Bee Gee Bees (re the Bee Gees) in 1980, with the songs written by Richard Curtis and Philip Pope. Their best-selling single "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)" (plus the B-side "Posing in the Moonlight") was a parody of the falsetto style of countless disco hits by the Bee Gees.
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Ben Miller
Bennet Evan "Ben" Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English comedian, actor and director. He is perhaps best known as one half of comedy double act Armstrong and Miller, along with Alexander Armstrong. Together the pair wrote and starred in the Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller, and the more recent BBC television sketch show The Armstrong and Miller Show. As of 2011, he is starring in the crime drama series Death in Paradise.
Miller was born in London, England, and grew up in Nantwich, Cheshire. His paternal grandfather was a Lithuanian-born tailor who lived in London's East End; his father, Michael Miller, was a lecturer in American Literature at the City of Birmingham Polytechnic; and his Welsh mother, Marion, taught English at South Cheshire College. He has two younger sisters, Leah and Bronwen.
He was educated at Malbank School and Sixth Form College, his local comprehensive school in Nantwich, Cheshire. He then studied natural sciences at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he acted with and dated Rachel Weisz. He remained at Cambridge to study for a Ph.D. in quantum physics, entitled "Novel quantum effects in low-temperature quasi-zero dimensional mesoscopic electron systems".
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Brad Sherwood
Bradley "Brad" Sherwood (born November 24, 1964) is an American actor and comedian. He has worked in entertainment as an actor, comedian, singer, writer, and producer.
Sherwood was born in Chicago, Illinois and later grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He began acting at the age of eight. He attended Santa Fe Preparatory School and graduated from the Young Puffaz Academy. He went on to graduate from Wright State University with a BFA in Acting. His first acting job was his recurring role on six episodes of L.A. Law. In 1994-1995, Brad was a cast member on the syndicated, sketch-comedy series The Newz.
In 1992, Sherwood became a recurring performer on three seasons of the British version of the award-winning improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He was the only actor to make it on the cast from the Los Angeles auditions. He starred on all eight seasons of the American, Emmy nominated version of Whose Line on ABC. Some people and cartoon characters he impersonated were Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Fred Schneider, Tom Arnold, Roger Daltrey, Willie Nelson, Yogi Bear, Jimmy Stewart and Jim Backus.
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Bruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson CBE, (born 22 February 1928), commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality. He became known through the series Sunday Night at the London Palladium, going on to present television series such as The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right, The Price Is Right (UK), You Bet! and Strictly Come Dancing.
Forsyth was born in Edmonton, London, the son of Florence Ada (née Pocknell) and John Thomas Forsyth-Johnson. His family owned a car repair garage in Victoria Road, Edmonton, and as members of the Salvation Army his parents played brass instruments and his mother was a singer. His great grandfather Joseph Forsyth Johnson (1840–1906) was a landscape architect who worked in Russia, Ireland and the United States. His great-great-great-great grandfather William Forsyth (1737–1804) was a founder of the Royal Horticultural Society and the namesake of the plant genus Forsythia.
Forsyth attended The Latymer School. After watching Fred Astaire in films at age eight, he trained in dance in Tottenham and then Brixton. He started in show business aged 14, with a song, dance, and accordion act called "Boy Bruce, the Mighty Atom." His first appearance was at the Theatre Royal, Bilston, with The Great Marzo at the top of the bill. Forsyth made his television debut in 1939 as a child, singing and dancing on a talent show introduced by Jasmine Bligh, probably an episode of Come and Be Televised (BBC, 1939), broadcast from Radiolympia.
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Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".
Buster Keaton (his lifelong stage name) was recognized as the seventh-greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Keaton the 21st-greatest male star of all time. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of Keaton's "extraordinary period from 1920 to 1929, [when] he worked without interruption on a series of films that make him, arguably, the greatest actor-director in the history of the movies."
Orson Welles stated that Keaton's The General is "the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made."
A 2002 worldwide poll by Sight & Sound ranked Keaton's The General as the 15th best film of all time. Three other Keaton films received votes in the magazine's survey: Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr., and The Navigator.
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Caroline Quentin
Caroline Quentin (born Caroline Quentin 11 June 1960) is an English actress. Quentin — her stage name— became known for her television appearances in Men Behaving Badly, playing Dorothy, and playing Maddy Magellan in Jonathan Creek for three years.
Born on 11 June 1960 in Reigate, Surrey,[citation needed] Quentin was educated at the independent school, the Arts Educational School, in Tring, Hertfordshire and appeared locally in the Pendley Open Air Shakespeare Festival.[citation needed]
Quentin's early acting work included appearing on stage in the chorus of the original cast of the musical Les Misérables.
In July 1996, Quentin released a single, a cover of the Exciters' hit "Tell Him", with her Men Behaving Badly co-star Leslie Ash under the name of "Quentin and Ash". The single reached number 25 in the UK Charts and disappeared three weeks later. From 1997 until 2000 Quentin starred alongside Alan Davies in Jonathan Creek playing the character Maddie Magellan, an investigative journalist, who uses Jonathan's mind to solve murder mysteries.
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Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-reeler Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919.
Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities of the silent-film era. He was influenced by his predecessor, the French silent film comedian Max Linder, to whom he dedicated one of his films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 75 years, from the Victorian stage and the music hall in the United Kingdom as a child performer, until close to his death at the age of 88. His high-profile public and private life encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin was identified with left-wing politics during the McCarthy era and he was ultimately forced to resettle in Europe from 1952.
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Chip Esten
Charles Esten Puskar III (born September 9, 1965) professionally known as Chip Esten, is an American comedian, actor and singer known for his appearances on the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
Esten is known by his nickname "Chip" in improv comedy shows but is always credited as "Charles Esten".
Esten was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but moved to Alexandria, Virginia at age 9. He attended T.C. Williams High School and the College of William and Mary, where he was a brother of Theta Delta Chi. At William and Mary, he was the lead vocalist in the band N'est Pas from 1985 until 1988, one year after his graduation. After graduating from college and marrying his wife, Esten moved to the United Kingdom to make his theatrical debut, winning massive acclaim for his title role in the musical Buddy in the early 1990's.
In 1992, the makers of Whose Line Is It Anyway? asked him to audition for an episode, which he did successfully. Consequently, Esten made his debut on the Channel 4 show in the fourth series and "won" the episode. He subsequently appeared in more episodes later the same year when the show did a run in New York. At the time, the show needed a second specialist improvisational singer to fill in for Mike McShane.
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Clement Freud
Sir Clement Raphael Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009) was an English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.
Freud was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish parents Ernst L. Freud (an architect) and Lucie née Brasch. He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud. His family fled to Britain from Nazi Germany and his given name was anglicised from the original "Clemens". He spent his later childhood in Hampstead where he attended the The Hall private preparatory school. He also attended two independent schools: he boarded at Dartington Hall, and also went to St Paul's School, London.
During the Second World War Freud joined the Royal Ulster Rifles and served in the ranks. He acted as an aide to Field Marshal Montgomery. He worked at the Nuremberg Trials and in 1947 was commissioned as an officer. He married June Flewett (the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in C. S. Lewis's children's series The Chronicles of Narnia) in 1950, and the couple had five children. Flewett had taken the stage name Jill Raymond in 1944, and since Clement's knighthood has been Lady Freud.
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Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began his success during his 15-year law career with stand-up comedy and comedic script writing, before starring in Whose Line Is It Anyway? on BBC Radio 4, then later, Channel 4. He was also successful with a number of radio programmes, television interviews and guest appearances on Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, QI and The Bubble.
Anderson was educated at Stanburn Primary School and Harrow County School for Boys in London, where his group of friends included Geoffrey Perkins and Michael Portillo. His Scottish father was manager of the Midland Bank's Wembley branch. Anderson attended Selwyn College, Cambridge where, from 1974 to 1975, he was President of Footlights. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1976 and became a practising barrister, specialising in criminal law.
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Colin Mochrie
Colin Andrew Mochrie (/ˈmɒkri/; born November 30, 1957) is a Scottish Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and U.S. versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.
Colin Mochrie was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, the oldest of three children. He was shy as a child, stating that neighbours would have commented that he "watched way too much television." In 1964, his family moved to a French neighbourhood just outside Montreal, Quebec, and five years later moved again to Vancouver, British Columbia. Mochrie attended Killarney Secondary School, where he was a self-proclaimed loner who wanted to become a marine biologist. He was persuaded by a friend to try out for a play entitled The Death and Life of Sneaky Fitch where Mochrie played the role of the undertaker. He was hooked when he got his first laugh, which paved the way for a career in entertainment. After graduating from high school, where he was valedictorian, Mochrie attended the Studio 58 theatre school in Vancouver for four years, where he discovered the art of improvisational comedy.
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Colin Sell
Colin Sell (born 1 December 1948) is a British pianist who has appeared on the radio panel games Whose Line Is It Anyway? and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. He has become famous mostly for his long service on the latter show, where he is frequently the butt of the host's jokes. He is the Head of Music at East 15 Acting School, Essex [1]. Until 1998 he was Head of Music at Rose Bruford College, Sidcup and was instrumental in the creation of the BA (Hons) Actor-Musician course there. He occasionally provides live musical accompaniment for The Comedy Store Players, a comedy improvisation group based in The Comedy Store, London.
Sell was born in Purley, London and grew up in Croydon. He does not have a degree in music. He instead received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of Bristol in 1971. He wrote music for the University's revues in the early 1970s, leading to performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where Simon Brett saw Sell perform and offered him the pianist position on Clue. He also appeared with the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre TIE company in the early 1970s, which also included two other well-known names; Elizabeth Estensen and Clive Hornby, both long-standing members of the Emmerdale cast.
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Daniel Kitson
Daniel Kitson (born 2 July 1977 in Denby Dale, West Yorkshire) is an English stand-up comedian.
Born to a lecturer father and primary school head teacher mother, Kitson began performing comedy at the age of 16. He was a pupil at Scissett Middle School and Shelley College in Yorkshire, England. Kitson subsequently studied drama at Roehampton Institute, now known as Roehampton University.
He was nominated for the 2001 Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his show Love, Innocence and the Word Cock before winning it in 2002 for the show Something.
As well as stand up, Kitson has written and performed "story shows". The first was A Made Up Story at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, followed by Stories For the Wobbly-Hearted at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2005. The latter show opened at the Traverse Theatre for the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won a Scotsman Fringe First Award. In 2006, Kitson took Stories For The Wobbly Hearted to the Brits Off Broadway Festival in New York. In June 2006 the story show made up one half of his Regents Park Open Air Theatre appearance, where Kitson's stories were accompanied by songs from Gavin Osborn. His story show, C-90, opened at the Traverse for the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was awarded both a Fringe First and The Stage Acting Award for Best Solo Show.
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Dara Ó Briain
Dara Ó Briain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈd̪ˠaɾˠə oː ˈbʲɾʲiənʲ], born 4 February 1972) is an Irish stand-up comedian and television presenter, noted for hosting topical panel shows such as The Panel, Mock the Week and Dara O Briain: School of Hard Sums .
He has also featured on Don't Feed the Gondolas, Have I Got News For You, QI, The Apprentice: You're Fired! and Stargazing Live. The Irish Independent described him as "Terry Wogan's heir apparent as Britain's 'favourite Irishman'". Writing for The Evening Standard, Bruce Dessau noted that "If you don’t laugh at Ó Briain, check your pulse, you must be dead."
Since January 2006, Ó Briain has taken part in the BBC Three Men in a Boat series, with Rory McGrath and Griff Rhys Jones. The series, broadcast in a pair of episodes around new year in 2006 and then every year since 2008, has consistently had around 3 million viewers.
In 2007, he was voted the 42nd greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 16th greatest stand-up comic.
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Denny Siegel
Denny Siegel is an American actress, comedienne, and writer, probably best known for her role as a regular on the ABC-TV improv series Whose Line is it Anyway?. She has also appeared as a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Before her stint on Whose Line?, she was a writer/performer on the sketch comedy show Quick Witz, which ran on NBC. Other TV credits include MTV F*UPS, PBS’s TV-411, and host of the Metro Channel’s Get Out of Town. She has also appeared in pilots for Terran Enterprises, Bravo and the WB.
Denny Siegel has an extensive corporate resume as a writer, host and performer, and has also written several DVDs for the corporate market. She has performed improv at various comedy festivals including The Montreal Comedy Festival, The Bass Red Triangle Comedy Tour, The Toyota Comedy Festival, and the Marshalls Women in Comedy Festival. She continues to perform comedy and theater at venues throughout Los Angeles, including The Improv and The Friars Club.
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Derek Nimmo
Derek Robert Nimmo (19 September 1930 – 24 February 1999) was an English character actor. He was particularly associated with upper-class "silly-ass" roles, and clerical roles.
Nimmo was born in Liverpool and was educated at Quarry Bank High School and began his stage career at the Hippodrome Theatre in Bolton, Lancashire. It was during this time that he made a cameo appearance in The Beatles' movie, A Hard Day's Night (in which he appeared as "Leslie Jackson", a magician with doves).
He appeared in a number of British films and television series, as aristocrats, including starring roles in the television comedy series The World of Wooster (as "Bingo Little"), and in the comedy movie One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (as "Lord Southmere"), as well as appearing in the James Bond spoof film Casino Royale.
Derek Nimmo made his name as the Reverend Mervyn Noote in the British sitcom All Gas and Gaiters (1966). At the time it was considered rather controversial because the main characters were senior churchmen (the Bishop, his chaplain Noote and the Archdeacon) who got into various scrapes as a result of their general incompetence. By the time the series finished, Nimmo was identified with the stereotype of a traditional British clergyman and he went on to play a bungling monk in another BBC clerical sitcom, Oh, Brother! and its sequel series "Oh, Father!". Another sitcom in which he appeared in a starring role as a clergyman, many years later, was Hell's Bells. He also appeared as the Reverend Jonathan Green in a television production of Cluedo. Later he became so well known for his clerical parody that, in the 1975 The Goodies' episode "Wacky Wales", a "team of Derek Nimmos" played in a spoof "Ecclesiastical Rugby Sevens" competition.
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Des Lynam
Desmond Michael "Des" Lynam, OBE (born 17 September 1942, Ennis, County Clare, Ireland) is an Irish television and radio presenter based in the UK.
He has hosted television coverage of high profile events for many years. He has presented the popular shows, Grandstand, Match of the Day, Holiday, How Do They Do That? and Countdown.
Desmond Michael Lynam moved with his family to Brighton at the age of six. He recalled having a strong Irish accent at the time, but eventually lost it. He passed the eleven-plus in 1954, to attend Varndean Grammar School. After sitting his A-levels, he went into the insurance business, working as a salesman, where he remained for most of the 1960s.
He married Susan Skinner in 1965 and had one son, Patrick (born 1970); however by 1973 the marriage began to break down owing to Lynam's career and other commitments, and they divorced in 1974. Lynam has never remarried, but has lived with Rose Diamond, his long-time partner, for many years.
He is a supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
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Drew Carey
Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, sports executive, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey eventually gained popularity starring on his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and serving as host of the U.S. version of the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, both of which aired on ABC.
Carey has appeared in several films, television series, music videos, a made-for-television film, and a computer game. As of 2012, he hosts the television game show The Price Is Right. He is interested in a variety of sports, has worked as a photographer at U.S. National Team soccer games, is a minority owner of the Major League Soccer team Seattle Sounders FC and a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. Carey has written an autobiography, Dirty Jokes And Beer: Stories Of The Unrefined, detailing his early life and television career.
Carey was the youngest of Lewis and Beulah Carey's three sons and raised in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. When he was eight years old, his father died from a brain tumor. According to his autobiography, he was born with six toes on his right foot and he played the cornet and trumpet in the marching band of James Ford Rhodes High School, from which he graduated in 1975. Drew is of Scottish heritage from both parents.[citation needed]
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Frank Skinner
Frank Skinner (born Christopher Graham Collins on 28 January 1957 in West Bromwich)[citation needed] is a British writer, comedian and actor. 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 a radio presenter on the Saturday morning slot on Absolute Radio.
Skinner 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, and an older sister, Nora. His father 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. Skinner 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.
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Greg Proops
Gregory Everett "Greg" Proops (born October 3, 1959) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and television host. He is widely known for his work as an improvisational comedian on the UK and U.S. versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He also performed on Drew Carey's Green Screen Show and played Max Madigan on the Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP.
Proops was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in San Carlos, California, a suburb south of San Francisco, attending San Carlos High School. He attended the College of San Mateo and spearheaded the comedy duo "Proops & Brakeman". Later, he took courses in improvisation and acting at San Francisco State University though he never finished college.
After college, he joined an improv group with Mike McShane. Both Proops and McShane impressed producers Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, who put them on their show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He frequently instigated jokes and running gags concerning various idiosyncrasies and differences between British English and American English (e.g. "lift" vs. "elevator"), and would frequently banter with Clive Anderson on these matters (among others). He lived in London for four years when he was doing the show and lists McShane and Colin Mochrie as among his best friends.
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Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies.
Harold Lloyd ranks alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton as one of the most popular and influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies", between 1914 and 1947. He is best known for his "Glasses Character", a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who was perfectly in tune with 1920s era America.
His films frequently contained "thrill sequences" of extended chase scenes and daredevil physical feats, for which he is best remembered today. Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! (1923) is one of the most enduring images in all of cinema.[citation needed] Lloyd did many of these dangerous stunts himself, despite having injured himself in August, 1919 while doing publicity pictures for the Roach studio. An accident with a bomb mistaken as a prop resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (the injury was disguised on future films with the use of a special prosthetic glove, though the glove often did not go by unnoticed).
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Harry Hill
Harry Hill (born Matthew Keith Hall on 1 October 1964),[citation needed] is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor (who remains on the General Medical Council's List of Registered Medical Practitioners), Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.
Hill was born in Woking, Surrey and spent part of his childhood living in Hong Kong where he attended Island School. The family then moved to Staplehurst, Kent where Hill attended the local primary school. He was educated at Angley School and then Cranbrook School in Kent and St George's Hospital Medical School before training in neurosurgery at the University of London. Hill worked as a house officer at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, before quitting the medical profession because he "didn't feel in control of what was happening".
Hill married illustrator Magda Archer in 1996 in Wandsworth, London. They have three daughters, all born in Kensington and Chelsea, London: Kitty, Winnie and Frederica. He now resides in the seaside town of Whitstable, Kent.
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Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop (born 13 July 1960) is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the magazine Private Eye. He has appeared on many radio and television programmes, but is best known as a team captain on the BBC quiz show Have I Got News for You.
Hislop was born on 13 July 1960 in Mumbles, Swansea, to a Scottish father, David Hislop, and a Channel Islander mother of English descent, Helen Rosemarie née Beddows.
Hislop did not know his grandparents. His paternal grandfather, David Murdoch Hislop, died just before he was born. He was Scottish and became a deacon at a Presbyterian church and a school headteacher at Newton Academy in Ayr. In the First World War he fought in Northern France with the 9th (Glasgow Highlanders) Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry.
Hislop's maternal grandfather, William Beddows, was originally from Lancashire. He joined the British Army in 1895 and fought in the Second Boer War with the King's Own Royal Regiment, and served in major campaigns including the Battle of Spion Kop. He moved to Jersey to serve as a Sergeant, having signed up in 1906 for another ten years in the army.
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Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr (born 15 September 1972) is an Irish-born British comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery, dark humour and his use of edgy one-liners. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television.
Carr moved to a career in comedy in 2000. After becoming established as a stand-up comedian, Carr began to appear in a number of Channel 4 television shows, most notably as the host of the panel show 8 out of 10 Cats. In Ireland he is known for appearances on The Panel and The Late Late Show.
Carr was born in Limerick, Ireland to parents Patrick James (born March 1945), a Roman Catholic and self-made millionaire who became treasurer for computer company Unisys, and Nora Mary (née Lawlor, 19 September 1943 – 7 September 2001), who died of pancreatitis in St Thomas' Hospital, London, aged 57. His parents married in 1970, separated in 1994, but never divorced. His father married Natasha in 2003. Carr has an older brother, Colin, and a younger brother, Patrick. Carr was educated at Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe. he also attended St Bernards's Catholic Grammar School also in Slough. Carr's father was not happy with the school so moved him to Burnham Grammar School
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John Sessions
John Gibb Marshall (born 11 January 1953), better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.
Sessions was born in Largs, and spent some of his earliest years in Kempston, Bedfordshire and St Albans, Hertfordshire. He has an elder brother and a twin sister. Sessions is openly gay. His name change occurred when he became a performer, owing to the presence of a John Marshall on the Equity register already. He graduated with an M.A. in English literature from Bangor University, where he had begun to appear to audiences with his comedy in shows such as "Look back in Bangor" and "Marshall Arts". He later studied for a PhD from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, although he did not complete the doctorate.
This period in his life was unhappy. In a 'Worst of Times' column for The Independent from around 1990, he talked of how the freezing Canadian weather had depressed him, he was smoking 'far too many cigarettes', 'had a couple of disastrous flings' and described his PhD dissertation as '200 pages of rubbish'.
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Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence (born Wendy Lawrence; 6 June 1959) is a British comedienne and actress best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and more recently her role as Manda Best in EastEnders.
Josie Lawrence was born Wendy Lawrence in Old Hill, Rowley Regis (later Warley and now Sandwell). She has a brother, John, and sister, Janet, 10 years older who are twins. They were brought up in nearby Cradley Heath, where her father worked for British Leyland and her mother as a dinner lady. She says everyone in her family has a wicked, dry sense of humour. She knew she wanted to be an actress at the early age of 5 and by the time she was 16 she joined the Barlow Players in Oldbury.
She studied at Dartington College of Arts from 1978 to 1981, receiving a bachelor of arts honours degree.
Her first acting role was as a young boy in a production of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at the Half Moon Theatre. During the 1980s, she was also involved in a play called Passionaria at the Newcastle Playhouse, starring Denise Black and Kate McKenzie, and they later formed the jazz group Denise Black and the Kray Sisters.
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Julian Clary
Julian Peter McDonald Clary (born 25 May 1959) is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre. He has also acted in films, television and stage productions.
Clary was born in Surbiton, Surrey, to probation officer Brenda (née McDonald) and policeman Peter J. Clary. He was brought up in Teddington with two older sisters. By his own words, he was conceived "in broad daylight" in Clacton-on-Sea in autumn 1958. His paternal great-grandfather and his maternal great-parents were Germans who immigrated to England at the end of the 19th century. He was raised as Roman Catholic.
Clary was educated at the independent Catholic St Benedict's School, in Ealing, London, and later studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths' College, University of London.
Clary began his career under the name Leo Hurll, a fake keyboardist for pop band Thinkman (a recording project conceived by Rupert Hine). He entered the alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s, first under the alias "Gillian Pieface", and later as "The Joan Collins Fanclub". He wore heavy glam make-up and dressed in outrageous clothes, often involving leather/PVC and hinting at bondage. His pet dog "Fanny the Wonder Dog", a whippet, also featured in performances.
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Kathy Greenwood
Kathryn "Kathy" Greenwood (born March 21, 1962) is a Canadian actress and comedienne. She appeared on the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? numerous times, and played Grace Bailey on the Canadian television drama series Wind at My Back.
Kathy Greenwood was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, and it was clear from an early age she wanted to be a performer; by the time she was in high school at Agincourt Collegiate Institute, she was usually the star of the school plays and concerts. When it came time to graduate in 1980, she feared that she would never get to act again, until a concerned friend gave her a brochure for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where Greenwood spent the next two years studying acting.
In 1987, when she returned to Canada in Toronto, she managed to find work for a small night club act called A Wedge of Night, which led to her five year stint with the Toronto branch of the famous Second City comedy troupe; where she served as both a writer and a performer - two of her shows won Dora Mavor Moore awards in 1988, and 1992. Shortly afterwards, she and her friends Jonathan Wilson, and Ed Sahely developed what she called their "Second City" spin-off, Not to Be Repeated, in which the three would improvise an entire situation comedy in front of a live audience, based solely on ideas and suggestions that are thrown at them from the audience. Other notable appearances in Canada include the popular sketch shows This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Royal Canadian Air Farce.
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Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows, and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.
Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, King's Cross, London, the son of Louisa ("Lou" or "Louie") and Charles Williams, a barber. Williams had a half-sister, Alice Patricia, born before Louie had met Charlie Williams. He was educated at Lyulph Stanley School, later becoming apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. He joined the Army in 1944 at 18. As part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay, he first performed on stage in the Combined Services Entertainment alongside Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols. He was a voracious reader able to quote poems or literary extracts from memory. Excerpts from the diaries he kept as an adult show he adored his supportive, theatrical mother but despised his homophobic, morose and selfish father.
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Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. Composed of thin Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and fat American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957), they became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous Hardy. They made over 100 films together, initially two-reelers (short films) before expanding into feature length films in the 1930s. Their films include Sons of the Desert (1933), the Academy Award winning short film The Music Box (1932), Babes in Toyland (1934), and Way Out West (1937). Hardy's catchphrase "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!" is still widely recognized.
Prior to the double act both were established actors with Laurel appearing in over 50 films and Hardy in over 250 films. Although the two comedians first worked together on the film The Lucky Dog (1921), this was a chance pairing and it was not until 1926, when both separately signed contracts with the Hal Roach film studio, that they began appearing in movie shorts together. Laurel and Hardy officially became a team the following year in the silent short film Putting Pants on Philip (1927). The pair remained with the Roach studio until 1940, then appeared in eight "B" comedies for 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1941 to 1945. After finishing their movie commitments at the end of 1944, they concentrated on stage shows, embarking on a music hall tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland. In 1950 they made their last film, a French/Italian co-production called Atoll K, before retiring from the screen. In total they appeared together in 107 films. They starred in 40 short sound films, 32 short silent films and 23 full-length feature films, and made 12 guest or cameo appearances, including the recently discovered Galaxy of Stars promotional film (1936).
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Lee Simpson
Lee Simpson is a British actor and comedian best known as a member of the improvisational group The Comedy Store Players.
He has appeared in a number of roles, including the sitcoms Terry and Julian and Drop The Dead Donkey, the films Paper Mask and Nuns On The Run, and played a key role in co-devising and narrating the improvisational radio show The Masterson Inheritance in the years 1993-1995. He was involved in Paul Merton Live At The London Palladium in 1994, along with fellow Comedy Store Players Paul Merton and Richard 'Susan' Vranch. Before becoming involved in improvisation, he was, among other things, a croupier in a casino, a cinema projectionist, and a breakfast DJ.
He did his first performance with The Comedy Store Players in 1989, and became a member of the group in 1990.
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Mike McShane
Michael "Mike" McShane (born June 25, 1955) is an American actor, singer, and improvisational comedian. He is best known through his appearances in the early 1990s on the British version of the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He is also best known for voicing Marlon, Caracticus P. Doom and various other characters in Cosgrove Hall's Avenger Penguins.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Roeland Park, Kansas, McShane had performed on stage, on television, and in film, and was an alumnus of Los Angeles Theatresports. One of his larger TV roles was as Kramer's nemesis Franklin Delano Romanowski (FDR) on Seinfeld. He also had a cameo role as a doomed hypnotherapist in the film Office Space and played the friendly scientist, Professor Keenbean, in the 1994 movie Ri¢hie Ri¢h.
In 1995, McShane starred as Harley in the BBC Screen Two TV Movie Crazy For A Kiss, about a young boy who is sent to a mental institution for teenagers in Kansas. Touted as being somewhat biographical of McShane's childhood, the film has never been released on video or DVD. McShane appeared in Tom and Huck as Muff Potter and on Brotherly Love as the experienced but wisecracking mechanic, Lloyd.
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Neil Mullarkey
Neil R. Mullarkey (born 1961) is an English actor, writer and comedian.
Mullarkey studied at Robinson College, Cambridge where he was a member of the Footlights and was Junior Treasurer during Tony Slattery's term as president. He became president in 1982 with Nick Hancock, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis as his contemporaries. Mullarkey formed Hancock & Mullarkey with Hancock, performing their act (which consisted of spoofing television shows' title sequences to that show's accompanying theme music) several times on television. This included Doctor Who, Kojak, and Dad's Army.
He has also been in a double act with Tony Hawks called the Timid Twins.[1]
In the early 1980s, he teamed up with Mike Myers as 'Mullarkey and Myers'. They would perform sketches based on their shared love of cartoons, B-movies and bad TV. They played around the burgeoning London pub circuit, particularly at the George IV in Chiswick, where they often shared the bill with the young Hugh Grant, then plying his trade in the Jockeys Of Norfolk revue. As their fame increased, Mullarkey and Myers toured the UK, ending in a sold-out season at the Edinburgh Festival. The two also appeared as 'The Sound Asleep Club' on TV-am's 'Wide Awake Club', a children's TV show hosted at the time by Tommy Boyd. Mike eventually returned to Toronto, but Mullarkey would briefly join him to revive 'Mullarkey and Myers' in Canada. Later still, he appeared in Myers' début in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, as the Customs Officer who freaks Austin out with his penis enlarger. (He also appeared again in Goldmember and helped Mike Myers do uncredited rewrites of So I Married An Axe Murderer).
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Nicholas Parsons
Christopher Nicholas Parsons OBE (born 10 October 1923) is a British radio and television presenter and actor.
Parsons was born at 1 Castlegate, Grantham, Lincolnshire, the middle child, with an older brother and a younger sister. His father was a general practitioner in Vine Street, whose patients included the parents of Margaret Thatcher. It is possible he delivered the future Prime Minister in 1925. His mother, born in Bristol to a founder of local company WB Maggs & Co., was training as a nurse when she met Parsons' father in a hospital.
Parsons was born left-handed but was made to write with his right hand. As a child, Parsons had a stutter, which he overcame by the age of 15, and was slow to learn owing to dyslexia. He also suffered migraines. Educated at St Paul's School in London, he wanted to be an actor. However, his parents considered that a career in engineering would be better, as he had repaired clocks and was good with his hands.
After he had left school, his family contacted relatives in Scotland who arranged a job for him in Clydebank near Glasgow, where he spent five years employed in the shipyards of Clydeside by Drysdales, in the manufacture of pumps. Whilst there he also had two six-month periods studying engineering at the University of Glasgow. Although he never graduated, he gained enough qualifications to become a marine engineer and was given a position in the Merchant Navy during World War II, which he never took up owing to illness.
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Nick Hancock
Nick Hancock (born 25 October 1962, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English actor and television presenter. Probably TV's most well known Stoke City supporter, he hosted the sports quiz They Think It's All Over for 10 years. He also formerly presented Room 101 (1994–1999) on TV, as well as its earlier radio version (1992–1994). He has recently been interviewed by 6 Town Radio about the 40th anniversary of Stoke's 1972 League cup win.
Taking a sabbatical from show business, from 2005 he began working for a friend's mortgage brokerage. He left the position in February 2007, although no reason for his departure was made public.
Hancock grew up with three elder sisters, with father Ken, a builder. He was educated at Yarlet School in Staffordshire and Shrewsbury School and won a place at Homerton College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, Hancock was a member of the Footlights where he first collaborated with Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt and became president in 1983 with Punt as vice president. He was also a founding member of the Homerton College Blaggards.
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Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.
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Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.
Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals. Their son became fluent in French and German early in life. At university Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day.
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Paul Merton
Paul Merton (born Paul James Martin; 9 July 1957) is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy. Considered by a number of critics, fellow comedians and members of the public to be among Britain's greatest comedians, he is well known for his regular appearances as a team captain on the BBC panel game Have I Got News for You, and as the former host of Room 101. He has also appeared as a regular panellist on Radio 4's Just a Minute and as one of Comedy Store's Comedy Store Players.
Merton was born on 9 July 1957 in Parsons Green, London to an English father (a train guard on the London Underground) and an Irish Roman Catholic mother. When his mother returned to work as a nurse, Merton and his younger sister were looked after by their grandfather, who lived with them in their council flat in Mitcham, South London.[citation needed]
He failed his eleven plus and went on to Wimbledon College, a Jesuit-run secondary school that had just become a comprehensive, where he received A-levels in English and History. His experience of victimisation there as a working-class boy became a frequent subject of his comedy.[citation needed] After leaving school, Merton worked at the Tooting employment office for seven years.
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Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE (8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980), known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr. Strangelove, as Clare Quilty in Lolita, and as the TV-addicted man-child Chance the gardener in his penultimate film, Being There. Actress Bette Davis once remarked of him, "He isn't an actor—he's a chameleon."
Sellers rose to fame on the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show. His ability to speak in different accents (e.g., French, Indian, Italian, American, German, as well as British regional accents), along with his talent to portray a range of characters to comic effect, contributed to his success as a radio personality and screen actor and earned him national and international nominations and awards. Many of his characters became ingrained in public perception of his work. Sellers' private life was characterised by turmoil and crises, and included emotional problems and substance abuse. Sellers was married four times, and had three children from the first two marriages.
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Ray Galton
Ray Galton OBE (born 17 July 1930), and Alan Simpson OBE (born 27 November 1929), are British scriptwriters who met in 1948 at a tuberculosis sanatorium, the Surrey county sanatorium near Godalming, on which the sitcom Get Well Soon was based. They are best known for their work with comedian Tony Hancock on radio and television between 1954 and 1961, and their long-running television situation comedy, Steptoe and Son, eight series of which were aired between 1962 and 1974.
The partnership's break in comedy writing came with the Derek Roy vehicle Happy Go Lucky, although this was not a success. The Hancock connection began with their involvement with later radio variety series, and from November 1954 continued with Hancock's Half Hour on radio; a series featuring their scripts for Hancock ran on television between 1956 and 1961. In October that year Hancock ended his professional relationship with the writers, and with Beryl Vertue who worked with the writers' at their agency Associated London Scripts. This writers' co-operative had been founded by Eric Sykes and Spike Milligan, with others involved, including Hancock for a time.
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Richard Vranch
Richard Leslie Vranch (born 29 June 1959 in Frome, England) is a British comedian, actor and musician.
Vranch improvises comedy on stage with the Comedy Store Players every Wednesday and Sunday at The Comedy Store in London. He has voiced British Airways TV and radio commercials since 2003, and he narrates TV documentaries. He has performed since 1979, and formed a comedy double-act with Tony Slattery in 1981. The duo hosted the Channel 4 quiz The Music Game and over 100 episodes of Cue The Music on ITV. He was the improvising pianist and guitarist on the original British television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1988, but only a small proportion of his overall work is musical. Vranch co-wrote and performed in The Paul Merton Show at the London Palladium in 1994.
Acting work includes Dogman, The Dead Set, and sketch shows touring the world from Mexico to the Palestinian Territories. He has improvised comedy in the Middle East, Far East and India - 30 countries in all. He has written for stage, radio and TV, and made several animated films with artist Lucy Allen. They have had their cartoons published in Maxim, Punch, and The Spectator.
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Richard Whiteley
Richard Whiteley, born John Richard Whiteley, OBE DL (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English broadcaster and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show Countdown. Countdown was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45 pm on 2 November 1982, and Whiteley was the first person to be seen on the channel (not counting a programme montage). Despite his intelligence, Whiteley enjoyed projecting the image of an absent-minded eccentric. His trademarks were his jolly, avuncular manner, his fondness for excruciatingly bad puns, and his bold, sometimes garish wardrobe.
Thanks to over twenty years' worth of nightly instalments of Countdown as well as his work on the Yorkshire magazine programme Calendar and various other television projects, at the time of his death Whiteley was believed to have clocked more hours on British television screens—and more than 10,000 appearances—than anyone else alive, apart from Carole Hersee, the young girl who appeared on the BBC's iconic Test Card F.
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Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais (/dʒərˈveɪz/; born 25 June 1961) is an English comedian, actor, director, producer, musician, writer, and former radio presenter.
Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with frequent collaborator Stephen Merchant. In addition to writing and directing the shows, Gervais played the lead roles of David Brent in The Office and Andy Millman in Extras. Gervais has also starred in a number of Hollywood films, assuming leading roles in Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. He has performed on four sell-out stand-up comedy tours, written the best-selling Flanimals book series and starred with Merchant and Karl Pilkington in the most downloaded podcast in the world as of March 2009,The Ricky Gervais Show.
He has won multiple awards and honours, including seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, two Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and the 2006 Rose d'Or, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In 2007 he was voted the 11th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 3rd greatest stand-up comic. In 2010 he was named on the TIME 100 list of the world's most influential people.
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Ronnie Corbett
Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, CBE (born 4 December 1930) is a Scottish actor and comedian who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the television comedy series The Two Ronnies. He achieved prominence in Sir David Frost's 1960s satirical comedy programme, The Frost Report and later starred in the sitcoms Sorry! and No - That's Me Over Here!
Corbett was born in Edinburgh in 1930, the son of London-born Annie Elizabeth (Main) and William Balfour Corbett, master baker. He has a brother about six years younger, and a sister about ten years younger than himself. Corbett was educated at the Royal High School in the city, but did not attend university. After leaving school, he decided he wanted to be an actor while performing in amateur theatricals at a church youth club. However, his first job was with the Ministry of Agriculture. He then did national service with the RAF, during which he was the shortest commissioned officer in the British Forces. After National Service he moved to London to act, and started his career by playing schoolboy roles in films. At 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m) tall, Corbett was suited to playing younger than his years. References to his height frequently crop up in his self-deprecating humour.
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Ryan Stiles
Ryan Lee Stiles (born April 22, 1959) is an American actor, comedian, director, and voice actor whose work is often associated with improvisational comedy. He is best known for his improv and co-production work on the American and British versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and the role of Lewis Kiniski on The Drew Carey Show. He plays Herb Melnick on the CBS comedy Two and a Half Men and was a performer on the show Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza.
Stiles was born in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of five children. His father Sonny was a fishing plant supervisor. Stiles lived in Vancouver, British Columbia as a teenager. At the age of seventeen, he dropped out of his high school, Richmond Secondary, to pursue a career in comedy. He briefly worked in his father's fish-processing plant to earn a living. He then began performing improv with Vancouver Theatresports League. In 1986, Stiles successfully auditioned for a berth at Toronto's renowned Second City comedy ensemble.
By 1989, Stiles had gained the attention of the producers of the British improvisational comedy show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Stiles was a regular on the show until 1998, and the show's short production season allowed him to make numerous television and motion picture appearances in the United States.
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Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte "Sandi" Toksvig (born 3 May 1958) is a Danish/British comedienne, author and presenter on British radio and television. She currently presents The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4.
Born in Copenhagen, Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton College, Cambridge University, where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Footlights. She was there at the same time as fellow members Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery, and Emma Thompson, and wrote additional material for the Perrier award-winning Cambridge Footlights Revue. She was also a member of Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society, and moved via children's television onto the comedy circuit. She performed at the first night of The Comedy Store in London and was once part of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational comedy team.
When I see comedian — and ‘comedienne’, of course I hate it — I think ‘Oh, really?’ because I think of myself as a writer and broadcaster. Sometimes it’s funny but I’ve just done a piece for Radio 3 all about Mary Wollstonecraft [the 18th-century philosopher and feminist] and there’s not a joke in it.
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Sarah Parkinson
Sarah Jane Parkinson (6 June 1962 – 23 September 2003) was a British producer and writer of radio and television programmes, as well as an occasional actress. She was a regular performer on Week Ending in the latter years of its run.
She was the daughter of actor Robin Parkinson and the wife of comedian and writer Paul Merton.
Parkinson was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2002. She and Merton had an unofficial marriage in the Maldives in October 2000 before marrying at Rye Town Hall, East Sussex in June 2003.
After her death Merton released the following statement through his agent: "After her initial devastating diagnosis of cancer in February 2002 Sarah successfully lived with the disease for the next 19 months. She refused chemotherapy because she knew it would finish her off. Instead, she boosted her immune system with a mixture of nutritional therapy, yoga, meditation, positive thinking and laughter. Consequently she led a full and active life right up to the last couple of weeks when her condition suddenly worsened."
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Sean Lock
Sean Lock (born 22 April 1963) is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio. He has written material for such comics as Bill Bailey, Lee Evans and Mark Lamarr and was voted the 55th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups in 2007 and again in the updated 2010 list as the 25th greatest stand-up comic.
Lock was born in Chertsey, Surrey.. He attended St. John the Baptist Secondary School, Woking. Prior to becoming a comedian, he was a labourer on building sites. During this time, he developed skin cancer. His first television appearance was in 1993, when he appeared in a supporting role alongside Rob Newman and David Baddiel in their TV show Newman and Baddiel in Pieces. He toured with the duo as their support act, and, as a result, became the first comedian to perform at Wembley Arena. Newman and Baddiel were widely promoted as being the first comedians to have performed at Wembley but, in his capacity as their warm-up, Lock technically takes this honour. However, Lock has conceded the honour to the duo on several occasions, including on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends. In 1995, Lock played an escaped murderer in an episode of The World of Lee Evans, alongside Lee Evans and Phil Daniels.
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Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan KBE (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was a British comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the British government declared him stateless. He was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles.
Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon and his seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse; much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After success with the ground-breaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5, a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
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Stephen Frost
Stephen Frost (born 28 December 1955), also known as Steve Frost, is an English comedian.
Frost is known for his work in the 1980s with Mark Arden as part of the double act The Oblivion Boys on Saturday Live. Veterans of the alternative comedy scene, he and Arden appeared in The Young Ones, and later had their own TV series Lazarus and Dingwall on BBC2.
The duo appeared in a series of British TV advertisements ending with the catchphrase "I bet he drinks Carling Black Label". One spoofed the "launderette" commercial for Levi in which Nick Kamen stripped to his underwear; in their pastiche, Arden and Frost played launderette customers who were stripped entirely, with just strategically placed books maintaining their modesty.
Without Arden, Frost has appeared on Radio 4's Just a Minute, and the improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. He has appeared on three episodes of Have I Got News for You (there was a 13-year gap between his second and third appearance) and on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. He also appeared as Dirk in Tony Bagley's series Married.
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Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club.
After a troubled childhood and adolescence, during which he was expelled from a number of schools and eventually spent three months in prison for credit card fraud, he was able to secure a place at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature.
He first came to public attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Tony Slattery. With Hugh Laurie, as the comedy double act Fry and Laurie, he co-wrote and co-starred in A Bit of Fry & Laurie, and took the role of Jeeves (with Laurie playing Wooster) in Jeeves and Wooster.
As an actor, Fry played the lead in the film Wilde, was Melchett in the BBC television series Blackadder, starred as the title character Peter Kingdom in the ITV series Kingdom, has a recurring guest role as Dr. Gordon Wyatt on the Fox crime series Bones and appeared as rogue TV host Gordon Deitrich in the dystopian thriller V For Vendetta. He has also written and presented several documentary series including the 2008 television series Stephen Fry in America, which saw him travelling across all 50 US states. Since 2003 he has been the host of the quiz show QI.
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Steve Steen
Steve Steen (born December 26, 1954) is a British actor and comedian best known for his improvisation partnership with Jim Sweeney.
The pair met at school in London and joined a theatre club in 1972. The two then wrote and starred in a show which parodied much of the other shows being held in London that year. They then formed their own theatre company and wrote and toured productions around the UK for the rest of the 1970s.
The two have worked together as writers, guest comics, support acts and improvisers ever since, although Steen has done his share of straight acting, including a part in the movie version of BBC sitcom Porridge in 1979. Although he had lines to say as young convict Wellings, the final cut showed him frequently onscreen yet without saying a word. He was, however, credited.
Steen and Sweeney appeared on television together for the first time in 1981 with the ITV children's show CBTV, followed by one of Channel 4's first comedies, Little Armadillos and a role for Steen in Ben Elton's idyllic comedy Happy Families. Rory Bremner then recruited them as resident support performers on his first sketch show for the BBC, and shortly afterwards they starred as poets Byron (Steen) and Coleridge (Sweeney) in an episode of Blackadder the Third.
wn.com/Steve_Steen -
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock (12 May 1924 – 24 June 1968) was an English comedian and actor.
Popular during the 1950s and early 1960s, he had a major success with his BBC series Hancock's Half Hour, first on Radio from 1954, then on television from 1956, in which he soon formed a strong professional and personal bond with comic actor Sid James. Although Hancock's decision to cease working with James around 1960 disappointed many of his fans at the time, his last BBC series in 1961 contains some of his best remembered work ("The Blood Donor"). After breaking with his scriptwriters Ray Galton and Alan Simpson later that year, his career took a downward course because of Hancock's increasing dependence on alcohol.
Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, (some sources incorrectly say Small Heath, a different Birmingham district) but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in Holdenhurst Road, worked as a comedian and entertainer.
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Tony Slattery
Anthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery (born 9 November 1959), is an English actor and comedian. He has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? His serious and comedic film work has included roles in The Crying Game, Peter's Friends, and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
Slattery was born in Stonebridge, London into a working class background, the fifth and last child of Irish immigrants, Michael and Margaret Slattery. Much younger than his sister Marlene and his triplet brothers, Christopher, Michael and Stephen, he tended to be a "loner." In his youth, he represented England in under-15 judo achieving a black belt before he was 16. Educated at Gunnersbury Boys' Grammar School in West London, he won a scholarship to study Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, specializing in French literature and Spanish poetry. At Cambridge he discovered a love of the theatre, taking delight in making people laugh. He met Stephen Fry, who invited him to join the Cambridge Footlights, and his fellow students included Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Jan Ravens (first female president of the Footlights), Sandi Toksvig, Morwenna Banks and Richard Vranch. In 1981, he and Fry, Laurie, Thompson, Toksvig and director Ravens won the inaugural Perrier Award for their revue The Cellar Tapes. The following year he was made president of the Footlights. During his tenure, the touring annual revue was Premises Premises.
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Wayne Brady
Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian and television personality, known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and as the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show. He was the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and currently hosts the 2009 revival of Let's Make a Deal.
Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia to West Indian parents, and moved to Orlando, Florida as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt. When Brady talks about his "Mom," he is referring to his grandmother, Valerie Petersen, who raised him. At 16, he started performing in community theater and at the Orlando improv troupe SAK Comedy Lab where he first started developing his improv skills. He attended Dr. Phillips High School, in Orlando, Florida, where he graduated in 1989. In 1990, he enrolled at the University of Miami. In 1996, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he continued developing his acting skills.
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Wikipedia Persondata
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Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS, Hon. RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century, he served as Prime Minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jenny Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.
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Yokel
Yokel is a derogatory term referring to the stereotype of unsophisticated country people.
In the United States, it is used to describe someone living in rural areas. Synonyms for yokel include country bumpkin, hayseed, chawbacon, rube, redneck, hillbilly, and hick.
In the UK, yokels are traditionally depicted as wearing the old West Country/farmhand's dress of straw hat and white smock, chewing or sucking a piece of straw and carrying a pitchfork or rake, listening to "Scrumpy and Western" music. Yokels are portrayed as living in rural areas of Britain such as the West Country, East Anglia, the Yorkshire Dales, the Scottish Highlands and Wales. British yokels speak with country dialects from various parts of Britain.[1]
Yokels are depicted as straightforward, simple and naive, and they are easily deceived as they fail to see through false pretenses.[citation needed] They are also depicted as talking about bucolic topics like cows, sheep, goats, wheat, alfalfa, fields, crops, tractors, and buxom wenches to the exclusion of all else. They don't seem to be aware of, or at least show interest in, the world outside their own surroundings.[citation needed]
wn.com/Yokel
Merton, Paul Filmography
- The National Television Awards 2011 (2011)
- David Suchet on Sid Field: Last of the Music Hall Heroes (2011)
- The British Comedy Awards 2011 (2011)
- Me & Arthur Haynes (2011)
- Paul Merton's Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema (2010)
- Paul Merton's Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema (2010)
- The Sweeney: The Life and Work of Jim Sweeney (2010)
- The Unforgettable Spike Milligan (2010)
- The Sweeney: The Life and Work of Jim Sweeney (2010)
- Paul Merton's Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema (2010)
- Morecambe and Wise: The Show What Paul Merton Did (2009)
- Morecambe and Wise: The Show What Paul Merton Did (2009)
- Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009)
- Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009)
- Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock (2009)
- The British Academy Television Awards (2008)
- Trials and Tribulations (2008)
- 100 Greatest Stand-Ups (2007)
- Hitler: The Comedy Years (2007)
- The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz (2007)
- TV's 50 Greatest Stars (2006)
- The Smith and Jones Sketchbook (2006)
- What Did ITV Do for Me? (2005)
- The (Almost) Complete A to Z of 'HIGNFY' (2005)
- The Unseen Spike Milligan (2005)
- Have I Got News for You: The Best of the Guest Presenters - Volume 2 (2005)
- The Comedians' Comedian (2005)
- The BAFTA TV Awards 2003 (2003)
- Have I Got News for You: The Best of the Guest Presenters (2003)
- Have I Got News for You: The Best of the Guest Presenters (2003)
- Sushi TV (2003)
- Ian Hislop & Paul Merton (2003)
- The Very Best of 'Have I Got News for You' (2002)
- Dick Whittington (2002)
- The Very Best of 'Have I Got News for You' (2002)
- Spike Milligan: I Told You I Was Ill... - A Live Tribute (2002)
- Spike Milligan: I Told You I Was Ill... - A Live Tribute (2002)
- Annie Goes to Hollywood (2001)
- Real Life Weakest Links (2001)
- The Suicidal Dog (2000)
- The Suicidal Dog (2000)
- The Suicidal Dog (2000)
- Aladdin (2000)
- Cinderella (2000)
- I Don't Believe It! The 'One Foot in the Grave' Story (2000)
- Prickly Heat (1998)
- Jack and the Beanstalk (1998)
- Does China Exist? (1997)
- Have I Got News for You: The Official Pirate Video (1997)
- I'd Like a Word with You (1997)
- Does China Exist? (1997)
- The Paul Merton Show (1996)
- The Paul Merton Show (1996)
- Unbroadcastable 'Have I Got News for You' (1995)
- Paul Merton Live at the Palladium (1994)
- Paul Merton Live at the Palladium (1994)
- An Evening with Gary Lineker (1994)
- Comic Relief: The Invasion of the Comic Tomatoes (1993)
- Bore of the Year Awards (1993)
- TV Hell (1992)
- Amnesty International's Big 30 (1991)
- Sticky Moments on Tour with Julian Clary (1990)
- Sticky Moments with Julian Clary (1989)
- A Night of Comic Relief 2 (1989)
- Hello Mum (1987)
- Alas Smith & Jones (1984)
Merton, Paul Filmography
Famous quotes by Paul Merton:
"Ian Hislop is going to be the new Doctor Who."
"My school days were the happiest days of my life; which should give you some indication of the misery I've endured over the past twenty-five years."
"On my first day in New York a guy asked me if I knew where Central Park was. When I told him I didn't he said, 'Do you mind if I mug you here?'."
"I'm always amazed to hear of air crash victims so badly mutilated that they have to be identified by their dental records. What I can't understand is, if they don't know who you are, how do they know who your dentist is?"
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Interview with Paul Merton - This Morning - 19th Sept 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:31
- Updated: 21 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Interview_with_Paul_Merton_This_Morning_19th_Sept_2012
Room 101(Paul Merton Last Ever) Ian Hislop - Piers Morgan
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:40
- Updated: 27 Dec 2012
Ian Hislop on Paul Merton's last Room 101. Ian tries to but in his "arch nemesis" Piers Morgan into Room 101. Funny ending Of course I do not own this material, all copyright reserved by the BBC
http://wn.com/Room_101Paul_Merton_Last_Ever_Ian_Hislop_Piers_Morgan
Ian Hislop on Paul Merton's last Room 101. Ian tries to but in his "arch nemesis" Piers Morgan into Room 101. Funny ending Of course I do not own this material, all copyright reserved by the BBC
- published: 21 Mar 2007
- views: 319003
- author: flobadobrob
Paul Merton interview - part one - Parkinson - BBC
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:26
- Updated: 21 Dec 2012
Paul Merton discusses the Angus Scandal and the overwhelming effect it had on 'Have I Got News For You'. Free video clip from the popular british talk show 'Parkinson'.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_interview_part_one_Parkinson_BBC
Paul Merton discusses the Angus Scandal and the overwhelming effect it had on 'Have I Got News For You'. Free video clip from the popular british talk show 'Parkinson'.
- published: 08 Aug 2007
- views: 336934
- author: BBCWorldwide
Paul Merton's Badger story - HIGNFY
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:01
- Updated: 25 Dec 2012
Paul improvs a story about a badger and a lady's husband on Have I Got News For You s26e03. Sean Lock joins in too.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton's_Badger_story_HIGNFY
Paul improvs a story about a badger and a lady's husband on Have I Got News For You s26e03. Sean Lock joins in too.
- published: 28 May 2009
- views: 86485
- author: 19nimrod93
Have I Got News For You - Paul Merton Being Brilliantly Surreal
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:09
- Updated: 24 Dec 2012
Paul Merton strings together a typically surreal story about the four faces of the odd-one-out round with the (almost) correct answer. HIGNFY, Series 7, Episode 3.
http://wn.com/Have_I_Got_News_For_You_Paul_Merton_Being_Brilliantly_Surreal
Paul Merton strings together a typically surreal story about the four faces of the odd-one-out round with the (almost) correct answer. HIGNFY, Series 7, Episode 3.
- published: 19 Sep 2010
- views: 51076
- author: zomgmouse7
Paul Merton discusses the Jimmy Savile / Have I Got News For You "transcript" (Radio 2, 03/10/12)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:48
- Updated: 26 Dec 2012
From Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Drivetime show, 3 October 2012. Paul Merton is asked to clear up whether the the Savile transcript is real or not...
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_discusses_the_Jimmy_Savile_Have_I_Got_News_For_You_transcript_Radio_2,_03_10_12
From Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Drivetime show, 3 October 2012. Paul Merton is asked to clear up whether the the Savile transcript is real or not...
- published: 05 Oct 2012
- views: 55213
- author: SOTCAA
Paul Merton's Impression of Gordon Brown with Bigot - HIGNFY 07/05/2010
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:37
- Updated: 27 Dec 2012
Paul Merton provides an alternate theory of why Gordon Brown called the old lady a bigot! Hilarious. Have I Got News For You. Broadcast on 07/05/2010. Copyright of the BBC.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton's_Impression_of_Gordon_Brown_with_Bigot_HIGNFY_07_05_2010
Paul Merton provides an alternate theory of why Gordon Brown called the old lady a bigot! Hilarious. Have I Got News For You. Broadcast on 07/05/2010. Copyright of the BBC.
- published: 09 May 2010
- views: 46822
- author: James Cook
Julian Clary and Paul Merton on Just A Minute - more cheeky clips
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:07
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Julian_Clary_and_Paul_Merton_on_Just_A_Minute_more_cheeky_clips
Paul Merton Stand Up...during the 80's
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:43
- Updated: 24 Dec 2012
Witness a great performance and one of Pauls very first television appearances, doing (what would be rare to see today) a traditional stand up routine. Sorry for the bad quality!
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_Stand_Upduring_the_80's
Witness a great performance and one of Pauls very first television appearances, doing (what would be rare to see today) a traditional stand up routine. Sorry for the bad quality!
- published: 02 Mar 2010
- views: 24075
- author: littlefilmsJN
Paul Merton - The one show 20th feb 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:16
- Updated: 20 Sep 2012
Paul talks about his upcoming tour and Just a Minute's TV version
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_The_one_show_20th_feb_2012
Paul talks about his upcoming tour and Just a Minute's TV version
- published: 05 Mar 2012
- views: 4288
- author: str1tsa
Paul Merton - Doctor's waiting room sketch.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:38
- Updated: 21 Dec 2012
Paul Merton starts chatting to another patient talking about his problems and handing out advise in this great sketch from Paul Merton: The Series.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_Doctor's_waiting_room_sketch
Paul Merton starts chatting to another patient talking about his problems and handing out advise in this great sketch from Paul Merton: The Series.
- published: 16 May 2011
- views: 2897
- author: Garrywith2rs
Paul Merton and composers' names
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:44
- Updated: 25 Dec 2012
Paul Merton notes that composers' names sound better using particular accents.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_and_composers'_names
Paul Merton notes that composers' names sound better using particular accents.
- published: 04 Nov 2012
- views: 228
- author: exepress
Why the Moon and Paul Daniels were almost destroyed | Have I Got News For You: Season 44 Episode 7
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:49
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Paul and Ian discuss the recent floods with host Jack Whitehall and guests Nick Hewer and Baroness Trumpington. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
http://wn.com/Why_the_Moon_and_Paul_Daniels_were_almost_destroyed_|_Have_I_Got_News_For_You_Season_44_Episode_7
Paul and Ian discuss the recent floods with host Jack Whitehall and guests Nick Hewer and Baroness Trumpington. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
- published: 03 Dec 2012
- views: 1530
- author: haveigotnewsforyou
Paul Merton Out Of My Head at The Vaudeville Theatre
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:41
- Updated: 05 Aug 2012
Paul Merton Out Of My Head at The Vaudeville Theatre - book tickets now! www.londontheatredirect.com DISCOUNT TICKET OFFER WAS £36.00 NOW £22.00 SAVING £14.00!*
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_Out_Of_My_Head_at_The_Vaudeville_Theatre
Paul Merton Out Of My Head at The Vaudeville Theatre - book tickets now! www.londontheatredirect.com DISCOUNT TICKET OFFER WAS £36.00 NOW £22.00 SAVING £14.00!*
- published: 05 Aug 2012
- views: 721
- author: LondonTheatreDirect
Paul Merton - The Series (2.02) Scalextric.avi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:59
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
From Paul Merton - The Series (2.02) Paul explains how, when he was 5 years old, he robbed the Bank of England and ended up with 15000 miles of Scalextric Track which he set up around the coast line of Great Britain. The series has never been released on DVD or any other format.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_The_Series_202_Scalextricavi
From Paul Merton - The Series (2.02) Paul explains how, when he was 5 years old, he robbed the Bank of England and ended up with 15000 miles of Scalextric Track which he set up around the coast line of Great Britain. The series has never been released on DVD or any other format.
- published: 25 Mar 2012
- views: 190
- author: cologne2792
Have I Got News For You: Barack To The Future | Season 44 Episode 5
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:28
- Updated: 22 Dec 2012
Have I Got News For You is the long running comedy quiz show fronted by team captains Ian Hislop & Paul Merton, which casts a jaundiced eye over the week's news. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
http://wn.com/Have_I_Got_News_For_You_Barack_To_The_Future_|_Season_44_Episode_5
Have I Got News For You is the long running comedy quiz show fronted by team captains Ian Hislop & Paul Merton, which casts a jaundiced eye over the week's news. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
- published: 13 Nov 2012
- views: 2378
- author: haveigotnewsforyou
Have I Got News For You: The Awful Statement | Season 44 Episode 8
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:53
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
Have I Got News For You: The Awful Statement | Season 44 Episode 8 Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
http://wn.com/Have_I_Got_News_For_You_The_Awful_Statement_|_Season_44_Episode_8
Have I Got News For You: The Awful Statement | Season 44 Episode 8 Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
- published: 10 Dec 2012
- views: 2477
- author: haveigotnewsforyou
Have I Got News For You: Ian versus Conrad Black | Series 44 Episode 3
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:02
- Updated: 22 Dec 2012
Have I Got News For You is the long running comedy quiz show fronted by team captains Ian Hislop & Paul Merton, which casts a jaundiced eye over the week's news. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
http://wn.com/Have_I_Got_News_For_You_Ian_versus_Conrad_Black_|_Series_44_Episode_3
Have I Got News For You is the long running comedy quiz show fronted by team captains Ian Hislop & Paul Merton, which casts a jaundiced eye over the week's news. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
- published: 29 Oct 2012
- views: 8889
- author: haveigotnewsforyou
Have I Got News For You: Hurricane Sandy | Season 44 Episode 4
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:01
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
The panel discuss Storm Sandy. Jeremy wonders why Obama is obsessed with pizza and looks at the reporters who bravely fought the elements to brings us the scoop on Sandy. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
http://wn.com/Have_I_Got_News_For_You_Hurricane_Sandy_|_Season_44_Episode_4
The panel discuss Storm Sandy. Jeremy wonders why Obama is obsessed with pizza and looks at the reporters who bravely fought the elements to brings us the scoop on Sandy. Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com Have I Got News for You is based on the week's news, the series is fronted by guest hosts and features two regular team captains, Paul Merton and Ian Hislop. Each week the show invites two guests to cast a jaundiced eye over the week's news, resulting in a fast flow of anarchic, spontaneous and hugely entertaining wit and humour.
- published: 06 Nov 2012
- views: 2266
- author: haveigotnewsforyou
Female Bishops - Have I Got News for You - Series 44 - Episode 6 - BBC One
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:38
- Updated: 21 Dec 2012
More about this programme: www.bbc.co.uk Bond legend Sir Roger Moore and the panel discuss the Church of England's vote on female bishops. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton are joined by Rachel Johnson and Marcus Brigstocke.
http://wn.com/Female_Bishops_Have_I_Got_News_for_You_Series_44_Episode_6_BBC_One
More about this programme: www.bbc.co.uk Bond legend Sir Roger Moore and the panel discuss the Church of England's vote on female bishops. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton are joined by Rachel Johnson and Marcus Brigstocke.
- published: 26 Nov 2012
- views: 6893
- author: BBC
Paul Merton: Germany - Copulate Statue
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:28
- Updated: 11 Aug 2012
Paul Merton gets a lesson in the creation of the universe. It's all summed up in one.... ummm, interesting statue.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_Germany_Copulate_Statue
Paul Merton gets a lesson in the creation of the universe. It's all summed up in one.... ummm, interesting statue.
- published: 18 Nov 2011
- views: 1867
- author: HDNetLLC
Paul Merton In Europe: Germany/Ireland
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:31
- Updated: 27 Oct 2012
Still in Germany, Paul visits an American Indian Club in the former German Democratic Republic (Communist East Germany) before exploring the Wunderland miniature railway in the affluent city of Hamburg.
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_In_Europe_Germany_Ireland
Still in Germany, Paul visits an American Indian Club in the former German Democratic Republic (Communist East Germany) before exploring the Wunderland miniature railway in the affluent city of Hamburg.
- published: 11 Nov 2011
- views: 2851
- author: HDNetLLC
Paul Merton in China Mr Woo Robots
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:07
- Updated: 08 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Paul_Merton_in_China_Mr_Woo_Robots
photo: Creative Commons / Axou
24 Dec 2012
Steve Jobs was controversial in life, and now his high-tech mega-yacht is associated with a controversy long after his death. The former Apple CEO's ship was impounded in Amsterdam in the middle of a financial battle over a disputed bill. Phillippe Starck, a French product designer and architect, has alleged that Jobs' heirs owe him 3 million euros for his work on Venus, the 256-foot yacht Jobs commissioned before his death ... ... ....(size: 2.6Kb)
photo: WN / Janice Sabnal
27 Dec 2012
Washington. Six people, including two young children, were left dead in weather-related accidents, as winter snowstorms complicated travel for many Americans in the Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday. Snow totals in parts of Indiana ranged from 6 to 12 inches, CNN reported. About 350 snowploughs were clearing roads throughout the city. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told residents they should avoid nonessential travel ... IANS ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)
photo: AP / Khalil Hamra, File
26 Dec 2012
Cairo • The official approval of Egypt’s disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held out little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress ... Join the Discussion. The battle over the constitution left Egypt deeply polarized at a time when the government is increasingly cash-strapped ... The U.S ... " ... ....(size: 5.7Kb)
photo: AP / Adel Hana
25 Dec 2012
Thousands of Christians from the world over have packed Manger Square in Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the ancient West Bank town where he was born. For their Palestinian hosts, this holiday season was an especially joyous one, with the hardships of the Israeli occupation that so often clouded previous Christmas Eve celebrations eased by the United Nations' recent recognition of an independent state of Palestine ... - AP. ....(size: 9.3Kb)
The Independent
25 Dec 2012
With so much on television today it's a wonder anyone bothers with Christmas dinner, talking to each other or moving from the sofa. To help you through a lengthy list of what's on when and what it is, we've come up with TV schedules for all eventualities. Have a very telly Christmas!. Must Watch. ... Kids. ... Actor Daniel Radcliffe will be hosting the show with Andy Hamilton and Sara Cox joining team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop ... Mums. ... ....(size: 7.5Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
16 Dec 2012
But the award for most painfully honest show must go to Paul Merton’s Out of My Head, in which he described his stay in the Maudsley psychiatric hospital more than 20 years ago, just as his career was taking off. Mental illness is rarely funny (least of all to those suffering it), but Merton managed to produce laughter from the subject ... Paul Merton....(size: 14.9Kb)
The Guardian
15 Dec 2012
We asked Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja, a Maya scholar, a party planner, a UK prepper and Twitter's foremost positive thinker how best to prepare for Armageddon. The ancient Mayan Pyramid of Chichen Itza. Photograph. Yinyang/Getty Images ... Paul Merton used to do a sketch with a submerged fish and chip shop, so if I knew for sure that it was all going to be over, I think I'd like to be down there, drinking Special Brew ... cockroach ... ....(size: 10.0Kb)
IMDb
14 Dec 2012
As Martin Clunes and Paul Merton discovered when they appeared in new productions of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and The Blood Donor – taking over roles originally played by ......(size: 1.0Kb)
Independent online (SA)
14 Dec 2012
• Gordon Ramsay’s Christmas Cookalong, BBC Lifestyle, 16.30 ... Paul Merton travels to America to explore how the phenomenon now better known as 2012 has swept across the internet, with hundreds of websites featuring frightening predictions – all envisaging a different take on the impending world cataclysm. ....(size: 1.7Kb)
Sydney Morning Herald
11 Dec 2012
In evening dress with his shirt-front threatening to take off at any moment, he played the same instrument on the Room 101 "pet hates" television programme in 2002 after telling Paul Merton that he hated plastic food wrappers, "too many female teachers" and the Archbishop of Canterbury for not denouncing hunting ... The producer Paul Johnstone was then ......(size: 12.0Kb)
Skiddle
09 Dec 2012
Terry Alderton, Arthur Smith, Paul Sinha and Barbara NIce join us for a fantastic night of comedy to raise funds for the work of the British Red Cross ... His best known plays include An Evening with Gary Lineker, which was nominated for an Olivier Award and made into a TV film, and Live Bed Show which has a run in the West End starring Caroline Quentin and Paul Merton ... PAUL SINHA....(size: 6.1Kb)
The Guardian
09 Dec 2012
In evening dress with his shirt-front threatening to take off at any moment, he played the same instrument on the Room 101 "pet hates" television programme in 2002 after telling Paul Merton that he hated plastic food wrappers, "too many female teachers" and the Archbishop of Canterbury for not denouncing hunting ... The producer Paul Johnstone was then ......(size: 13.3Kb)
Digital Spy
28 Nov 2012
Jack Whitehall has been confirmed as the guest host for this weekend's Have I Got News For You ... "I'm so excited to be hosting Have I Got News For You ... I'm a man now!". Joining Whitehall and team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop on this week's show are Apprentice star Nick Hewer and the show's oldest ever guest, 90-year-old Baroness Trumpington ... 1 of 21 ... BBC ... Jack Whitehall, Ian Hislop, Paul Merton, Nick Hewer, Baroness Trumpington, TV ... ....(size: 8.7Kb)
The Examiner
23 Nov 2012
It is the story behind the controversial and surreal Beatles film features new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr ... Paul McCartney appeared on The Frost Programme on rival ITV the day after transmission ... Also sharing their reminiscences are Peter Fonda, Paul Gambaccini, Terry Gilliam, Neil Innes, Paul Merton, Barry Miles, Annie Nightingale and Martin Scorsese....(size: 8.5Kb)
Independent online (SA)
22 Nov 2012
THE face of TV has transformed ... Mykura said. “I joined in March. It has been a time of great change. We relocated the commis-sioning hub for programming in the UK ... Given the fascination with the Mayan prophecies, Paul Merton travels to the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of El Mirador in central America to gain a better under-standing of the 2012 doomsday predictions in Mayan Apocalypse (December 14) ... ....(size: 3.6Kb)
IMDb
14 Nov 2012
Exclusive ... The show features a guest host (watch a clip with Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch as host below), and Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as captains of two two-person teams ... - NELLIE ANDREEVA. ....(size: 0.9Kb)
The Daily Telegraph
14 Nov 2012
Comedian Al Murray is backing a change in the law to prevent councils from charging hundreds of pounds for the right to hand out flyers ... By Anita Singh. 7.00AM GMT 14 Nov 2012. Comments ... The campaigners cite Morecambe and Wise and the London Comedy Store performers Paul Merton, French and Saunders and Rik Mayall, all of whom began their careers in small venues which relied on local leafleting and word-of-mouth ... He said ... . Comedy ... 1 ... 2 ... ....(size: 12.8Kb)
| Paul Merton | |
|---|---|
 Merton in 2008 |
|
| Birth name | Paul James Martin |
| Born | (1957-07-09) 9 July 1957 (age 54) Parsons Green, London, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Genres | Surreal, wit, observational comedy, improvisation, deadpan |
| Influences | Oscar Wilde, Charlie Chaplin, Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers |
| Influenced | Ricky Gervais, Dara Ó Briain, Jimmy Carr, Neil Mullarkey, Daniel Kitson, Sean Lock |
| Spouse | Caroline Quentin (m. 1990-1998, divorced) Sarah Parkinson (m. 2003, her death) Suki Webster (m. 2009-present) |
| Notable works and roles | Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988–1993) Just a Minute (1989–present) Have I Got News for You (1990–present) Paul Merton: The Series (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, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill,[1] his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy. Considered by a number of critics, fellow comedians and members of the public to be among Britain's greatest comedians,[2][3][4] he is well known for his regular appearances as a team captain on the BBC panel game Have I Got News for You, and as the former host of Room 101. He has also appeared as a regular panellist on Radio 4's Just a Minute and as one of Comedy Store's Comedy Store Players.
Contents |
Early life[link]
Merton was born on 9 July 1957[5] in Parsons Green, London[6] to an English father (a train guard on the London Underground)[7] and an Irish Roman Catholic mother.[6] When his mother returned to work as a nurse, Merton and his younger sister were looked after by their grandfather, who lived with them in their council flat in Mitcham, South London.[citation needed]
He failed his eleven plus and went on to Wimbledon College, a Jesuit-run secondary school that had just become a comprehensive, where he received A-levels in English and History.[8] His experience of victimisation there as a working-class boy became a frequent subject of his comedy.[citation needed] After leaving school, Merton worked at the Tooting employment office for seven years.[7]
Personal life[link]
Merton married actress Caroline Quentin in 1990; they divorced in 1998.[citation needed] Merton subsequently had a relationship with producer and actress Sarah Parkinson; they were married unofficially in a service in the Maldives in 2000. They were officially married three months before her death from breast cancer on 23 September 2003.[9] He married fellow improviser Suki Webster in 2009.[10]
Merton has suffered from severe depression and, shortly before becoming a household name on Have I Got News for You, booked himself into the Maudsley psychiatric hospital for six weeks, of which he has since spoken frankly. In an interview with The Guardian he was reported to have been "hallucinating conversations with friends, and became convinced he was a target for the Freemasons".[7]
He used the Maudsley episode as a key framework in his 2012 tour, Out Of My Head. He gave many examples of his experiences there, conversations with staff and fellow inmates were played out as sketches with his fellow performers, Richard Vranch, Lee Simpson and Suki Webster. He stated that, during his time at the Maudsley, he was simultaneously appearing in Whose Line Is It Anyway? on Channel 4.
Career[link]
Merton often claims that he was inspired to go into comedy at an early age watching clowns at a circus, remembering, "I had no idea that adults could behave like that."[11] He gained his earliest professional credits under his birth name, including an appearance as a yokel in Time, an episode of The Young Ones in 1984. On joining Equity he found that the name Paul Martin was already taken, so he renamed himself after Merton, the district of London where he grew up.
Stage[link]
Though he had harboured serious ambitions of becoming a performing comedian since his school days, it was not until April 1982, at the Comedy Store in Soho, that his dream was realised. He recalls that on only his second or third night he found the dour role that has informed his comic approach ever since. He was also in the "Cinderella" Christmas panto as "Lucretia" in 1999.
He has been a member of the London improv group The Comedy Store Players since 1985, and still regularly performs with them.[12]
Merton performed in Paul Merton's Improv Chums at Pleasance as part of Edinburgh Comedy Festival in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Television[link]
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, Paul Merton: The Series, 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 was 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".[13] 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.[14]
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.[15]
Merton is one of the recurring stars from the 4 ITV Pantos. 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.
He was rumoured to be a possible new host of Countdown to replace both Richard Whiteley[16] and his successor, Des Lynam,[17] but decided not to pursue this.
Merton is a keen student of comedy, particularly the early silent comedians[18] 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.[19] 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.[20]
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.[21]
Merton hosted the British version of Thank God You're Here, which aired on ITV in 2008.
In 2009, Merton directed and presented a documentary on the British films of Alfred Hitchcock, in a series of star-presented documentaries on BBC Four.[22] In May 2010, Merton temporarily co-presented The One Show for two weeks on Thursday after Adrian Chiles left the show.
His three part documentary series Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood about the early history of Hollywood was broadcast in May 2011 on BBC2. In Merton's third TV series for 2011, Paul Merton's Adventures, he travels around the world going on popular tourist trails, but still manages to find some extraordinary things.
Radio[link]
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.[23] 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[link]
Merton has written or co-authored four books:
- Julian Clary; Paul Merton (1989-10-12). The Joan Collins' Fan Club. ISBN 978-0-333-49926-9. http://books.google.com/?id=YqNhNwAACAAJ.
- Paul Merton (1993-09-15). Paul Merton's history of the twentieth century. ISBN 978-1-85283-570-5. http://books.google.com/?id=A1LuAQAACAAJ.
- Paul Merton (1996-10-07). My Struggle. ISBN 978-0-7522-0353-9. http://books.google.com/?id=CeyJAQAACAAJ.
- Paul Merton (2007-10-23). Silent Comedy. Random House UK. ISBN 978-1-905211-70-8. http://books.google.com/?id=a3tXvxvIi6YC.
Acclaim and awards[link]
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.[4] The Comedian's Comedian, a 2005 Channel 4 poll of fellow comedians, saw him voted among the top twenty greatest international comedians in history,[3] with host Jimmy Carr crediting him for being "responsible for more great lines than Angus Deayton's dealer."[24] 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."[2]
Merton has accumulated multiple awards and honours. 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.[25] 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.[26]
In 2008, Merton presented Bruce Forsyth with a BAFTA Fellowship: Forsyth had given Merton his Best Entertainment Performance award in 2003.[27]
References[link]
- ^ Tara Conlan (2007-07-27). "Merton plans ITV improv show". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jul/27/itv.broadcasting. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
- ^ a b "The A-Z of laughter". Guardian Unlimited (London: The Guardian). 2003-12-07. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1101525,00.html. Retrieved 2006-09-10.
- ^ a b Cook voted 'comedians' comedian'. BBC. 2 January 2005
- ^ a b The Guardian: Genius declared, 15/10/07
- ^ "Merton, Paul (1957-)". Screenonline. British Film Institute. http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/499514/. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
- ^ a b Barratt, Nick (6 October 2007). "Family detective". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/familyhistory/3354759/Family-detective.html. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
- ^ a b c Barbara Ellen (2005-01-09). "Barbara Ellen meets Paul Merton | | guardian.co.uk Arts". London: Arts.guardian.co.uk. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1386064,00.html. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ "Tell us another one. Or just tell us the same one all over again". The Independent. 21 August 1992. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/tell-us-another-one-or-just-tell-us-the-same-one-all-over-again-paul-merton-the-comedian-with-the-dry-south-circular-delivery-is-probably-the-funniest-man-on-television-where-did-he-come-from-1541587.html. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ Have I got news for you . . . I'm happy
- ^ Richard Kay (2009-04-09). "RICHARD KAY: Cherie's frozen assets | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1211090/RICHARD-KAY-Cheries-frozen-assets.html. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ "Thank God You're Here | ITV Entertainment | Paul Merton biography". Itv.com. 2008-01-09. http://www.itv.com/Entertainment/comedy/ThankGodYou-reHere/PaulMertonbiography/default.html. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ "Comedy Store Players". Comedy Store Players. http://comedystoreplayers.com/. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ The Very Best of Have I Got News for You (2002): DVD commentary
- ^ "Show goes on after Deayton exit". BBC News. 2002-11-01. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2384165.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ "No Room for Merton". Chortle. 09/12/2006. http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2006/12/09/4793/no_room_for_merton. Retrieved 2006-12-09.
- ^ Pickard, Anna. "Filling Richard's shoes from Guardian Unlimited: Culture Vulture". London: Blogs.guardian.co.uk. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2005/09/05/moustache_9_let.html. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ "Entertainment | Holmes and Aspel lead Lynam race". BBC News. 2006-10-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5402246.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ Jury, Louise (10 December 2004). "Paul Merton: Have I got laughs for you". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/paul-merton-have-i-got-laughs-for-you-681874.html. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
- ^ "BBC Four: Paul Merton's Silent Clowns". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/silent-clowns.shtml. Retrieved 2007-05-21.
- ^ Cook, William (2007-11-15). "Silent Comedy, by Paul Merton". The Independent (London). http://arts.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article3164441.ece. Retrieved 2008-01-12.
- ^ "Paul Merton In Europe". Five.tv. http://www.five.tv/programmes/documentaries/paul-merton-in-europe. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ Merton and Hislop extend their rivalry on BBC4. The Guardian. 12 September 2008
- ^ Clement Freud on Just a Minute: A Celebration, BBC Radio 4, 26 May 2009
- ^ "The Comedian's Comedian". episode 1/1. 1-1-2005. Channel 4. Introduction by Jimmy Carr.
- ^ Noah, Sherna (2008-03-18). "Cranford dominates Bafta nominations - News, Film & TV". London: The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-and-tv/news/cranford-dominates-bafta-nominations-797274.html. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
- ^ Paul Merton - Awards at IMDB
- ^ "Gavin and Stacey scoops TV BAFTAs". BBC News. 2008-04-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7357432.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
Further reading[link]
- 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[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Merton |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Paul Merton |
- Paul Merton at the Internet Movie Database
- 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
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Merton, Paul |
| Alternative names | Martin, Paul |
| Short description | Comedian |
| Date of birth | 1957-7-9 |
| Place of birth | Parsons Green, London, England |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
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Wiki Summary
Paul Merton (born Paul James Martin; 9 July 1957) is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy. Considered by a number of critics, fellow comedians and members of the public to be among Britain's greatest comedians, he is well known for his regular appearances as a team captain on the BBC panel game Have I Got News for You, and as the former host of Room 101. He has also appeared as a regular panellist on Radio 4's Just a Minute and as one of Comedy Store's Comedy Store Players.
Merton was born on 9 July 1957 in Parsons Green, London to an English father (a train guard on the London Underground) and an Irish Roman Catholic mother. When his mother returned to work as a nurse, Merton and his younger sister were looked after by their grandfather, who lived with them in their council flat in Mitcham, South London.[citation needed]
He failed his eleven plus and went on to Wimbledon College, a Jesuit-run secondary school that had just become a comprehensive, where he received A-levels in English and History. His experience of victimisation there as a working-class boy became a frequent subject of his comedy.[citation needed] After leaving school, Merton worked at the Tooting employment office for seven years.
