Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969, East Dulwich, London) is an English comedian, broadcaster and conductor.

Education[link]

Perkins was educated at Croham Hurst School, an independent school for girls in Croydon in South London, at the same time as the BBC Breakfast News presenter Susanna Reid.^[1] She later studied English at New Hall at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1990. While at Cambridge, she was a member of the Footlights, where she met Mel Giedroyc.^[2] She was Footlights president during the academic year 1990/91.^[3]

Mel and Sue[link]

Perkins first came to notice with Mel Giedroyc as Mel and Sue. The duo were short-listed for the Daily Express Best Newcomers Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. After a few years writing for French & Saunders (and occasionally appearing on their BBC series), they hosted a lunchtime show on Channel 4 called Light Lunch, and an early evening version, Late Lunch.

Television[link]

Perkins has been a presenter on Channel 4's RI:SE and appeared in Celebrity Big Brother during 2002 in aid of a number of charities. During the series she had some notable dancing moments with eventual winner Mark Owen of Take That. She has made numerous appearances on BBC TV shows Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, QI, Room 101, Celebrity Weakest Link, Question Time and Newsnight; she has often joked that the BBC pay her a regular wage for "blabbering on random shows". She made notable appearances as a 'field reporter' for Armando Iannucci vehicle The Saturday Night Armistice.

Perkins hosted Good Evening, Rockall (second series), a short-lived news orientated panel game shown on BBC Choice. She appeared in BBC Four's 2006 language quiz show Never Mind the Full Stops. She was also a team captain on ITV's Win, Lose or Draw Late, appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2006, performed in early 2007 on Celebrity Poker and News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald in 2007.

In April 2007, she participated in Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC with food critic Giles Coren, spending a week eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couple's food, whilst wearing a corset. The duo returned, in May 2008, with a series called The Supersizers Go... where they live, for a week, eating food based upon certain diets. The first programme saw them survive for a week on WWII rations, the second covers the English Restoration period, the third the Victorian period, the fourth the Seventies, the fifth the Elizabethan period and the sixth the Regency period.

In August and September 2008, Sue Perkins appeared in the reality TV talent show television series Maestro on BBC Two. During the series, a group of eight celebrities attempted (until eliminated) to learn to conduct orchestral, choral and operatic music.^[4] Perkins won the competition with her mentor conductor Jason Lai.^[5] She then conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at Proms in the Park, part of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms. Her Maestro section of the programme was broadcast live from Hyde Park, London on 13 September 2008, in front of a crowd of more than 30,000.^[6] During the programme, Perkins conducted three pieces, two of them with soprano soloist Lesley Garrett.^[7]

Also in 2008 Perkins narrated the series ....and Proud on Virgin 1.

Sue Perkins appeared in a second 'Supersizers' series called The Supersizers Eat... with Giles Coren which aired on BBC Two in June and July 2009.^[8] In September and October 2009 she hosted the Channel 4 panel game The Big Food Fight.

In March 2010, Perkins appeared in a three part mini-series broadcast on BBC Two A Band for Britain in which she attempted to revive the fortunes of the Dinnington Colliery Band.^[9][10]

In 2010, she appeared on QI, where host Stephen Fry embarrassed himself by absent-mindedly calling her Mel. Alan Davies responded by calling him Hugh.^[11]

Perkins filmed two series which aired on BBC Two in 2010: Giles and Sue Live The Good Life, with Giles Coren, and The Great British Bake Off, a cookery competition series which she co-hosts with Mel Giedroyc, each episode looking at a different aspect of baking. The latter had a second series in 2011. She also narrated the 2011 game show Don't Scare the Hare. With Alison Steadman and Stephen Mangan she presented a mini-series on BBC Two called All Roads Lead Home, in October 2011, based on navigating short rambles, or nature walks, solely with the use of natural clues.^[12]

She presented and performed Mrs Dickens' Family Christmas, a sixty minute documentary for BBC Two broadcast on 30 December 2011 which examined the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife, Catherine.

Conducting[link]

Following her success in Maestro, Perkins guest-conducted the London Gay Symphony Orchestra on 11 October 2009, at St Anne's Church Garden in Soho. She conducted two pieces, the Simpsons Theme by Danny Elfman, and the William Tell Overture by Rossini, the latter for the first time.^{[13] [14]}

As part of A Band for Britain, Perkins conducted the Dinnington Colliery Band at the DW Stadium playing the National Anthem for a Four Nations rugby match,^[15] and also conducted them together with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band at Sheffield City Hall.^[16]

Perkins again conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at the first ever Comedy Prom at the Royal Albert Hall during 2011 Prom season.^[17]

Radio[link]

Perkins is a panel member of Radio 4's The News Quiz and has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 2's It's Been a Bad Week. She is also a frequent panelist on another popular Radio 4 show, Just a Minute: in the 2012 television version of that series, she appeared in 4 out of the 10 episodes (more than any other panellist except Paul Merton who appeared in all 10) and won on all 4 occasions.^[18]

She was the chairman of BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge until the show finished in 2004. Perkins appeared every day in the last half hour of Mark Radcliffe's afternoon radio show on BBC Radio 2, when he sat in for Steve Wright.

Since 2006 Perkins has been a panellist on a Radio 4 show, The Personality Test, a quiz show about the host, presented by a different host each week. Past hosts include Gyles Brandreth and Rick Wakeman, and other panelists include Robin Ince, Lucy Porter, and Will Smith. Perkins is a regular cast member of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show.

While presenting a Radio 4 documentary on the Lake District's competition the "World's Biggest Liar", she ended up winning it.^[19]

In December 2008 she was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.^[20]

Perkins also chairs the Radio 4 panel game Dilemma, in which four humorous guests discussed moral conundrums she provided for them. The first series ran for six episodes on Sunday evenings from 13 November to 18 December 2011.

Books[link]

Perkins was a judge for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.^[21]

Edinburgh Festival appearances[link]

Perkins has performed two stand-up comedy solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, "Spectacle Wearer Of The Year 2006" in 2005 and "The Disappointing Second Show" in 2006.

Personal life[link]

Perkins lives in London and Penzance.

She was outed as a lesbian in 2002 by her ex-girlfriend Rhona Cameron during Cameron's appearance on ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.^[22] Perkins had a four-year relationship with artist Kate Williams, until early 2012.^[23]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sue Perkins at the Internet Movie Database
• Official MySpace (does not appear to be active)
• Official Mel and Sue website (has not been updated in many years)
• Sue Perkins at Biogs.com
• Sue Perkins Management - Debi Allen
• Sue Perkins Twitter feed

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2009)

Graham Norton
Norton in May 2010
Birth name	Graham William Walker
Born	(1963-04-04) 4 April 1963 (age 49) Clondalkin, Dublin, Ireland
Medium	Television, radio, stand-up
Nationality	Irish
Years active	1992–present
Genres	Observational comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday life, pop culture, current events, celebrities, sex
Notable works and roles	So Graham Norton V Graham Norton The Graham Norton Effect Graham Norton's Bigger Picture The Graham Norton Show

Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton, (born 4 April 1963)^[1] is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist. He is the host of comedy chat programme The Graham Norton Show on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US. Hot Press has described him as "the 21st century's answer to Terry Wogan", with both men sharing an Irish background and the common link of being a BBC Radio 2 presenter and the BBC television commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest.^[2] Norton has won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Entertainment Performance on five occassions.

Early life and career[link]

Norton was born in Clondalkin, a suburb of Dublin, but grew up in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland to a Protestant family. He was educated at Bandon Grammar School, in County Cork and then University College Cork but did not complete his studies.

In 1992 his stand-up comedy drag act in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a tea-towel clad Mother Teresa of Calcutta made the press when Scottish Television's religious affairs department mistakenly thought he represented the real Mother Teresa.^[3]

His first appearances in broadcasting were in his spot as a regular comedian and panellist on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends, when the show ran on Saturday mornings, in the early 1990s. His rise to fame began as one of the early successes of Channel 5, when he won an award for his performance as the stand-in host of a late-night TV talk show usually presented by Jack Docherty.^[4][5] This was followed by a comic quiz show on Channel 5 called Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment, which was not well received as a programme, but did further enhance Norton's individual reputation as a comic and TV host. In 1996, Norton co-hosted the late-night quiz show Carnal Knowledge on ITV with Maria McErlane.

In 1996, Norton played the part of Father Noel Furlong in three episodes ("Hell", "Flight Into Terror", "The Mainland") of the Channel 4 series Father Ted. Father Noel Furlong was often seen taking charge of a small youth folk-group.

Channel 4[link]

After this early success, Norton moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat shows including So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton. As a performer who is not only openly gay,^[6] but also camp and flamboyant, it was here that Norton's act was fully honed as a cheeky, innuendo-laden joker.

In 2003, he was the subject of controversy when, on his show on Channel 4, he made a comedic reference to the recent death of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb. The Independent Television Commission investigated after complaints about this insensitivity were forwarded to it and eventually Channel 4 had to make two apologies: one in the form of a caption slide before the show, another from Norton in person.

Also in 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. (Though Norton is Irish, the bulk of his television career has been in the UK.)

In the summer of 2004, Norton moved across the Atlantic to start a new venture in American television. The Graham Norton Effect debuted on 24 June 2004 on Comedy Central, and was also broadcast in the UK on BBC Three. In the midst of controversy surrounding Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance, Norton was wary of moving into the market.^[7]

BBC[link]

Norton at 2009 BAFTA awards

In 2005, Norton moved to the BBC and began hosting the Saturday evening reality TV series Strictly Dance Fever on BBC One, as well as a new comedy chat show, Graham Norton's Bigger Picture. He also read stories some nights on the BBC children's channel CBeebies as part of Bedtime Hour.

In 2006, Norton hosted the BBC One series How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in which Andrew Lloyd Webber tried to find a lead actress for his West End version of The Sound of Music. Norton has subsequently presented the 3 follow-up series: Any Dream Will Do in 2007, in which a group of males competed to win the role of Joseph in the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; I'd Do Anything in 2008, in which Andrew Lloyd Webber seeks to find the part of Nancy and Oliver for Sir Cameron Mackintosh's production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!; and Over the Rainbow in 2010, following a similar format to find a new Dorothy for a Wizard of Oz West end Production.

Norton hosted various other shows for the BBC during this time, including When Will I Be Famous? (2007), The One and Only (2008) and Totally Saturday (2009). Since 2007, Norton has also been a regular host of The British Academy Television Awards. On 7 July 2007, Norton presented at Live Earth and undertook a trip to Ethiopia with the Born Free Foundation to highlight the plight of the Ethiopian wolf – the rarest canid in the world. In the same year, he was the subject of an episode of the BBC1 genealogy documentary Who Do You Think You Are?.

Norton's chat show, The Graham Norton Show, began on 22 February 2007 on BBC Two. Although in a format that he had not been involved in for 4 years, it is very similar to his previous Channel 4 shows. On 6 October 2009, the show moved to BBC One, in a new one-hour format.

In May 2010, he stood in for Chris Evans' breakfast show on BBC Radio 2. Later that month, it was confirmed that he would be replacing Jonathan Ross's Saturday morning slot on the same station.

In December 2011, the panel show Would You Rather...? with Graham Norton premiered on BBC America in the time slot immediately following The Graham Norton Show. Recorded in New York, it is one of BBC America's earliest efforts at producing original programming, and is also the first panel game the channel has shown, either of British or American origin.

In January 2012, he called on listeners to his Radio 2 show to help find his car hours after it was stolen. He called it "The Great Car Hunt" and told listeners to “Keep your eyes out for it. It was filthy by the way."

Eurovision[link]

Norton with Josh Dubovie at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Norton hosted the first annual Eurovision Dance Contest alongside Claudia Winkleman which was held on 1 September 2007 in London, England. The format was based on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and the EBU's Eurovision Song Contest. Norton and Winkleman also hosted the 2008 Contest in Glasgow, Scotland.