Character actor Steve Coogan is most famous for two characters:
unctuous
television host Alan Partridge (as seen in Knowing
Me, Knowing Yule) and dim-bulb Paul Calf (Paul
Calf's Video Diary and its sequel Pauline
Calf's Video Wedding).
In his 1995 series Coogan's
Run, he got
to play six different characters who co-exist in the same connected
universe
(or at least Paul Calf manages to cameo in each story). In "Get Calf"
Paul
is the center of attention as gangsters come after him. "Dearth of a
Salesman"
shows the life of a shallow salesman. "Handyman For All Seasons," an
elderly
village fix-it man in rural England must fight progress. "natural born
quizzers" reveals the life stories of two nutters who escape from jail
and hope to wreak revenge for an incident on a television school quiz
show
20 years earlier. Rounding out the series are "Thursday Night Fever"
and
"The Curator." His latest creation is Portuguese pop singer (and
slimeball)
Tony
Ferrino. Coogan's first dramatic role came in 1997's The
Fix, where he played a crusading journalist who
uncovers a soccer
scandal. Alan Partridge finally resurfaced in 1997 in the "fly on a
wall"
mockumentary series I'm
Alan Partridge,
chronicling his return from exile. Coogan made a cameo appearance in
Channel
4's Alice Through The
Looking Glass, and
appeared as a vicar in an episode of Mrs
Merton
& Malcolm. In 2001, he played the
never-before-seen Geoff in
A
Small Summer Party, the prequel to Marion
& Geoff. He also created and starred in a
new anthology comedy
series, Dr
Terrible's House of Horror.
In 2002 he did another series of I'm
Alan Partridge,
as well as co-starred in the BBC TV movie Cruise
of the Gods as an actor from an old science fiction
series. He
starred as the famed London diarist in The
Private Life of Samuel Pepys in 2003. In 2004 after
his breakthrough
part in 2002's "24 Hour Party People" he co-starred with Jackie Chan in
the movie remake of "Around The World In 80 Days." He also appeared on
ITV's All-Star Comedy
Show and produced
and performed a voice in the animated I Am
Not An Animal. In 2006 he was the eponymous Saxondale,
a former roadie whose best days are behind him. In 2010 he and Rob
Brydon starred as "themselves" (or exaggerated comic versions) in The Trip. He also did a short monologue in Chekhov: Comedy Shorts
called "The Dangers of Tobacco." In 2012 he revived the Alan
Partridge character for a series of internet shorts called Mid-Morning Manners, as well as a spoof biography, Welcome To The Places Of My Life.
Martin Clunes
Big-eared Martin
Clunes rode to fame in the comedy Men
Behaving Badly.
He is equally likely to turn up in a sketch comedy show (typically with
former co-star Harry Enfield) or a drama such as Demob
where he played a gay cabaret entertainer alongside Griff Rhys-Jones.
His
appearances include: a villain in a 1983 Doctor Who
episode ("Snakedance"),
Gone
To The Dogs, Chiller,
An
Evening With Gary Lineker (along with Badly
co-star Caroline
Quentin), the "Dancing Queen" episode of Rik Mayall
Presents, and Over
Here. He also
narrates the children's program Rottentrolls. In
1994 he directed
and starred in Staggered.
He made
a cameo appearance as a bedridden patient in the Channel 5 comedy Hospital!
In 1998 he appeared in the TV movie adaption of Tim Firth's stageplay Neville's
Island, where he played an executive who hasn't
coped with the
death of his wife yet. In Touch
and Go,
he starred as a husband who discovers the "swingers" scene. In 1999 he
directed and starred in the comedy TV movie Hunting
Venus, and was a supporting actor in the movie
"Saving Grace."
In 2000 he starred in the TV movie Sex
'n Death
as an over-the-top television host, and the mini-series Dirty
Tricks. In 2002 he played the title character in
the remake of
Goodbye
Mr. Chips, as well as 1940s serial killer John Haigh in
A
Is For Acid. In 2003 he starred in the romantic
drama series William
& Mary as an undertaker in love with a
midwife, and in the
comic TV movie The Booze
Cruise. In 2004
his TV appearances included the children's series Fungus
The Bogeyman, Trapped,
and the
lead in Doc Martin
as an acerbic
physician. In 2008 he starred in the TV Movie The Man Who Lost His Head,
a comedy set in New Zealand. In 2009 he starred in a remake of Reggie Perrin.
Robert Lindsay
Robert
Lindsay's first TV hit was the 1970s BBC comedy Citizen Smith
where
he starred as Wolfie Smith, a member of the "Tooting Popular Front,"
and
would-be revolutionary. He has since specialized in playing offbeat
characters,
usually in Alan Bleasdale productions. One of his most famous is GBH,
a 1991 Channel Four production where he played Michael Murray, the
increasingly
unstable leader of a city council, full of nervous tics. It was
impossible
to take your eyes off the screen when Lindsay appeared. He returned to
situation comedy with two seasons of Nightingales,
a bizarre series about night watchmen (just an example: whenever
anybody
asked, "Is anybody here?" The response was a lilting, "Nobody here but
us chickens," complete with flapping arms). All his character dreamed
of
was getting promoted to a better position, but he was continually
thwarted
in his efforts. This obscure, clever show deserves screening in the
United
States. In 1993's Genghis
Cohn, Lindsay
played a German chief of police with a Nazi past. When one of his
victims
comes back to haunt him (and of course only Lindsay can see him), the
revenge
he wreaks on Lindsay is both delicious and fitting.
The
Wimbledon Poisoner is a comedy/drama about a man
driven to kill
his wife, only to succeed in wiping out most of his neighbors instead.
In 1995, he reteamed with Bleasdale for Jake's
Progress a meandering drama with Lindsay as a
well-intentioned
father who lets events get away from him. In 1996 he starred in a
comedy
pilot called The Office
where on an important
day he manages to lose all his clothes in his bosses office and run
around
naked for most of the episode trying to cover it up. In October 1996 he
was appearing on stage in the West End of London in "Oliver." He was
reunited
with frequent co-star Julie Walters in Brazen
Hussies as part of the BBC's "Wicked Women" series
where he played
a male stripper. In the fact-based drama Goodbye
My Love he played right-to-life advocate Derek
Humphry. In 1997
he appeared in the movie "Fierce Creatures" along with John Cleese and
Jamie Lee Curtis. In the Hornblower
TV Movies he appears as Captain Pellew. In 1998 he appeared in the TV
movie
Remember
Me? as man on the run who disrupts a suburban
household. In 1999
he appeared in Bleasdale's adaptation of Oliver Twist.
He returned
to sitcom life in 2000 as a demented dentist in My
Family. In 2006 he appeared in two back-to-back
Stephen Poliakoff dramas, Gideon's Daughter
and Friends and Crocodiles.
In 2007 he played a futuristic Tony Blair facing war-crimes
in The Trial of Tony Blair.
In 2011 he played the half-mad director of MI5 in Sky1's comedy Spy. Visit his official
website.
Rik Mayall
Rik Mayall rose to prominence in the BBC-2 comedy The Young
Ones
as "Rik," the people's poet who worshipped Cliff Richard (little known
fact: Sir Cliff starred in a musical called "The Young Ones," as well
as
"Summer Holiday," the title of the final episode of the television
series).
The
Young Ones featured appearances by nearly everyone who would
have a
impact on 80s television: Robbie Coltrane, Mel Smith, Emma Thompson,
Norman
Lovett, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and Griff Rhys-Jones. Rik made many
appearances
in Comic Strip Presents...
productions.
Mayall's signature character, and the defining person of the Thatcher
era,
was Alan B'Stard of The New
Statesman. From
1987 to 1992 Alan schemed and plotted to get-rich-quick, abetted by his
dimwitted friend Piers (Michael Troughton), and equally greedy wife. In
the final season he became a European Member of Parliament in Brussels.
In the feature film "Drop Dead Fred" (filmed in Minnesota), Rik played
an imaginary friend to Phoebe Cates who nearly ruins her life. Rik is
hysterical
in the movie, even if it wasn't a big success. He reteamed with his Young
Ones co-star Adrian Edmondson in Bottom,
playing a character very similar to his earlier one, only ten years
later.
This extremely violent and physical show has toured England as a stage
show for several years and produced a movie, Guest House
Paradiso.
ITV, to counter a new season of Comic Strip Presents...,
commissioned
Rik for three separate one-long comedy/drama productions of Rik
Mayall Presents. Armed with big name guest stars
(Amanda Donohoe,
Helena Bonham-Carter), the ratings were good enough for a second set of
three shows giving him a chance to show other sides of himself. In
1994's
Horse
Opera, a musical written for television by Stewart
Copeland, featured
Mayall as a singing cowboy in an extended fantasy sequence. Rik lent
his
voice to animation for 1995's How
to be a Little
Sod as the world's worst baby giving tips on how to
drive your
parents crazy. He was also the voice of "Toad of Toad Hall" for an
animated
production of Wind In The
Willows. In 1997
he played a guest villain in the soap cop series The Bill.
He also
appeared as a demented priest trying to exorcise Ian Richardson in The
Canterville Ghost. In 1998 he reunited with the Comic
Strip Presents team for "Four Men In a Car." In
real life, after
suffering a near-fatal motor vehicle accident in 1998, Rik is back to
work
on new productions, including the Jonathan
Creek 1998 Christmas special; an animated sequel, The
Willows In Winter; and Remember Me?
as an unemployed suburban husband. In 2000 he made a cameo as Robin
Hood
in
Blackadder: Back and
Forth, and
a new Comic Strip Presents,
"Four Men
In a Plane." In 2002 he reteamed with his New Statesman
writers
to play possible mad genius Adonis Cnut in the conspiracy sitcom Believe
Nothing.
Paul Merton
Sardonic Paul Merton's patented delivery has been well put to use on
British
television in recent years. A regular on Have I
Got News For You (except for the Spring 1996
season), plus appearances
on Whose Line Is It Anyway? have demonstrated his
quick wit time
and again. In 1993, the aptly named Paul
Merton:
The Series featured sketches written and starring
Paul. In 1994
he co-starred in An
Evening With Gary Lineker,
a football (soccer) comedy about World Cup fever. In 1995 he hosted Paul
Merton's Life of Comedy a compilation of classic
comedy clips bracketed
with scenes of Paul growing up (he even plays his own father) with
television.
In 1995 writers Galton and Simpson
dusted off
their old 30-minute comedy plays originally written for Tony Hancock,
revised
them, and let Paul put his unique stamp on them. For Christmas 1997 he
hosted the spoof Does China
Exist?. His
voice appeared (as a demented doctor) in the 1998 animated series
Rex
The Runt. He played the on-stage narrator in the
filmed 1998 Christmas
panto Jack & The
Beanstalk. In 1999
he took over hosting Room
101, a light-hearted
look at celebrity's hatreds. He directed a short in 2001, The
Suicidal Dog.
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