Andy Hamilton

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Andy Hamilton
Andy Hamilton cropped.jpg
Hamilton in 2007.
Birth nameAndrew Neil Hamilton
Born (1954-05-28) 28 May 1954 (age 69)
Fulham, London, England
Medium Radio, television
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Downing College, Cambridge
Years active1972–present
Genres Political satire
Subject(s)Politics
Spouse
Libby Asher
(m. 1988)
Children3
Notable works and roles Old Harry's Game
Outnumbered

Andrew Neil Hamilton (born 28 May 1954) is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, novelist and actor.

Contents

Early life and education

Hamilton was born in Fulham, southwest London. He was educated at Westminster City School which was then a voluntary aided grammar school [1] and later read English at Downing College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society (CULES).

Career

Hamilton first came to notice while performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s he sustained himself by taking jobs at Harrods and the Post Office before joining the BBC in 1976. [2]

His early radio work, mostly on BBC Radio 4 included Week Ending , The News Huddlines and The Million Pound Radio Show (with Nick Revell). He has since appeared regularly in Chelmsford 123 , Have I Got News for You , The News Quiz , QI , and If I Ruled the World . Hamilton is frequently invited as a panellist on The News Quiz and as a guest panellist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue .

He is the voice of Dr Elephant, the dentist in the children's show Peppa Pig . He was also the original voice of Bob Fish, who is also a dentist, in the cartoon Bob and Margaret . Hamilton is also the voice of Captain Squid, the pirate in the children's show Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom .

On 16 March 2007, he co-presented BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme alongside usual presenter Martha Kearney as part of that day's Comic Relief fundraising activities, after defeating Richard Hammond and Kelvin MacKenzie in a poll.

Since 1995, Hamilton has written and played the lead role of Satan in the Radio 4 sitcom Old Harry's Game . He toured with his UK stand-up show Hat of Doom in 2008.

In 2009, Hamilton presented the BBC Four series It's Only a Theory with Reginald D. Hunter.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast two, four-part series, Andy Hamilton Sort of Remembers, in 2017 and 2018. Series 1 comprised the topics of childhood, politics, the human body, and animals, based on his own personal experiences of them. [3]

Personal life

He has no thumb on his right hand. He joked that it was amputated when he was five "by a surgeon who felt that symmetry was over-rated" to the audience of Andy Hamilton Sort of Remembers on Radio 4 in October 2017. [4] [5]

He married Libby Asher in 1988, and they have three children.[ citation needed ]

He is a supporter of Chelsea Football Club.

Writing

Hamilton has written for:

Television

Radio

Film

Books

Related Research Articles

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<i>Old Harrys Game</i> UK radio comedy, 1995 to 2012

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<i>The News Quiz</i> British topical radio panel show

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The Million Pound Radio Show was a long-running radio programme written by and featuring Nick Revell and Andy Hamilton that aired on Britain's BBC Radio 4. A series of sketches, interspersed with dialogue between the two, the show ran for at least six series between 1985 and 1992 with associated Christmas specials, along with a World Cup special in 1990 and a Millennium special broadcast in 1996. Regular Andy Hamilton players such as Felicity Montagu also turned up and Harry Enfield appeared in many programmes.

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Guy Jenkin is a British film director and comedy writer who is best known for working together with Andy Hamilton on sitcoms and comedies such as Drop the Dead Donkey (1990–1998), Outnumbered (2007–2014), and Ballot Monkeys (2015).

<i>Just a Minute</i> British radio programme

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References

  1. Westminster City School – A Brief History Archived 28 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 21 April 2015
  2. Have I Got News for You – Series 44 – Episode 10 (BBC), 21 December 2012
  3. Presenter and writer: Andy Hamilton (18 October 2017). "Andy Hamilton Sort of Remembers". Andy Hamilton Sort of Remembers. BBC. BBC Radio 4 . Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  4. Drop the Dead Donkey Series 1 DVD
  5. Wark, Penny (13 July 2005). "I was made to feel quite special". The Times (paywall restrictions apply). London.