Natalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing career with her chart-topping cover of Ednaswap's song "Torn." Her debut album, Left of the Middle (1997), sold seven million copies worldwide. Imbruglia's five subsequent albums have combined sales of three million copies worldwide, and her accolades include eight ARIA Awards, two Brit Awards, one Billboard Music Award, and three Grammy nominations.
The Secret Policeman's Ball is a series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but later included leading musicians and actors. The Secret Policeman's Ball shows are credited by many prominent entertainers with having galvanised them to become involved with Amnesty and other social and political causes in succeeding years.
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired from 2004 to 2007, and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States. The first television series is set in a zoo operated by Bob Fossil, the second in a flat and the third in a secondhand shop in Dalston called Nabootique.
Omid Djalili is a British actor, comedian and writer.
Sean Lock was an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian and in 2000 he won the British Comedy Award, in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He was a team captain on the Channel 4 comedy panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats from 2005 to 2015, and on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown from 2012 until his death in 2021.
Noel Fielding is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside Julian Barratt in the 2000s, and more recently as a co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off since 2017. He is known for his dark and surreal comedic style.
David Armand is an English comedian, actor and writer who has performed on stage, film, radio and most notably, television, where the shows he has appeared in include Fast and Loose, Episodes, How Not to Live Your Life, Pulling, The Armstrong & Miller Show, Swinging, and Peep Show.
"Torn" is a song written by Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, and Phil Thornalley. It was first recorded in 1993 in Danish by Danish singer Lis Sørensen, then in 1994 by Cutler and Preven's American rock band Ednaswap, and in 1996 by American-Norwegian singer Trine Rein.
Martin Neil Lewis is a US-based English humorist, writer, radio/TV host, producer, and marketing strategist. He is known for his participation in a variety of projects in the arts and entertainment worlds including his work as the co-creator and co-producer of the Secret Policeman's Balls benefit shows for Amnesty International and as a comedic performer and writer on American TV. He hosts his own daily radio show, heard in America on Sirius Satellite Radio and worldwide on Sirius Internet Radio. He is an occasional contributor to The Huffington Post website.
The Secret Policeman's Ball was the third of the benefit shows staged by Amnesty International to raise funds for its research and campaign work in the human rights field. In later years, other Amnesty benefit shows also bore the Secret Policeman's title. They are informally referred to as The Secret Policeman's Balls.
The Secret Policeman's Ball may refer to:
A Poke in the Eye is the title of the first show in what later became the Secret Policeman's Ball series of benefit shows for human rights organization Amnesty International, although it pre-dated by three years the first show to bear that name. The film of the show was titled Pleasure at Her Majesty's which is sometimes mistakenly thought to be the title of the actual benefit show.
Roger Drew is a British illustrator and television screenwriter who was educated at Victoria College, Jersey. He has written material for TV shows such as The Thick of It and won an Emmy for his work on Veep.
The Time Out Comedy Awards were bestowed upon the comedy community by the London listings magazine Time Out. They ran from 1991 to 2006, and include many well-known comedians as past winners: Eddie Izzard, Noel Fielding and Jimmy Carr. It is not known why they have been defunct since 2006.
The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008 was a show in the Secret Policeman's Balls series of benefit shows for Amnesty International.
Bridget Louise Christie is an English stand-up comedian, actress and writer. She has written and performed 12 Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows and several comedy tours, in addition to radio and television work. She has received British and international comedy awards and is also an award-winning newspaper columnist and author.
The Secret Policeman's Ball 2012 was the title of the show staged as a benefit for human rights organization Amnesty International at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on 4 March 2012, it was one of the long-running series of similar Amnesty benefits.
Ivor Joseph Dembina is a British stand-up comedian and writer in the alternative tradition from London.
The Comedian's Guide to Survival is a 2016 British-Canadian comedy film written by James Mullinger and Mark Murphy and starring James Buckley.
Michael Cumming is a British director and filmmaker. He is best known for directing comedy shows such as: Brass Eye, Toast Of London, Toast Of Tinseltown, The Mark Thomas Product, Snuff Box,The Mark Steel Lectures and Rock Profile.
