Sir Ian Murray McKellen is an English actor. With a career spanning over six decades, he is noted for his performances on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural icon, he has received various accolades, including a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award and six Laurence Olivier Awards, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards.
Leslie Dawson was an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter, who is best remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program that ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to March 12, 1973, on the NBC television network, hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. It originally aired as a one-time special on September 9, 1967, and was such a success that it was brought back as a series, replacing The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on Mondays at 8 pm (ET). It quickly became the most popular television show in the United States.
Steve Nallon is a British actor, writer, voice artist and impressionist. Nallon began his career as a stand-up performer on the northern club circuit in the 1970s. He is known for his work as a voice artist on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image and for impersonating Margaret Thatcher on television throughout her time as Prime Minister of the UK (1979–1990). In his career Steve Nallon has performed a number of roles and characters as an actor and as a voice artist in theatre, film, television and radio.
Neil Hamburger is a fictional standup comedian and singer created by Australian-American entertainer Gregg Turkington. Distinguished for his misanthropic jokes and anti-comedy style, Turkington has released a number of albums as Hamburger and has appeared as the character in various films, television shows, and other media. In 2015, the act inspired the feature-length film Entertainment, which stars Turkington as a "variant" of the character.
Caroline Mary Aherne was an English actress, comedian and writer. She was best known for performing as the acerbic chat show host Mrs Merton, in various roles in The Fast Show, and as Denise in The Royle Family (1998–2012), a series which she co-wrote. She won BAFTA awards for her work on The Mrs Merton Show and The Royle Family.
James Brown Whittaker, known professionally as Jim Bowen, was an English stand-up comedian, actor and television personality. He was the long-time host of the ITV game show Bullseye, which he presented from its beginning in 1981 through to the end of its original run in 1995.
Widow Twankey is a female character in the pantomime Aladdin. She is a pantomime dame, played by an older man.
Mitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, composed of David Mitchell and Robert Webb. They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show and their radio and TV sketch shows That Mitchell and Webb Sound and That Mitchell and Webb Look. The duo first met at the Footlights in 1993 and collaborated on the 1995 revue while at Cambridge.
A pantomime dame is a traditional role in British and Irish pantomime. It is part of the theatrical tradition of travesti portrayal of female characters by male actors in drag. Dame characters are often played either in an extremely camp style, or else by men acting butch in women's clothing. They usually wear heavy make up and big hair, have exaggerated physical features, and perform in an over-the-top style.
Norman Evans was an English stage and radio comedian, best remembered for his sketches and programmes entitled "Over the Garden Wall".
Roy Senior Barraclough was an English comic actor. He was best known for his role as Alec Gilroy, the devious, mournful landlord of the Rovers Return in the long-running British TV soap Coronation Street, and for the double-act Cissie and Ada with comedian Les Dawson.
Listen to Les was a long-running comedy sketch show on BBC Radio 2 starring Les Dawson.
Sez Les is a British sketch comedy show that starred Les Dawson. It was produced by Yorkshire Television, and aired on ITV from 1969 to 1976. Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough regularly performed together as the characters Cissie and Ada. John Cleese appeared in a few sketches in series 3 and appeared regularly in series 8 and 9. Other cast members included Norman Chappell, Brian Glover, Brian Murphy, and Kathy Staff. Music for series 1-5 and 7-8 was provided by Syd Lawrence and his orchestra.
The Funny Side of Christmas is a Christmas special broadcast by BBC1 on 27 December 1982.
Sean Gerard Mathias is a Welsh actor, director, and writer. He is known for directing the film Bent and for directing highly acclaimed theatre productions in London, New York City, Cape Town, Los Angeles and Sydney.
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms Blackadder (1983–1989) and Mr. Bean (1990–1995), and the film series Johnny English (2003–2018). Atkinson first came to prominence in the BBC sketch comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982), receiving the 1981 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance, and The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979) where he performed a skit. Subsequent skits on stage have featured solo performances as well as collaborations.
The Les Dawson Show was a variety show that aired on BBC1 intermittently from 1978 through 1989. The show starred comedian Les Dawson (1931–1993), who had previously starred in the ITV sketch comedy programme Sez Les (1969–76), followed by Dawson and Friends (1977). The Les Dawson Show also featured sketch comedy, as well as stand-up comedy, guest appearances, dance numbers, and musical performances.
Cheryl Hole is the stage name of Luke Underwood-Bleach, an English drag queen from Chelmsford in Essex who is known for being one of the first contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race UK (2019) and later the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race: UK vs the World (2022). Cheryl's act is based on former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole.
