Alliance that has helped to create Little Britain game
CHARACTERS from hit TV comedy Little Britain are being brought to life for video gamers thanks to a collaboration of Yorkshire companies. The show's stars, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, have provided the voices for Little Britain: The Video Game, which features popular characters including Lou and Andy, Dafydd Thomas, Vicky Pollard and Marjorie Dawes.
The game is the brainchild of Leeds-based video game designer Gamerholix, which has designed and produced it.
Gamerholix outsourced the developmental duties of the game to Sheffield-based Gamesauce. Little Britain: The Video Game is a collection of mini-games presented in the style of an episode from the BBC show. To win, players must work their way through a series of specially created sketches that feature scripted input and voices from Lucas and Walliams, and the show's narrator, Tom Baker.
Little Britain: The Video Game is being published on Mastertronic's Blast! label, and will be available for PlayStation2 and PC next month.
Funny little Brits attract Edna, Kath, Kim and their Neighbours Christine Sams,
Sydney Morning Herald
February 4, 2007
LITTLE Britain has never been bigger in Australia, with the stars of the TV series, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, in Sydney for a series of live stadium shows. The British comedians, who performed their first Sydney show last night, said the reaction from Australian audiences towards their live tour had been astounding. "I think there's a link here that we haven't even struck with the British audience," Lucas said. "The British audiences are fantastic, no criticism of them at all … but there seems to be a bond here." Walliams said of Australian fans: "They're just naturally a little bit louder and a bit more appreciative."
Celebrities, including Gina Riley and Jane Turner (from Kath & Kim) and Barry Humphries, have already attended Little Britain shows in Melbourne. The show has even attracted a few cast members from Neighbours. As for VIP guests in Sydney, Lucas and Walliams have their hopes up for more soapie stars. "We want Home And Away people to come to our shows in Sydney," Walliams said. "We want to compare the two casts."
The stars credited velcro for their smooth transition to performing on stage, saying they needed 20 helpers backstage to ensure speedy costume changes. Just getting their costumes to Australia, for characters ranging from Vicky Pollard to Daffyd ("the only gay in the village"), was an extravaganza. "They all came on boats," Walliams said. "A flotilla of tankers carrying our fat suits." Lucas said: "I think they had a six-week journey by boat."
The two performers spent $250,000 on wigs alone for their stage show. The start-up cost for the Australian tour was $2.5 million. "We had to do a long run, because it's a lot of money to spend [on a tour], but we wanted to give people a great show," Walliams said.
Little Britain plays at the Hordern Pavilion and Sydney Entertainment Centre until February 14 and on March 4-5.
Walliams: I'll comfort sad Kylie February 05, 2007
DAVID WALLIAMS has offered KYLIE MINOGUE a shoulder to cry on after her split from OLIVIER MARTINEZ. The Little Britain funnyman has declared his support for Kylie after the pair became close pals in the past year. And David has come out in her defence with a few choice words. He said: “She’s gorgeous and I hope she’s doing OK. I don’t know what went wrong with Olivier but I do know she deserves happiness and loyalty. She’s got my number if she wants to get together for a laugh.”
Back in 2003, Bizarre launched the RSPCK — The Royal Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty to Kylie. The campaign had one aim: To stop cruel attacks on the pint-sized singer by heartless beasts after model JAMES GOODING broke her heart. Now the RSPCK is back, with David as its new patron. French poser Olivier is risking his acting career by messing with the most popular woman in showbiz. Other powerful members of the RSPCK include SIR ELTON JOHN, PET SHOP BOYS and BONO — who once said he would lay rose petals in front of Kylie for her to walk on.
David spoke after opening the Mardi Gras gay festival in Sydney, Australia, with comedy partner MATT LUCAS.
Little Britain, Gwyneth and me Ruth Jones is best known for her banter with the only gay in the village. Now she's starring in her own TV show. She talks to Emine Saner about the comedy of madness, cake, and meeting Ms Paltrow The Guardian
Friday May 11, 2007
Ruth Jones has been hovering on the periphery of the comedy world for a while now. When she does get recognised - mercifully infrequently, she says - it's mainly as Myfanwy from Little Britain, the barmaid who is constantly trying to get Matt Lucas's Daffyd to realise that he isn't the only gay in the village. Sometimes she has been recognised as Linda, the weird Welsh beautician from Nighty Night who wears rock T-shirts and looks like she doesn't wash very often. ("That's always worrying," she says, in a buttery Welsh accent, and laughs.) Most recently, she played Magz, Steve Coogan's girlfriend in Saxondale. None of these roles has really gave her the chance to get much beyond playing plump and Welsh, but her new comedy series, Gavin & Stacey, which she has co-written, does.
She wrote the six-part comedy series with the actor James Corden (who recently played a pupil in the stage and film versions of Alan Bennett's The History Boys), who she met on the ITV drama Fat Friends. The central characters have a phone romance - Gavin lives in Essex, Stacey in Barry Island in Wales - but never meet, until Stacey and her best friend Nessa, played by Jones, go to London to meet Gavin and his friend Smithy, played by Corden. Nessa works in a local games arcade, is covered in tattoos, and has a fashion sense stuck in the mid-80s. "We had an idea that there would be this best friend who, at every wedding she goes to, ends up singing Wild Thing with the band and being really pissed. I did it at my own wedding, in my veil and dress."
Her character happens to be the best thing in Gavin & Stacey, but why didn't Jones give herself the lead? "We decided that usually the romantic couple has the slightly more comedy best friends. It was pure indulgence really. James and I are a lot of things but we aren't romantic leads." I don't know why she says this - her talent speaks for itself, she's rather beautiful, with creamy skin and perfect little white teeth, and she has a warmth that comes through in all her characters - though I have an idea it's because she isn't typical-romantic-lead size. It's hard to tell if she really is unhappy with this. "Life's too short to be worrying about all of that stuff," she says - but later, while peeling a satsuma and handing me a cake, she makes a joke about eating vicariously. Has she experienced a pressure to look a certain way? "Not really, no." An awkward silence.
Jones lives in Cardiff with her English husband, David, a self-development counsellor, and has three stepchildren between the ages of 19 and 23, whom she describes as "the joy of my life". Jones grew up in Porthcawl, a seaside town in South Wales. The actor and comedian Rob Brydon was a couple of years above her at school and they are still close friends. It was Brydon who persuaded Jones not to give up acting, when, in her early 20s after drama school, the work dried up. She had been thinking of going back to Cardiff to train as a solicitor. "I lost my confidence in the whole thing, then Rob talked to me about this TV pilot and asked me to be in it." It didn't go anywhere, but it was the boost she needed.
Theatre work and small film roles followed, including a bit part as a maid in Emma, the Jane Austen adaptation starring Gwyneth Paltrow. "I said to her, 'Are you Welsh then, with a name like Gwyneth?' and she went [adopts a bored American accent], 'No, my mother had a friend called Gwyneth and she liked the name.' She didn't even look at me. I was thinking, 'Yeah, well, it's an old lady's name where I come from, love.' "
After appearing in the film East Is East and Fat Friends, her friendship with the writer and actor Julia Davis led to the part of Linda in Nighty Night, a show that shares a certain dark sense of humour with Gavin & Stacey.
I'm probably spoiling one of the later episodes, but the two families in Gavin & Stacey are called the Shipmans and the Wests. I only bring it up because Jones seems so nice, so gentle. "I suppose we were hoping that people wouldn't realise and then when it does come to light, it's even more delicious. I'm sorry, that's a terrible word to use in conjunction with two murderers. What I love about Gavin & Stacey, I hope, is that it has real heart to it. What I find a bit wearing is the cynicism that can be found in a lot of comedy. I think there's something nice about doing a comedy series about real people but tuning into that slight madness that's inherent in all our characters."
Is she hoping that Gavin & Stacey will raise her profile? "I'm not terribly ambitious," she says. "I just want to be comfy."
Poland's state broadcaster TVP says it has censored an episode of the British comedy show Little Britain because it showed a gay vicar kissing his boyfriend. "We decided to cut a scene which could cause controversy among Polish viewers and which isn't exactly in line with our mission as a public television channel," TVP spokeswoman Aneta Wrona told AFP. TVP cut around one minute of the episode because it objected to a sketch showing Dafydd, who is played by the openly gay Little Britain creator Matt Lucas.
The leather and rubber clad character has acquired cult status among British viewers for sketches in which he sits in the Welsh community of Llanddewi Brefi, complaining loudly that he is "the only gay in the village," oblivious to the fact that every other member of the community also appears to be homosexual. The contested scene shows Dafydd manning an erotic products stall at church fete and attempting to spark an argument about religious homophobia with the local vicar. The vicar, however, introduces his verger and boyfriend, who is portrayed in camp style by Lucas's fellow-creator David Walliams.
"British viewers are more open and indulgent than their Polish counterparts. It's a different sense of humour, and one which is sometimes incomprehensible for the Polish public," Ms Wrona said. She says it was the only time that TVP had censored the show, and noted that the broadcaster had the right to cut scenes under its contract with BBC television.
Little Britain also uses gay themes in other sketches - including one showing a civil servant who is in love with a Tony Blair-like character and constantly thinks up ruses to ensnare the prime minister.
Matt Lucas and David Walliams have landed a US version of Little Britain. Upmarket cable channel HBO has signed up the duo for a six-part series, which will feature a mix of new and existing characters. Shooting starts this autumn, and the series will air next year.
Walliams said: ‘We're very keen to take Little Britain to as wide an audience as possible. We are taking some existing characters and writing new material for them, as well as introducing new characters and ideas.' Lucas added: ‘We have grown up with huge respect for American comedy, so going to work there with HBO, which is the home of some great talent, will be a great experience for both of us.’
HBO Entertainment's senior vice president Nancy Geller described Lucas and Walliams as ‘two of the most exciting new comedy voices to emerge in recent years’. The show will be executive produced by Simon Fuller, the man behind Pop Idol and the Spice Girls. He said: ‘The show is an absolute smash everywhere it is seen and I am certain it is going to be loved by a US TV audience as well.’
HBO has previously showcased British comedy hits including Extras and Da Ali G Show.
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I thought they'd pretty much flogged this horse to death, but you never know, it might have legs yet...
Wheelchair-bound Ian MacKenzie has been slapped with an ASBO - for copying the antics of Andy from smash TV comedy Little Britain. MacKenzie, 47, was pushed into court by police after a string of wheelchair misdemanours which wound up locals and shopkeepers.
In the BBC comedy superslob Andy - played by actor Matt Lucas - makes the life of carer Lou - played by David Walliams - a misery in the fictional town of Herby City. But in Preston, Lancs, Mackenzie - confined to a wheelchair following a road accident - brought terror to the residents of Sharoe Green - including threatening to squirt passers-by with the contents of his colostomy bag. He also bombarded emergency crews with 999 calls in which he told telephone workers how dolphins mated. He would shout foul mouthed abuse at schoolchildren and threw himself from his wheelchair onto the ground in car parks - just like Andy in the TV show.
Today/yesterday(thur) MacKenzie, of Ashness Close, Fulwood, was facing up to five years jail after Preston magistrates issued him with an ASBO ordering him to behave himself. The order which bans him from his regular haunts will run until October 2009.
Community beat manager PC Denise Hanson said he was the third most frequent caller to Lancashire Police before his interim ASBO was imposed. But she said MacKenzie only misbehaved when he was under the influence of alcohol. She added: "He could be quite loud and frightening to children when he passed the school. He was also abusive to local businesses. He frequently called police when he was drunk because he just wanted someone to talk to. Most times it was nonsense. Once he asked the operator how dolphins mated. Most calls ended up being abusive because the operator would explain he was holding up the line. We believe he was lonely and threw himself out of his chair for attention."
Police collected a dossier of his bizarre nuisance behaviour in the Sharoe Green area and presented it to city magistrates.
It included:
* hurling himself out of his wheelchair into main roads and supermarket car parks
* throwing his colostomy bag on the floor in front of shops and threatening to squirt passers-by with the contents
* relieving himself on the pavement in front of local businesses
* telephoning his neighbourhood police office to demand a lift home when it was raining
* using threatening behaviour and foul language to primary school pupils at St Peter's Primary School.
Police got an interim ASBO against MacKenzie earlier this year before a full hearing in which magistraes read 11 statements from locals plagued by his bad behaviour.
After the case one shopkeeper said: "He made our lives a misery. People have compared him to Andy out of Little Britain but in our view he was a lot worse than him. He would just get boozed up and deliberately throw himself out of his chair to grab some attention - then throw back some abuse whenever anyone tried to help him. He would deliberately aim his colostonmy bag like a gun at passers by and threaten to squirt them with its contents. Some poeple were terrified of him and whenever they saw hin they would cross the road to give him a wide berth. That guy was forever hurling abuse at kids and passersby and we are all glad to see the back of him."
MacKenzie - described as an "avid" Preston North End supporter, is banned from making calls to Lancashire Police and emergency numbers and obstructing any highway in Preston. He is banned from behaving in a disorderly manner while drunk, using or encouraging someone to use threatening behaviour, and entering a mapped area around St Peter's primary school, Meadowfield.
Big Briton The phenomenal success of Little Britain propelled him into celebrity's top tier, but can David Walliams leave behind the catchphrases and gain acceptance in serious roles? Rachel Cooke meets him to discuss life, fame and cross-dressing - and bumps into famous friends Sienna and Rhys into the bargain Sunday November 11, 2007
The Observer
David Walliams lives in Belsize Park in north London and this is where we arrange to meet, though not, alas, at his home (he owns what used to be Supernova Heights, Noel Gallagher's old house, and has a plum-coloured, walk-in wardrobe or so I hear), but in an empty pub. At first, it's just me, a bored barmaid and a gospel choir (the gospel choir is on CD). Then Walliams arrives. He pushes open the bar door, comes in and stands stock still, hands on hips, gazing at the wasteland of chairs and tables, pretending not to see me. Finally, he puts his index finger hammily to his lips, like a small boy pondering the problem of how to arrange his teddies and says in a loud, camp voice: "Now... where is she?"
It's really funny, though I must admit it dies a bit in the telling. Anyway, the effect is that I like him instantly, which is a bit of a surprise. Read about Walliams in the newspapers and he invariably comes over as strange and creepy: the favourite cliche is that there is 'something of the night about him'.
Also that his consonants are too sibilant, his modus operandi at parties too oily (he has the temerity to own not one but two dinner jackets) and his sexuality too fuzzy (he made the mistake of saying he is '70 percent' straight, at which point all the lovely-looking girls he has dated instantly became - at least in the minds of certain tabloids - beards).
His face doesn't help, of course: wide and impassive, in his work it's his greatest blessing, the perfect blank canvas. But in life, it means you never know what he is thinking and when he's not smiling, the combination of close-set eyes, pale skin and rosebud lips contrives to make him look cross or, worse, sinister.
Walliams has deployed this aspect of himself - he's perfectly aware of it, I think - to quite brilliant effect in Stephen Poliakoff's new drama, Capturing Mary, in which he plays the wicked Greville, keeper of the establishment's secrets and destroyer of clever young women with journalistic ambitions. The film is the usual Poliakoff vanity project (except that the BBC pays him): like a very numbing and lavish dream, even when it has finally limped to a close, you're still none the wiser as to what it was all about (which is why, I'm afraid, my plot summary is so feeble).
But Walliams is excellent, menacing to the degree that it's a shame Russell T Davies didn't suggest him to be the Master, Dr Who's nemesis. I tell him this and he looks suitably modest. He endured a pair of two-hour auditions in order to land the role and was glad of every minute. 'Stephen is one of those names, isn't he?' he says. 'He's so serious about what he does. I think it's really important to audition because then you know you got it on merit rather than because you're well-known for something else. I wouldn't have felt right, not auditioning. I would have turned up on the first day not knowing if I could do it.'
Does he feel that he has to work twice as hard just to shift people's perceptions of him? 'I had to prove something to myself as well as other people. We did a read-through with Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon and I thought: God, do I dare think of myself as an actor? It was like starting again.'
I think Poliakoff was lucky to get him. For one thing, Walliams is a grafter and one who does not retreat at the first sign of failure. Last year, he swam the Channel for Comic Relief and his time was in the top 50 crossings. And while he's a very famous 'laydee' now, for years he and his Little Britain partner Matt Lucas were either stuck out in the comedy circuit's draughtier corners or producing pilot series that no one much watched (Rock Profiles, Sir Bernard's Stately Homes - though I bet both of these do very nicely on DVD these days).
For another thing, everyone wants him. 'Yes, I do get offers. But you have to work out, once you're well known, whether you're getting these offers because you're right for them. They'll say, "Does he want to be in this film?" And I'll say, "Which part?" And they'll say, "Well, which part does he want to play?" Which means that what I'm bringing to it is the notion of celebrity and I feel awkward about that.'
Not that he's moaning. 'The worst thing famous people can do is moan about being famous because they made themselves famous.' Still, it is a bit tiring. 'I got a call from a lady who does our PR today and she said, "I've had a call from the Sun and, apparently, you've popped the question to Erin O' Connor.'" He closes his eyes for a second. 'Now, I know Erin O' Connor. We've had dinner a couple of times. But I haven't even seen her for a month. So where does that come from? Where I live, there are quite a few [celebrities], so you do get Grazia round, you do get taken coming out of Asda or wiping bird poo off your car. You've just got to be grown-up about it.' His theory is that 'celebrity' now has almost nothing to do with success; after all, who are the people in OK! these days? 'I asked Richard Desmond [the magazine's somewhat boisterous owner] about that. "It's about three things," he said.' At this point, Walliams adopts a kind of low mockney and then, nodding his head on each word for emphasis, says: '"Girls... having... fun."'
His own fame/celebrity was incremental - 'it's not like I just walked out of the Big Brother house' - but surprising nevertheless because the concept of success had long since ceased to feel like even a remote possibility. 'The first time we did a live show, it was: will anyone turn up to see us? Then it was: will we get a Radio 4 pilot? Then it was: will we get a Radio 4 series? Then it was will get a TV pilot? You deal with each hurdle at a time.
'You're just trying to survive. But then, once Little Britain was on television, we noticed it seeping into the culture. It was a kind of shorthand. Whenever there was a newspaper story about a delinquent girl, the headline would say 'A Nation of Vicky Pollards'. Or if there was a story about gays in the military, there'd be a picture of Matt as Daffyd [if you've been away on the Moon, Daffyd is the only gay in a Welsh village]. You feel as if your fame is being spent for you by other people.'
Is that how he thinks of fame, as a finite thing that can be 'spent' like money? 'It's just that you don't want people to get sick of you. Like when someone does the rounds of chat shows and you see them, and you think, "Oh, them again. Here we go."'
He's right about all this, but I wonder why, if this is really how he feels, he so often allows himself to be photographed around town with the kind of girls the tabloids just adore (his ex-girlfriends are said to include Geri Halliwell, Patsy Kensit and, er, Abi Titmuss). But perhaps I'm being unfair. 'I'm quite sociable,' he says. 'I've got lots of nice friends.' Why should he be expected to stay quietly at home, eating pizza and watching DVDs of Dick Emery and The Two Ronnies
Walliams was brought up in Surrey, and went to Reigate Grammar School (famous old boys: Fat Boy Slim and Ray Mears); his father was a transport engineer and his mother a teacher. 'I had a very happy childhood, but I wasn't that happy a child. I liked being alone and creating characters and voices. I think that's when your creativity is developed, when you're young. I liked the world of the imagination because it was an easy place to go to.'
Were his parents anxious about him? 'I think they would have loved me to have gone out late or brought girls home all the time. But all I used to do was hang out with my close friend Robin Dashwood. We used to walk round Hampton Court Palace. That's all we enjoyed doing: talking and watching Brideshead Revisited on video.' Are he and Robin still good friends? 'Really close friends. That's the thing: your perception is that I'm out with Dale Winton all the time, but they would never print a picture of Robin because they don't know who he is.'
He is still close to his parents; he took his mum to the Baftas and when he's filming, she makes flapjacks for the crew. 'They came to every school play, to everything we did on the Fringe. They brought all their friends to our appalling show. In her Christmas card, my mum wrote, "Thanks for all the joy you've brought us this year." You couldn't want for any more out of life than to make your mum and dad happy.'
They take the rude stuff in their stride. When his mother saw the Little Britain sketch in which he plays a gerontophile, she said: 'Well, David was always very good with his granny.' Ditto the cross-dressing. 'I used to have a silk dressing gown an uncle bought in Japan and when I came downstairs in it, my dad used to call me Davinia. There was never embarrassment about that kind of thing. My sister used to dress me up a lot. She thought I was a little doll. She would put me in a bridesmaid's dress and furry hats.'
He and Lucas met as teenagers at the National Youth Theatre, but it wasn't until 1990 that they properly became friends, having become reacquainted at a comedy club in Bristol, where Walliams was doing his drama degree (they bonded over a Roy 'Chubby' Brown video; I'm guessing - hoping - that they despised it). They started writing together and, in 1995, took their show, Sir Bernard Chumley and Friends, to Edinburgh.
Has the nature of their friendship changed over the years? 'A bit but not dramatically. It's still the two of us in a room trying to make each other laugh. But he's had a civil partnership [to his long-term boyfriend Kevin McGee] and our priorities may change. One of us may say, "Well, I want to have kids."'
Walliams, who is single, is keen on the idea of having children, perhaps because, as he points out, he is still rather childlike himself. 'Look at the show. It's totally childlike. I am quite... innocent.'
I don't think he's innocent (in fact, I know he's not) so much as old-fashioned and slightly nerdish; he has lovely manners, and his enthusiasms - for nice clothes, say, or for James Bond - are passionate. His sister had a baby, Eddie, 18 months ago and he cannot get over how much he dotes on him. 'I'd like three. A little gang. It's a weird thing because I've been single at the time when I've been successful. That's good and bad. Good, because you meet lots of people, bad because your privacy is infringed, so it's harder to develop things.'
Does he like being single? When he talks about Matt, there's a note of wistfulness in his voice. 'It's fine. You must be happy being single or you're not going to be happy being with someone else, are you? It hasn't been forced on me. There's time for these things.' It's interesting, though, that the Little Britain character he says is closest to him is Sebastian, the gay prime ministerial aide. 'He's in love but... [it's unreciprocated]. He's hurt, petulant. That sits comfortably with me.' He once said, only half joking: 'In the end, they all leave - I don't know why.'
A few weeks after this conversation, Walliams and I meet again. Partly this is a catch-up, but it's also because I want to see if this is really what he's like: super-sincere, quiet, a faint air of the sickroom about him. I can't work him out. I have the odd feeling that he's playing with me. Ordinarily, I trust my instincts; this time, I wonder if I've been duped (later he tells me he was 'nervous' of me at first but also that he wants me to be 'nice' about him). By text message, we arrange to meet in the Soho Hotel. Oh, crikey. This is embarrassing. Walliams is standing in the bar with his arm around... Rhys Ifans. I wait a bit and then I go and stand awkwardly beside them. Walliams introduces me. Ifans is here because his girlfriend Sienna Miller is upstairs doing a junket to promote her film, Interview, and... oh, gawd... here she is. Walliams performs another introduction. Then he kisses Miller and Ifans - Rhys gets the most lavish kiss - and we go off to have tea. 'It gives you hope, doesn't it?' he says. What? 'Those two together. She's the most beautiful girl in the whole world.'
Today, Walliams does seem a bit different, just as likable but more up, somehow. It's drearily predictable to talk about the tears of a clown and all that, but I wonder if he still occasionally gets down (as he and Lucas were becoming successful, he suffered quite a severe depressive episode and he eventually sought treatment). Then again, he has just been for a swim - you can still see the goggle marks under his eyes - so there's the buzz from that, plus there is the effect of his celeb friends who, I'm guessing, must be performed to. There isn't much news. He has started writing a book for children - a 'semi-autobiographical wish-fulfilment fantasy about myself as an 11-year- old, which sounds a bit weird and creepy, but isn't' - and is about to fly to the US where he and Matt will be working on an American version of Little Britain for HBO. (Their go-between on the deal was Simon Fuller, creator of the Spice Girls, who Walliams thinks is 'amazing. Not everyone has read The Female Eunuch, but everyone's heard of Geri Halliwell saying "Girl Power"'.) What else? Well, he is still officially single but has met someone... someone really nice, an actress. 'She's very charming, brilliant and clever. She met Matt today and he said, "You must do everything in your power to marry her."'
So what's he going to do? 'I don't know. I don't have a technique because I think if you really like someone, it would just fall away anyway. Plans, being cool... there's no point in any of that. If two people like each other, there's no reason why it shouldn't happen.' He finishes his Earl Grey tea. 'And now I'm going to go back into the bar and lick Sienna Miller's face.'
· Capturing Mary is on BBC2 tomorrow at 9pm
From Williams to Walliams
Early life
Born David Williams on 20 August 1971 in Surrey, later adopting Walliams as a stage name.
Attended Reigate Grammar School and Bristol University where he studied drama from 1989 to 1992.
Met future Little Britain co-star Matt Lucas when they both joined the National Youth Theatre in 1990.
Career
Began working with Lucas in 1994, playing Edinburgh Festival 1995 and 96.
Devised radio comedy show Little Britain with Lucas for Radio 4 in 2001.
Little Britain TV series ran on BBC 3 in 2003, leading to repeats on BBC1. The first episode of the third series was watched by 9.5m people in 2005.
Outside acting
Raised £1m for Sport Relief by swimming the Channel in July 2006
Has been romantically linked to a female celebrities including Abi Titmuss, Patsy Kensit and Caroline Aherne
David Walliams is to play his comic hero Frankie Howerd in a new BBC biopic. The Little Britain star has confirmed that he will play the troubled comedian in the BBC Four show in the new year. It is one of a short season of entertainers’ biographies, which will also focus on Tony Hancock and Steptoe And Son stars Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H Corbett.
Walliams said: ‘I'm playing Frankie Howerd… He's a legend isn't he? It's quite a challenge playing a real person but I'm a genuine, genuine fan of his. I wrote to him, got his autograph when I was a kid, I went to see him many times, and met him once, so I’m chuffed about that. I’ve always wanted to be an actor. I once heard Frankie Howerd on the radio say if he hadn't been a comedian, “I would have starved”. And I feel the same way. I have no idea what “proper job” I could do.
Walliams even did an impersonation of Frankie Howerd when he first met Little Britain partner Matt Lucas at the National Youth Theatre.
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I imagine this will be excellent, but I hope they don't focus too much on any unhappy sides of Howerd's life too much as they have with other biopics... reality's great, but good memories are better!
Frogging up for a laugh Matt Lucas talks toads, Australian comics and Little Britain's plans for America, with Bridget McManus. December 20, 2007
www.theage.com.au
THE casting directors of the television remake of The Wind in the Willows must have squealed with delight when they signed Britain's favourite fat boy, Matt Lucas, as Toad of Toad Hall. The beloved bombastic thrillseeker of Kenneth Grahame's classic tale shares something in common with most of Lucas' Little Britain creations. Hedonistic aristocrat Toad is as incongruously conceited and shamelessly selfish as schoolgirl Vicky Pollard, as bloated and domineering as perennial health spa client Bubbles Devere and as outrageous and misguided as gay loner Daffyd.
Lurching along the Riverbank with Mole (Lee Ingleby) and Rat (played by Mark Gatiss who is almost unrecognisable from his grotesque Nighty Night character, Glen Bulb), and scurrying through the Wild Wood with Badger (Bob Hoskins), Lucas' Toad is a beautiful blend of his famous alter-egos. The familiar falsetto rises and falls with Toad's erratic mood swings. The rotund figure fairly bounces off the fantastical set.
Yet it is a character conceived well before Little Britain that Lucas cites as the inspiration for his interpretation of Toad. Sir Bernard Chumley, a lecherous old "stage actor and raconteur", hosted his own "Stately Homes" documentary series in 1999, before going on to drool over boy actors in the first series of Little Britain in 2003. Sadly, Sir Bernard didn't survive to the second series.
"My performance (as Toad) is inspired in part by Sir Bernard, but we don't have talking toads in Little Britain," says Lucas, speaking through a streaming cold from London.
Eccentric English aristocrats have, of course, been comedy fodder long before Grahame sketched his iconic anthropomorphic characters. But Lucas suspects the stereotype is not confined to the green and pleasant land. "They probably exist in Australia as well, to some extent, and every country," he says.
Lucas and his on-screen other half, David Walliams, have had plenty of time to explore cultural stereotypes beyond their homeland. Their 12 month-long live tour this year culminated in an extended leg in Australia, where they appeared on Neighbours (as paraplegic pretender Andy and his carer Lou). Lucas also had a cameo on Kath & Kim as Sharon Strezlecki's long-lost sister, Karen.
"There's a great heritage of Australian comedians," says Lucas. "Obviously, someone like Barry Humphries, who we've worked with, but also I'm a massive Shaun Micallef fan. I love Lano and Woodley and Thank God You're Here. I watch them all on DVD. They don't really show any of this on British telly but Andrew Denton recommended The Micallef Program to me and I sought other shows out."
Lucas is surprisingly upbeat about his and Walliams' appearance on The Dame Edna Treatment this year, which seemed excruciating for all three performers. At one point, Humphries virtually declared the interview a boring shambles and insisted on switching places so that Edna became the subject. Like many comic chameleons, Lucas and Walliams had little to give as themselves, something they proved again on Parkinson and even Denton's Enough Rope.
"You have to leave your ego at the door," Lucas says of the Dame Edna experience. "You have to hand it in for safe-keeping. There's no greater honour than having the piss ripped out of you by Dame Edna Everage, so we were humbled to go on the show. But actually, we were on with (former British newspaper editor) Piers Morgan and he took the worst ribbing. We got off quite lightly. We're huge fans of Dame Edna and I've seen Barry perform live many times and got to know him a little and it's incredible to think that he's played the same character for over 50 years. The only other person who's done that, I think, is Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II."
Lucas and Walliams are working on a new series for HBO, produced by American Idol producer Simon Fuller, which combines Little Britain favourites with new American characters, all played by Lucas and Walliams.
"We always had in the back of our minds that it would be possible for another version (of Little Britain) to exist. Something like 'Little America' with a cast of Americans," says Lucas. "We were very happy for somebody to come and take the show from us and make their own version but HBO were insistent that we both appear on screen."
Of course, Ricky Gervais paved the way for the sharing of current British comedy formats, with the breakaway US version of The Office. "Like a lot of people, I thought that Ricky's performance was so extraordinary in The Office that no one would be able to replicate the success, but Steve Carell came along and brought something different to the role and made it his own so I think it's a great thing," he says. "They both have their merits and I'm sure the same thing will happen with Kath & Kim. I don't think it takes anything away from the original show to have an American version."
Whether "the only gay in the village" will prove too confronting for an American audience that likes its homosexual characters passive and cliched remains to be seen. Certainly Lucas, who was this year named the eighth most influential of Britain's gays and lesbians by The Independent newspaper, and celebrated his civil partnership with television producer Kevin McGee, does not see it as his role to preach peace, love and understanding of sexual differences.
"I've never offered myself as a gay spokesperson to anybody, in any way, because it's not for me to do," he says.
"Daffyd is a fun character to play. It's very much based around an idea that David came up with. It's not based on me in any way. I could never get away with those sort of costumes." Except of course, as a cantankerous, cross-dressing Mr Toad in a children's telemovie.
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I watched this a few months back, and while it was really well made I was never that much of a fan of the story so it just kind of washed over me.
LITTLE Britain star David Walliams has gagged the News of the World from running footage of him indecently exposing himself in a lapdancing club. The funnyman was caught on security camera in a VIP London club cavorting with a blonde stripper. Walliams is also seen indecently exposing himself and breaching strict 'no contact' rules with the girl.
His solicitors wrote to the News of the World saying they intended to sue the paper for breach privacy. The News of the World does not admit liability in Walliams' claim but has agreed to remove the film pending resolution of his legal challenge.
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More of the 'is he gay or isn't he?' crap, or genuine?
David Walliams and Olympic rower James Cracknell have raised a big pile of cash for Sport Relief by swimming from Spain to Morocco. The pair completed the 12-mile stretch from Tarifa in Spain to Punta de Cires in Morocco in four hours 36 minutes.
Walliams suffered from sickness during the swim, but battled on to complete the challenge. For Cracknell, it was the final part of an epic trip from England, after he rowed to France and cycled to Spain.
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