Alistair McGowan (born 24 November 1964) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
impressionistAn impressionist is a performer whose act consists of giving the "impression" of being someone else by imitating the other person's voice and mannerisms....
,
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. McGowan is best known for his work with
Ronni AnconaVeronica 'Ronni' Ancona , sometimes credited as 'Ronnie Ancona' in early work, is a Scottish impressionist and actress of Italian/Jewish ancestry who won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.-Career:She made a one-off appearance on Blue...
on
The Big Impression (formerly
Alistair McGowan's Big Impression), which spawned his culturally popular impressions of
David BeckhamDavid Robert Joseph Beckham,
OBE is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy and the England national team....
,
Sven-Göran ErikssonSven-Göran Eriksson born 5 February 1948, in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname
Svennis , is a Swedish football manager. He is the current director of football for Notts County....
,
Gary LinekerGary Winston Lineker OBE is a retired English international football striker and is currently a sports broadcaster for the BBC and Eredivisie Live...
,
Nicky CampbellNicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog...
, Richard Madeley,
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
,
Ross GellerRoss Geller, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends , played by David Schwimmer. The character is noted for his geeky, lovelorn demeanor.- Personality :...
(
FriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolved around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by...
) and Dot Cotton (
EastEndersEastEnders is a long-running, popular and award-winning television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985...
).
Personal life and Education
McGowan was born in the village of
BadseyBadsey is a village and civil parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. It has two parks and a small first school located in the centre of the village.-Location:...
,
WorcestershireWorcestershire or ; abbreviated Worcs) is a historic and administrative county located in the West Midlands region of central England. In 1974 it was merged with the county of Herefordshire to form the single administrative county of Hereford and Worcester; which was divided in 1998,...
, just outside the town of Evesham to George McGowan, a teacher of Eurasian ancestry, from Calcutta. Although aware his father was born in India, McGowan has said that he was unaware of his father's ethnicity until after his death in 2003, and had assumed his paternal ancestry was Scottish. McGowan's ancestry was explored and investigated in the 4 October 2007 edition of the BBC's
Who Do You Think You Are?Who Do You Think You Are? is a British genealogy documentary series that has aired on the BBC since 2004. Made by Wall to Wall, in each episode, a celebrity goes on a journey to trace his or her family tree. Seven series have been broadcast, the most recent of which aired in July and August 2009...
He attended the Simon de Montfort Middle School in Evesham and took lead roles in school productions. He went on to attend
Evesham High SchoolEvesham High School , also known as EHS, is a dual Specialist Sports College and Maths and Computing College located in Evesham, Worcestershire, England...
, and took a lead part in the musical
West Side StoryWest Side Story is an American musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical's plot is based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet....
. This is where he started to make impressions of different people at school including teachers. He graduated from the
University of LeedsThe University of Leeds is a major teaching and research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire and, with over 33,000 full-time students, is the second largest single site university in the United Kingdom. In the world university league tables published in November 2008, the university's ‘employer...
with a
BABachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
English degree in 1986 and he then went to the
Guildhall School of Music and DramaGuildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama, Stage Management and Technical Theatre-History:...
in London, where he graduated in 1989.
McGowan is a supporter of football club Leeds United - even claiming that he decided to study at Leeds partly because of its proximity to
Elland RoadElland Road is an all-seater football stadium situated in the Beeston area of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Elland Road has been the permanent residence of Leeds United A.F.C...
- and his obsession with football forms the basis of his 2009 book,
A Matter of Life and DeathA Matter of Life and Death is a romantic fantasy film set in the Second World War by the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was originally released in U.S. under the title Stairway to Heaven, which was derived from the film's most prominent special...
, a part-memoir and part-comedy self-help manual, which he co-wrote with Ronni Ancona.
Career
McGowan found work as a stand-up comedian, and did some of the voices for the
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
television series
Spitting ImageSpitting Image was a British satirical puppet show which ran on the ITV television network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one, for editing, in 1989....
. His sporting impressions were showcased on the BBC 2 football magazine programme
Sick as a Parrot. He also appeared as the recycling man in the BBC show
Think about Science.
Later he took over from
Stephen TompkinsonStephen Tompkinson is an English actor, born 15 October 1965 in Stockton-on-Tees but grew up in St. Anne's, Lancashire, attending St. Bedes Catholic High School, Lytham Lancashire. He is best known for his roles in Wild at Heart and Ballykissangel...
playing Spock in the
Tim FirthTim Firth is an English dramatist, screenwriter and songwriter.He was born and has lived all his life in the north west of England, on the border of Cheshire and Lancashire. He attended a comprehensive school in Warrington and read English at Cambridge University...
comedy drama,
Preston Front. In his early career, McGowan had minor roles in shows such as
Children's WardChildren's Ward was a British children's television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its Children's ITV strand on weekday afternoons. The programme was set, as the title suggests, in the children's ward of a hospital, and told the stories of...
, and in the pilot episode of
Jonathan CreekJonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches, and stars Alan Davies as the titular character, an eccentric magician's assistant who also solves seemingly supernatural...
. He also starred in the first series of
Dead RingersDead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 and later BBC Two. The programme was devised by producer Bill Dare and developed with Jon Holmes, Andy Hurst and Simon Blackwell. It starred Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry....
.
McGowan also appeared in the Scottish Football sketch show
Only an Excuse?Only An Excuse? is a Scottish football comedy sketch show.Starring actor and comedian Jonathan Watson, the show features impersonations of some of Scottish football's great characters such as Denis Law, Tommy Burns, Barry Ferguson, Sir Alex Ferguson and Frank McAvennie, as well as caricatures of...
from 1996 to 1998.
The Big Impression
He is best known for his work with
Jan RavensJan Ravens is an English actress and impressionist, famous for her voices on Spitting Image and Dead Ringers.-Early life:...
and
Ronni AnconaVeronica 'Ronni' Ancona , sometimes credited as 'Ronnie Ancona' in early work, is a Scottish impressionist and actress of Italian/Jewish ancestry who won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.-Career:She made a one-off appearance on Blue...
on
The Big Impression, formerly
Alistair McGowan's Big Impression. McGowan has a repertoire of well over one hundred impersonations many of which have been covered on Alistair McGowan's Big Impression.
The most popular and regular include
David BeckhamDavid Robert Joseph Beckham,
OBE is an English footballer who currently plays in midfield for American Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy and the England national team....
,
Sven-Göran ErikssonSven-Göran Eriksson born 5 February 1948, in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname
Svennis , is a Swedish football manager. He is the current director of football for Notts County....
,
Gary LinekerGary Winston Lineker OBE is a retired English international football striker and is currently a sports broadcaster for the BBC and Eredivisie Live...
,
Nicky CampbellNicholas Andrew Argyll Campbell is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog...
, Richard Madeley,
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, Prince Charles,
Robert Kilroy-SilkRobert Michael Kilroy-Silk is an English politician, independent Member of the European Parliament and a television presenter, best known for his daytime talk show Kilroy...
, Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen
Angus DeaytonGordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and television presenter. He is best-known as the former presenter of the satirical panel game Have I Got News for You, a job from which he was sacked in October 2002 after a second round of tabloid allegations about his personal...
,
Terry WoganSir Michael Terence "Terry" Wogan KBE DL is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster and comedian, who has worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom for most of his career. With a regular 8 million listeners, he is the most listened to radio broadcaster of any...
and the fictional characters
Ross GellerRoss Geller, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends , played by David Schwimmer. The character is noted for his geeky, lovelorn demeanor.- Personality :...
(from
FriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolved around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by...
) & Dot Cotton (from
EastEndersEastEnders is a long-running, popular and award-winning television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985...
).
McGowan and
Ronni AnconaVeronica 'Ronni' Ancona , sometimes credited as 'Ronnie Ancona' in early work, is a Scottish impressionist and actress of Italian/Jewish ancestry who won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.-Career:She made a one-off appearance on Blue...
are probably best known for their portrayal of
Posh and BecksPosh and Becks is the nickname for the English celebrity supercouple Victoria Beckham and David Beckham ....
with McGowan exaggerating David Beckham's perceived lack of intelligence and Ancona exaggerating the role of "Posh Spice" (
Victoria BeckhamVictoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer, songwriter, dancer, fashion designer, author, businesswoman, actress and model....
) with pouting lips. As the Beckhams' style of dress regularly changed - in particular David's changing haircuts - McGowan adapted his costumes and style accordingly.
Return to acting and radio work (2005)
He made a return to dramatic acting in 2005, appearing in the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
's adaptation of
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
's novel
Bleak House. In 2006 he starred in the detective series
MayoMayo was a comedy detective drama television series made by the BBC and starring Alistair McGowan, Jessica Oyelowo, Huw Rhys and Loo Brealey. The series is based on a popular series of Gil Mayo mysteries books by Marjorie Eccles. It was filmed on location in and around Leamington Spa. The series...
. He also presented an episode of
Have I Got News For YouHave I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been running since 1990...
on 20 October 2006. He joined the
Royal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company. Located primarily at Stratford-upon-Avon, with bases also in London and Newcastle upon Tyne, it is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly-funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal National Theatre.-The early...
for the Christmas 2006 season playing Mr Page in
Merry Wives: the Musical (a version of
The Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
) opposite
Judi DenchDame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English actress.Originally trained as a set designer, Dench began her acting career in the mid 1950s in amateur productions, and made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company...
,
Simon CallowSimon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, writer and theatre director.-Early years:Callow was born in Streatham, London, UK, to Yvonne Mary Guise, a secretary, and Neil Francis Callow, a businessman...
and
Haydn GwynneHaydn Gwynne is a BAFTA, Tony Award and Olivier Award nominated British actress.-Personal life:Born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex to Irish father Guy Thomas Hayden-Gwynne, she played county level tennis before studying Modern Languages at the University of Nottingham, and is fluent in French and...
.
Despite his acting commitments, he has still continued a successful career of celebrity impersonator on the BBC Radio and also did re-voicing of video footages of 'The Sports Review of the Year' and
Match of the DayMatch of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in the Barclays Premier League...
which has turned him into a sideline sporting celebrity. Two releases of 'Alistair McGowan's Football Backchat' were best sellers in both comedy and sports video charts.
In 2007 McGowan starred as the dentist (and other, smaller characters) in the West End transfer of the
Menier Chocolate FactoryThe Menier Chocolate Factory is an award-winning 180 seat fringe studio theatre, restaurant and gallery. It is located in a former 1870s Menier Chocolate Company factory in Southwark Street, a major street in the London Borough of Southwark, central south London, England. The theatre stages plays...
's revival of
Little Shop of HorrorsLittle Shop of Horrors is a rock musical by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical is based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman...
, and filmed
My Life in RuinsMy Life in Ruins is a romantic comedy film set amongst the ruins of ancient Greece, starring Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Rachel Dratch, Harland Williams and British comedy actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan...
, an American comedy film set in the ruins of ancient Greece.
In 2008 McGowan made his directing debut at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Noël Coward's classic comedy
Semi-MondeSemi-Monde is a play written by Noel Coward in 1926, but not produced until 1977. Set in the lobby, restaurants, and bar of an up-scale Paris hotel, the play follows the lives of a variety of socialites over a three year period from 1924 to 1926. It is remarkable among its contemporaries due to its...
.
In January and February 2008, McGowan starred as the eponymous protagonist of
The MikadoThe Mikado or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
by
Gilbert and SullivanGilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, in a revival by
Carl Rosa Opera CompanyThe Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
. On 21 April 2008 he took over the role of Emcee in
Cabaret (musical)Cabaret is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and music by John Kander. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
at the
Lyric Theatre (London)The Lyric Theatre is a West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster.Designed by architect C. J. Phipps, it was built by producer Henry Leslie with profits from the Alfred Cellier and B. C. Stephenson hit, Dorothy, which he transferred from the Prince of Wales Theatre to open...
. In July of that year he appeared in a revival of
They're Playing Our SongThey're Playing Our Song is a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch.In a story based on the real-life relationship of Hamlisch and Sager, a wisecracking composer finds a new, offbeat lyricist, but initially the match is not one made in heaven...
at the
Menier Chocolate FactoryThe Menier Chocolate Factory is an award-winning 180 seat fringe studio theatre, restaurant and gallery. It is located in a former 1870s Menier Chocolate Company factory in Southwark Street, a major street in the London Borough of Southwark, central south London, England. The theatre stages plays...
.
Environmental work
McGowan serves as an ambassador to WWF-UK, part of the global
World Wide Fund For NatureThe World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in the United States and Canada...
, and campaigns on a number of environmental issues. In 2004 he launched 'the BIG recycle' national campaign urging public to reduce rubbish by recycling it.
On 2 August 2006, he appeared on
BBC Radio 2BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the UK. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
on Steve Wright's show to appeal to listeners to be more energy aware. More recently, he appeared on the
James WhaleMichael Whale is an English broadcaster for radio and television. Whale has won three Sony Radio Awards, and October 2007 saw the publication of his autobiography Almost a Celebrity: A Lifetime of Night-Time...
Show on
TalksportTalksport , owned by UTV Radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a commercial sports and talk radio service from London to the United Kingdom....
on 20 June 2007 on this issue.
McGowan is a patron of the urban tree-planting charity 'Trees for Cities'.
On 13th January 2009, it was announced that McGowan in partnership with three other Greenpeace activists, including actress
Emma ThompsonEmma Thompson is an Academy Award-winning British actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She is also a patron of the Refugee Council.- Early life :...
, had bought land near
SipsonSipson is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, situated near the northern perimeter of London Heathrow Airport and west of Charing Cross. Historically, Sipson was in the county of Middlesex, which was abolished when Greater London was created in 1965...
, a village under threat from the proposed third runway for Heathrow Airport. It is hoped that the area of ground, half the size of a football pitch, will prevent the government from carrying through its plan to expand Heathrow. The field, bought for an undisclosed sum from a local land owner, will be split into small squares and sold across the globe. When interviewed Mr McGowan said: "BAA were so confident of getting the Government's go ahead, but we have cunningly bought the land they need to build their runway."
External links