Frank Skinner
Encyclopedia
Frank Skinner is a British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 writer, comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain 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 actor. He is best known for his television presenting, often alongside David Baddiel
David Baddiel
David Lionel Baddiel is an English comedian, novelist and television presenter.-Early life:Baddiel was born in New York, and moved to England when he was four months old. His father, Colin Brian Baddiel, was a Welsh research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after...

, with whom he also collaborated for the football song "Three Lions
Three Lions
"Three Lions" is a song released in 1996, the official anthem of the England football team for that year's European Championships, held in England...

."

He is a radio presenter on the Saturday morning slot on Absolute Radio.

Youth and early career (1957-1993)

Skinner was born at Sandwell General Hospital
Sandwell General Hospital
Sandwell General Hospital is a busy acute teaching hospital of the Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust in West Bromwich, England and provides an extensive range of general and specialist hospital services....

, and grew up in a council house
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...

 in neighbouring Oldbury
Oldbury, West Midlands
Oldbury is a town in the West Midlands in England. It is a part of the Black Country and the administrative centre of the borough of Sandwell.-Local government:...

. He was the youngest of four children born to West Cornforth-born
West Cornforth
West Cornforth is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the south of Cornforth, near the A1 motorway, Ferryhill and Spennymoor. It is referred to locally as "Doggie" possibly due to the production of dog iron there in the past though this etymology is disputed.The village was...

 former semi-professional footballer John Collins and his wife Doris. He has two older brothers, Keith and Terry, and an older sister, Norah. His father played for Spennymoor United
Spennymoor United F.C.
Spennymoor United F.C. was an English association football club based in Spennymoor, County Durham.In 1905, they joined the Northern League and won the league title six times in their history. In the 1936-37 season, they reached the third round of the FA Cup, where they lost to top-flight side West...

 before the Second World War, and met his mother in a local pub after Spennymoor had played West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion F.C.
West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...

 in an FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 game in 1937. Skinner attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from September 1968.

He passed 2 O-levels in summer 1973 and took A-levels
GCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...

 in English Language and Art, along with several O-level re-sits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. He subsequently took 4 A-levels (including English Language and Literature) at Warley College of Technology and graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...

) in 1981 with a degree in English. This was followed by a Masters degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...

 in the following year. After graduating, he spent three and a half years on unemployment benefit before finding work as a lecturer in English at Halesowen College. In 1987 he decided to give stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

 a try on the side, before quitting his job in 1989 to pursue his comedy career full-time. During this period a bout of influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...

 made him give up drinking, and he remains a high-profile recovering alcoholic.

Collins took on the pseudonym Frank Skinner when the actors' union Equity
British Actors' Equity Association
Equity is the trade union for actors, stage managers and models in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1930 by a group of West End performers....

 told him there was already someone of the same name on their books (their rules do not permit two members with identical names). He took the name from a member of his late father's dominoes
Dominoes
Dominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...

 team. Skinner had performed his first stand-up gig in 1987 and made his television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 debut a year later. In 1990 he co-wrote and starred in a weakly received sitcom, Packet Of Three
Packet of Three (TV series)
Packet of Three, later known as Packing Them In, was a 1990s comedy series broadcast by Channel 4. It starred Frank Skinner, Jenny Eclair and Henry Normal. For the re-titled 2nd series, Normal was replaced by Roger Mann and Kevin Eldon....

, on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 but continued to see his reputation as a stand-up grow. He won the 1991 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

, beating Jack Dee
Jack Dee
James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.-Early life:...

 and Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...

.

1994-2005

He often works with best friend and ex-flatmate David Baddiel
David Baddiel
David Lionel Baddiel is an English comedian, novelist and television presenter.-Early life:Baddiel was born in New York, and moved to England when he was four months old. His father, Colin Brian Baddiel, was a Welsh research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after...

, notably on the popular late night entertainment show Fantasy Football League
Fantasy Football League
Fantasy Football League is a British television programme hosted by Frank Skinner and David Baddiel. The Programme began on BBC Radio 5 and was hosted by Dominik Diamond before transferring to BBC 2, with three series being broadcast from January 1994 to May 1996...

, from 1994 to 2004 and on Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned
Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned
Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned is a free-form talk show hosted by British comedians/personalities David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and produced by Avalon Television...

from 2000 to 2005.

The duo also co-wrote and performed the football song "Three Lions
Three Lions
"Three Lions" is a song released in 1996, the official anthem of the England football team for that year's European Championships, held in England...

" with the Lightning Seeds
Lightning Seeds
The Lightning Seeds are an English alternative rock and pop band from Liverpool, England formed in 1989 by Ian Broudie , formerly of the Big in Japan band....

 and the England national football team
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

 for Euro 96, and re-released it for the 1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup
1998 World Cup may refer to:*1998 IAAF World Cup*1998 Men's Hockey World Cup*1998 Women's Hockey World Cup*1998 FIFA World Cup*1998 Alpine Skiing World Cup...

. The song reached #1 in the UK charts both times. In 2001, he released his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 "Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner", which became a bestseller. The accompanying TV show, "Frank Skinner on Frank Skinner", in which Skinner showed where he lived as a child and interviews with Skinner, his friends and family members, was recorded and shown on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 in 2001.

In 1998, he took part in a documentary entitled A Little Bit Of Elvis. He paid over £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

11,000 at auction, for a shirt which he believed was worn by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 at his famous 1956 Tupelo concert. Skinner visited the USA to find out if the shirt was the genuine article. After a slightly awkward conversation with Dave Hebler, Presley's bodyguard, it appeared the shirt did once belong to Presley, but it was not worn at the concert.

From 1995 to 1998 Skinner had his own chat show on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

, ending when the BBC refused to meet pay demands of a reported £20 million.
After a short break the show found a new home at ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 in 1999, where it ran until late 2005. He has appeared in a number of self-written sitcoms, including Blue Heaven (1994) and Shane
Shane (UK TV series)
Shane was an ITV sitcom written by and starring Frank Skinner and directed by Audrey Cooke, with the first series originally broadcast in 2004. Reviews were generally poor, but a second series was commissioned...

(2004).

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

 as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

2006-present

In 2005, Skinner announced he was going to leave behind his television work in favour of returning to the stand-up comedy circuit. A second series of Shane had been made, but not shown.

In February 2006, he received an honorary degree
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

 from the University of Central England, (now Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...

). Skinner and David Baddiel covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

 by podcast for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

. The podcasts received a nomination for the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

In 2007, he performed a new live stand-up tour, his first for 10 years, starting at a warm-up gig at the Swindon Arts Centre
Swindon Arts Centre
Swindon Arts Centre is a 200-seat entertainment venue located in the Old Town of Swindon, Wiltshire, England.The centre features all types of music, professional and amateur theatre, nationally recognised comedians, films, children's events, and one-man shows....

, continuing through to the Edinburgh Festival for 2 weeks at The Pleasance, the venue where he won the Perrier Award, and a 69 date national tour including three sold out homecoming performances at the National Indoor Arena
National Indoor Arena
The National Indoor Arena is a large indoor arena and is owned by the NEC Group. It is situated in central Birmingham, England and was opened in 1991, as the largest indoor arena at the time in the UK...

 in Birmingham in the Autumn.

In 2007, he ran a course at Osho Leela, a meditation and growth centre in Dorset.

In November 2008 and in the light of senior broadcasting figures such as ITV boss Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...

 and Sir Terry Wogan
Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...

 calling for TV to clean up its act regarding use of swear words, Skinner decided to experiment with removing swear words altogether from his stand up live act although stated that it would be a shame if 'clever swearing' was lost. He also stood in for an ill Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...

 as a team captain on the 21 November edition of Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have 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 broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...

.

From March 2009, Skinner started to present the Saturday Morning Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio with his co-hosts Emily Dean and Gareth Richards who was replaced by Alun Cochrane
Alun Cochrane
Alun "The Cockerel" Cochrane is a Scottish stand-up comedian. He was born in Glasgow and raised in Mirfield, West Yorkshire.-Stand-up comedy:...

 in June 2011. The show is produced by Avalon Television. After an initial 12-week stint proved very popular with the listeners, Skinner's contract was extended until summer 2010.

Skinner was a guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...

 on 11 June 2010.

He is the host of Frank Skinner's Opinionated
Frank Skinner's Opinionated
Frank Skinner's Opinionated is a British television comedy talk show hosted by comedian Frank Skinner and produced by Avalon for the BBC. The show focusses on various topics in the previous week's news, with Skinner joined by two celebrity guests, also interacting with the studio audience. Each...

, broadcast on BBC 2 on Friday evenings.

Skinner now (late 2010) has a regular column in the newspaper The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

.

Skinner can play the Banjo ukulele and in 2010, he contributed Ukulele parts to a song by Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

 called Ukulele Central which featured on their album Festival Bell
Festival Bell
Festival Bell is a 2011 studio album from electric folk band Fairport Convention. The name of the album is a reference to the bell of the same name that currently rings in St Mary's Church in Cropredy, Oxfordshire...

. He is the host of a BBC4 Documentary, Frank Skinner on George Formby, which is due to be aired on 27 October at 9pm, in part of the show Frank visits pupils taught by Lorraine Bow
Lorraine Bow
Lorraine Bow is a ukulele teacher who is based in London, UK. She owns the teaching company Learn To Uke, plays in the band KaraUke and founded the first ukulele jam night in London, Ukulele Wednesdays.- History :...

 and he sings with KaraUke as well as visiting a George Formby convention in Blackpool.

Personal life

In September 2009 Skinner was awarded his second honorary degree, from the University of Wolverhampton
University of Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton is a British university located on four campuses across the West Midlands and Shropshire. The city campus is located in Wolverhampton city centre with a second campus at Compton Park, Wolverhampton; a third in Walsall and a fourth in Telford...

.

Skinner describes himself as a supporter of the Labour Party, and is a practising Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

, fan of post punk group The Fall and supporter of West Bromwich Albion Football Club with an "all-consuming passion".

Skinner was a victim of the credit crunch
Credit crunch
A credit crunch is a reduction in the general availability of loans or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from the banks. A credit crunch generally involves a reduction in the availability of credit independent of a rise in official interest rates...

 after investing in AIG
AIG
AIG is American International Group, a major American insurance corporation.AIG may also refer to:* And-inverter graph, a concept in computer theory* Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization in the U.S.* Arta Industrial Group in Iran...

, losing millions of pounds as a result.

Books

In October 2001, Skinner's autobiography, Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner, was published.

In August 2009, he released a book centred on his comedy career - Frank Skinner on the Road: Love, Stand-up Comedy and the Queen of the Night.

In September 2011, The Collected Wisdom of Frank Skinner; Dispatches from the Sofa was published. It consists of his weekly columns for The Times, written from 2009-2011.

Stand-up VHS and DVDs

  • Live (5 October 1992)
  • Live at the Apollo (1994)
  • Live at the Palladium (14 October 1996)
  • Live in Birmingham (16 November 1998)
  • Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned - Live from London's West End (12 November 2001)
  • Stand-Up! Live from Birmingham's National Indoor Arena (10 November 2008)

External links


The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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