Rebecca Front
Encyclopedia
Rebecca Front is a BAFTA Award–winning English
comedian and actress best known for her performances in The Thick of It
in the late 2000s, and series of critically acclaimed satirical comedies in the early 1990s: On The Hour
, The Day Today
and Knowing Me, Knowing You...with Alan Partridge. During the 2000s, her career continued across a range of comedy genres with prominent roles in animation Monkey Dust
, Time Gentlemen Please
, Nighty Night
, and sketch show Big Train
.
, Notting Hill
, Edinburgh, Salisbury, and Romsey. In 1985, Front teamed up with Sioned William and Jon Magnusson
to take the show The Bobo Girls go BOO to Edinburgh. She made a short promotional video on Energy Conservation with Michael Simkins in the late 1980s.
Front earned a higher profile as a result of her work with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring
on radio shows Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
and On The Hour and the television and radio series Fist of Fun
. She would go on to form a close professional association with Chris Morris
, Armando Iannucci
, Doon Mackichan
and Steve Coogan
who all transferred with Front to The Day Today, the television version of On The Hour. Completing The Day Today were Patrick Marber
, who was part of the 1984 Oxford University revue with Front, and David Schneider
, who took part in the 1985 revue. This cast, minus Morris, would continue to contribute to the Alan Partridge
comedy canon throughout the 1990s.
In recent years Front has also become a fixture on comedy panel shows on British television and radio including The News Quiz
, Have I Got News For You
and If I Ruled The World
. She has also had minor roles in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
and Absolutely Fabulous
, and has also played 'straight' acting roles in television drama, including You Can Choose Your Friends, The Rotters' Club
, Kavanagh Q.C., Lewis, and Jonathan Creek
.
In 2003, she was listed in The Observer
as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. Since 2006, she has been contributing columns to The Guardian
. In 2007, she guest-starred in the Doctor Who
audio drama The Mind's Eye
.
Innocent on Lewis, the successor program to the Inspector Morse
series on ITV
. In 2009 she played Nicola Murray MP, Secretary of State for Citizenship and Social Affairs and in charge of the dysfunctional 'DoSAC' in the third series of the political satire The Thick of It
.
Front featured in the 2010 BBC comedy series Grandma's House
playing the part of Simon Amstell
's mother, and Just William, as the mother of William Brown
. She also starred in the 2011
British live-action 3D family comedy film Horrid Henry: The Movie
, as the titular character's headmistress Miss Oddbod.
England
England 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, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
comedian and actress best known for her performances in The Thick of It
The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed fourteen half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...
in the late 2000s, and series of critically acclaimed satirical comedies in the early 1990s: On The Hour
On the Hour
On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...
, The Day Today
The Day Today
The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992...
and Knowing Me, Knowing You...with Alan Partridge. During the 2000s, her career continued across a range of comedy genres with prominent roles in animation Monkey Dust
Monkey Dust
Monkey Dust is a British satirical cartoon, notorious for its dark humour and handling of taboo topics such as murder, suicide and paedophilia. There were three series broadcast on BBC Three between 2003 and 2005...
, Time Gentlemen Please
Time Gentlemen Please
Time Gentlemen Please is a British sitcom. Commissioned by Sky One, it was primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and ran for two series between 2000 and 2002.- Premise and characters :...
, Nighty Night
Nighty Night
Nighty Night is a British dark comedy sitcom written by and starring Julia Davis. It was first broadcast on 6 January 2004 on BBC Three before moving to BBC2....
, and sketch show Big Train
Big Train
Big Train is a surreal British television comedy sketch show created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, writers of the successful sitcom Father Ted...
.
Career
Front became involved in comedy while at St Hugh's College, Oxford University. She toured with the Oxford Theatre Group in 1984, taking part in the revue Stop the Weak. The tour played in Oxford itself; the Gate TheatreGate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
, Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, Edinburgh, Salisbury, and Romsey. In 1985, Front teamed up with Sioned William and Jon Magnusson
Jón Magnússon
Jón Magnússon may refer to:* Jon Magnusson, Earl of Orkney in 1284–c. 1300* Jón Magnússon , 17th century Icelandic author* Jón Magnússon , prime minister of Iceland* Jón Arnar Magnússon, Icelandic decathlete...
to take the show The Bobo Girls go BOO to Edinburgh. She made a short promotional video on Energy Conservation with Michael Simkins in the late 1980s.
Front earned a higher profile as a result of her work with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring
Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were probably most famous for their work on television, most notably Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy but had been working together on stage and on radio...
on radio shows Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World was a BBC Radio 4 comedy series starring Stewart Lee and Richard Herring , and narrated by Tom Baker as the titular character, Lionel Nimrod, an over the top parody of Leonard Nimoy. The show itself somewhat parodies the Leonard Nimoy program "In Search Of..."...
and On The Hour and the television and radio series Fist of Fun
Fist of Fun
Fist of Fun was a popular British comedy television and radio programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring . A lot of the show's comic material was adapted from Lee and Herring's radio programme Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World.Each episode of Fist of Fun featured several disparate sketches...
. She would go on to form a close professional association with Chris Morris
Chris Morris (satirist)
Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...
, Armando Iannucci
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....
, Doon Mackichan
Doon Mackichan
Doon Mackichan is an English comedienne and actress.-Biography:Born in London, Mackichan was brought up in Surrey until the age of 9 when she moved with her family to Upper Largo, Fife. She is a graduate of Manchester University...
and Steve Coogan
Steve Coogan
Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...
who all transferred with Front to The Day Today, the television version of On The Hour. Completing The Day Today were Patrick Marber
Patrick Marber
Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...
, who was part of the 1984 Oxford University revue with Front, and David Schneider
David Schneider (actor)
David Schneider is an English actor and comedian.Schneider studied modern languages at the University of Oxford, and studied for a DPhil in Yiddish Drama. During his time at university, Schneider performed a predominantly physical comedy act that contrasted with the trend towards stand-up comedy...
, who took part in the 1985 revue. This cast, minus Morris, would continue to contribute to the Alan Partridge
Alan Partridge
Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional radio and television presenter portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan and invented by Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring for the BBC Radio 4 programme On The Hour...
comedy canon throughout the 1990s.
In recent years Front has also become a fixture on comedy panel shows on British television and radio including The News Quiz
The News Quiz
The News Quiz is a topical panel game broadcast on British radio BBC Radio 4.-History:It was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently it was chaired by Simon Hoggart, Barry Took , and then again by Simon Hoggart until March 2006. Hoggart was replaced by Sandi Toksvig in...
, 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...
and If I Ruled The World
If I Ruled the World (game show)
If I Ruled the World is a television show aired in the United Kingdom in 1998 and 1999. It was a comedy panel game show, similar to Have I Got News For You but focused on parodying the behaviour of politicians...
. She has also had minor roles in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer was a BBC TV sketch show written by and starring double act Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer. Its first series appeared in 1993 following the duo's move to the BBC after parting company with Channel 4...
and Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...
, and has also played 'straight' acting roles in television drama, including You Can Choose Your Friends, The Rotters' Club
The Rotters' Club
The Rotters' Club may refer to:* The Rotters' Club , a 1975 album by the Canterbury scene band Hatfield and the North* The Rotters' Club , a 2001 novel by Jonathan Coe...
, Kavanagh Q.C., Lewis, and Jonathan Creek
Jonathan Creek
Jonathan 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...
.
In 2003, she 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. Since 2006, she has been contributing columns to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. In 2007, she guest-starred in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
audio drama The Mind's Eye
The Mind's Eye & Mission of the Viyrans
The Mind's Eye & Mission of the Viyrans is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
.
Recent years
Front has had a recurring serious role as DCSChief Superintendent
Chief superintendent is a senior rank in police forces organised on the British model.- United Kingdom :In the British police, a chief superintendent is senior to a superintendent and junior to an assistant chief constable .The highest rank below Chief Officer level, chief...
Innocent on Lewis, the successor program to the Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....
series 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 2009 she played Nicola Murray MP, Secretary of State for Citizenship and Social Affairs and in charge of the dysfunctional 'DoSAC' in the third series of the political satire The Thick of It
The Thick of It
The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed fourteen half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...
.
Front featured in the 2010 BBC comedy series Grandma's House
Grandma's House
Grandma's House is a sitcom television series for BBC Two. Written by Simon Amstell and long term collaborator Dan Swimer, the series stars Simon Amstell playing a version of himself: a television presenter searching for meaning in his life...
playing the part of Simon Amstell
Simon Amstell
Simon Marc Amstell is a BAFTA nominated, award-winning English comedian, television presenter, screenwriter and actor, best known for his roles as former co-host of Popworld, former host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and co-writer and star of the sitcom Grandma's House.-Early life:Amstell was born...
's mother, and Just William, as the mother of William Brown
Just William series
The William Brown series, better known as the Just William series, is a series of thirty nine books written by English author Richmal Crompton...
. She also starred in the 2011
2011 in film
The year 2011 is notable for containing the release of the most film sequels in a single year, at 27 sequels. The following tables list films that are in production or have completed production and will be released in the United States and Canada at some point in 2011.- Highest-grossing films :...
British live-action 3D family comedy film Horrid Henry: The Movie
Horrid Henry the Movie
Horrid Henry: The Movie is a 3D family comedy film based on the fictional character Horrid Henry. The first British film for children to be shot in 3D, its UK release date was 29 July 2011...
, as the titular character's headmistress Miss Oddbod.
External links
- Rebeccafront on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- Guardian articles