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On [[4 July]] [[2006]] Walliams swam the [[English Channel]] for the charity [[Sport Relief]] (part of [[Comic Relief]]).<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sport_relief/5143966.stm</ref><ref>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2255100,00.html</ref>
On [[4 July]] [[2006]] Walliams swam the [[English Channel]] for the charity [[Sport Relief]] (part of [[Comic Relief]]).<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sport_relief/5143966.stm</ref><ref>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2255100,00.html</ref>


He successfully completed the swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes to cover the 35 km (22 miles) stretch of sea, the equivalent of 700 lengths of an Olympic standard swimming pool. This was falsely reported as one of the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing, in fact it fails to get into the top 200, however he did raise over £1,000,000 in [[donation]]s. It took nine months of training to prepare for the swim. The training had to coincide with Walliams' and Lucas's ''Little Britain'' tour, so every morning before performing he had to complete several hours of training before performing on stage in the evening, a schedule worthy of a professional sportsman. Walliams first swam from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in around 2 hours and he also completed an eight hour swim off the coast of [[Croatia]] before embarking on the cross-channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had never seriously taken part in any sport.<ref>http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3722156a1860,00.html</ref>
He successfully completed the swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes to cover the 35 km (22 miles) stretch of sea, the equivalent of 700 lengths of an Olympic standard swimming pool. This was falsely reported as one of the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing (in fact it fails to break the best 200), however he did raise over £1,000,000 in [[donation]]s. It took nine months of training to prepare for the swim. The training had to coincide with Walliams' and Lucas's ''Little Britain'' tour, so every morning before performing he had to complete several hours of training before performing on stage in the evening, a schedule worthy of a professional sportsman. Walliams first swam from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in around 2 hours and he also completed an eight hour swim off the coast of [[Croatia]] before embarking on the cross-channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had never seriously taken part in any sport.<ref>http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3722156a1860,00.html</ref>


[[The Bluetones]], whose lead singer [[Mark Morriss]] is a friend of Walliams wrote a song in honour of his achievement. Entitled Fade In/Fade Out it can be found on their [[The Bluetones (album)|self-titled album]], which was released on [[9 October]] [[2006]]. Walliams was awarded a special award in the [[BBC Sports Personality of the Year]] in recognition. Matt Lucas made a Documentary of this, entitled "Little Britain's Big swim", which can be found on the [[Little Britain Live]] dvd
[[The Bluetones]], whose lead singer [[Mark Morriss]] is a friend of Walliams wrote a song in honour of his achievement. Entitled Fade In/Fade Out it can be found on their [[The Bluetones (album)|self-titled album]], which was released on [[9 October]] [[2006]]. Walliams was awarded a special award in the [[BBC Sports Personality of the Year]] in recognition. Matt Lucas made a Documentary of this, entitled "Little Britain's Big swim", which can be found on the [[Little Britain Live]] dvd

Revision as of 23:26, 14 May 2007

David Walliams
File:Sebastian love littlebritain.jpg
David Walliams as Sebastian Love (right), assistant to Prime Minister (Anthony Stewart Head) in Little Britain
Born
David Williams
Other namesDavid Williams
Height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)

David Walliams, (born David Williams) August 20, 1971 in Surrey, is an English comedy actor, best known for his partnership with Matt Lucas in the sketch show Little Britain.

Biography

Born to Peter (a London Transport engineer) and Kathleen Williams (a lab technician), Walliams was raised in Banstead in the county of Surrey. He has an older sister, Julie, and three nephews, Ben, Joe and Freddie. Walliams was educated at Reigate Grammar School, where he was a contemporary of Robert Shearman. He was a member of the National Youth Theatre, where he met comedy partner Lucas, and later studied Drama at the University of Bristol, where he was in the 1989-92 cohort - one year below Simon Pegg.

Walliams is a stage name adopted for Equity purposes. This was sent up in Rock Profile, in which Robbie Williams is always referred to as 'Robbie Walliams'. On 4 July 2006, Walliams successfully swam the English Channel to raise money for Sport Relief. On 6 November 2006, he won The Mirror's Pride of Britain Award for the Most Influential Public Figure as he raised more than £1 million swimming the channel for Sport Relief.

Although initially tipped as a contender for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year poll for 2006, he failed to make the final shortlist of 10 contenders following the nominations stage which closed on 15th November. Though nominations were invited from the public, the opinion of Sports Editors was also used in deciding the eventual shortlist. It is unknown whether Walliams would have been nominated had only the public nominations been considered. Instead, Walliams was given a special award during the ceremony for his achievement. In July 2006, Walliams also became a Patron of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY)

Walliams is left handed.

Career

His first known TV appearance was as Lesley Luncheonmeat on Sky One's show Games World in 1993. He appeared alongside Alex Verrey, who played Big Boy Barry, every Tuesday evening. After that he went on to be "The Lift" on the first series of the CBBC gameshow Incredible Games in 1994.

Walliams appeared alongside comedy partner Matt Lucas in the video of the Fat Les song Vindaloo, the unofficial anthem for the England national football team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Together with The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss, he wrote and appeared in Doctor Who parodies The Pitch of Fear, The Web of Caves and The Kidnappers for BBC2's "Doctor Who Night" in 1999. He later performed in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play Phantasmagoria, written by Gatiss. In 2000 he played Jake Plaskow in the BBC's Attachments, set in an internet start-up company. He appeared in an episode of Black Books in which he complained about getting second-hand smoke from the main character, who waved him off saying, "Forget about it, you can buy me a drink sometime." He also appeared as Rats in the surreal comedy by Rob Grant The Strangerers, shown on Sky One.

He appeared in an episode of EastEnders In 2003. He appeared in the second episode of Marple. Walliams has had a sitcom called Home in the pipeline since September 2003, having written most of it with potential co-star Rob Brydon. Ronnie Corbett said he agreed to appear in it. Also that year he appeared in an episode of Simon Pegg's (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) Spaced as a lost friend and self proclaimed artist of impressionism.

In 2006, Walliams made appearances in the movies A Cock and Bull Story and Virgin Territory. He later in the year he presented a documentary on James Bond, entitled David Walliams: My Life with James Bond.

Walliams and Lucas

He and Lucas have appeared as grotesque caricatures of various rock musicians in the series Rock Profile and in the spoof documentary series Sir Bernard's Stately Homes. They were also stars of the Paramount Comedy Channel Show "Mash and Peas" and it was in this guise that they appeared in the Fat Les video (see above).

Walliams and Lucas recently starred together in the film clip for the Pet Shop Boys new single "I'm with Stupid", in which the two are apparently auditioning their version of the song's film clip for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who are tied up and appear to be hostages. Among the characters played by Walliams in Little Britain are Emily Howard, the "rubbish transvestite", the mad Scottish hotel owner, Ray McCooney, and Sebastian Love, a camp aide (or aide de camp) to the Prime Minister, on whom he has a huge crush.

File:Lou and Andy.jpg
David Walliams as Lou (right, with Matt Lucas as Andy, left) in Little Britain

In 2006, as the pair toured Britain with a stage show, Little Britain Live, Walliams managed to fit in two hours of swimming training every morning in preparation for his cross-channel swim. On 3 April 2005, the swimming pool scene featuring Lou & Andy was hailed as the greatest comedy sketch of all time in a Channel 4 poll, on the show The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches.[1] (Vicky Pollard's swimming pool sketch came fourth.)

Swimming the English Channel

On 4 July 2006 Walliams swam the English Channel for the charity Sport Relief (part of Comic Relief).[2][3]

He successfully completed the swim in 10 hours and 34 minutes to cover the 35 km (22 miles) stretch of sea, the equivalent of 700 lengths of an Olympic standard swimming pool. This was falsely reported as one of the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing (in fact it fails to break the best 200), however he did raise over £1,000,000 in donations. It took nine months of training to prepare for the swim. The training had to coincide with Walliams' and Lucas's Little Britain tour, so every morning before performing he had to complete several hours of training before performing on stage in the evening, a schedule worthy of a professional sportsman. Walliams first swam from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in around 2 hours and he also completed an eight hour swim off the coast of Croatia before embarking on the cross-channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had never seriously taken part in any sport.[4]

The Bluetones, whose lead singer Mark Morriss is a friend of Walliams wrote a song in honour of his achievement. Entitled Fade In/Fade Out it can be found on their self-titled album, which was released on 9 October 2006. Walliams was awarded a special award in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in recognition. Matt Lucas made a Documentary of this, entitled "Little Britain's Big swim", which can be found on the Little Britain Live dvd

Personal life

Walliams' best friend is Jimmy Carr, but he makes numerous references to not knowing who Carr is.[citation needed]

There are many rumours that Walliams is gay or bisexual and humorous references to this are made on the DVD commentary of Little Britain. However in an interview with Queerday,[5] Walliams stated that life would be easier if he were attracted to men. There have been rumours (most perpetuated by the red top press) that Walliams and Lucas are a couple, but such rumours were set to rest when Lucas registered his civil partnership with his male partner of three years in December 2006.

Walliams once went on a date with actress Jessica Stevenson, but she said it was boring. His confirmed ex-girl friends include Abi Titmuss, Patsy Kensit and Australian model Emily Scott. In the book Inside Little Britain he refers to a woman he fell in love with as "Miss X"; Lisa Snowdon later revealed in the Daily Mirror that she was Miss X. Walliams has recently admitted to taking pity on Australian musical wannabe Rachel Burke. After spotting her in the crowd at his Brisbane show of "little Britain Live", he motioned for security to remove her from the premises. The woman has since faded into obscurity. He is now rumoured to be dating former Spice Girl, Geri Halliwell. Walliams lives in Belsize Park, North West London in a house called "Supernova Heights", Noel Gallagher's former home, which he bought for £3.25M from Davinia Taylor and her ex-husband.[6]

Selected Filmography

Biography

  • Neil Simpson: Yeah but No But: The Biography of Matt Lucas and David Walliams: London: John Blake: 2006: ISBN 1-84454-258-0
  • Boyd Hilton, Matt Lucas, David Walliams: Inside Little Britain: London: Ebury Press: 2006: ISBN 0-09-191231-8

References

  1. ^ Channel 4's 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches at thecustard.tv
  2. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sport_relief/5143966.stm
  3. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2255100,00.html
  4. ^ http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3722156a1860,00.html
  5. ^ http://www.queerday.com/2005/nov/08/little_britains_david_walliams_i_wish_i_was_gay.html
  6. ^ http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=16143871&method=full&siteid=62484&headline=becks-best-pal-in-split-from-wife--name_page.html

External links

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