Brian Conley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Brian Conley on the set of Let Me Entertain You.
Enlarge
Brian Conley on the set of Let Me Entertain You.

Brian Conley (born 1961 in Paddington, London) is an English comedian, television presenter, singer and actor

A former Pontin's Blue Coat, he then joined comedy show band "Tomfoolery", followed by a decade in television in the 1990's in sitcoms, sketch and variety, before showing his acting talent on stage and in film

Contents

[edit] Biography

Brian Paul Conley was born and raised in West London and studied Performing Arts at The Barbara Speake Stage School. He started his career as a holiday camp entertainer, working as a Pontin's Bluecoat at the age of 16. After Pontin's, he joined successful comedy showband called Tomfoolery. In 1982, he appeared on the British version of the gameshow Make Me Laugh, presented by Bernie Winters.

After "Tomfoolery", Conley became a warm up man for the likes of Terry Wogan, Noel Edmonds and Kenny Everett. Afterwards, he started appearing in front of the cameras with regular appearances in Five Alive and Live from the Palladium. He was soon snapped up by ITV and given his own starring vehicle to demonstrate his unique and versatile talents, this was Brian Conley - This Way Up which was followed by The Brian Conley Show, both very successful sketch shows. He was then offered the lead roll in the sitcom Time after Time which was awarded The British Comedy Award for Best ITV Sitcom. He then went on to play the hugely popular Doug 'Dynamo' Digby, starring opposite Amanda Holden, Nigel Planer and Noddy Holder in The Grimleys. He was also given two "An Audience With..." shows.

Around 2000, Conley was given a new show for ITV consisting of chat and music called, one again, "The Brian Conley Show". The show lasted for three series. The show's guests included some major Hollywood names, like Kathleen Turner, Leslie Nielsen and James Belushi.

He also worked at the BBC for a couple of shows. His first being "Got Your Number", a game show part of a long series of National Lottery game shows. Conley would later return to the BBC to present Let Me Entertain You in 2006.

He reached a nadir in 2003 with the show "Judgement Day" which was promptly dropped after just two episodes having given ITV1 its lowest ever recorded audience share. Following this, he concentrated more on stage work, including the parts Buttons in Cinderella and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

In 2006, Brian Conley returned to television, hosting a daytime variety show called Let Me Entertain You, a Lion TV production for BBC Two. The show is to be recommisioned in a Saturday prime-time slot. On December 1 of the same year, he appeared as a guest presenter on The New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4, where Larry The Loafer made an appearence in the beginning, and Brian referred himself to "Dangerous Brian" as he was about to enter the "Tank of Doom" as part of a Bush Tucker Trial.

[edit] Television Appearances

[edit] Music and Stage Work

Conley is also known for his singing voice and has released multiple albums, including "Songs From The Shows", "Stage to Stage" and "Let The Good Times Roll". After he left television, he went on to stage work and appeared as Buttons in "Cinderella". He also appeared in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" as Caractacus Potts. He is due to appear again in pantomime "Cinderella" in Birmingham in winter 2006

[edit] Films

He has appeared on the silver screen in "Circus", with John Hannah and Eddie Izzard, and "Unconditional Love" with Kathy Bates. In 2002, Conley made a cameo in Kurt Wimmer's 2002 Science Fiction film Equilibrium

[edit] Trivia

  • His most popular catchphrase was "It's A Puppet" used for a Brian Conley show character Nick Frisbee, with "old mate buddy pal" Larry The Loafer.
  • Some of Brian's jokes have been repeated by other acts in the past. One example was Joe Pasquale's act on the 2005 Royal Variety Performance. One joke from one of Brian's live shows, "Alive and Dangerous", was repeated by a 13-year-old act on BBC Two's Let Me Entertain You which Brian hosts. The boy was voted off by the audience.
  • He suffered drinking problems and panic attacks after the death of his father who he was very close to.
  • He was part of "Dec's Boy Band on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway and performed It Only Takes A Minute by Take That.
  • He was a stand in host for Paul O'Grady on The New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4 on Friday December the 1st. He also performed a Bushtucker Trial live on air.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../b/r/i/Brian_Conley_c0ae.html"