Griff Rhys Jones
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Griff Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a British comedian, writer and actor. He came to national attention in the 1980s when he starred with Mel Smith in a number of comedy sketch shows on British TV
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[edit] Biography
Rhys Jones (full forename, Griffith) was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of a Doctor. Moving with his father`s work, he attended Primary School in Midhurst, Sussex, junior school in Harlow, Essex and Secondary School at Brentwood School, in Brentwood, Essex [1]
While at Brentwood School he met Charlie Bean (Executive Director of the Bank of England) and Douglas Adams, the writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He was part of a group called The Clique by the school's headmaster for their antics. He followed Bean and Adams to Cambridge, reading History and English at Emmanuel College. Although not a hardcore follower of football he has taken time to visit Ipswich Town at events and has admitted he supported them as a kid.
While at University, Jones joined the prestigious Cambridge Footlights Club (of which he became Vice-President in 1976). He was also president of the ADC (Amateur Dramatics Club) during his time at Cambridge.
After University, he started appearing in numerous comedy programmes, initially with Clive Anderson, and also producing Rowan Atkinson's show "Atkinson's People" for the BBC. Although not appearing in the pilot show, producer John Lloyd was asked by the BBC to replace original team member Chris Langham in the 1980s sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News. Jones says that the reason he got the part was not due to his appearance in initial shows, or his talent - but that Lloyd was dating his sister at the time. Rhys Jones became a regular from the commissioned second series, alongside Atkinson, Mel Smith and Pamela Stephenson
He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1984 (1983 season) for Best Comedy Performance in Charley's Aunt and in 1994 (1993 season) for Best Comedy Performance for his performance in An Absolute Turkey.
[edit] Partnership with Mel Smith
After Not the Nine O'Clock News, Smith and Jones thought they would be unemployed. They decided to take action in two areas, firstly by creating and writing more material together, and secondly starting a management company to produce their own shows as well as other performers, and hence make more money on which to live.
In 1981, Smith and Rhys Jones founded TalkBack Productions, a company which has produced many of the most significant British comedy shows of the past two decades, including Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show, I'm Alan Partridge and Big Train. In 1985, Rhys Jones appeared in Alas Smith and Jones with Mel Smith, and after the first series of "Alas Smith And Jones", the pair appeared on the big screen in Mike Hodges disappointing sci-fi comedy movie "Morons From Outer Space". They also developed TalkBack to manage other acts, including Matt Lucas and David Walliams of "Little Britain" fame. In 2000, they sold the company to Thames TV for £62 million
Smith and Jones were reunited in 2005 for a review/revival of their previous TV series in "The Alas Smith And Jones Sketchbook". The show has received some criticism due to the BBC using it to repeat a series of programmes without resorting to unpopular re-runs. Smith joked that "Obviously, Griff's got more money than me so he came to work in a Rolls Royce and I came on a bicycle. But it was great fun to do and we are firmly committed to doing something new together, because you don't chuck that sort of chemistry away. Of course, I'll have to pretend I like Restoration" [2]
[edit] Recent work
Rhys Jones has developed a career as a presenter, beginning as the co-host on several of Comic Relief shows. He is the presenter of the BBC's Restoration programme (he began filming its third series at Lincoln Cathedral on 3 June 2006), and has done a considerable amount of fundraising work for the Hackney Empire theatre conservation project. In 2004 he and Rory McGrath led a demonstration at the Senate House in Cambridge University for the purpose of saving architecture as a degree in Cambridge
In 2003, Jones released the book To The Baltic With Bob, a book documenting a journey he made to St. Petersburg (and most of the way back) with a 'friend' called Bob on a small, slightly aged boat
Rhys Jones has also continued his acting career, including "Casualty", "Miss Marple", as well as starring in Russell T. Davies's drama series Mine All Mine on ITV1. His forthcoming TV projects include a documentary series, Mountain
His early life has been captured in his autobiography "Semi-Detached" published in 2006 by penguin
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Simon Levene |
Footlights Vice President 1975–1976 |
Succeeded by Nicholas Hytner |
Categories: 1953 births | Living people | People from Cardiff | Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge | Cambridge Footlights | Welsh film actors | Welsh television actors | Welsh television presenters | Welsh comedians | British comedy writers | British television writers | Whose Line Is It Anyway? contestants | Casualty actors
