Sandi Toksvig

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Sandi Toksvig, official photograph
Sandi Toksvig, official photograph

Sandi Toksvig (IPA: [sɑ'ni tʌk'sʋ̥i]) (born 3 May 1958 in Copenhagen) is a Danish comedian, author, and radio presenter based in the United Kingdom.

Contents

[edit] Career

She began her comedy career at Cambridge where she wrote and performed in the first all-woman show at the Cambridge Footlights. She was also a member of Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society while a student at Girton College, Cambridge, and moved via children's television onto the comedy circuit. She performed at the first night of The Comedy Store in London and was once part of The Comedy Store Players, an improvisational comedy team.

Her television career has included presenting the children's series No. 73, Saturday Starship, Get Fresh, Motormouth and Gilbert's Fridge, and on factual programmes such as Island Race. She has appeared as a panellist in shows such as Call My Bluff, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Mock the Week and Have I Got News For You.

She is a current voice on BBC Radio 4, as the main presenter of the flagship travel programme Excess Baggage, and chair of The News Quiz, having replaced Simon Hoggart in September 2006. She is also a frequent guest on shows such as I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and the comedy Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off. For three years until December 2005 she presented a weekday lunchtime programme on London talk radio station LBC 97.3, featuring regular guests including Bonnie Langford, Alkarim Jivani, and Annie Caulfield.

She has written several fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, starting in 1994 with Tales from the Norse's mouth, a fiction tale for children. In 1995, she sailed around the coast of Britain with John McCarthy. In 2003, she published her travel biography, Gladys Reunited: A Personal American Journey, about her travels in the USA retracing her childhood.

She writes regular columns for Good Housekeeping and the Sunday Telegraph.

In February 2006 she joked that, as a result of being Danish and having studied Muslim law, in the light of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, she had never been so sought-after.

She appears in Doctor Who audio drama Red by Big Finish Productions which was released in August 2006.

In December 2006, she hosted and sang at the London Gay Men's Chorus' sold out Christmas Show, Make the Yuletide Gay at the Barbican Centre in London.

[edit] Politics

She supports the Liberal Democrats and has appeared on the BBC's Question Time.

In 2003 she stood as a candidate in the election for the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, supporting a campaign against student fees[1]. She was defeated in the first round of voting. The election was won by Chris Patten.

An entry on Iain Dale's blog in November 2006,[2] claimed that Toksvig had been approached to stand for the Liberal Democrats in the new Meon Valley constituency at the next British general election. However, the Liberal Democrats denied the rumour, and Liz Leffman has since been selected as prospective candidate for the constituency.

[edit] Personal life

Her father (Claus Toksvig) was a foreign correspondent for a Danish television channel (Danmarks Radio), so she spent most of her youth abroad. She studied law and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge.

She and her ex-partner Peta (Petaline Stewart) are mothers to three children, conceived through artificial insemination by donor Christopher Lloyd-Pack: two daughters (born 1989 and 1991) and a son (born 1995). In 1994, Save the Children dropped her services after she came out; protests by the Lesbian Avengers led to the charity taking her back again.[3]

Sandi Toksvig also had a relationship with Radio 4 newsreader and announcer Alice Arnold.

On the 18 September 2006, Sandi said on The Bigger Picture with Graham Norton, that she is in the middle of applying for British citizenship.

[edit] References in popular culture

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Books for children

  • Hitlers Kanarie Sandi Toksvig, Valerius uitgeverij, Vlaardingen, Holland, April 2006 ISBN 90-78250-02-X [Dutch translation]
  • Hitler's Canary, Sandi Toksvig, Doubleday, July 2005
  • The Troublesome Tooth Fairy, Sandi Toksvig, Transworld, November 2000, ISBN 0-552-54663-1
  • Super-Saver Mouse to the Rescue, Sandi Toksvig, Transworld, April 2000, ISBN 0-552-54541-4
  • Super-Saver Mouse, Sandi Toksvig, Transworld, September 1999, ISBN 0-552-54540-6
  • If I didn't have elbows, Sandi Toksvig, Deagosti, April 1998, ISBN 1-84089-048-7
  • Unusual Day, Sandi Toksvig, Transworld/Corgi, April 1997, ISBN 0-552-54539-2
  • If this had never been invented, Sandi Toksvig, Deagosti, 1996
  • Tales from the Norse's mouth, Sandi Toksvig, BBC Books, March 1994, ISBN 0-563-40358-6

[edit] Books for adults

  • Forgotten Forest, Sandi Toksvig, scheduled for publication June 2007
  • Melted into Air, Sandi Toksvig, Little Brown, scheduled for publication July 2006
  • Whistling for the Elephants, Sandi Toksvig, Little Brown, August 1999
  • Gladys Reunited: A Personal American Journey, Sandi Toksvig, Little Brown, 2003, ISBN 0-7515-3328-9
  • Tell The Fuhrer It's Shakespeare, Sandi Toksvig, Little Brown, December 2002
  • The Travels of Lady Bulldog Burton, Sandi Toksvig and Sandy Nightingale, Little Brown, September 2002
  • Flying Under Bridges, Sandi Toksvig, Little Brown, April 2001
  • Whistling for the Elephants, Sandi Toksvig, Transworld, August 1999, ISBN 0-593-04480-0
  • Drowning in the Desert, Sandi Toksvig, Transworld, 1998
  • Great Journeys of the World, Sandi Toksvig et al, Penguin, 1997
  • Island Race: an improbable voyage round the coast of Britain, John McCarthy and Sandi Toksvig, BBC Books, 1995

[edit] References

  1. ^ Toksvig enters chancellor race
  2. ^ Iain Dale Blog entry from November 2006
  3. ^ David, Smith (November 1994). "Comedian and actress Sandi Toksvig, a well-known face on the popular comedy improvisation TV show, Whose Line is it Anyway, came out as a lesbian in the pages of the Sunday Times and Daily Mirror.". Gay Times (194). ISSN 0950-6101. 
  4. ^ BBC comedy guide to Little Britain. Retrieved on 2007-01-06.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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