| Alexander Armstrong | |
|---|---|
Alexander Armstrong, June 2005 |
|
| Born | 2 March 1970 Rothbury, Northumberland, England |
| Education | English literature |
| Alma mater | Durham School Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Television presenter, comedian, actor |
| Years active | 1994 - present |
| Spouse | Hannah Bronwen Snow (2003-present) |
| Children | 3 sons |
Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970)[1] is a British comedian, actor and television presenter.
Contents |
Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, the youngest of three children, to Henry Angus Armstrong and his wife Emma Virginia Peronnet Thompson-McCausland, daughter of Lucius Thompson-McCausland. He was educated at Durham School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read English and was a member of the college choir.[2][3][4] In 1992, while at Cambridge, he met Ben Miller, where both were in the Cambridge Footlights, and they formed the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. Armstrong decided not to pursue a career as a professional bass singer, and developed a career in acting. Whilst waiting for acting roles Armstrong worked in a string of North London bars and restaurants.
Armstrong has performed in several comedy roles. He co-starred in four series of Armstrong and Miller from 1997 to 2001. Armstrong renewed his partnership with Ben Miller for The Armstrong and Miller Show in 2007.
He appeared on the BBC Radio 4's The Very World of Milton Jones, broadcast between 1998 and 2001, and between early 2000 and early 2001, starred as a misanthropic, animal-hating vet in the BBC One sitcom Beast and he has also been the star of a series of TV commercials for Pimm's.
In 1999, he starred as Prince Charming in ITV's Christmas pantomime alongside Ben Miller, and with Samantha Janus, Paul Merton, Harry Hill, Frank Skinner and Ronnie Corbett. Armstrong was the narrator of the cartoon series The Big Knights which first appeared on the BBC1 over the Christmas Season of 1999-2000.
On BBC Radio 4, he has played the part of John Weak in the office sitcom Weak at the Top by Guy Browning. Armstrong also played Martin Baine-Jones, alongside Ben Miller's Craig Children, for the Times Online's "Timeghost" podcast, as they discussed the cultural zeitgeist.
Between September and November 2010, Armstrong took The Armstrong and Miller Show on tour in the UK, completing 62 dates. This was the second time The Armstrong and Miller Show had gone out on the road, the first tour being in autumn 2001.
The Armstrong and Miller hardback book was released in October 2010.
Armstrong was chairman of the short-lived comedy panel show Best of the Worst which also featured team captains David Mitchell and Johnny Vaughan. The first show aired on 1 September 2006 on Channel 4 in the UK.
He presented the short-lived ITV1 comedy quiz series Don't Call Me Stupid, in which mismatched celebrities taught each other a subject they are passionate about, before facing a studio quiz on their new topic. The series features pairings including Brian Sewell with Phil Tufnell, George Galloway with Lady Victoria Hervey, James Whitaker with Bez, Germaine Greer with Shane Lynch, and Michael Howard with Wayne Sleep.
He is a frequent guest host on the BBC's satirical panel game Have I Got News for You, having appeared 19 times. His most recent appearance as host was on 21 October 2011. Armstrong has, to date, made the most appearances of any guest, whether as host or panellist. Armstrong says that in 2003 he was offered the job of replacing Angus Deayton as full-time host of Have I Got News for You but the BBC later changed their minds and withdrew the offer after deciding to continue with the guest presenter format instead.[5]
In 2008, he was the presenter and narrator for When Were We Funniest? and was the only person to feature in all twelve episodes.
Armstrong was a leading contender to take over as host of Countdown when Des O'Connor left in 2008, although when he hosted Have I Got News for You on 24 October 2008, he said he hadn't yet accepted the job, despite team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton making jokes about his "new role".[6] He turned the job down, telling The Independent that he did not want to be "pigeonholed" as a presenter, preferring to focus on acting and comedy.[7]
He is the presenter of the BBC game show Pointless. He also presented a documentary, Alexander Armstrong's Very British Holiday, about the history of the "great British summer holiday" and his attempts to explore its modern version for the BBC on 8 November 2009.
On 30 May 2011 he hosted the pilot of a new panel show, "Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask", on the Dave channel, alongside Dave Lamb, Katy Brand, Griff Rhys Jones and Robert Webb.
In July 2011 Armstrong became a co-presenter on BBC One's "The Great British Weather".
In August 2011 he began presenting a game show on BBC One titled Epic Win.
Armstrong co-starred with Caroline Quentin on all three series of ITV1 drama Life Begins.
He appeared in Steve Coogan's Saxondale (Series 1 Episode 2) in 2006, as a famous motoring presenter (played like Jeremy Clarkson). Armstrong also appeared as David Cameron in the satirical fictional documentary The Trial of Tony Blair, played a middle aged man who leaves his wife during a mid-life crisis in Maggie Mae and a sex-addicted guest in Hotel Babylon in 2007. He voices Mr Smith, an alien computer, in The Sarah Jane Adventures and in the Doctor Who episodes "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End". He also appeared in the 2011 Christmas special "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe".
He also played a role in the 2008 BBC comedy drama Mutual Friends as well as the role of Adam fforbes-Hamilton, the nephew of Audrey DeVere (née fforbes-Hamilton) in the 2007 Christmas Special of the classic BBC sitcom To the Manor Born starring Penelope Keith as Audrey, Peter Bowles as her husband Richard and Angela Thorne as Audrey's old school-friend Marjorie Frobisher, who, despite being "old enough to be his mother" (to quote Audrey), develops a schoolgirl-type romantic crush on Adam.
In 2006 (repeated in 2007), he was a guest on Private Passions, the weekly music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[8] He appeared as an advocate on Visionaries for BBC World News broadcast on 6 September 2008.
In April 2009, he played a school sports instructor on the Sky1 TV movie Skellig, based on the prize-winning children's novel, alongside Tim Roth (in the title role), John Simm and Kelly MacDonald.
In October 2009, he played Clive Sinclair in a docu-drama about Clive Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Research, and Chris Curry, the co-founder of Acorn Computers, called Micro Men. He also had a role in the second series of Reggie Perrin.[9]
In December 2011, Armstrong starred in the Doctor Who Christmas special 2011 "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe".[10]
In 1997 (along with Ben Miller), Armstrong provided the voices for lead characters for the PC game 'Wings of Destiny' which was published by Psygnosis in 2000. They played British airmen and Nazi officers covering the two comic-book plots in the game.
From about 2002, Armstrong also appeared in a series of successful British television adverts for the drink Pimms.
With Miller, he has formed a production company called Toff Media.[11]
Armstrong is currently appearing as a "difficult customer" in the Direct Line Insurance television adverts, alongside Chris Addison.
On 27 August 2003, Armstrong married Hannah Bronwen Snow, an events organiser. According to Ben Miller, his stag do activities included icing cakes. He has three sons - Rex (born 2007), Patrick (born 2009) and Edward (2010). Just before Armstrong appeared on This Morning on 24 June 2010, his wife went into labour and later gave birth to their third son, Edward.[12][13][14]
In August 2010, Armstrong was featured in an episode of the BBC One genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, through which he discovered that he was a descendant of William the Conqueror. With his father's side of his family already well-known to him as the land-owning Armstrong family of Rothbury and William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, the series traced his mother's side of the family, beginning with the McCauslands seated in Drenagh in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, through the Rouse-Boughton family, to Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester, a descendant of William the Conqueror via Edward III and the Beauforts, Dukes of Somerset.[15]
Armstrong is an active supporter of the Countryside Alliance, appearing in their advertisements and magazine to promote countryside shooting. [16]