Kevin Eldon

Kevin Eldon
Eldon in 2013
Born	(1960-10-03) 3 October 1960 Chatham, Kent, England
Occupation	Actor, comedian
Years active	1992–present

Kevin Eldon (born 3 October 1960) is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including Fist of Fun, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam. In 2013 he appeared in his own BBC sketch series, It's Kevin.

Early career and Lee & Herring

Eldon was born in Chatham, Kent, England in 1960. The teenage Kevin Eldon occupied half a page in a book called Volume, Oliver Gray's history of punk-era Southampton, where, in 1980, Kevin fronted a band called The Time. "His between song patter was laden with mimicry and improvisational flair and he obviously had a bright quick mind," writes Gray, "If stand-up comedy had been around then, Kevin would probably never have been in a band at all." Eldon started on the stand-up circuit in the early '90s performing an act in character as the political poet Paul Hamilton, but has also done stand-up as himself on occasions. On the circuit, Eldon formed a friendship with the stand-up comedian Stewart Lee, which would later lead to an invitation to work with Lee on the radio series Lee & Herring's Fist of Fun with Lee's comedy partner Richard Herring. Lee and Herring would usually refer to him as "the actor Kevin Eldon", in reference to his claim to be an actor, rather than a comedian.

Eldon's work sat well with that of Lee and Herring, and he continued to work with them on all their projects, including The Lee & Herring Radio Show, Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy, providing a multitude of characters, most notably: the jelly-obsessed False Rod Hull; and Simon Quinlank, the self-proclaimed "king of hobbies", who would always be accompanied by a flask of "weak lemon drink". He also played a version of himself, as the actor Kevin Eldon. In addition to his Lee & Herring collaborations, he has worked closely with Simon Munnery and Julia Davis.

Stage and screen

Eldon in 2011

Eldon has appeared onstage performing as a spoof member of the German band Kraftwerk for the recorded version of Bill Bailey's Part Troll comedy tour, along with two others (John Moloney and Martin Trenaman). He played the same role in Bailey's 2007 Tinselworm tour, Channel 4's Comedy Gala, and Bailey's 2010 Dandelion Mind tour.

In late 2006, Eldon helped organise and produce a short tour and a West End run of Pinter's People at the Haymarket Theatre, London. The show was a collection of sketches written by Harold Pinter. The show also starred Geraldine McNulty, Bill Bailey and Sally Philips. In 2010, Eldon took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.

Eldon played the role of Pete in the David Shrigley and Chris Shepherd animation Who I Am And What I Want, and appeared in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's comedy film Hot Fuzz as Sergeant Tony Fisher. Eldon played Mick McManus in Tim Plester's short film World of Wrestling in 2007. In 2009, he played the lead role of Arthur in Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work, a stereoscopic 3D film for the BFI directed by British artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.^[1] Eldon appeared as a police sniper in the 2010 film Four Lions, and had a brief role in the 2005 film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, playing "Man with Dog" alongside Mark Heap.

Eldon has had in minor roles in numerous comedy projects, including Brass Eye, Smack the Pony, Spaced, The IT Crowd, I'm Alan Partridge. In October 2008, he played housemate Joplin in Charlie Brooker's five-part horror thriller for E4 Dead Set. From March 2009, Eldon appeared in Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle in a number of the show's sketches. In February 2010, Eldon appeared in the pilot for a "sort-of-sketch-show" called Missing Scene.^[2] In 2011 he appeared in sketches throughout How TV Ruined Your Life, and, with Paul Whitehouse, as one of a pair of '50s typists in Series 4 of Harry and Paul. He also played a policeman in Martin Scorsese's film Hugo. In October 2013, Eldon read his own short story "What do you say?" on the storytelling series Crackanory, an adult-oriented remake of the children's television series Jackanory.^[3] In 2013, Eldon fronted a six-part sketch comedy series called It's Kevin, broadcast on BBC Two.^[4]

Eldon co-authored the theme tune, and is script editor for, the children's series Genie in the House.^[5] Eldon voiced the character Frobisher in the 2012 Playstation Vita game Frobisher Says^[6] and provided voice work for the 2013 indie game Gun Monkeys by Size Five Games.^[7]

Releases

• Kevin Eldon is Titting About (2010) DVD
• Mr Bartlett and Mr Willis (2010) CD

Radio

In 2008, Eldon presented Poets' Tree, a four-part "poetry type programme" for BBC Radio 4, in the character of Paul Hamilton. The series was co-written and edited by Stewart Lee. Eldon has also written and starred in a series of monologues, collectively entitled Speakers, broadcast on the London art radio station Resonance FM,^[8] as well as a CERN podcast with Simon Munnery. In 2012, the series Kevin Eldon Will See You Now aired on Radio 4.

Since 2009, Eldon has appeared in two roles in the BBC Radio 4 comedy series ElvenQuest. He has made guest appearances on Radio 4's Fags, Mags and Bags, Chain Reaction, North by Northamptonshire and The Horne Section.^[9]

Eldon made a guest appearance in a webcast Doctor Who episode, in the story "Death Comes to Time", in which he played Antimony, a companion of the Doctor.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kevin Eldon.

• Debi Allen Associates, Kevin Eldon's agent
• Kevin Eldon at the Internet Movie Database

• Hyperdrive at BBC Online
• CERN Podcast – Kevin Eldon and Simon Munnery visit CERN
• Poet's Tree – Downloads of Kevin's 2008 Radio Series
• Downloads of Kevin's Resonance FM Monologues