Everything about Harry Enfield totally explained
Harry Enfield (born
30 May,
1961 in
Sussex,
England) is an
English comedian.
Early life
Enfield was educated at the independent
Worth School in
West Sussex,
Collyer's Sixth Form College and the
University of York (where he was a member of
Derwent College and read politics). He worked for a while as a milkman before coming to public attention after appearing on
Channel 4's
Saturday Live in a number of different personae created with
Paul Whitehouse. These quickly entered the national consciousness.
Amongst these characters was "Stavros", a Greek restaurant owner with markedly fractured English, and
Tory Boy, a pompous Conservative MP. His other popular character "Loadsamoney" (an obnoxious character who constantly boasted about how much money he earns) spawned a hit single in 1988 and sell out live tour. As a foil to "Loadsamoney" Enfield and Whitehouse created the
Geordie "Bugger-All-Money" and in 1988 Enfield appeared as both characters during the 'Nelson Mandela Birthday Tribute Concert' at Wembley Stadium. In time Whitehouse and Enfield became disturbed that the "Loadsamoney" was being seen as a positive image and killed him off (he was run over during a
Comic Relief Red Nose Day show, while leaving the studio after presenting host
Lenny Henry with "the biggest cheque of the night" — a physically huge cheque for 10p).
In 1989 Enfield realised a personal project with the spoof of British Theatre Knights slumming in the film industry,
Norbert Smith - a Life. Before that he provided voices for the British satirical puppet show
Spitting Image.
Career
TV series
In 1990, Enfield developed his
BBC sketch show,
Harry Enfield's Television Programme, and later
Harry Enfield and Chums with fellow comedians
Paul Whitehouse (later of
Fast Show fame) and
Kathy Burke. Eschewing the
alternative comedy style prevalent at the time it was indebted to early 70s comedians such as
Dick Emery and
Morecambe and Wise, the show created more nationally recognised characters such as Stan and Pam Herbert (who used the catchphrase 'We are considerably richer than yow'), "Tim Nice-But-Dim", "The Scousers", "
Smashie and Nicey", "Wayne and Waynetta Slob" and "Annoying Kid Brother" who grew into "
Kevin the Teenager", and two old-fashioned B.B.C. presenters, Mr Cholmondley-Warner and Grayson, (
The Conjugal Rights and
Frightening Diseases of the Mind).
In 1992 Enfield played "Dermot" in
Men Behaving Badly, originally on
Thames Television. He left after the first series, and was replaced by
Neil Morrissey, who played 'Tony' for the rest of the series. Enfield is a professed fan of
opera and fronted a
Channel 4 documentary series on the subject. After a short break Enfield signed a new contract with
BSkyB, but only produced one series which flopped badly. In 2002 Enfield returned to the BBC with
Celeb, a new series based on the comic strip of the same name in
Private Eye, as the ageing rockstar character, Gary Bloke. The timing was unfortunate for Enfield as, almost simultaneously,
The Osbournes began showing on MTV, having been a sleeper hit in the United States.
The Osbournes was a reality TV show depicting the dysfunctional and unconventional family life of a heavy metal singer,
Black Sabbath's
Ozzy Osbourne, and was thus a real life version of precisely what Enfield was trying to satirise with
Celeb.
The Osbournes became successful in
Britain with Osbourne's wife
Sharon and daughter
Kelly gaining many spin-off media jobs, while Enfield's show disappeared quietly after only six episodes.
In 2002, Enfield was the first guest on BBC's
Top Gear. He came in at an "achingly" slow time of 2:01 (the best time on the same track with the same car, 1:44.4, was recorded by Top Gear's Racing driver
The Stig). Enfield has also narrated various TV documentaries such as the Discovery Wings channel 'Classic British Aircraft'.
Movies
In 2000 Enfield appeared in his first leading
film role playing "Kevin" alongside
Kathy Burke, who played the character's male friend "Perry" — roles originally created for the television series — in
Kevin & Perry Go Large. The film charted the pair's attempt to become professional
DJs by travelling to the nightclubs of
Ibiza and pestering their idol DJ "Eyeball Paul", played by
Rhys Ifans, whilst gaining love but losing virginity along the way. He also starred as King
George VI of Britain in (2004), a satire on Hollywood's notoriety for changing elements of history to suit the symbol of American heroism during the war.
Commercials
Enfield's most memorable commercials include the 1996 run for
Dime Bar. One commercial had Enfield as a country yokel refusing a Dime bar — smooth on the outside, crunchy on the inside — because he preferred
armadilloes — smooth on the inside, crunchy on the outside. Enfield also starred in a series of adverts alongside Paul Whitehouse as The Self-Righteous Brothers characters from Harry Enfield's Television Programme in a series of adverts in the 1990s for
Hula Hoops. In 2002, Enfield starred in a series of commercials for
Burger King in the US as Dr. Angus, a character designed to promote the company's newest hamburger.
Two characters from Enfield's TV series, Mr Cholmondley-Warner and Grayson, also appeared in
television commercials for
Mercury Communications. In 2004 Enfield provided the voice of "The Roaming Gnome" character used in
Travelocity's U.S. advertising campaign.
Recent work
As of January 2007 Enfield has been appearing as the father of Tony as well as directing two episodes in the
E4 series
Skins, which has finished its 2nd series on E4. He reunited with Paul Whitehouse on the BBC's
Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul in 2007, which has a particular emphasis on the British class system. This series especially lampoons the British upper and upper-middle classes as being somewhat dim, oblivious to the 'real' world around them and highly disparaging of 'lower class' citizens, which they perceive as almost a different species. Enfield was selected by
Dirk Maggs to play
Dirk Gently on BBC4 Radio. He has recently made a documentary called
Harry Enfield's Excellent Adventure where he followed the route of the German Army during
Operation Barbarossa in
1941 with a friend and travelling in jeeps.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Harry Enfield'.
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