Rob Brydon Biography

Robert Brydon Jones MBE (born 3 May 1965), known professionally as Rob Brydon, is a BAFTA-nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist. He played Uncle Bryn in the sitcom Gavin and Stacey, is the host of panel quiz show Would I Lie to You?, plays a parody of himself in Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive and played Keith Barret in the BBC comedy Marion and Geoff and its spin-off The Keith Barret Show. He also hosts The Rob Brydon Show, a chat show for the BBC. Brydon has worked with a number of comedians and actors, notably Steve Coogan and Julia Davis. In June 2012 Brydon was one of six hosts for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert in London.

Early life and studies

Robert Brydon Jones was born on 3 May 1965 in Baglan, Glamorgan (now Neath Port Talbot), Wales. His mother, Joy Jones (née Brydon), was a school teacher, and his father, Howard Jones, was a car dealer. He grew up near Swansea, in Baglan in the town of Port Talbot with his younger brother Peter (born 1973).

Brydon was educated at two independent schools: St. John's School in Porthcawl, which Eddie Izzard also attended, and Dumbarton House School in Swansea until the age of 14; this was followed by Porthcawl Comprehensive School, where he would meet Ruth Jones (with whom he later worked in Gavin and Stacey), he became a member of the school's youth theatre group. While at Dumbarton he once stole fellow pupil Catherine Zeta-Jones's lunch money (which he admitted while participating in a series-four episode of Would I Lie To You?).

Career

Brydon attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff. He left after a year, to join Radio Wales at the age of 20, without graduating from the college.

Brydon's career began with radio. His early broadcasts included DJing on BBC Radio Wales, when his Saturday morning shows included contributions from standup comedian Pete Park-Walker. Between 1992 and 1994 on Radio Wales (where he stayed for six years) he was the main presenter of Rave, one of BBC Radio 5's youth magazine and music programmes, with Alan Thompson; which led to the genesis of his Marion and Geoff story.

In 1994 and 1995 he appeared in numerous episodes of the original Radio Wales version of the cult comedy Satellite City with Boyd Clack.

Though he stayed with radio as a comedy performer on BBC Radio Five Live's The Treatment, Rob also does occasional stints as a stand-in presenter on BBC Radio 2, where he has even stood in for Ken Bruce, one of the people whom he impersonates. On 1 April 2011 he appeared in Ken's place on his show as an April Fools' Day joke.

Voiceover artist

Brydon was first known nationally as a voice artist. He provided several voices for the Discworld computer games and continuity announcements for BBC 1. He is also known for voice-over work in television advertising, including those for Renault, Tango, The Times, Tesco, Abbey National, Sainsburys, McDonald's, Toilet Duck, Cahoot, Mint Card, Pot Noodle, Domino's Pizza, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, The Observer and Fairy Liquid. He also voiced the main character, Lewton, in the Discworld computer game Discworld Noir.

Writing breakthrough

In the early 1990s he spent a brief stint presenting for the Home Shopping Network, and began to find small roles in several successful films and television series. In 2000 he made his mark in television comedy, with two series which he co-wrote and performed in for the BBC: Human Remains, co-written by Julia Davis, and the commercially successful Marion and Geoff.

Since these series Brydon has developed a career path as a character actor, in both comedic and serious roles. He portrayed controversial theatre critic Kenneth Tynan in the BBC Four film Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005), opposite Julian Sands as Laurence Olivier.

His character Bryn West in Gavin and Stacey, written by Ruth Jones and James Corden, allowed him to return to his South Wales roots. In this role Brydon performed the 2009 Comic Relief charity single, "(Barry) Islands in the Stream", with Ruth Jones (both actors appearing as their characters from Gavin & Stacey) and singer Tom Jones. It reached No.1 in the UK singles chart on 15 March 2009.

In 2010 Brydon starred alongside Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's partially improvised BBC 2 sitcom The Trip in which both actors played exaggerated versions of their own public personas (Brydon, affable and always ready to slip into an impression, Coogan, grumpy and frustrated not to be the major international star he believes he should be).

Brydon's book Small Man in a Book (the title a play on his "small-man-in-a-box" impression), was published in November 2011.

Panelist/chairman

In 2006 Brydon first appeared on the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel-game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. His singing voice even earned the unprecedented accolade by the erstwhile host, Humphrey Lyttelton, of being "not bad". When the team went on a tour of non-broadcast stage shows, Brydon filled in as chairman when Lyttelton was in hospital to repair an aortic aneurysm. A message was played to the audience in which Lyttelton commented on his absence. Three days later Lyttelton died in hospital after surgery.

In February 2009, it was announced that Brydon would be one of three people to replace Lyttelton as chairman of the 51st series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (the others being Stephen Fry and Jack Dee). Brydon also appeared as guest panelist in the first two episodes of series 52, chaired by Jack Dee. He returned as a guest panelist in the last two episodes of series 54 in January 2011.

Additionally, he took over from Angus Deayton as host of Would I Lie To You? in 2009.

Brydon has also presented an episode of Have I Got News for You, and has appeared on BBC Radio 4's panel game Just a Minute.

Brydon also narrated a two-part programme on BBC Radio 4, The Pain of Laughter: The Last Days of Kenneth Williams. It explored the latter part of Williams's life, featuring many of the performer's friends and contemporaries. In other radio work Brydon sat in for Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 for one day only on 25 August 2008. In addition to this, on 1 April 2011, Brydon impersonated Ken Bruce, for the entire two-hour and thirty minute show. He then had the real Ken Bruce at the end of the show reveal the prank. He later tweeted "Well I don't know about you but I thought Ken Bruce was superb today. Much sexier than usual :)"

He has made a number of appearances on the TV comedy quiz QI. In his first appearance (A series, episode 5), his talent for mimicry was displayed with impressions of Sir Alec Guinness, James Dean and Michael J. Fox. In the 2008 Christmas special he also provided impressions of Richard Burton and Sir Tom Jones.

Stand-up comedy

In 2009/10 Brydon had his first stand-up tour as Rob Brydon (rather than as a differently named character) in the UK. The resulting DVD of the 2009/10 show, Rob Brydon: Live, was released on 23 November 2009. Brydon appeared as a host on episode two of series five of the BBC series of Live at the Apollo.

In 2010 Brydon took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March. He was one of six compères for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert held outside Buckingham Palace on 4 June 2012.

Personal life

From his first marriage Brydon has two daughters, Katie, born August 1994 and Amy, born July 1999, and a son, Harry, born October 1996.

On 6 October 2006 Brydon married Claire Holland, a former producer on The South Bank Show, at Windsor church. They live in Strawberry Hill in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, and have two sons, Tom, born in April 2008, and George, born in June 2011.

A fanatical golfer, Brydon is also a Swansea City fan and is an ambassador to their 1912 foundation.

Brydon has often been mistaken for comedian Ben Miller (and vice versa). As a reference to it, they dressed in similar outfits and shared a narcissistic kiss in the QI episode "Future".

Brydon was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where he previously studied.

Brydon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to comedy and broadcasting and for charitable services.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1994	The Healer	Sean
1995	First Knight	Man in crowd
1996	Lord of Misrule	Cornish policeman
1998	Martha - Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence	Bus driver
	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels	Traffic warden
2001	A Small Summer Party	Keith Barret
	A Knight's Tale	First Villager
2002	24 Hour Party People	Ryan Letts
	I'm Alan Partridge	Baptist fan
	Cruise of the Gods	Andy van Allen
2004	Shaun of the Dead	Football commentator/'Zombies from Hell!' presenter (voice)
2005	MirrorMask	Morris Campbell/Prime Minister
	A Cock and Bull Story	Capt. Toby Shandy/ Rob Brydon
	Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore	Kenneth Tynan
2009	The Gruffalo	Snake (voice)
2011	The Trip (US Film Edit)	Rob Brydon
	The Gruffalo's Child	Snake
2012	The Best of Men	Corporal Wynne Bowen
2013	Gangsta Granny	Mr Parker

Television

Year	Title	Role
1993	The Legends of Treasure Island	Long John Silver (Voice) (Series 2)
1996	Cold Lazarus	Karl
2000	Human Remains	Peter Moorcross, Gordon Budge, Stephen, Tony, Barne Willers, Les
2000"2003	Marion and Geoff	Keith Barret
2001	The Way We Live Now	Mr. Alf
2002	Black Books	B. Nugent
	Murder in Mind	Barry Coates
	Legend of the Lost Tribe	Prison guard
2003	Top Gear	Himself
	QI	Himself
2004	Director's Commentary	Peter de Lane
	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	Himself - Panelist
2004"2005	The Keith Barret Show	Keith Barret
2005	Supernova	Dr Paul Hamilton
	Little Britain	Roman de Vere (Series 3)
	QI	Himself
	Jack Dee Live at the Apollo	Keith Barret
	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	Himself - Panelist
2006	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	Himself - Panelist
	Have I Got News for You	Guest Presenter
	100 Greatest Funny Moments	Narrator (voice)
2006"2007	Annually Retentive	Himself
2007	QI	Himself
	Dawn French's Boys Who Do Comedy	Himself
	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	Himself - Panelist
2007"2010	Gavin and Stacey	Bryn West
2007	Heroes and Villains: Napoleon	Stanislav Fréron
2008	Top Gear	Himself
	QI	Himself
2009	Horne & Corden	Narrator to olympic sketches
	Live at the Apollo	Compere/stand-up
	QI	Himself
	The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	Himself - Panelist
2009"present	Would I Lie to You?	Host of Series 3, Series 4, Series 5, Series 6 & Series 7
2010"present	The Rob Brydon Show	Himself (Host)
2010	Ronnie Corbett's Supper Club	Himself (Guest)
	The Trip	Rob Brydon
	QI	Himself
2011	A Quiet Word With ...	Himself (Guest)
	Michael McIntyre's Christmas Comedy Roadshow	Father Christmas/himself

Radio appearances

Year	Title	Role
1992"1994	Rave	Himself - Presenter
1994	Satellite City	Himself - Radio show
1995	Eleven Men Against Eleven	Radio commentator
	The Treatment	Himself - Radio show
2004	Just a Minute	Himself
2005	Flight of the Conchords (radio series)	Narrator
	Just a Minute	Himself
2012	Best of Men	Himself

Other appearances

• Discworld (video game) (voice actor " 1995)
• Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? (voice actor " 1996)
• Discworld Noir (voice actor " 1999)
• I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (2006"2013)
• Rob Brydon's Identity Crisis (March 2008)
• The One Show (December 2009)
• Desert Island Discs (May 2010)

Discography

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions
		UK	IRE	EU
2009	"(Barry) Islands in the Stream"	1	48	7