The Big Impression, known as Alistair McGowan's Big Impression for the first three series, is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 comedy sketch show. It features Alistair McGowan

Alistair McGowan

Alistair McGowan is a British impressionist, stand-up comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression , which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes - winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003...

 and Ronni Ancona

Ronni Ancona

Ronni Ancona is a Scottish actress, impressionist and author. Ancona won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.- Career :...

 impersonating personalities from entertainment and sport. Four series and a number of specials were made by Vera Productions and it was first broadcast on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 between 2000 and 2004.

The series has won five awards, including the 2003 BAFTA

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...

 comedy programme prize.

Production

McGowan and Ancona first met at a comedy club, and later started dating. They worked together on a number of projects, with their first television series being The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos

The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos

The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos was a 1989 BBC comedy television series, in which surreal and satirical narratives were assembled entirely out archive film clips, with new soundtracks provided by voice-over artists...

in 1989. After performing in his own show in Edinburgh in 1998, McGowan was approached by a BBC executive about working on a series, which he wanted Ancona to be involved in. Alistair McGowan's Big Impression first aired on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 in 2000, with the couple splitting up just before filming began. Speaking with The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

, Ancona said working on the series was "exciting but it was tricky and there were some very low points. [...] But, if anything, the tension added a little frisson to some of the sketches and it made the show better."

For the fourth series in 2003, McGowan's name was dropped from the show's title.

Speaking to the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

about the ending of the series, McGowan said: "We were just getting into our stride when suddenly it felt that there were five other shows all saying: "We'll do that as well." It felt like there were lots of people fishing in a small pool." The BBC wanted the series to continue, but he found his "enthusiasm had gone and without that, the show wouldn't have happened".

Alistair McGowan

There have been many characters that Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona have impersonated. Some celebrities that McGowan has done impressions of include:

• Charles, Prince of Wales
  Charles, Prince of Wales
  Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
  
  
• Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen
• Richard Madeley
  Richard Madeley
  Richard Madeley is a British television presenter and columnist. With his wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley has presented This Morning and later the weekday chat show Richard & Judy...
  
  
• David Beckham
  David Beckham
  David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
  
  
• Michael Parkinson
  Michael Parkinson
  Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
  
  
• Robert Kilroy Silk
• Angus Deayton
  Angus Deayton
  Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...
  
  
• Jonathan Ross
  Jonathan Ross (television presenter)
  Jonathan Stephen Ross, OBE is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross from 2001 until he left the BBC in 2010. Ross began hosting a new chat show on ITV1 starting 3 September 2011...
  
  
• Huw Edwards
  Huw Edwards (journalist)
  Huw Edwards is a BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist, presenter and newsreader.He is a news presenter for BBC News in the United Kingdom. Edwards presents Britain's most watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, which is also the corporation's flagship news broadcast...
  
  
• Gary Lineker
  Gary Lineker
  Gary Winston Lineker, OBE , is a former English footballer, who played as a striker. He is a sports broadcaster for the BBC, Al Jazeera Sports and Eredivisie Live...
  
  
• Robert Winston
  Robert Winston
  Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician.-Early life and education :...
  
  
• Sven-Göran Eriksson
  Sven-Göran Eriksson
  Sven-Göran Eriksson , in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname Svennis, is a Swedish ex-football manager. From October 2010 to October 2011 he managed Football League Championship side Leicester City....
  
  
• Alan Davies
  Alan Davies
  Alan Davies is an English comedian, writer and actor best known for starring in the TV mystery series Jonathan Creek and as the permanent panellist on the TV panel show QI.- Early life :...
  
   (As Jonathan from Jonathan Creek
  Jonathan Creek
  Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...
  
  )
• Michael Douglas
  Michael Douglas
  Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
  
  
• Alan Titchmarsh
  Alan Titchmarsh
  Alan Fred Titchmarsh, MBE DL is an English gardener, broadcaster and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a garden journalist, he established himself as a media personality through appearances on gardening programmes...
  
  
• Tony Blair
  Tony Blair
  Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
  
  
• June Brown
  June Brown
  June Muriel Brown, MBE is a British actress, best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders and for making other high profile television appearances on shows such as Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Minder, The Bill and...
  
   (As Dot Branning
  Dot Branning
  Dorothy "Dot" Branning is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by June Brown since 1985. In a special episode entitled EastEnders: Dot's Story a young Dot was played by Tallulah Pitt-Brown in flashbacks. Dot first appeared in EastEnders in July 1985 as the mother of...
  
   from EastEnders
  EastEnders
  EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
  
  )
• Cary Grant
  Cary Grant
  Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
  
  
• Terry Wogan
  Terry Wogan
  Sir Michael Terence Wogan, KBE, DL , or also known as Terry Wogan, is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster who holds dual Irish and British citizenship. Wogan has worked for the BBC in the United Kingdom for most of his career...
  
  
• Trinny Woodall
  Trinny Woodall
  Trinny Woodall is an English fashion advisor and designer, television presenter and author. She was raised in a wealthy family and was privately educated...
  
  
• Billy Connolly
  Billy Connolly
  William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...
  
  
• Griff Rhys Jones
  Griff Rhys Jones
  Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...
  
  
• Leonard Rossiter
  Leonard Rossiter
  Leonard Rossiter was an English actor known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series Rising Damp , and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin...
  
  
• Kevin Keegan
  Kevin Keegan
  Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....
  
  
• Nicky Campbell
  Nicky Campbell
  Nicholas Andrew Argyll "Nicky" Campbell is a Scottish radio and television presenter and journalist. He is known for his time presenting on programmes such as the consumer affairs programme Watchdog...
  
  
• Jeremy Clarkson
  Jeremy Clarkson
  Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...
  
  
• Brian May
  Brian May
  Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician and astrophysicist most widely known as the guitarist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen...
  
  
• Frank Butcher
  Frank Butcher
  Francis Aloysius "Frank" Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by the late Mike Reid. Frank made his first appearance on-screen as a guest character in 1987 but, due to a positive viewer reception, he was reintroduced in 1988 as a regular. Reid took a long...
  
  

Ronnie Ancona

Some celebrities that Ancona has done impressions of include:

• Judy Finnigan
  Judy Finnigan
  Judith "Judy" Finnigan is a British television presenter and columnist. She has usually co-presented with her husband, Richard Madeley, and the two are collectively known, informally, as Richard and Judy...
  
  
• Carol Smillie
  Carol Smillie
  Carol Patricia Smillie is a Scottish television personality, model and actress. Smillie is well-known for presenting the award winning BBC series Changing Rooms, which won her a National Television Award for Most Popular Factual Programme in 1998.She became the hostess of the British version of...
  
  
• Victoria Beckham
  Victoria Beckham
  Victoria Caroline Beckham is an English singer-songwriter, dancer, model, actress, fashion designer and businesswoman. In the late 1990s, Beckham rose to fame with the all-female pop group Spice Girls and was dubbed Posh Spice by the July 1996 issue of the British pop music magazine Top of the Pops...
  
  
• Ruby Wax
  Ruby Wax
  Ruby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...
  
  
• Barbara Windsor
  Barbara Windsor
  Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....
  
   (As Peggy Mitchell
  Peggy Mitchell
  Margaret Ann "Peggy" Mitchell is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Peggy was initially played by Jo Warne when she first appeared on 30 April 1991, featuring in the series on a recurring basis over several weeks. Peggy was reintroduced in 1994, recast and was then played by...
  
   from EastEnders)
• Catherine Zeta-Jones
  Catherine Zeta-Jones
  Catherine Zeta-Jones, CBE, is a British actress. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of United Kingdom and United States television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as the 1998 action film The Mask of...
  
  
• Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
• Davina McCall
  Davina McCall
  Davina McCall is an English television presenter and actress, most notable as the presenter of the UK version of Big Brother up until its move to Channel 5.- Early life :...
  
  
• Christine Hamilton
  Christine Hamilton
  Christine Hamilton is a British television personality and author, and the wife of former British Member of Parliament Neil Hamilton who was Minister for Corporate Affairs between 1992-1994....
  
  
• Nigella Lawson
  Nigella Lawson
  Nigella Lucy Lawson is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Lawson is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. empire...
  
  
• Audrey Hepburn
  Audrey Hepburn
  Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
  
  
• Jennie Bond
  Jennie Bond
  Jennifer "Jennie" Bond is an English journalist and television presenter. She worked for fourteen years as the BBC's royal correspondent. She has most recently hosted Cash in the Attic and narrated the five series programme, Great British Menu.-Early career:She was educated at St...
  
  
• Jerry Hall
  Jerry Hall
  Jerry Faye Hall is an American model and actress, also known for her long-term relationship with Mick Jagger, with whom she had four children.-Early life:...
  
  
• Charlie Dimmock
  Charlie Dimmock
  Charlie Dimmock is an English gardening expert and TV presenter. She was one of the team on Ground Force, a BBC gardening makeover programme.-Early years:...
  
  
• Jessie Wallace
  Jessie Wallace
  Jessie Wallace is an English actress best known for her portrayal as Kat Moon in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Early life:...
  
   (As Kat Slater from EastEnders)
• Lorraine Kelly
  Lorraine Kelly
  Lorraine Kelly is a Scottish television presenter, journalist and actress, best known as a presenter for TV-am, and later GMTV and ITV Breakfast, on Lorraine.-Early life:...
  
  
• Nancy Dell'Olio
  Nancy Dell'Olio
  Annunziata Dell'Olio, better known as Nancy Dell'Olio, is an Italian-American property lawyer who first came to public notice as the girlfriend of Sven-Göran Eriksson, then manager of the England national football team.-Early life:...
  
  
• Susannah Constantine
  Susannah Constantine
  Susannah Caroline Constantine is an English fashion journalist, advisor, television presenter, author and designer. Her second book, entitled What Not to Wear, has won her a prestigious British Book Award and sold 670,000 copies....
  
  
• Sharon Osbourne
  Sharon Osbourne
  Sharon Rachel Osbourne is an English television host, author, music manager, businesswoman and promoter as well as the wife of heavy metal singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne....
  
  
• Penelope Cruz
  Penélope Cruz
  Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
  
  

Episodes

Four series of the programme were made between 2000 and 2003.

Series	Episodes	Dates
1	6	26 April 2000 – 25 May 2000
2	6	22 April 2001 – 3 June 2001
3	6	19 April 2002 – 24 May 2002
4	6	9 May 2003 – 13 June 2003

Special episodes

There have also been a number of one-off specials, including:

• Alistair McGowan's 2000 Impressions (30 December 2000)
• Alistair McGowan's Big 'Enders (10 August 2001)
• Alistair McGowan's Big World Cup (31 May 2002)
• Alistair McGowan's Big Jubilee (2 June 2002)
• The Big Impression Christmas Special (25 December 2002)
• Posh & Becks' Big Impression (25 December 2003)
• The Big Impression Euro 2004 Special (10 June 2004)

Awards

The series has been nominated for a number of awards, winning one from BAFTA

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...

, two from the Royal Television Society

Royal Television Society

The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

, and two British Comedy Awards

British Comedy Awards

The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...

.

Year	Award	Result	Category
2000	British Comedy Awards British Comedy Awards The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...	Won	Best Comedy Entertainment Programme
		Nominated	Best Comedy Newcomer (Ronni Ancona)
		Nominated	Best New Television Comedy
	Royal Television Society Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...  Craft and Design Awards	Won	Best Make Up Design – Entertainment & Non-Drama (Heather Squire)
2002	British Comedy Awards British Comedy Awards The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...	Nominated	Best Comedy Actress (Ronni Ancona)
	National Television Awards National Television Awards The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...	Nominated	Most Popular Comedy Performance (Alistair McGowan)
	Royal Television Society Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...  Programme Awards	Won	Entertainment Performance (Alistair McGowan)
	Royal Television Society Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...  Craft and Design Awards	Nominated	Best Costume Design – Entertainment & Non-Drama Productions (Kate O'Farrell)
		Nominated	Best Make Up Design – Entertainment & Non-Drama Productions (Eva Marieges Moore)
		Nominated	Best Production Design – Entertainment & Non-Drama Productions (Harry Banks)
		Nominated	Best Tape and Film Editing – Entertainment & Situation Comedy (Richard Halladay)
		Nominated	Team Award (Production Team, series C)
2003	British Academy Television Awards British Academy Television Awards The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...	Won	Best Comedy Programme or Series
	British Academy Television Craft Awards	Nominated	Best Make Up & Hair Design (Eva Marieges-Moore)
	British Comedy Awards British Comedy Awards The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...	Won	Best Television Comedy Actress (Ronni Ancona)
	National Television Awards National Television Awards The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...	Nominated	Most Popular Comedy Performance (Alistair McGowan)

External links

Comedy Guide