Bill Bailey
Encyclopedia
Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books
, Never Mind the Buzzcocks
, Have I Got News for You
, and QI
.
Bailey was listed by The Observer
as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003. In 2007 and again in 2010, he was voted the 7th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4
's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups. Bill Bailey is a patron of International Animal Rescue
.
, a town situated between Bath and Bristol
in the West of England
. His father was a medical practitioner and his mother was a hospital ward sister. His maternal grandparents lived in an annexe, built on the side of the house by his maternal grandfather who was a stonemason and builder. Two rooms at the front of the family house were for his father's surgery.
Bailey was educated at King Edward's School
, an independent school in Bath where he was initially an academic pupil winning most of the prizes. However, at about the age of 15 years, he started to become distracted from school work when he realised the thrill of performance as a member of a school band called Behind Closed Doors, which played mostly original work. He was the only pupil at his school to study A-level
music and he passed with an A grade. He also claims to have been good at sport (captain of KES 2nd XI cricket team 1982), which often surprised his teachers. He would often combine the two by leading the singing on the long coach trip back from away rugby fixtures. It was here that he was given his nickname Bill by his music teacher, Ian Phipps, for being able to play the song "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
" so well on the guitar.
He started an English degree at Westfield College
of the University of London
but left after a year.
He spent his early years listening to Monty Python
records, and rehearsing with a band called the "Famous Five", who he himself confesses were very bad but still much better than him and who actually had six members. However, he is a classically trained musician and received an Associateship Diploma from the London College of Music
as well as being made an honorary member of the Society of Crematorium Organists. Despite this, he has said that he always had the temptation to be silly with music, a trait that influences his stand-up shows.
Bailey often mythologises his early years in his stand-up. In his show Bewilderness, he claims to have attended Bovington Gurney School of Performing Arts and Owl Sanctuary. He talks about a succession of jobs he had before becoming a comedian, including lounge pianist, crematorium organist, door-to-door door-salesman and accompanist for a mind-reading dog. A clip of Bailey's appearance in the dog's routine was shown during his Room 101
appearance. He also is self-deprecating about his appearance, suggesting he is so hairy that he is part troll, or that his hair or beard is a small animal named Lionel whom he has trained to sit 'very very still.'
Bailey also talks about his role as a "Disenfranchised Owl" in an experimental Welsh theatre troupe. Other acting roles included a part in a Workers' Revolutionary Party
stage production called The Printers, which also featured Vanessa Redgrave
and Frances de la Tour
. His trivia
page on IMDb
also claims that he was awarded Best Actor in the 1986 Institut Français awards.
Bailey married Kristin in 1998. An avid Star Trek
fan, he named his son (born 2003) not after the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
character Dax
as is often reported, but after a childhood friend, and often refers to himself as a Klingon
(once claiming during his "Part Troll" tour that his ear-mounted microphone made him resemble "a wizard in a call centre" and "a Klingon motivational speaker").
He currently lives in Hammersmith
and supports Queens Park Rangers
. In 2010, Bailey endorsed the Labour Party
in the upcoming General Election, appearing in the party's fifth party election broadcast of the 2010 campaign. He is also an outspoken feminist and supporter of the Fawcett Society
.
. In 1984 he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Toby Longworth
(a former fellow pupil at King Edward's Bath). They achieved a certain amount of success on the club circuit, partly due to their rigorous schedule – sometimes as many as three or four gigs a night. It was here that Bailey began developing his own unique style, mixing in musical parodies
with deconstruction
s of or variations on traditional jokes ("How many amoebas does it take to change a lightbulb
? One, no two! No four! No eight..."). According to comedy folklore, after a reviewer once criticised his act for its lack of jokes, Bailey returned the following night, at Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, to perform a set composed entirely of punchlines. Toby left to join the RSC in 1989 and was replaced by Martin Stubbs.
Stubbs later quit to pursue a more serious career, and in 1994 Bailey performed Rock at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Sean Lock
, a show about an ageing rockstar and his roadie
, script-edited by comedy writer Jim Miller. It was later serialised for the Mark Radcliffe
show on BBC Radio 1
. However, the show's attendances were not impressive and on one occasion the only person in the audience was comedian Dominic Holland
. Bailey almost gave up comedy to take up a telesales job.
He persevered, however, and went solo the next year with the one man show Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. The show was very well received and led to a recording at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London which was broadcast in 1997 on Channel 4
as a one-hour special called Bill Bailey Live. It was not until 2005 that this was released in DVD uncut and under its original title. It marked the first time that Bailey had been able to tie together his music and post-modern
gags
with the whimsical rambling style he is now known for.
After supporting Donna McPhail
in 1995 and winning a Time Out award, he returned to Edinburgh
in 1996 with a critically acclaimed show that was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. Amongst the other nominees was future Black Books
co-star Dylan Moran
, who narrowly beat him in the closest vote in the award's history.
Bailey won the Best Live Stand-Up award at the British Comedy Awards
, 1999
.
This was not Bailey's first foray into television. His debut was on the children's TV show Motormouth
in the late 1980s, playing piano for a mind-reading dog. The trick went hilariously wrong, and Bailey reminisced about the experience on the BBC show Room 101
with Paul Merton
in 2000. In 1991, he was appearing in stand-up shows such as The Happening, Packing Them In, The Stand Up Show, and The Comedy Store. He also appeared as captain on two panel game
s, an ITV
music quiz pilot called Pop Dogs, and the poorly received Channel 4 science fiction quiz show, Space Cadets
. However Is it Bill Bailey? was the first time he had written and presented his own show.
With his star on the rise and gaining public recognition, over the next few years, Bailey made well received guest appearances on shows such as Have I Got News For You
, World Cup Comedy, Room 101
, Des O'Connor
Tonight, Coast to Coast and three episodes of off-beat Channel 4 sitcom Spaced
, in which he played comic-shop manager Bilbo Bagshot.
In 1998, Dylan Moran
approached him with the pilot script for Black Books
, a Channel 4 sitcom about a grumpy bookshop owner, his put-upon assistant, and their neurotic female friend. It was commissioned in 2000, and Bailey took the part of the assistant Manny Bianco, with Moran playing the owner Bernard, and Tamsin Greig
the friend, Fran. Three series of six episodes were made, building up a large cult fanbase
, providing the public awareness on which Bailey would build a successful national tour in 2001.
When Sean Hughes
left his long-term role as a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks
in 2002, Bailey became his successor. His style quickly blended into the show, possibly helped by his background in music. He soon developed a rapport of sorts with host Mark Lamarr
, who continually teased him about his looks and his pre-occupation with woodland animals. It was announced on 18 September 2008 that Bill would be leaving the series and be replaced by a series of guest captains including Jack Dee and Dermot O'Leary. Whilst touring in 2009, Bailey joked that his main reason for leaving the show was a lack of desire to continue humming Britney Spears'
Toxic
to little known figures in the indie music scene. It was during this time that he also left his position as "curator" of The Museum of Curiosity
, and declared his intention to "retire" from panel games, although he has since appeared on QI many more times and hosted Have I Got News For You.
Bailey has appeared frequently on the intellectual panel game QI
since it began in 2003, appearing alongside host Stephen Fry
and regular panellist Alan Davies
. Other television appearances include a cameo role in Alan Davies' drama series Jonathan Creek
as failing street magician
Kenny Starkiss and obsessed guitar teacher in the "Holiday" episode of Sean Lock's Fifteen Storeys High
. He later appeared with Lock again as a guest on his show TV Heaven, Telly Hell
. He has also appeared twice on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
. Bill also hosted his own show "Comic's Choice", which aired in 2011.
Bailey also presented Wild Thing I Love You which began on Channel 4
on 15 October 2006. The series focuses on the protection of Britain's wild animals, and has included rehoming badgers, owls, and water voles.
Bailey has most recently appeared in the second series of the E4 teenage "dramedy" Skins
playing Maxxie's Dad, Walter Oliver. In episode 1, Walter struggles with his son's desire to be a dancer, instead wishing him to become a builder, which is what he himself does for a living. Walter is married to Jackie, played by Fiona Allen
.
Bailey appeared on the first episode of Grand Designs Live
on 4 May 2008, helping Kevin McCloud
build his eco-friendly home. In 2009 Bailey appeared in the BBC show "Hustle" as the Character "Cyclops", a side-line character. In the Autumn of 2009, Bailey presented Bill Bailey's Birdwatching Bonanza.
As a continuation of Bailey's recent foray into natural history, he presented ITV1
's half-hour wildlife mini-series Baboons With Bill Bailey. The series was filmed in Cape Town and spanned 8 episodes, with exclusive content available on itvWILD.
was released on DVD the same year, and the show was broadcast on Channel 4 that Christmas. A modified version of it also proved successful in America, and in 2002 Bill released a CD of a recording at the WestBeth Theatre in New York. The show contained all his trademarks, popular music parodies (such as Unisex Chip Shop, a Billy Bragg
tribute which he actually performed with Billy Bragg at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival
), "three men in a pub" jokes (including one in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer
) and deconstructions of television themes such as Countdown
and The Magic Roundabout
. A 'Bewilderness' CD was sold outside gigs, which was actually just a mixture of studio recordings of songs and monologues Bill had performed in the past – it was later released in shops as Bill Bailey: The Ultimate Collection... Ever!. That same year he also presented a Channel 4 countdown, Top Ten Prog Rock.
Bailey premiered his show Part Troll at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
. A critical and commercial success, he then transferred it to the West End where tickets sold out in under 24 hours, and new dates had to be added. Since then he has toured it all over the UK as well as in America, Australia and New Zealand. The show marked the first time Bailey had really tackled political material, as he expanded on subjects such as the war on Iraq, which he had only touched upon before in his Bewilderness New York show. He also talks extensively on drugs, at one point asking the audience to name different ways of baking cannabis
. A DVD was released in 2004.
2005 finally saw the release of his 1995 show Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. The 2-disc set also contained a director's cut
of Bewilderness, which featured a routine on Stephen Hawking
's A Brief History of Time
not seen in the original version.
Bailey performed at show at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
entitled "Steampunk
". It looked set to become the fastest selling fringe show ever (beating the record Bailey set with The Odd Couple
in 2005). But a ticketing mix-up forced the last 10% of tickets to be purchased in person from the venue rather than pre-booked, meaning the venue filled at a slower overall rate than it should have.
Bailey appeared at the Beautiful Days festival
in August 2007. The UK leg of the Tinselworm tour enjoyed 3 sell-out nights at the MEN Arena
in Manchester, Europe's largest indoor arena, and culminated with a sell-out performance at Wembley Arena
.
Early in 2007, a petition was started to express fans' wishes to see him cast as a dwarf in the 2010 film The Hobbit, after his stand-up routine mentioned auditioning for Gimli
in The Lord of the Rings
. The petition reached its goal in the early days of January, and was sent to the producers. It was hoped that as the Tinselworm tour took him to Wellington in New Zealand where the film is in pre-production, that he would be able to audition.
Bill Bailey's most recent tour, titled Dandelion Mind, was released on DVD on 22 November 2010.
His stand-up routines often feature music from genres such as jazz, rock (most notably prog rock
from the early seventies), drum'n'bass, rave and classical, usually for comic value. Favourite instruments include the keyboard, guitar, theremin
, kazoo
and bongos
. He also mentioned in an interview that he has achieved Grade 6 Clarinet
. He was part of punk band Beergut 100, which he founded in 1995 with comedy writer Jim Miller and also featured Martin Trenaman
and Phil Whelans, with Kevin Eldon as lead singer. The band performed at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
. Trenaman and Welans had previously appeared in Cosmic Jam under the name "The Stan Ellis Experiment", and Trenaman and Eldon later featured with John Moloney in the Kraftwerk
homage "Das Hokey Kokey" on the Part Troll tour. Bill claims that he and the three other performers are a Kraftwerk tribute band called Augenblick. To mark the final gig of the Part Troll tour on 1 January 2005 the band reappeared on stage after the "Das Hokey Kokey" joke to play an hour-long encore of music.
In February 2007, Bill appeared on two occasions with the BBC Concert Orchestra
and Anne Dudley
in a show entitled Cosmic Shindig. Performed in The Colosseum in Watford on 24 February and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall
on 26 February, the show contained orchestrally accompanied versions of many of Bill's previously performed songs, an exploration of the instruments of the orchestra and a number of new pieces of music. The Queen Elizabeth Hall
performance was aired on BBC Radio 3
on 16 March 2007 as a part of Comic Relief
2007.
Bill had planned to put himself forward as Britain's Eurovision
entry in 2008, as a result of several fan petitions encouraging him to do so.
In October 2008 he performed Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall
with the BBC Concert Orchestra
, conducted by Anne Dudley
.
In 2009, Bailey presented a project about the explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace
, in the form of an Indonesian travelogue. Bailey said in an interview that Wallace had been "airbrushed out of history", and that he feels a "real affinity" with him.
In November 2009 he was a guest on Private Passions
, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.
In July 2011, Bailey performed at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, headlining the Saturn Stage. He released an album, "In Metal", using songs played at Sonisphere, later that year.
Black Books
Black Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004...
, Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
, Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, and QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
.
Bailey was listed by The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003. In 2007 and again in 2010, he was voted the 7th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups. Bill Bailey is a patron of International Animal Rescue
International Animal Rescue
International Animal Rescue, also known as IAR, is an animal welfare non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom that comes to the aid of wild and domestic animals with hands-on rescue and rehabilitation. International Animal Rescue returns rehabilitated animals to the wild while also...
.
Personal life
Bailey was born in Bath, Somerset and spent the majority of his childhood in KeynshamKeynsham
Keynsham is a town and civil parish between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, south-west England. It has a population of 15,533.It was listed in the Domesday Book as Cainesham, which is believed to mean the home of Saint Keyne....
, a town situated between Bath and Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in the West of England
West of England
The West of England is a loose and locationally unspecific term sometimes given to the area surrounding the city and county of Bristol, England, and also sometimes applied more widely and in other parts of South West England.-Use in the Bristol area:...
. His father was a medical practitioner and his mother was a hospital ward sister. His maternal grandparents lived in an annexe, built on the side of the house by his maternal grandfather who was a stonemason and builder. Two rooms at the front of the family house were for his father's surgery.
Bailey was educated at King Edward's School
King Edward's School, Bath
King Edward's School , Bath, Somerset, England is an independent school providing education for 950 pupils aged 3 to 18.The school is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference....
, an independent school in Bath where he was initially an academic pupil winning most of the prizes. However, at about the age of 15 years, he started to become distracted from school work when he realised the thrill of performance as a member of a school band called Behind Closed Doors, which played mostly original work. He was the only pupil at his school to study A-level
GCE Advanced Level
The Advanced Level General Certificate of Education, commonly referred to as an A-level, is a qualification offered by education institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Cameroon, and the Cayman Islands...
music and he passed with an A grade. He also claims to have been good at sport (captain of KES 2nd XI cricket team 1982), which often surprised his teachers. He would often combine the two by leading the singing on the long coach trip back from away rugby fixtures. It was here that he was given his nickname Bill by his music teacher, Ian Phipps, for being able to play the song "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey
" Bill Bailey", originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" is a popular song published in 1902. It is commonly referred to as simply "Bill Bailey"....
" so well on the guitar.
He started an English degree at Westfield College
Westfield College
Westfield College was a small college situated in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, London, and was a constituent college of the University of London from 1882 to 1989. The college originally admitted only women as students and became coeducational in 1964. In 1989, Westfield College merged with Queen...
of the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
but left after a year.
He spent his early years listening to Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
records, and rehearsing with a band called the "Famous Five", who he himself confesses were very bad but still much better than him and who actually had six members. However, he is a classically trained musician and received an Associateship Diploma from the London College of Music
London College of Music
The London College of Music is a music school which is part of the University of West London in England.The LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at Great Marlborough Street in central London until 1991...
as well as being made an honorary member of the Society of Crematorium Organists. Despite this, he has said that he always had the temptation to be silly with music, a trait that influences his stand-up shows.
Bailey often mythologises his early years in his stand-up. In his show Bewilderness, he claims to have attended Bovington Gurney School of Performing Arts and Owl Sanctuary. He talks about a succession of jobs he had before becoming a comedian, including lounge pianist, crematorium organist, door-to-door door-salesman and accompanist for a mind-reading dog. A clip of Bailey's appearance in the dog's routine was shown during his Room 101
Room 101 (TV series)
Room 101 is a BBC comedy television series based on the radio series of the same name, in which celebrities were invited to discuss their pet hates and persuade the host to consign them to a fate worse than death in Room 101, named after the torture room in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is...
appearance. He also is self-deprecating about his appearance, suggesting he is so hairy that he is part troll, or that his hair or beard is a small animal named Lionel whom he has trained to sit 'very very still.'
Bailey also talks about his role as a "Disenfranchised Owl" in an experimental Welsh theatre troupe. Other acting roles included a part in a Workers' Revolutionary Party
Workers' Revolutionary Party (UK)
The Workers Revolutionary Party is a minute Trotskyist group in Britain. In the mid-1980s, it split several ways.-The Club:The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy and John Lawrence led in the Revolutionary Communist Party which urged that the RCP enter the Labour Party. This policy was also...
stage production called The Printers, which also featured Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
and Frances de la Tour
Frances de la Tour
Frances de la Tour is an English actress perhaps best known for her role as Miss Ruth Jones in the British sitcom Rising Damp, and as Madame Olympe Maxime in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.-Early life and family:De la...
. His trivia
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
page on IMDb
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
also claims that he was awarded Best Actor in the 1986 Institut Français awards.
Bailey married Kristin in 1998. An avid Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
fan, he named his son (born 2003) not after the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
character Dax
Dax (Star Trek)
Dax is the name of a fictional being in the Star Trek universe, a Trill symbiont. It's a very long-lived slug-shaped sentient worm-like life form that lives inside the bodies of a succession of Trills, a race of humanoid aliens. The symbiont merges with its host by a process called "joining" after...
as is often reported, but after a childhood friend, and often refers to himself as a Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
(once claiming during his "Part Troll" tour that his ear-mounted microphone made him resemble "a wizard in a call centre" and "a Klingon motivational speaker").
He currently lives in Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
and supports Queens Park Rangers
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in White City, Hammersmith and Fulham, west London. As the 2010-11 Football League Championship champions, they now play in the top tier of English football the Premier League, for the first time in 15 years...
. In 2010, Bailey endorsed the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in the upcoming General Election, appearing in the party's fifth party election broadcast of the 2010 campaign. He is also an outspoken feminist and supporter of the Fawcett Society
Fawcett Society
The Fawcett Society is an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation's roots date back to 1866 when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage....
.
Early stand-up
Bailey began touring the country with other comedians such as Mark LamarrMark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr is an English comedian, radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life:Lamarr was born in the Park South area of Swindon and has three elder sisters. His father is Irish...
. In 1984 he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath...
(a former fellow pupil at King Edward's Bath). They achieved a certain amount of success on the club circuit, partly due to their rigorous schedule – sometimes as many as three or four gigs a night. It was here that Bailey began developing his own unique style, mixing in musical parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
with deconstruction
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
s of or variations on traditional jokes ("How many amoebas does it take to change a lightbulb
Incandescent light bulb
The incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe makes light by heating a metal filament wire to a high temperature until it glows. The hot filament is protected from air by a glass bulb that is filled with inert gas or evacuated. In a halogen lamp, a chemical process...
? One, no two! No four! No eight..."). According to comedy folklore, after a reviewer once criticised his act for its lack of jokes, Bailey returned the following night, at Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, to perform a set composed entirely of punchlines. Toby left to join the RSC in 1989 and was replaced by Martin Stubbs.
Stubbs later quit to pursue a more serious career, and in 1994 Bailey performed Rock at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Sean Lock
Sean Lock
Sean Lock is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio...
, a show about an ageing rockstar and his roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
, script-edited by comedy writer Jim Miller. It was later serialised for the Mark Radcliffe
Mark Radcliffe
Mark Radcliffe is an English broadcaster who has worked in various roles for the BBC since the 1980s and remains one of Britain's most recognised DJs. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music, where he hosts an afternoon show five times a week alongside Stuart Maconie, called...
show on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
. However, the show's attendances were not impressive and on one occasion the only person in the audience was comedian Dominic Holland
Dominic Holland
Dominic Holland is an English comedian, and author. He also performs at corporate functions. He won the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in Edinburgh in 1993.-Appearances:...
. Bailey almost gave up comedy to take up a telesales job.
He persevered, however, and went solo the next year with the one man show Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. The show was very well received and led to a recording at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London which was broadcast in 1997 on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
as a one-hour special called Bill Bailey Live. It was not until 2005 that this was released in DVD uncut and under its original title. It marked the first time that Bailey had been able to tie together his music and post-modern
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
gags
Joke
A joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
with the whimsical rambling style he is now known for.
After supporting Donna McPhail
Donna McPhail
Donna McPhail is a British journalist, and was formerly a television presenter and stand-up comedian.McPhail is from London and was noted for her stand-up comedy in the 1990s, most prominently in her nomination for the Perrier Comedy Award in 1993....
in 1995 and winning a Time Out award, he returned to Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in 1996 with a critically acclaimed show that was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. Amongst the other nominees was future Black Books
Black Books
Black Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004...
co-star Dylan Moran
Dylan Moran
Dylan Moran is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books , and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run...
, who narrowly beat him in the closest vote in the award's history.
Bailey won the Best Live Stand-Up award at the 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:...
, 1999
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:...
.
Television
Though he didn't win the Perrier in 1996, the nomination was enough to get him noticed, and in 1998 the BBC gave him his own television show, Is It Bill Bailey?Is It Bill Bailey?
Is It Bill Bailey? was a stand up / sketch comedy series written by and starring Bill Bailey. One series of six episodes was produced and aired on BBC Two in 1998, and it has never been recommissioned or released on DVD...
This was not Bailey's first foray into television. His debut was on the children's TV show Motormouth
Motormouth
Motormouth was a Saturday morning children's television series that was produced by Television South and aired across the ITV network for four series, running between 3 September 1988 and 4 April 1992...
in the late 1980s, playing piano for a mind-reading dog. The trick went hilariously wrong, and Bailey reminisced about the experience on the BBC show Room 101
Room 101 (TV series)
Room 101 is a BBC comedy television series based on the radio series of the same name, in which celebrities were invited to discuss their pet hates and persuade the host to consign them to a fate worse than death in Room 101, named after the torture room in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is...
with Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
in 2000. In 1991, he was appearing in stand-up shows such as The Happening, Packing Them In, The Stand Up Show, and The Comedy Store. He also appeared as captain on two panel game
Panel game
A panel game or panel show is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Panelists may compete with each other, such as on The News Quiz; facilitate play by guest contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank; or do both, such as on Wait Wait.....
s, an ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
music quiz pilot called Pop Dogs, and the poorly received Channel 4 science fiction quiz show, Space Cadets
Space Cadets (game show)
Space Cadets is a comedy panel game broadcast on Channel 4 in 1997. It was presented by "High Commander" Greg Proops with Bill Bailey and Craig Charles as the "Space Captains" . It ran for just one series with 10 episodes....
. However Is it Bill Bailey? was the first time he had written and presented his own show.
With his star on the rise and gaining public recognition, over the next few years, Bailey made well received guest appearances on shows such as Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, World Cup Comedy, Room 101
Room 101 (TV series)
Room 101 is a BBC comedy television series based on the radio series of the same name, in which celebrities were invited to discuss their pet hates and persuade the host to consign them to a fate worse than death in Room 101, named after the torture room in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is...
, Des O'Connor
Des O'Connor
Des O'Connor, CBE is an English comedian and singer. A former talkshow host, he was the presenter of the long-running Channel 4 gameshow Countdown for two years...
Tonight, Coast to Coast and three episodes of off-beat Channel 4 sitcom Spaced
Spaced
Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...
, in which he played comic-shop manager Bilbo Bagshot.
In 1998, Dylan Moran
Dylan Moran
Dylan Moran is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books , and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run...
approached him with the pilot script for Black Books
Black Books
Black Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004...
, a Channel 4 sitcom about a grumpy bookshop owner, his put-upon assistant, and their neurotic female friend. It was commissioned in 2000, and Bailey took the part of the assistant Manny Bianco, with Moran playing the owner Bernard, and Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig is an English actress principally known for two Channel 4 television comedy parts: Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books and Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing...
the friend, Fran. Three series of six episodes were made, building up a large cult fanbase
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
, providing the public awareness on which Bailey would build a successful national tour in 2001.
When Sean Hughes
Sean Hughes (comedian)
Sean Hughes is a British-Irish stand-up comedian, writer and actor.-Career:Hughes was born in London, but spent most of his youth in Firhouse, Dublin...
left his long-term role as a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
in 2002, Bailey became his successor. His style quickly blended into the show, possibly helped by his background in music. He soon developed a rapport of sorts with host Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr
Mark Lamarr is an English comedian, radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life:Lamarr was born in the Park South area of Swindon and has three elder sisters. His father is Irish...
, who continually teased him about his looks and his pre-occupation with woodland animals. It was announced on 18 September 2008 that Bill would be leaving the series and be replaced by a series of guest captains including Jack Dee and Dermot O'Leary. Whilst touring in 2009, Bailey joked that his main reason for leaving the show was a lack of desire to continue humming Britney Spears'
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
Toxic
Toxic (song)
"Toxic" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears, co-written and produced by Bloodshy & Avant, from her fourth album, In the Zone. It was released on January 12, 2004, by Jive Records as the second single from the album. After trying to choose between " Boom Boom" and "Outrageous" to...
to little known figures in the indie music scene. It was during this time that he also left his position as "curator" of The Museum of Curiosity
The Museum of Curiosity
The Museum of Curiosity, formerly titled The Professor of Curiosity, is a comedy panel game on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It stars John Lloyd as "The Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham" and owner of the fictional "Museum of Curiosity"...
, and declared his intention to "retire" from panel games, although he has since appeared on QI many more times and hosted Have I Got News For You.
Bailey has appeared frequently on the intellectual panel game QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
since it began in 2003, appearing alongside host Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
and regular panellist 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 :...
. Other television appearances include a cameo role in Alan Davies' drama series 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...
as failing street magician
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
Kenny Starkiss and obsessed guitar teacher in the "Holiday" episode of Sean Lock's Fifteen Storeys High
15 Storeys High
15 Storeys High is a critically acclaimed British sitcom, set in a tower block. The main characters are Vince Clark, a misanthropic, cynical recluse played by Sean Lock, and Errol Spears, Vince's exact opposite and whipping boy, played by Benedict Wong....
. He later appeared with Lock again as a guest on his show TV Heaven, Telly Hell
TV Heaven, Telly Hell
TV Heaven, Telly Hell is a comedy television show on Channel 4, presented and produced by Sean Lock. The format is similar to Room 101, with guests discussing their likes and dislikes of items on television....
. He has also appeared twice on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 November 2001. The programme featured Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band...
. Bill also hosted his own show "Comic's Choice", which aired in 2011.
Bailey also presented Wild Thing I Love You which began on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
on 15 October 2006. The series focuses on the protection of Britain's wild animals, and has included rehoming badgers, owls, and water voles.
Bailey has most recently appeared in the second series of the E4 teenage "dramedy" Skins
Skins (TV series)
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
playing Maxxie's Dad, Walter Oliver. In episode 1, Walter struggles with his son's desire to be a dancer, instead wishing him to become a builder, which is what he himself does for a living. Walter is married to Jackie, played by Fiona Allen
Fiona Allen
Fiona Allen is an English comedienne and actress.-Career:Allen has appeared in many sketch shows, including Smack the Pony, Goodness Gracious Me and The All Star Comedy Show...
.
Bailey appeared on the first episode of Grand Designs Live
Grand Designs
Grand Designs is a British television series produced by Talkback Thames and broadcast on Channel 4 which features unusual and often elaborate architectural home-building projects....
on 4 May 2008, helping Kevin McCloud
Kevin McCloud
Kevin McCloud is a British designer, writer and television presenter best known for his work on the Channel 4 series Grand Designs. He lives in a 15th-century farmhouse in Frome, Somerset, with his wife Suzanna "Zani" who runs an online interior decoration business, and their two children, Milo ...
build his eco-friendly home. In 2009 Bailey appeared in the BBC show "Hustle" as the Character "Cyclops", a side-line character. In the Autumn of 2009, Bailey presented Bill Bailey's Birdwatching Bonanza.
As a continuation of Bailey's recent foray into natural history, he presented ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
's half-hour wildlife mini-series Baboons With Bill Bailey. The series was filmed in Cape Town and spanned 8 episodes, with exclusive content available on itvWILD.
International tours
In 2001, Bailey began touring the globe with Bewilderness, which became a huge success. A recording of a performance in SwanseaSwansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
was released on DVD the same year, and the show was broadcast on Channel 4 that Christmas. A modified version of it also proved successful in America, and in 2002 Bill released a CD of a recording at the WestBeth Theatre in New York. The show contained all his trademarks, popular music parodies (such as Unisex Chip Shop, a Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
tribute which he actually performed with Billy Bragg at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
), "three men in a pub" jokes (including one in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
) and deconstructions of television themes such as Countdown
Countdown (game show)
Countdown is a British game show involving word and number puzzles. It is produced by ITV Studios and broadcast on Channel 4. It is presented by Jeff Stelling, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and over sixty-five...
and The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout was a children's television programme created in France in 1963 by Serge Danot...
. A 'Bewilderness' CD was sold outside gigs, which was actually just a mixture of studio recordings of songs and monologues Bill had performed in the past – it was later released in shops as Bill Bailey: The Ultimate Collection... Ever!. That same year he also presented a Channel 4 countdown, Top Ten Prog Rock.
Bailey premiered his show Part Troll at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the 56th Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe ran from 3–25 August 2003 and presented 1541 shows over 207 venues...
. A critical and commercial success, he then transferred it to the West End where tickets sold out in under 24 hours, and new dates had to be added. Since then he has toured it all over the UK as well as in America, Australia and New Zealand. The show marked the first time Bailey had really tackled political material, as he expanded on subjects such as the war on Iraq, which he had only touched upon before in his Bewilderness New York show. He also talks extensively on drugs, at one point asking the audience to name different ways of baking cannabis
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...
. A DVD was released in 2004.
2005 finally saw the release of his 1995 show Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. The 2-disc set also contained a director's cut
Director's cut
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
of Bewilderness, which featured a routine on Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
's A Brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time is a popular science book written by renown physicist Stephen Hawking and first published by the Bantam Dell Publishing Group in 1988. It became a best-seller and has sold more than 10 million copies...
not seen in the original version.
Bailey performed at show at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
-Events:2006 was the first Fringe following the introduction of the new legislation banning smoking indoors. During a photocall at the Assembly Rooms for a play in which he was playing Winston Churchill, the actor Mel Smith lit a cigar, flouting the ban...
entitled "Steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
". It looked set to become the fastest selling fringe show ever (beating the record Bailey set with The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing and...
in 2005). But a ticketing mix-up forced the last 10% of tickets to be purchased in person from the venue rather than pre-booked, meaning the venue filled at a slower overall rate than it should have.
Bailey appeared at the Beautiful Days festival
Beautiful Days (festival)
This article is about the music festival. For other uses, see Beautiful Days .The Beautiful Days is a music festival that takes place in August at Escot Park, Ottery St Mary, Devon...
in August 2007. The UK leg of the Tinselworm tour enjoyed 3 sell-out nights at the MEN Arena
Manchester Evening News Arena
The Manchester Evening News Arena is an indoor arena situated in Manchester, England. It is adjacent to Manchester Victoria station near Corporation Street...
in Manchester, Europe's largest indoor arena, and culminated with a sell-out performance at Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...
.
Early in 2007, a petition was started to express fans' wishes to see him cast as a dwarf in the 2010 film The Hobbit, after his stand-up routine mentioned auditioning for Gimli
Gimli (Middle-earth)
Gimli is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured in The Lord of the Rings. A Dwarf warrior, he is the son of Glóin ....
in The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
. The petition reached its goal in the early days of January, and was sent to the producers. It was hoped that as the Tinselworm tour took him to Wellington in New Zealand where the film is in pre-production, that he would be able to audition.
Bill Bailey's most recent tour, titled Dandelion Mind, was released on DVD on 22 November 2010.
2002
- Voice for a BMW MiniMINI (BMW)Mini is a British automotive marque owned by BMW which specialises in small cars.Mini originated as a specific vehicle, a small car originally known as the Morris Mini-Minor and the Austin Seven, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and developed into a brand encompassing a range of...
advertising campaign - Writer and performer for a series of British AirwaysBritish AirwaysBritish Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
adverts in which, through the use of music, he took a humorous look at several locations around the world - Guest panellist on BBC Radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
2003
- Juror No. 4 in Twelve Angry Men, directed by Guy Masterson for the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe2003 Edinburgh Festival FringeThe 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the 56th Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe ran from 3–25 August 2003 and presented 1541 shows over 207 venues...
- Panelist on Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's show Just a MinuteJust a MinuteJust a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003....
(twice) - 4 February: Panelist (for a second time) on Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's show The 99p ChallengeThe 99p ChallengeThe 99p Challenge is a spoof panel game originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The show is presented by Sue Perkins and features a selection of regular panelists such as Armando Iannucci and regular writers Kevin Cecil, Andy Riley, Jon Holmes and Tony Roche... - 21 October: Presented Good Vibrations: The History of the ThereminThereminThe theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
on Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
2005
- Voice of the sperm whale in the 2005 film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...
- Co-starred as Oscar in The Odd CoupleThe Odd CoupleThe Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing and...
(alongside Alan DaviesAlan DaviesAlan 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 :...
), directed by Guy Masterson for the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe - One of the acts in the BirminghamBirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
show "Jasper CarrottJasper CarrottJasper Carrott OBE is a British comedian, actor, television presenter and personality.-Early life:...
's Rock with Laughter", alongside other performers including Bonnie TylerBonnie TylerBonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...
, Lenny HenryLenny HenryLenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...
, Bobby DavroBobby DavroBobby Davro is a British actor and comedian. He is mainly known for his work as an impressionist...
and the Lord of the DanceLord of the Dance (musical)Lord of the Dance is an Irish musical and dance production that was created, choreographed, and produced by Irish-American dancer Michael Flatley, who also took a starring role...
troupe - Returned to Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
's Just a MinuteJust a MinuteJust a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003....
for a third show as a panellist
2006
- 15 March: Interviewed by Lenny HenryLenny HenryLenworth George "Lenny" Henry, is a British actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter.- Early life :...
for BBC Radio 4 show Chain ReactionChain Reaction (radio)Chain Reaction is a hostless chat show first broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1991, and then revived on BBC Radio 4 in 2005. Each week an individual from the world of entertainment selects someone that they would like to interview... - 22 March: Returned to Chain ReactionChain Reaction (radio)Chain Reaction is a hostless chat show first broadcast on BBC Radio 5 in 1991, and then revived on BBC Radio 4 in 2005. Each week an individual from the world of entertainment selects someone that they would like to interview...
to interview Simon PeggSimon PeggSimon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
2007
- A minor part in Simon Pegg's and Edgar Wright's film Hot FuzzHot FuzzHot Fuzz is a 2007 British action dark comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The three had previously worked together on the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead as well as the television series Spaced...
, as a pair of desk sergeant twins. (Bailey had originally meant to also appear in Pegg and Wright's earlier film, Shaun of the DeadShaun of the DeadShaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...
. but the commentary included with the DVD of that movie explains that he was busy with other commitments at the time.) - February: Organised, produced, and starred in West End show Pinter's PeoplePinter's PeoplePinter's People is a compilation of revue sketches or short prose works by Harold Pinter, which was performed for four weeks from 30 January 2007, at the Haymarket Theatre, in London, starring Bill Bailey, Geraldine McNulty, Sally Phillips, and Kevin Eldon...
, a collection of sketches by playwright Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
. The show also starred Kevin Eldon, Sally PhillipsSally Phillips-Career:Sally Phillips was the only woman in the 1990 Oxford Revue THRASH which also starred Ed Smith. She did nine consecutive Edinburgh Festivals, appearing in shows such as Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Arthur Smith's version of Hamlet and Cluub Zarathustra with Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas,...
and Geraldine McNultyGeraldine McNultyGeraldine McNulty is a British stage and television actress.She has played the character of Mrs Raven in My Hero, and had guest appearances in Neverwhere, Gimme Gimme Gimme, The Vicar of Dibley, The Smoking Room and The Catherine Tate Show... - March: Appeared at the International Human Beatbox Convention at the South Bank Centre in London, introducing ShlomoShlomo (human beatbox)Simon Shlomo Kahn is a British beatboxing artist.-Background and career:Shlomo is of Israeli, Iraqi and German descent and grew up in the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. He can speak Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic; he is a classically trained percussionist and a jazz drummer.His original...
to the stage for the climax of the concert, as well as showing off his own beatboxing - 4 May: Guest presenter for an episode of BBC OneBBC OneBBC 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...
's Have I Got News for YouHave I Got News for YouHave I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
(a role he returned to on 9 May 2008) - July: Narrator for 'Nessy TalesNessy TalesNessy Tales is a series of animated reading books narrated by the comedian Bill Bailey and published by the British educational software developer Net Educational Systems, in conjunction with the Bristol Dyslexia Centre, a registered charity. Released in July 2007, Nessy Tales was nominated for an...
', a series of animated reading books for dyslexic children
2008
- Guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island DiscsDesert Island DiscsDesert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
- February: Co-host of the first series of BBC Radio 4's panel show The Museum of CuriosityThe Museum of CuriosityThe Museum of Curiosity, formerly titled The Professor of Curiosity, is a comedy panel game on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It stars John Lloyd as "The Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham" and owner of the fictional "Museum of Curiosity"...
- 9 May: Guest presenter for an episode of BBC One's Have I Got News for YouHave I Got News for YouHave I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
- 9 June: Guest on Radio 4's Desert Island DiscsDesert Island DiscsDesert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
. Later that day, appeared as Rushton in the first episode of an adaptation of The Ragged Trousered PhilanthropistsThe Ragged Trousered PhilanthropistsThe Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists is a novel by Robert Tressell first published in 1914 after his death in 1911. An explicitly political work, it is widely regarded as a classic of working-class literature.-Background:...
on the same station - 7 September: Guest on live Australian TV show 'Rove'. In a questionnaire to win in 20 seconds, host Rove McManus asked his usual question, "Who would you turn gay for?". Bailey replied, "The pope"
- September: One of the hosts of the So You Think You're FunnySo You Think You're FunnySo You Think You're Funny? is an annual stand-up comedy competition for new acts. The competition began in 1988 and has become the longest running best comedy newcomer award in Great Britain....
comedy gala at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - 11 October: Guest on BBC Radio 4's Loose EndsLoose Ends (radio)Loose Ends is a British radio programme originally broadcast on Saturday mornings, and then transmitted early Saturday evenings from 1998 by BBC Radio 4. It was hosted by Ned Sherrin until he became ill in late 2006 with a reported throat infection, and later throat cancer...
- 12 November: Performed for "We Are Most AmusedWe Are Most AmusedWe Are Most Amused was a gala event held at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 12 November 2008 in honour of the 60th birthday of Charles, Prince of Wales, in aid of The Prince's Trust. Prince Charles attended the event with his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and youngest son Prince Harry.The show...
", a special comedy performance to celebrate the 60th birthday of Prince CharlesCharles, Prince of WalesPrince 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...
2010
- 30 March: took part in Channel 4's Comedy GalaChannel 4's Comedy GalaChannel 4's Comedy Gala is a British stand-up comedy benefit show organised Channel 4 in aid of the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The gig is filmed live at the O2 Arena in London, and then broadcast later by Channel 4...
, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's HospitalGreat Ormond Street HospitalGreat Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
, filmed live at the O2 ArenaThe O2 arena (London)The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
in London. - 27 June: appeared on Top Gear's Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, while impersonating Angelina JolieAngelina JolieAngelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
. He finished with a time of 1:50.8 in the Kia Cee'dKia cee'dThe Kia Cee'd is a front wheel drive small family car released in the European market by the Korean manufacturer Kia Motors in December 2006—superseding the Kia Spectra—and available as a five-door hatchback, three-door hatchback , and five-door estate with a choice of up to four...
. - 28 September: the first guest on new ABC TVABC TelevisionABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
conversation program A Quiet Word With ....
Music
Bailey is a talented pianist and guitarist, and has perfect pitch; of this he has saidHis stand-up routines often feature music from genres such as jazz, rock (most notably prog rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
from the early seventies), drum'n'bass, rave and classical, usually for comic value. Favourite instruments include the keyboard, guitar, theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, kazoo
Kazoo
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
and bongos
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
. He also mentioned in an interview that he has achieved Grade 6 Clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
. He was part of punk band Beergut 100, which he founded in 1995 with comedy writer Jim Miller and also featured Martin Trenaman
Martin Trenaman
Martin Trenaman is an English comedy writer and actor, who has contributed to many modern comedy series.Winner of So You Think You're Funny? in 1994, Martin has gone on to write additional material for shows such as Head on Comedy, Lenny Henry in Pieces and Haywire, and comedians such as Harry...
and Phil Whelans, with Kevin Eldon as lead singer. The band performed at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
-Events:2006 was the first Fringe following the introduction of the new legislation banning smoking indoors. During a photocall at the Assembly Rooms for a play in which he was playing Winston Churchill, the actor Mel Smith lit a cigar, flouting the ban...
. Trenaman and Welans had previously appeared in Cosmic Jam under the name "The Stan Ellis Experiment", and Trenaman and Eldon later featured with John Moloney in the Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
homage "Das Hokey Kokey" on the Part Troll tour. Bill claims that he and the three other performers are a Kraftwerk tribute band called Augenblick. To mark the final gig of the Part Troll tour on 1 January 2005 the band reappeared on stage after the "Das Hokey Kokey" joke to play an hour-long encore of music.
In February 2007, Bill appeared on two occasions with the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
and Anne Dudley
Anne Dudley
Anne Dudley is an English composer and pop musician, and was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in both the classical and pop genres. She is perhaps best known, however, as one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise and also as a film...
in a show entitled Cosmic Shindig. Performed in The Colosseum in Watford on 24 February and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
on 26 February, the show contained orchestrally accompanied versions of many of Bill's previously performed songs, an exploration of the instruments of the orchestra and a number of new pieces of music. The Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
performance was aired on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
on 16 March 2007 as a part of Comic Relief
Comic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
2007.
Bill had planned to put himself forward as Britain's Eurovision
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
entry in 2008, as a result of several fan petitions encouraging him to do so.
In October 2008 he performed Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
with the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
, conducted by Anne Dudley
Anne Dudley
Anne Dudley is an English composer and pop musician, and was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in both the classical and pop genres. She is perhaps best known, however, as one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise and also as a film...
.
In 2009, Bailey presented a project about the explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
, in the form of an Indonesian travelogue. Bailey said in an interview that Wallace had been "airbrushed out of history", and that he feels a "real affinity" with him.
In November 2009 he was a guest on Private Passions
Private Passions
Private Passions is a weekly music discussion programme which has been running for over 10 years on BBC Radio 3, presented by the composer Michael Berkeley...
, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.
In July 2011, Bailey performed at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, headlining the Saturn Stage. He released an album, "In Metal", using songs played at Sonisphere, later that year.
Tours
- Cosmic Jam (1995)
- Bewilderness (2001)
- Part Troll (2004)
- Steampunk (2006) (Edinburgh Festival)
- Tinselworm (2008)
- Bill Bailey Live (2008–09) (Theatre Tour with Some Material from Tinselworm, but Mostly New Material)
- Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra (2009)
- Dandelion Mind (2010)
- Dandelion Mind - Gently Modified (2011)
DVD releases
| Title | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bewilderness | 12 November 2001 | Live at Swansea Swansea Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands... 's Grand Theatre |
| Part Troll | 22 November 2004 | Live at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo |
| Cosmic Jam | 7 November 2005 | Live at London's Bloomsbury Theatre |
| Tinselworm | 10 November 2008 | Live at London's Wembley Arena Wembley Arena Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:... |
| Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra | 23 November 2009 | Live at London's Royal Albert Hall Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941.... |
| Dandelion Mind | 22 November 2010 | Live at Dublin's The O2 |
Filmography
- The James Whale Radio Show (TV series) (circa 1990) (Guest)
- Blue Heaven (Channel 4 TV series) (1994)
- AsylumAsylum (TV series)Asylum is a British comedy series which was shown on Paramount Comedy Channel in 1996. Set in a mental asylum, it ran for one series of six episodes. Unlike traditional sitcoms or comedy television shows, it was to some extent an opportunity for stand-up routines by various comedians, mixed with an...
(1996) - Space CadetsSpace Cadets (game show)Space Cadets is a comedy panel game broadcast on Channel 4 in 1997. It was presented by "High Commander" Greg Proops with Bill Bailey and Craig Charles as the "Space Captains" . It ran for just one series with 10 episodes....
(1997) (Regular team captain) - Is It Bill Bailey?Is It Bill Bailey?Is It Bill Bailey? was a stand up / sketch comedy series written by and starring Bill Bailey. One series of six episodes was produced and aired on BBC Two in 1998, and it has never been recommissioned or released on DVD...
(1998) - SpacedSpacedSpaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...
(1999–2001) - Have I Got News for YouHave I Got News for YouHave I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
(guest 1999, 2001, 2005; guest presenter 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) - Saving GraceSaving Grace (2000 film)Track Listing# "Introduction" – 1:02# "Grace's Theme" – 2:42# "Take a Picture" – 5:55# "Make Me Smile " – 4:07# "Spirit in the Sky" – 3:56...
(2000) - Maid Marian and her Merry MenMaid Marian and her Merry MenMaid Marian and her Merry Men is a British children's sitcom created and written by Tony Robinson and directed by David Bell. It began in 1989 on BBC One and ran for four series, with the last episode shown in 1994...
(1992). Cameo court jester to King John - Black BooksBlack BooksBlack Books is a British sitcom television series created by Dylan Moran and Graham Linehan and produced by Nira Park, first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2004...
(2000–2004) - Jonathan CreekJonathan CreekJonathan 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...
- "Satan's Chimney" (2001)
- "The Tailor's Dummy" (2003)
- Wild WestWild West (TV series)Wild West is a situation comedy screened from October 2002 until 2004 starring Dawn French and Catherine Tate. It was described as a dark comedy from the pen of Simon Nye and was filmed on location in Cornwall. Set in the hamlet of St Gweep, Wild West observes the strange goings-on in the local...
(2002–2004) - Never Mind the BuzzcocksNever Mind the BuzzcocksNever Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
(2002–2008) (Regular team captain) - QIQIQI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
(2003–present) (Frequent guest) - "15 Storeys High15 Storeys High15 Storeys High is a critically acclaimed British sitcom, set in a tower block. The main characters are Vince Clark, a misanthropic, cynical recluse played by Sean Lock, and Errol Spears, Vince's exact opposite and whipping boy, played by Benedict Wong....
" – "The Holiday" (2004) - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...
(2005) (Voice of the Sperm Whale) - The LibertineThe Libertine (2005 film)The Libertine is a 2004 film starring Johnny Depp, John Malkovich, Samantha Morton and Rosamund Pike. Directed by Laurence Dunmore in his first outing and adapted by Stephen Jeffreys' from his play of the same name, the film stars Johnny Depp as John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, a notorious rake...
(Small cameo role as advisor to Charles II of EnglandCharles II of EnglandCharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
). - Wild Thing I Love You (2006) (Presenter)
- Top Gear (A Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car)
- Hot FuzzHot FuzzHot Fuzz is a 2007 British action dark comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The three had previously worked together on the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead as well as the television series Spaced...
(2007) - Run Fatboy RunRun Fatboy RunRun Fatboy Run is a 2007 British comedy film directed by David Schwimmer, written by Michael Ian Black and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Dylan Moran, Thandie Newton, Harish Patel, India de Beaufort, and Hank Azaria...
(2007) (Cameo) - SkinsSkins (TV series)Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
(2008) - Love SoupLove SoupLove Soup is a British television comedy-drama produced by the BBC and first screened on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. It stars Tamsin Greig as Alice Chenery and Michael Landes as Gil Raymond . The series is written by David Renwick of One Foot in the Grave fame, and was produced by Verity Lambert...
(2008) - We Are Most AmusedWe Are Most AmusedWe Are Most Amused was a gala event held at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 12 November 2008 in honour of the 60th birthday of Charles, Prince of Wales, in aid of The Prince's Trust. Prince Charles attended the event with his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and youngest son Prince Harry.The show...
(2008) (One-off special) - HustleHustle (TV series)Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but...
- "Return of the Prodigal" (2009)
- "Diamond Seeker" (2009)
- Steve's World (2009)
- Burke and HareBurke and Hare (film)Burke and Hare is a British black comedy film, loosely based on the Burke and Hare murders. Directed by John Landis, the film stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as William Burke and William Hare respectively. It was Landis's first feature film release in twelve years, the last being 1998's Susan's...
(2010) - Bill Bailey's Bird Watching Bonanza (2010)
- Nanny McPhee and the Big BangNanny McPhee and the Big BangNanny McPhee and the Big Bang is a 2010 family film. It is a sequel to the 2005 film Nanny McPhee. It was adapted by Emma Thompson from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books...
(2010) - Talkin' 'bout Your GenerationTalkin' 'bout your GenerationTalkin' 'Bout Your Generation is an Australian game show produced by Granada Productions which premiered on Network Ten on 5 May 2009. It is hosted by Shaun Micallef....
(2010); one episode - Jo Brand's Big SplashJo Brand's Big SplashJo Brand's Big Splash is a British television series produced by Doghouse Media and What Larks Productions for Dave. The show is part of Dave's investment into original comedy shows. Presented by comedian Jo Brand, it combines her stand-up comedy with various tasks involving water...
(2011); one episode - Chalet GirlChalet GirlChalet Girl is a 2011 British romantic comedy film directed by Phil Traill. The film stars Felicity Jones, Bill Bailey, Sophia Bush, Ed Westwick, Brooke Shields and Bill Nighy. The film was produced by Pippa Cross, Harriet Rees, Dietmar Guentsche and Wolfgang Behr, and written by Tom Williams...
(2011) - Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
- The Doctor, the Widow and the WardrobeThe Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Due to be first broadcast at Christmas 2011, it is the seventh Christmas special since the show’s revival in 2005....
(2011)
External links
- Bill Bailey at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
. - Bill Bailey on ChortleLaughterLaughing is a reaction to certain stimuli, fundamentally stress, which serves as an emotional balancing mechanism. Traditionally, it is considered a visual expression of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy. It may ensue from hearing a joke, being tickled, or other stimuli...
.