Laura Solon
Encyclopedia
Laura Solon is an English
comedian
, actor, writer, and winner of the 2005 Perrier Comedy Award, only the second woman to win as a solo performer (the first being Jenny Eclair in 1995).
. She attended Downe House School followed by Worcester College, Oxford
where she received a scholarship to read English and started writing and performing in the Oxford Revue.
In 2005, Solon won the Perrier award for her one-woman Edinburgh Fringe
show Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind. After this success, the BBC
and Channel 4
were keen to acquire her to produce material for them and in April 2006 it was announced by the BBC that Solon had been signed to develop projects for them on Radio and TV.
The first series of Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking
, a sketch and character comedy series, ran on BBC Radio 4
in January and February 2007. The second series ran in May and June 2008; the third series began in November 2009.
She has recorded a BBC sitcom
pilot
by the creators of People Like Us
, also featuring Man Stroke Woman
s Daisy Haggard
, called Great News.
She features in Harry Enfield
and Paul Whitehouse
's sketch show Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul
, broadcast from 2007 on BBC One
. Solon was seen in a sketch show for ITV2
Laura, Ben and Him (2008) with Marek Larwood
and Ben Willbond
. She appeared in Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder
, which was shown on ITV1
.
Solon will appear alongside Tony Hawks
and Angus Deayton
in the feature film Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
which was recorded in 2010 for release in 2011.
In the first half of 2010 she toured with her latest production, Rabbit Faced Story Soup. This is a play set in a publisher's office in which she plays every character including an American Super Agent, a lightly tanned boss, a call centre worker, and a diversity officer, plus the publisher who has to deal with The French and a dead rabbit called Ian. It contains a lot of the characters from her radio show, talking and not talking, including Carol Price who is a divorcee children's author and Gwynneth the terrible call centre worker. New characters include Marcia who is an American super publishing agent, she always comes up with new ways of putting people down.
She has most recently been one of the players in BBC Two improvisational show Fast and Loose
, hosted by Hugh Dennis
.
Solon plays eight different characters in the show, which consists of sketches of varying lengths, including:
As a Perrier award winning show it secured a run in London's West End
, at the Soho Theatre, in November 2005. Solon also received £
7,500 with the prize.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, actor, writer, and winner of the 2005 Perrier Comedy Award, only the second woman to win as a solo performer (the first being Jenny Eclair in 1995).
Background
She was raised in Great Kimble near AylesburyAylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
. She attended Downe House School followed by Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
where she received a scholarship to read English and started writing and performing in the Oxford Revue.
Career
She had tried her hand at being a stand up comedian but found character comedy suited her better.In 2005, Solon won the Perrier award for her one-woman Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...
show Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind. After this success, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and 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...
were keen to acquire her to produce material for them and in April 2006 it was announced by the BBC that Solon had been signed to develop projects for them on Radio and TV.
The first series of Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking
Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking
Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking is a comedy sketch show created by British Perrier Award winning comedian, Laura Solon. The show was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Following her success with Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind, Solon went on to create the show with the BBC...
, a sketch and character comedy series, ran on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC 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...
in January and February 2007. The second series ran in May and June 2008; the third series began in November 2009.
She has recorded a BBC sitcom
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
by the creators of People Like Us
People Like Us
People Like Us is a British comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer...
, also featuring Man Stroke Woman
Man Stroke Woman
Man Stroke Woman is a British television comedy sketch show directed by Richard Cantor and produced by Ash Atalla and starring Amanda Abbington, Ben Crompton, Daisy Haggard, Meredith MacNeill, Nicholas Burns and Nick Frost. In addition to being broadcast on digital channel BBC Three in the United...
s Daisy Haggard
Daisy Haggard
-Family:The daughter of film director Piers Haggard and his wife Anna Slovsky, she was raised and educated in Dulwich, South London at the James Allen's Girls' School.-Career:...
, called Great News.
She features in Harry Enfield
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
and Paul Whitehouse
Paul Whitehouse
Paul Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer and comedian. He became known for his work with Harry Enfield and as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show, The Fast Show. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was in the top 50 comedy acts voted for by comedians and comedy insiders...
's sketch show Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul
Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul
Harry & Paul is a BAFTA Award-winning British sketch comedy show starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 13 April 2007...
, broadcast from 2007 on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
. Solon was seen in a sketch show for ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
Laura, Ben and Him (2008) with Marek Larwood
Marek Larwood
Marek Larwood is an English comedian and actor in television, radio and theatre. He is best known for the BBC Three sitcom/sketch show, Rush Hour and for being one third of the comedy trio We Are Klang....
and Ben Willbond
Ben Willbond
Ben Willbond is an English comedian and actor with credits on television, radio and film, including from 2005-2007 Deep Trouble on BBC Radio 4 with actor and writer Jim Field Smith. He was formerly part of the comedy duo "Ben & Arn", who won "Best Newcomer" at the Perrier Award in 1999...
. She appeared in Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder is a British sketch show starring comedian Al Murray. The multi character aspect of the show was a departure from Murray's previous television comedy work, as the sole character The Pub Landlord. The first series ran from 27 February to 12 April 2009,...
, which was shown on 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...
.
Solon will appear alongside Tony Hawks
Tony Hawks
Antony Gordon Hawksworth, better known as Tony Hawks, is a British comedian and author.-Early life:Born in Brighton in 1960, Hawks was educated at Brighton Hove and Sussex Grammar School and Brighton College...
and Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...
in the feature film Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
Playing the Moldovans at Tennis
The film version of Tony Hawks' best selling book Playing the Moldovans at Tennis was filmed during May, June and July 2010 in Moldova, London, Belfast and Israel...
which was recorded in 2010 for release in 2011.
In the first half of 2010 she toured with her latest production, Rabbit Faced Story Soup. This is a play set in a publisher's office in which she plays every character including an American Super Agent, a lightly tanned boss, a call centre worker, and a diversity officer, plus the publisher who has to deal with The French and a dead rabbit called Ian. It contains a lot of the characters from her radio show, talking and not talking, including Carol Price who is a divorcee children's author and Gwynneth the terrible call centre worker. New characters include Marcia who is an American super publishing agent, she always comes up with new ways of putting people down.
She has most recently been one of the players in BBC Two improvisational show Fast and Loose
Fast and Loose (2011 TV series)
Fast and Loose is a BBC television series on BBC Two. Guests take part in numerous improvised sketches in which each comedian inhabits a certain character or movie genre...
, hosted by Hugh Dennis
Hugh Dennis
Peter Hugh Dennis is an English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and voice-over artist, best known for his work with comedy partner Steve Punt. He is also known for his position as a permanent panelist on the TV comedy show Mock The Week...
.
Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind
The title is in fact a holdover from an entirely different show that Solon had planned to perform with a male partner. When the partner dropped out she rewrote the show in the three weeks leading up to the festival but retained the title in order not to negate the value of the advance publicity or confuse those who had already purchased tickets.Solon plays eight different characters in the show, which consists of sketches of varying lengths, including:
- An Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
fan - Caroline, an AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n disabled housewife who is possessed by the ghost of Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century... - Karen, a prize-winning beautician
- Borgesia, a PolishPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
story-teller - A wedding planner from RotherhamRotherhamRotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
- A hunter who does not believe in zebraZebraZebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...
s - Katrina, a corporate high-flier with an irrational terror of the ChineseChinese peopleThe term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
- A marketing assistant forced to dress as a bookworm
As a Perrier award winning show it secured a run in London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, at the Soho Theatre, in November 2005. Solon also received £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
7,500 with the prize.
Radio
- Ed Reardon's WeekEd Reardon's WeekEd Reardon's Week is a sitcom on BBC Radio 4 recorded semi-naturalistically in the style of a radio drama. It concerns the story of a curmudgeonly 50-something writer described in the show's publicity material as an "author, pipesmoker, consummate fare-dodger and master of the abusive email"...
- Lucy, in Series 3 - Laura Solon: Talking and Not TalkingLaura Solon: Talking and Not TalkingLaura Solon: Talking and Not Talking is a comedy sketch show created by British Perrier Award winning comedian, Laura Solon. The show was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Following her success with Kopfraper's Syndrome: One Man and His Incredible Mind, Solon went on to create the show with the BBC...
(2007), (2008), (2009) - Frank Skinner on Absolute Radio - Stand-in for Emily Dean (2009)
- Dave Gorman on Absolute Radio - Stand-in for Danielle WardDanielle WardDanielle Ward is a British stand-up comedian and writer.-Career:In 2006 Ward won the Time Outs Critic's Choice award for Best Newcomer and wrote Take A Break Tales - exaggerated adaptations of women's magazine stories - in which she appeared with Neil Edmond, Emma Fryer and Isy Suttie at the...
(2010)
Television
- Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and PaulRuddy Hell! It's Harry and PaulHarry & Paul is a BAFTA Award-winning British sketch comedy show starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 13 April 2007...
(2007-) - Laura, Ben and Him (2008)
- Al Murray's Multiple Personality DisorderAl Murray's Multiple Personality DisorderAl Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder is a British sketch show starring comedian Al Murray. The multi character aspect of the show was a departure from Murray's previous television comedy work, as the sole character The Pub Landlord. The first series ran from 27 February to 12 April 2009,...
(2009) - 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...
(2010) - Fast and LooseFast and Loose (2011 TV series)Fast and Loose is a BBC television series on BBC Two. Guests take part in numerous improvised sketches in which each comedian inhabits a certain character or movie genre...
(2011)
Other drama
- Orbis (Doctor Who Audio)Orbis (Doctor Who audio)Orbis is an audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio drama was produced by Big Finish Productions.-Plot:...
- Selta (Big FinishBig Finish ProductionsBig Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
) (2009)