Paul Putner
Encyclopedia
Life and career
He was born in East GrinsteadEast Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
. He studied at LAMDA
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...
where he won, amongst other prizes, the Kenneth More
Kenneth More
Kenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...
prize for comedy acting.
His first significant TV role saw Putner as numerous characters in The Glam Metal Detectives
The Glam Metal Detectives
The Glam Metal Detectives is a comedy show produced by the BBC in 1995. Shown on BBC2 on Thursday nights at 9pm—a slot renowned as a breeding ground for new and more experimental comedy—it combined both sketch and sitcom elements,...
shown on BBC2. His real break in comedy came after he set up the club The Regency Rooms with fellow performers Steve Furst
Steve Furst
Steven Larry Furst is a comedian, actor and writer. Furst says his father told him that he arrived as an immigrant from Hungary with "nothing but a violin under my arm"...
and Oliver Darly. The club developed a cult following and was attended by many comics. Richard Herring
Richard Herring
Richard Keith Herring is a British comedian and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring...
saw Paul performing there and cast him in his play Punk's Not Dead at the 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...
. This role lead to many others including TV roles in Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring
Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were probably most famous for their work on television, most notably Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy but had been working together on stage and on radio...
's shows.
He has appeared in numerous British TV and radio shows, including This Morning With Richard Not Judy
This Morning With Richard Not Judy
This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ was a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2...
(1998) (perhaps most notably as the Curious Orange, who appeared in every episode, but also in several other recurring roles), Sir Bernard's Stately Homes
Sir Bernard's Stately Homes
Sir Bernard's Stately Homes was a series of British TV comedy series first shown in 1998 on BBC Two and later re-run on Play UK. Only six 10 minute programmes were produced, all written by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. It bore many similarities to the more well-known Rock Profile...
(1999), 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...
(1999), Rock Profile
Rock Profile
Rock Profile is a British television comedy show written by and starring comedy partnership Matt Lucas and David Walliams, both now widely known for the sketch show Little Britain. Rock Profile first appeared on the channel UK Play in 1999, before moving to BBC Two in 2000...
(2000), The Day the Music Died
The Day the Music Died (radio)
The Day the Music Died is a British topical music radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 2. The show has aired since 2003. The sixth series in 2007 saw the departure of Robin Ince, leaving Jon Holmes and Andrew Collins to co-present.- External links :*...
(2004–present), Look Around You
Look Around You
Look Around You is a British television comedy series devised and written by Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz, and, in the first series, narrated by Nigel Lambert...
(2004) and Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
(2003–2005). He appeared in a minor role as a zombie in the comedy movie Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun 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...
in 2005, and could also be heard on the zombies' 'commentary' track on the DVD release. More recently he has appeared in the 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...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comedy Nebulous
Nebulous
Nebulous is a post apocalyptic science fiction comedy radio show written by Graham Duff and produced by Ted Dowd from Baby Cow Productions; it is directed by Nicholas Briggs. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on BBC Radio 4...
(2005), Peacefully in their Sleeps
Peacefully in their Sleeps
Peacefully in Their Sleeps is a BBC Radio 4 comedy series written by Chris Chantler and Howard Read. Paying tribute to fictional celebrities, it lampoons postwar popular culture using fake archive footage and interviews...
on 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 2007, The Peter Serafinowicz Show
The Peter Serafinowicz Show
The Peter Serafinowicz Show was a BBC Two comedy sketch show written by and starring Peter Serafinowicz. The first series started on the 4 October 2007 at 21:30 as part of the newly launched "Thursdays Are Funny" brand on BBC2 and Thursdays on ABC2...
in 2007 and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle is a comedy series created by Stewart Lee.The BBC Two series debuted on 16 March 2009, and featured stand-up routines and sketches performed by Simon Munnery, Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner amongst others. Peter Serafinowicz recorded voice-over parts. The series is...
in 2009.
He has also contributed material to programmes including The Impressionable Jon Culshaw
Jon Culshaw
Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English impressionist and comedian. He was educated at St Bede's RC High School, Ormskirk and St John Rigby College, in Orrell, Wigan....
, Little Britain
Little Britain
Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...
, The Peter Serafinowicz Show
The Peter Serafinowicz Show
The Peter Serafinowicz Show was a BBC Two comedy sketch show written by and starring Peter Serafinowicz. The first series started on the 4 October 2007 at 21:30 as part of the newly launched "Thursdays Are Funny" brand on BBC2 and Thursdays on ABC2...
and is a co-creator of the website "TV Dregs".
In 2005, Putner took the starring role (as a mime
Mime
The word mime is used to refer to a mime artist who uses a theatrical medium or performance art involving the acting out of a story through body motions without use of speech.Mime may also refer to:* Mime, an alternative word for lip sync...
) in the 7th district section of the film Paris, je t'aime
Paris, je t'aime
Paris, Je t'aime is a 2006 anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements...
written and directed by Sylvain Chomet
Sylvain Chomet
Sylvain Chomet is a French comic writer, animator and film director.- Early career :Born in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, near Paris, he studied art at high-school until he graduated in 1982. Chomet moved to London in 1988 to work as an animator at the Richard Purdum studio...
. The film opened the "Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
" section of the 2006 Cannes Film Festival
2006 Cannes Film Festival
The 2006 Cannes Film Festival ran from May 17, 2006 to May 28, 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the jury....
. From late 2005 until early 2007 Putner toured in the Little Britain Live
Little Britain Live
Little Britain Live is a stage show based on the TV sketch series Little Britain, performed by its stars, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, and directed by Jeremy Sams. Supporting characters are played by Paul Putner and Samantha Power . As in the TV show, Tom Baker is the narrator, although his lines...
show, and later appeared in Matt Lucas
Matt Lucas
Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...
and David Walliams
David Walliams
David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...
' TV follow-up, Come Fly With Me
Come Fly with Me (2010 TV series)
Come Fly with Me is a British mockumentary television comedy series created by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. Narrated by Lindsay Duncan, the series launched on 25 December 2010 on BBC One and BBC One HD...
. In 2010 and 2011, Putner played the ill-fated Gerald "Jelly" Kelly in the Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
trilogy, Rock & Chips, written by the late John Sullivan
John Sullivan (writer)
John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....
.