Tony Slattery
Encyclopedia
Anthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery (born 9 November 1959) is an English actor
and comedian
who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4
improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?
As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The Crying Game
, Peter's Friends
and How to Get Ahead in Advertising
.
into a working class
background, the fifth and last child of Irish
immigrants, Michael and Margaret Slattery. Much younger than his sister Marlene and his triplet brothers, Christopher, Michael and Stephen, he tended to be a "loner." In his youth, he represented England in under-15 judo
achieving a black belt before he was 16. Educated at Gunnersbury Boys Grammar School in west London
, he won a scholarship to study Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity Hall, Cambridge
, specializing in French
literature and Spanish
poetry. At Cambridge he discovered a love of the theatre, taking delight in making people laugh. When Stephen Fry
invited him to become a member of the Cambridge Footlights, his fellow students included Emma Thompson
, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie
, Jan Ravens
(first female president of the Footlights), Sandi Toksvig
, Morwenna Banks
and Richard Vranch
. In 1982 he was made president of the Footlights. During his tenure, the touring annual revue
was Premises Premises.
's follow up to O.T.T.
, Saturday Stayback
. He was a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
, starred in his own improvisational comedy series, S&M, alongside Mike McShane
, and has appeared on other panel quizzes such as Have I Got News For You
. He was a regular on the TV version of the quiz show Just a Minute
and was also on the radio version several times, including the live version held at the Edinburgh Festival
.
As a dramatic actor he has appeared in The Crying Game
, To Die For
, Peter's Friends
and The Wedding Tackle.
At the end of the 1980s, he became a film critic, presenting his own show on British television, Saturday Night at the Movies. He also appeared in the ITV
sitcom That's Love
with Jimmy Mulville
. Other TV appearances include The Music Game alongside Richard Vranch
and as a regular guest with both Ruby Wax
and Clive Anderson
.
He has also been a regular guest with The Comedy Store Players, both at The Comedy Store
in London and on tour.
Early in the 1990s he appeared on many TV shows to the extent that he was a target of satire. For example, the Have I Got News For You
1991 annual
showed images of the game from around the world, and each local variant featured Slattery as a guest. Spitting Image
showed a sketch where an anthropomorphised
BBC2
logo refused to have blue paint splattered on it and Slattery intervened for the sake of publicity. The satirical magazine Private Eye once published a memorable cartoon
depicting his answering machine
with the outgoing message "Yes, I'll do it!"
In 1992 he appeared in the film Carry On Columbus
. In the same year, he appeared in the series Dead Ringer, filmed for the observation round in The Krypton Factor
. It was during this period that Slattery also appeared in the BBC sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf
in the episode "Kryten". Slattery here played the voice of the main character on Kryten's favourite soap opera
, "Androids" (a parody of Neighbours
).
Also in 1992, he appeared as a contestant on Channel 4's now defunct show GamesMaster
, in which he said on the show he hated video games, despite the show being entirely devoted to them. He played the real-time arcade shooter Who Shot Johnny Rock?
, failing the challenge by shooting an innocent victim in the game.
In 1993 he starred in the ITV sitcom Just a Gigolo
. Only one series was ever made.
Due to an extended period of illness, Slattery undertook only very occasional television work from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. He reappeared in Red Dwarf in 1999 as the voice of the vending machine which threatens Arnold Rimmer
in the final episode of the series, "Only the Good...
".
In January 2005 he appeared in the TV movie Ahead of the Class
with Julie Walters
. In December 2005 he joined the long-running drama Coronation Street
as Eric Talford and in April 2006 he appeared in Grumpy Old Men
on BBC Two
. In 2007 he appeared as a regular cast member in the ITV series Kingdom
, playing the eccentric Sidney Snell, returning for a third series in 2009.
In 2005, Slattery appeared in series 7 of Bad Girls
, as D.I. Alan Hayes who was investigating the murder of Jim Fenner. Also in 2005, he won a celebrity edition of the gameshow The Weakest Link
, beating Vanessa Feltz
in the final round. He announced at the end of the show that he would donate his prize money to the charity: the Terrence Higgins Trust
. He appeared as well in a cameo role in ITV's Life Begins
as a date for Maggie (played by Caroline Quentin
). Additionally, he played the Canon of Birkley in the Robin Hood episode "Show Me the Money
" on 17 November 2007.
In January 2010, he appeared with Phyllida Law
on Ready Steady Cook
.
In March 2011, he appeared in a reunion special of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
along with Josie Lawrence
, Clive Anderson
, and Neil Mullarkey
for the BBC Comic Relief
show 24 Hour Panel People.
as a comedic duo calling themselves Aftertaste. For a number of years they toured throughout Great Britain
performing in small venues: theatres and clubs, most notably the Tunnel Club, King's Head Theatre in London
and aboard The Thekla, then known as the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. Together they hosted the Channel 4
quiz The Music Game and over 100 episodes of Cue the Music on ITV
.
Possessing a baritone
voice, Slattery has appeared on London's West End
stages in the musicals Me and My Girl
and Radio Times, as well as in the play Neville's Island.
In 1998, he was elected as Rector of the University of Dundee
.
In May 2006 he was the first voice of the narrator in the 35th anniversary theatre production of Richard O'Brien
's Rocky Horror Tribute Show, held at the Royal Court Theatre
, just downstairs from the first ever showing of Rocky Horror.
On July 20, 21, 22, and 24, 2010, he appeared in Ki Longfellow-Stanshall
and Vivian Stanshall
's Stinkfoot in Concert
, once again performing aboard The Thekla still moored in the Bristol city docks. (See external links.)
, Slattery suffered what he described as a "mid-life crisis" — triggered by excessive drinking and cocaine use (spending up to £4000 per week on the drug) — culminating in 1996 with a six-month period of reclusiveness, during which he did not answer his door or telephone, "or open bills, or wash... I just sat." Eventually, one of his friends broke down the door of his flat and persuaded him to go to hospital. He was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder
. He discussed this period and his subsequent living with the disorder in a documentary made by Stephen Fry, The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, in 2006; Slattery claimed that he spent time living in a warehouse and "throwing [his] furniture into the Thames".
Now recovered, he has returned to presenting on British cable television.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and 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...
who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the 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...
improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...
As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The Crying Game
The Crying Game
The Crying Game is a 1992 psychological thriller drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Irish Troubles...
, Peter's Friends
Peter's Friends
Peter's Friends is a 1992 British comedy-drama film written by Rita Rudner and her husband Martin Bergman, and directed and produced by Kenneth Branagh....
and How to Get Ahead in Advertising
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
How to Get Ahead in Advertising is a 1989 British film written and directed by Bruce Robinson and starring Richard E. Grant and Rachel Ward. The title is a pun and can be literally taken as "How to Get a Head in Advertising".-Plot:...
.
Early life
Slattery was born in Stonebridge, LondonStonebridge, London
-See also:* Harlesden* Harlesden station* The nearby Dudding Hill Line in Craven Park...
into a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
background, the fifth and last child of Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
immigrants, Michael and Margaret Slattery. Much younger than his sister Marlene and his triplet brothers, Christopher, Michael and Stephen, he tended to be a "loner." In his youth, he represented England in under-15 judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
achieving a black belt before he was 16. Educated at Gunnersbury Boys Grammar School in west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he won a scholarship to study Modern and Medieval Languages at Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, specializing in French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
literature and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
poetry. At Cambridge he discovered a love of the theatre, taking delight in making people laugh. When 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...
invited him to become a member of the Cambridge Footlights, his fellow students included Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson
Emma Thompson is a British actress, comedian and screenwriter. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End...
, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie
James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE , better known as Hugh Laurie , is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director...
, Jan Ravens
Jan Ravens
Janet "Jan" Ravens is an English actress and impressionist, famous for her voices on Spitting Image and Dead Ringers.-Early life:...
(first female president of the Footlights), Sandi Toksvig
Sandi Toksvig
Sandra Brigitte “Sandi” Toksvig is a Danish comedian, author and presenter on British radio and television.-Career:...
, Morwenna Banks
Morwenna Banks
Morwenna Banks is a British comedy actress, writer and producer.Banks is perhaps best known in the UK as a cast member of the British Channel 4 comedy series Absolutely, where her best-known character was a schoolgirl who sat on the edge of a desk.She appeared as the Keeper of the Rules in the...
and Richard Vranch
Richard Vranch
Richard Leslie Vranch is a British comedian, actor and musician.Vranch improvises comedy on stage with the Comedy Store Players every Wednesday and Sunday at The Comedy Store in London. He has voiced British Airways TV and radio commercials since 2003, and he narrates TV documentaries...
. In 1982 he was made president of the Footlights. During his tenure, the touring annual revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
was Premises Premises.
Television and film career
Slattery first broke into television as a regular performer on Chris TarrantChris Tarrant
Christopher John "Chris" Tarrant, OBE is an English radio and television broadcaster, now best known for hosting the first version of the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the United Kingdom and later Ireland, as the two national versions of the show merged in 2002.Chris...
's follow up to O.T.T.
O.T.T.
O.T.T. was a late-night adult version of the anarchic ATV children's show Tiswas, but made by its ITV franchise successor Central Television. It was broadcast at 11.00pm on Saturday nights for one series in 1982. O.T.T. was created and presented by Chris Tarrant, and also starred ex-Tiswasians John...
, Saturday Stayback
Saturday Stayback
Saturday Stayback was a late night comedy show made in 1983 by Central Television, starring Chris Tarrant. It was performed entirely in a public house....
. He was a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...
, starred in his own improvisational comedy series, S&M, alongside Mike McShane
Mike McShane
Michael "Mike" McShane is an American actor, singer, and improvisational comedian who first became known through his appearances in the early 1990s on the British version of the television show Whose Line Is It Anyway?-Biography:...
, and has appeared on other panel quizzes 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...
. He was a regular on the TV version of the quiz show Just a Minute
Just a Minute
Just 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....
and was also on the radio version several times, including the live version held at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
.
As a dramatic actor he has appeared in The Crying Game
The Crying Game
The Crying Game is a 1992 psychological thriller drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Irish Troubles...
, To Die For
To Die For (1994 film)
To Die For is a British comedy drama film directed by Peter Mackenzie Litten in 1994. It stars Thomas Arklie, Ian Williams, Tony Slattery, Dillie Keane and John Altman. The screenplay was written by Johnny Byrne, Paul McEvoy, and Litten...
, Peter's Friends
Peter's Friends
Peter's Friends is a 1992 British comedy-drama film written by Rita Rudner and her husband Martin Bergman, and directed and produced by Kenneth Branagh....
and The Wedding Tackle.
At the end of the 1980s, he became a film critic, presenting his own show on British television, Saturday Night at the Movies. He also appeared in the 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...
sitcom That's Love
That's Love
That's Love is a British television sitcom about the domestic problems of a young married couple, lawyer Donald and designer Patsy .-Plot:...
with Jimmy Mulville
Jimmy Mulville
James Thomas "Jimmy" Mulville is an English comedian, comedy writer, producer and television presenter. Jimmy Mulville is best known for co-founding in 1986 the British independent television production company Hat Trick Productions with Denise O'Donoghue and Rory McGrath...
. Other TV appearances include The Music Game alongside Richard Vranch
Richard Vranch
Richard Leslie Vranch is a British comedian, actor and musician.Vranch improvises comedy on stage with the Comedy Store Players every Wednesday and Sunday at The Comedy Store in London. He has voiced British Airways TV and radio commercials since 2003, and he narrates TV documentaries...
and as a regular guest with both Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...
and Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...
.
He has also been a regular guest with The Comedy Store Players, both at The Comedy Store
The Comedy Store, London
The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England, opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard.It was named after The Comedy Store club in the United States, which Rosengard had visited the previous year...
in London and on tour.
Early in the 1990s he appeared on many TV shows to the extent that he was a target of satire. For example, the 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...
1991 annual
Annual publication
An annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a magazine, comic book or comic strip published yearly. For example, a weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to the regular publication....
showed images of the game from around the world, and each local variant featured Slattery as a guest. Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
showed a sketch where an anthropomorphised
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
logo refused to have blue paint splattered on it and Slattery intervened for the sake of publicity. The satirical magazine Private Eye once published a memorable cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
depicting his answering machine
Answering machine
The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...
with the outgoing message "Yes, I'll do it!"
In 1992 he appeared in the film Carry On Columbus
Carry On Columbus
Carry On Columbus is the 31st and last film in the Carry On series, following 1978's Carry On Emmannuelle. The only main series regulars present are Jim Dale , Bernard Cribbins , Leslie Phillips , Jon Pertwee and June Whitfield...
. In the same year, he appeared in the series Dead Ringer, filmed for the observation round in The Krypton Factor
The Krypton Factor
The Krypton Factor was a British game show produced by Granada Television for broadcast on ITV. The show originally ran from 7 September 1977 to 20 November 1995, and was hosted by Gordon Burns and usually broadcast on the ITV network on Mondays at 19:00....
. It was during this period that Slattery also appeared in the BBC sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
in the episode "Kryten". Slattery here played the voice of the main character on Kryten's favourite soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, "Androids" (a parody of Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
).
Also in 1992, he appeared as a contestant on Channel 4's now defunct show GamesMaster
GamesMaster
GamesMaster was a British television show, screened on Channel 4 from 1992 to 1998, and was the first ever UK television show dedicated to computer and video games.-Origins:...
, in which he said on the show he hated video games, despite the show being entirely devoted to them. He played the real-time arcade shooter Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Who Shot Johnny Rock? is the title of a live-action full motion video laserdisc video game produced by American Laser Games and released in the arcade in 1991, as well as for DOS, Sega CD, 3DO and CD-i in or around 1994...
, failing the challenge by shooting an innocent victim in the game.
In 1993 he starred in the ITV sitcom Just a Gigolo
Just a Gigolo (TV series)
Just a Gigolo is a 1993 British sitcom starring Tony Slattery as Nick Brim, a teacher who must become a gigolo to pay for food for his house....
. Only one series was ever made.
Due to an extended period of illness, Slattery undertook only very occasional television work from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. He reappeared in Red Dwarf in 1999 as the voice of the vending machine which threatens Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Rimmer
Arnold Judas Rimmer is a fictional character in the science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, played by Chris Barrie. He is unpopular with his crew mates, and is often the target of insults or pranks...
in the final episode of the series, "Only the Good...
Only The Good...
Only the Good... is the final episode in the eighth series and the original run of the British science fiction series Red Dwarf. It was first shown in the UK on 5 April 1999 in the 9:00pm BBC2 time slot, and was written by Doug Naylor and directed by Ed Bye...
".
In January 2005 he appeared in the TV movie Ahead of the Class
Ahead of the Class
Ahead of the Class is a 2003 book and 2005 dramatic television film based on real-life events.-Plot:Marie Stubbs is a diminutive Glaswegian headmistress who is close to the age of retirement. After being Head teacher at The Douay Martyrs School, Ickenham, she takes on one last challenge: to improve...
with Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
. In December 2005 he joined the long-running drama Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
as Eric Talford and in April 2006 he appeared in Grumpy Old Men
Grumpy Old Men (TV series)
Grumpy Old Men is a conversational-style television programme on BBC2 which debuted in 2003, The first run of four programmes was repeated several times before a second series, also of four episodes, was shown in 2004. A third series aired in April 2006. There were also 2003 & 2004 Christmas...
on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
. In 2007 he appeared as a regular cast member in the ITV series Kingdom
Kingdom (TV series)
Kingdom is a British television series produced by Parallel Film and Television Productions for the ITV network. It was created by Simon Wheeler and stars Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom, a Norfolk solicitor who is coping with family, colleagues, and the strange locals who come to him for legal...
, playing the eccentric Sidney Snell, returning for a third series in 2009.
In 2005, Slattery appeared in series 7 of Bad Girls
Bad Girls (TV series)
Bad Girls is an award-winning British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1999 to 2006. It is produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road...
, as D.I. Alan Hayes who was investigating the murder of Jim Fenner. Also in 2005, he won a celebrity edition of the gameshow The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and will end its run in 2012 when its host Anne Robinson ends her contract. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment...
, beating Vanessa Feltz
Vanessa Feltz
Vanessa Jane Feltz is an English television personality, broadcaster and journalist. She currently presents an early morning radio show on BBC Radio 2, a mid morning phone-in show on BBC London 94.9. In 2011, she started hosting The Vanessa Show on Channel 5. The first series ended on June 24th...
in the final round. He announced at the end of the show that he would donate his prize money to the charity: the Terrence Higgins Trust
Terrence Higgins Trust
Terrence Higgins Trust is a British charity that campaigns on various issues related to AIDS and HIV. In particular, the charity aims to reduce the spread of HIV and promote good sexual health ; to provide services on a national and local level to people with, affected by, or at risk of...
. He appeared as well in a cameo role in ITV's Life Begins
Life Begins
Life Begins is a British television drama first broadcast on ITV between February 2004 and October 2006, starring Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, Anne Reid and Frank Finlay.-History:...
as a date for Maggie (played by Caroline Quentin
Caroline Quentin
Caroline Jones known by her stage name Caroline Quentin, is an English actress. Quentin became known for her television appearances in Men Behaving Badly, playing Dorothy, and playing Maddy Magellan in Jonathan Creek for three years.-Early life:...
). Additionally, he played the Canon of Birkley in the Robin Hood episode "Show Me the Money
Show Me the Money (Robin Hood episode)
Show Me The Money is the seventh episode of series two of the BBC's new Robin Hood series. It was shown on Saturday 17 November on BBC One at 07:05pm...
" on 17 November 2007.
In January 2010, he appeared with Phyllida Law
Phyllida Law
-Personal life:Law was born in Glasgow, the daughter of William and Megsie Law, who divorced after World War II. She was married to Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death in 1982. Their two children Emma and Sophie Thompson are both actresses...
on Ready Steady Cook
Ready Steady Cook
Ready Steady Cook was a BBC daytime TV cooking programme it first debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last edition was broadcast on the 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott became the new host...
.
In March 2011, he appeared in a reunion special of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...
along with Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence is a British comedienne and actress best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and more recently her role as Manda Best in EastEnders....
, Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson
Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...
, and Neil Mullarkey
Neil Mullarkey
Neil Mullarkey is an English actor, writer and comedian.Mullarkey studied at Robinson College, Cambridge; while he was there he was Junior Treasurer of the Cambridge Footlights in the academic year 1981 to 1982 and was president in the year ending 1983...
for the BBC 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...
show 24 Hour Panel People.
The theatre
In 1981 he teamed with Richard VranchRichard Vranch
Richard Leslie Vranch is a British comedian, actor and musician.Vranch improvises comedy on stage with the Comedy Store Players every Wednesday and Sunday at The Comedy Store in London. He has voiced British Airways TV and radio commercials since 2003, and he narrates TV documentaries...
as a comedic duo calling themselves Aftertaste. For a number of years they toured throughout Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
performing in small venues: theatres and clubs, most notably the Tunnel Club, King's Head Theatre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and aboard The Thekla, then known as the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. Together they hosted the 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...
quiz The Music Game and over 100 episodes of Cue the Music on 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...
.
Possessing a baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
voice, Slattery has appeared on 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...
stages in the musicals Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....
and Radio Times, as well as in the play Neville's Island.
In 1998, he was elected as Rector of the University of Dundee
Rector of the University of Dundee
The Rector of the University of Dundee is elected by the matriculated students of the University. From 1967 to 2010 the Rector was automatically a full member of the University Court...
.
In May 2006 he was the first voice of the narrator in the 35th anniversary theatre production of Richard O'Brien
Richard O'Brien
Richard Timothy Smith , better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze...
's Rocky Horror Tribute Show, held at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, just downstairs from the first ever showing of Rocky Horror.
On July 20, 21, 22, and 24, 2010, he appeared in Ki Longfellow-Stanshall
Ki Longfellow
Ki Longfellow is an American novelist, playwright, theatrical producer, theater director and entrepreneur. In Britain, as the widow of Vivian Stanshall, she is well known as the guardian of his artistic heritage, but elsewhere she is best known for her own work, especially the novel The Secret...
and Vivian Stanshall
Vivian Stanshall
Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...
's Stinkfoot in Concert
Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera
Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera is an English musical with book, music, and lyrics by Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall written for the Crackpot Theatre Company aboard the Old Profanity Showboat in Bristol, England. The show is based on a series of tales written by Longfellow about Stinkfoot,...
, once again performing aboard The Thekla still moored in the Bristol city docks. (See external links.)
Personal life
In the mid-1990s, after leaving Whose Line Is It Anyway?Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy TV show. Originally a British radio programme, it moved to television in 1988 as a series made for the UK's Channel 4, for a 10 series run...
, Slattery suffered what he described as a "mid-life crisis" — triggered by excessive drinking and cocaine use (spending up to £4000 per week on the drug) — culminating in 1996 with a six-month period of reclusiveness, during which he did not answer his door or telephone, "or open bills, or wash... I just sat." Eventually, one of his friends broke down the door of his flat and persuaded him to go to hospital. He was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
. He discussed this period and his subsequent living with the disorder in a documentary made by Stephen Fry, The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, in 2006; Slattery claimed that he spent time living in a warehouse and "throwing [his] furniture into the Thames".
Now recovered, he has returned to presenting on British cable television.
External links
- Tony in Stinkfoot!
- Tony Slattery at imdb
- The Tony Slattery Fanbase
- Guardian story containing a quote about his breakdown as "...a pool of despair and mania."
- Transcript of Tony's Star Test interview