Alexander Armstrong

Alexander Armstrong
Alexander Armstrong, June 2005
Born	2 March 1970 (1970-03-02) (age 39) Rothbury, Northumberland, England

Alexander Armstrong (born 2 March 1970^{[citation needed]}) is a British comedian, actor and television presenter.

Early life and career

Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland. He was educated at the independent Durham School^[1] and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read English, and was a member of the college choir. In 1992, while at Cambridge, he met Ben Miller, where both were in the Cambridge Footlights, and they formed the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. Armstrong decided not to pursue a career as a professional bass singer, and developed a career in acting. Whilst waiting for acting roles Armstrong worked in a string of North London bars and restaurants including Pizza Express and Subway.

Comedy career

Armstrong has performed in several comedy roles. He co-starred in four series of Armstrong and Miller from 1997 to 2001. Armstrong renewed his partnership with Ben Miller for The Armstrong and Miller Show in 2007.

He starred as a misanthropic, animal-hating vet in the sitcom Beast. He is also the star of a series of TV commercials for Pimm's.

In 1999 he starred as Prince Charming in ITV's Christmas pantomime alongside his friend Ben Miller, and with Samantha Janus, Paul Merton, Harry Hill, Frank Skinner and Ronnie Corbett.

On BBC Radio 4, he plays the part of John Weak in the office sitcom Weak at the Top by Guy Browning.

Armstrong also played Martin Baine-Jones alongside Ben Miller's Craig Children for the Times Online's "Timeghost" podcast as they discussed the cultural zeitgeist.

Television presenting

Armstrong is chairman of the comedy panel show Best of the Worst which also features team captains David Mitchell and Johnny Vaughan. The first show aired on 1 September 2006 on Channel 4 in the UK.

He presents the ITV1 comedy quiz series Don't Call Me Stupid, in which mismatched celebrities teach each other a subject they are passionate about, before facing a studio quiz on their new topic. The series features pairings including Brian Sewell with Phil Tufnell, George Galloway with Lady Victoria Hervey, James Whitaker with Bez, Germaine Greer with Shane Lynch, and Michael Howard with Wayne Sleep.

He is a frequent guest host on the BBC's satirical panel game Have I Got News for You, having appeared 15 times. His most recent appearance as host was on 27th Nov 2009. Armstrong has, to date, made the most appearances of any guest, whether as host or panellist.

Armstrong was a leading contender to take over as host of Countdown when Des O'Connor left in 2009, although when he hosted Have I Got News for You on 24 October 2008, he said he hadn't yet accepted the job, despite team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton making jokes about his "new role".^[2] He turned the job down, telling The Independent that he did not want to be "pigeonholed" as a presenter, preferring to focus on acting and comedy.^[3]

He is the presenter of the 2009 BBC Two game show Pointless. He also presented a documentary, Alexander Armstrong's Very British Holiday, about the history of the "great British summer holiday" and his attempts to explore its modern version for the BBC on 8 November 2009.

Dramas and sitcoms

Armstrong co-starred with Caroline Quentin on all three series of ITV1 drama Life Begins.

He appeared in Steve Coogan's Saxondale (Series 1 Episode 2) in 2006, as a famous TV motoring presenter (played like Jeremy Clarkson). Armstrong also appeared as David Cameron in the satirical fictional documentary The Trial of Tony Blair, played a middle aged man who leaves his wife during a mid-life crisis in Maggie Mae and a sex-addicted guest in Hotel Babylon in 2007. He voiced Mr Smith, an alien computer, in The Sarah Jane Adventures and in the Doctor Who episodes "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End".

He also played a role in the 2008 BBC comedy drama Mutual Friends as well as the role of Adam fforbes-Hamilton, the nephew of Audrey DeVere (née fforbes-Hamilton) in the 2007 Christmas Special of the classic BBC sitcom To The Manor Born starring Penelope Keith as Audrey, Peter Bowles as her husband Richard and Angela Thorne as Audrey's old school-friend Marjorie Frobisher, who, despite being "old enough to be his mother" (to quote Audrey), develops a schoolgirl-type romantic crush on Adam.

In 2006 (repeated in 2007) he was a guest on Private Passions, the weekly music discussion programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.^[4] He appeared as an advocate on Visionaries for BBC World News broadcast on 6 September 2008.

In April 2009 he played a school sports instructor on the Sky1 TV movie, Skellig, based on the prize-winning children's novel, alongside Tim Roth (in the title role), John Simm and Kelly MacDonald.

In October 2009, he played Clive Sinclair in a docu-drama about Clive Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Research, and Chris Curry, the co-founder of Acorn Computers, called Micro Men.

Other Work

In 1997 (along with Ben Miller) provided the voices for lead characters for PC game 'Wings Of Destiny' which was published by Psygnosis in 2000. They played British airmen and Nazi officers covering the 2 comicbook plots in the game. From about 2002, Alexander Armstrong also appeared in a series of successful British television adverts for the drink, Pimms.

With Miller, he has formed a production company, Toff Media - so named because a BBC producer once said that the duo was "too posh" to have their own TV show^[5].

Personal life

Armstrong met his wife Hannah, an events organiser for Harvey Nichols, in the early 2000s.^[6] According to Ben Miller, his stag do activities included icing cakes.

Armstrong and his wife have a son, Rex, (born 2007) and their second child, a son named Patrick, was born on 10 June 2009.^[7][8]

His cousin is Clarissa Dickson Wright^[5].

References

External links

• Alexander Armstrong at the Internet Movie Database
• Alexander Armstrong at TV.com
• Alexander Armstrong's twitter