Tony Slattery

Anthony Declan James Slattery (born 9 November 1959) is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Early life

Slattery was born in Stonebridge, London into a working-class background - his parents were Irish immigrants^[1]. In his youth, he represented England in under-15 judo. He was educated at Gunnersbury Boys Grammar School in West London, and later studied Modern and Medieval Languages, specialising in French and Spanish, at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he became the president of the Cambridge Footlights. Like his contemporaries Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, he became a staple of the British television comedy circuit.

Television career

Slattery first broke into television as a regular performer on Chris Tarrant'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. He appeared on the London stage in the musicals Me and My Girl and Radio Times and in the play Neville's Island.

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 good friend 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 became over-exposed as a celebrity, 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 1991 he was interviewed on the programme Star Test.

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). He also 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...".

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 season was ever made.

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. Which was held at the Royal Court Theatre, just downstairs from the first ever showing of Rocky Horror

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. He also appeared 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.

Personal life

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In the mid-1990s, after leaving Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Slattery suffered what he described as a 'mid-life crisis', 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.

External links

• Tony Slattery at the Internet Movie Database
• 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

References