Ben Elton FAQ: Part II
Melinda Bob Casino
UKP 7.99. The ISBN no. is 0 671 69 7633
3h. PLAYS
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If you want permission to perform these plays, requests should be
sent to McIntyre Management
GASPING
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This was first performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London on
1st July 1990. The cast, in order of appearance, were :
Hugh Laurie = Philip
Bernard Hill = Sir Chiffley Lockheart (Chief)
Simon Mattacks = Sandy
Catherine McQueen = Miss Hodges / Weather Forecaster
/ Minister/Reporter
Jaye Griffiths = Kirsten
with the voice of Stephen Fry. It was directed by Bob Spiers,
designed by Terry Parsons and produced by Philip McIntyre.
SILLY COW
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This was first performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London on
20 February 1991. The cast, in order of appearance, were :
Patrick Barlow = Sidney
Dawn French = Doris
Victoria Carling = Peggy
Alan Haywood = Douglas
Kevin Allen = Eduardo
4. Miscellaneous information
On a South Bank Show, he said he didn't envisage seeing STARK
as a television show. He also once said on Going Live that he
hoped to see his novels published in recycled paper for
environmental reasons.
At the time of writing, STARK the TV-film has already been
broadcast on Australian television, and of the five books I have
read, none of them were on recycled paper :)
It took him 10 weeks to write STARK the book, 10 months to write
STARK the script, and two years to get TV producers interested in
the whole idea...
He said on an Australian radio interview that he would like to do
a film version of GRIDLOCK, but the producers would have to find a
good spastic actor to play Geoffrey.
5. Press release
This press release comes to you unofficially. I take no legal
responsibility for any events that may occur due to this
document.
OK, heavy legal bit over. Enjoy !
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BEN ELTON BIOGRAPHY
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Ben Elton is without doubt the most successful British television
comedy writer of his generation. Two of his projects "The Young
Ones" and "Blackadder" have won British Academy awards for best
comedy show of the year (1984 and 1987/90). Blackadder also won
the ACE Award for the best comedy of 1987/88 after its airing on
American Cable Television.
Besides this there was the highly acclaimed BBC film comedy series
"Happy Families" ('English light comic writing at its best' - The
Times) and "Filthy Rich and Catflap" which critics universally
panned but nearly doubled its audience in 6 weeks prompting an
immediate offer of a second series from the BBC.
Batchelor Boys, (The Young Ones book), was the best selling book in
the UK in 1984 selling three quarters of a million copies. It also
topped the best seller lists in Australia.
In 1986 The Young Ones single, a Lionel Bart number with gags by
Ben, spent a month at No.1 , going gold with well over half a
million copies sold.
Obsessively dedicated to comic writing Ben Elton has written hits
for all the major names of the younger generation of British
comedians including Rowan Atkinson, Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry, French
and Saunders and Adrian Edmondson. He has himself become Britain's
top stand-up comedian under forty. He has hosted all three series
of Friday Night Live, the British television comedy showcase. With
critics unanimous in their acclaim, and also in the fact that
without Ben Elton at the helm, the show could not have existed. In
1986 it was British lndependent Television's Light Entertainment
entry to the Montreux Television Festival.
His 1987 sold out tour of the UK and Eire culminated at the
Hammersmith Odeon which is Britain's top rock and roll venue.
Despite being a comedian and not a sexy rocker, Ben Elton scooped
the second longest run at the venue that year, with six sold out
nights. He was topped only by Luther Vandross's record breaking
run. Besides that, his debut album 'Motormouth' was far and away
the top selling UK comedy album of 1987.
Despite being catagorised as a 'youth' comedian, Ben is proud of
his ability to cross the boundaries and was a regular columnist on
The Daily Mirror, (UK's second largest circulation newspaper),
throughout 1986 and 1987 prompting for the first time fan mail from
senior citizens, as opposed to 15 year olds. In 1987 he was
nominated for newspaper columnist of the year (an accolade
traditionally awarded to somebody who is dying or possibly even
dead).
In 1984/85 Ben co-wrote and solely presented 30 episodes of South
of Watford, a documentary series on London art and entertainment.
During this time it won awards at the Chicago Film Festival, The
New York Festival Of Film And Television and the San Francisco Film
And Television Festival. It was also selected for the prestigious
input Festival (the programme makers own festival) held in 1987 at
Granada in Spain.
(.....)
1989 - largest comedy tour of the year United Kingdom and Eire.
1989 - Stark, his first novel, became top of the United Kingdom
Best Sellers list for 6 weeks; Australian Charts for 12 weeks; New
Zealand for 10 weeks. To date Stark has sold over 800,000 copies.
1990 - own series on BBC 1 - The Man From Auntie.
1990 - June 1st - world premiere of his first play "Gasping" in
London's West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, which ran for 9
months and was the second best selling play in Britain. In 1992
there will be two productions in Germany and one in Sweden.
1990 - B.S.B. special `Ben Elton Live'.
1990 - release of Virgin Video - `The Very Best Of Ben Elton Live'.
1990 - writer of "Blackadder Goes Forth" - the fourth series of
Blackadder and BBC 2's top selling show.
June 1991 - release of his second novel "Gridlock" - Sphere Books.
Six weeks at No 1 in the UK charts, and five weeks at
No. 1 in the Australian charts.
February 1991 - world premiere of Ben Elton's second play "Silly
Cow" at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London's West End starring
Dawn French, Patrick Barlow and Kevin Allen.
At present Ben is making a three one hour mini series of his novel
"Stark" in Australia.
February 1993 sees the publishing of his play "Silly Cow".
6. Quotes from Ben Elton's act...
"Double seat, double seat, gotta get a double seat....."
"Hey, look, it was only a sausage..."
"Hey guys, let's cut all the crap and get a communal sausage."
"I was just strolling out of the pavillions to bat, when would
you believe it, my period starts."
"As night follows day, if you drink lager... you will end up on
Kentucky Fried Chicken." - VERY LIVE
"Ben Elton says 'They park a Ford Cortina up your fanny !'" - VERY
LIVE
"Sometimes, I don't wonder if we (British) actually prefer things
a bit crap...." - VERY LIVE
"If we men had periods, we wouldn't have discreet tampon boxes,
would we? No... we'd have boxes with MY F**KING TAMPONS printed on
the outside !" - VERY LIVE
"Get some napkins ... get lots..." - VERY LIVE (could it be Sophie?)
Any other ideas?
7. Addresses of companies, agents etc.
His agent : Jane McIntyre
McIntyre Management
15 Riversway
Navigation Way
PRESTON PR2 2YP
United Kingdom
Sphere Books Ltd.
A Division of MacDonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.
Orbit House
1 New Fetter Lane
LONDON EC4A 1AR
United Kingdom
Warner Books
A Division of Little, Brown & Company (UK)Ltd.
165 Great Dovor Street
LONDON SE1 4YA
United Kingdom
Simon and Schuster
West Garden Place
Kendal Street
LONDON W2 2AQ
United Kingdom
Tapes of his act : Laughing Stock Promotions Ltd.
PO Box 408
Battersea
LONDON SW11 6JJ
United Kingdom
Harper Collins Audio Books
77 - 85 Fulham Palace Road
LONDON W6 8JB
United Kingdom
8. Contributions and thanks
Thanks also go to Greg O'Beirne, Roderick Bergbie, Alexander Lum, Annie
Sattler, and Lee Whiteside for helping with this biography.
Please E-mail me (ach...@bradford.ac.uk) for any corrections,
additions and comments etc.
My name was Andrew Wong, thank you and goodnight....
P.S. I am in the United States for a year, and will be travelling
the length and breadth of the US, so if anyone wants to meet a
genuine British person, please E-mail me! After all the hard work
and graft I put in (grumble grumble).... :)
P.P.S. If you get this via alt.fan.ben-elton, please post something
onto it. The group seems remarkably empty.
P.P.P.S. Since I have a US account, and friends in the UK, I can
take payment if anyone has difficulty getting such
material in the USA. Please E-mail me for more details.
P.P.P.P.S. There was a large feature on BE in the Radio Times just
before Christmas 1993. Does anyone still have a copy of it?!
Andrew Wong Internet : ach...@bradford.ac.uk
-----x----- Compuserve : 72634, 2206
E-mail me for more details as to our attempt at organising Irony'94 - the
first British comedy convention to be held in the United States...
If we build it, they will come.... :)
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"After intensive investigation comma of the markings on the alien
pod comma it has become clear comma to me comma that we are
dealing comma with a species of awesome intellect colon"
-- Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSc, SSc
----------------------------------------------Melinda "Bob" Casino