Sue Perkins

This article is about the English comedian. For Miss America 1978, see Susan Perkins.

Sue Perkins
Birth name	Susan Elizabeth Perkins
Born	(1969-09-22) 22 September 1969 East Dulwich, London, England
Nationality	English
Genres	Comedy
Notable works and roles	Mel and Sue The Supersizers Go... The Supersizers Eat...

Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English comedian, broadcaster and conductor.

She was born in East Dulwich, London.

Education

Perkins was educated at Croham Hurst School, an independent school for girls in Croydon in South London, at the same time as the BBC Breakfast News presenter Susanna Reid. She later studied English at New Hall at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1990. While at Cambridge, she was a member of the Footlights, where she met Mel Giedroyc. She was Footlights president during the academic year 1990/91.

Mel and Sue

Perkins first came to notice with Mel Giedroyc as Mel and Sue. The duo were short-listed for the Daily Express Best Newcomers Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. After a few years writing for French & Saunders (and occasionally appearing on their BBC series), they hosted a lunchtime show on Channel 4 called Light Lunch, and an early evening version, Late Lunch.

Television

Perkins has been a presenter on Channel 4's RI:SE and appeared in Celebrity Big Brother during 2002 in aid of a number of charities. During the series she had some notable dancing moments with eventual winner Mark Owen of Take That. She has made numerous appearances on BBC TV shows Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, QI, Room 101, Celebrity Weakest Link, Question Time and Newsnight; she has often joked that the BBC pay her a regular wage for "blabbering on random shows". She made notable appearances as a 'field reporter' for Armando Iannucci vehicle The Saturday Night Armistice.

Perkins hosted Good Evening, Rockall (second series), a short-lived news orientated panel game shown on BBC Choice. She appeared in BBC Four's 2006 language quiz show Never Mind the Full Stops. She was also a team captain on ITV's Win, Lose or Draw Late, appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2006, performed in early 2007 on Celebrity Poker and News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald in 2007.

In April 2007, she participated in Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC with food critic Giles Coren, spending a week eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couple's food, whilst wearing a corset. The duo returned, in May 2008, with a series called The Supersizers Go... where they live, for a week, eating food based upon certain diets. The first programme saw them survive for a week on WWII rations, the second covers the English Restoration period, the third the Victorian period, the fourth the Seventies, the fifth the Elizabethan period and the sixth the Regency period.

In August and September 2008, Sue Perkins appeared in the reality TV talent show television series Maestro on BBC Two. During the series, a group of eight celebrities attempted (until eliminated) to learn to conduct orchestral, choral and operatic music. Perkins won the competition with her mentor conductor Jason Lai. She then conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at Proms in the Park, part of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms. Her Maestro section of the programme was broadcast live from Hyde Park, London on 13 September 2008, in front of a crowd of more than 30,000. During the programme, Perkins conducted three pieces, two of them with soprano soloist Lesley Garrett.

Also in 2008 Perkins narrated the series ....and Proud on Virgin 1.

Sue Perkins appeared in a second 'Supersizers' series called The Supersizers Eat... with Giles Coren which aired on BBC Two in June and July 2009. In September and October 2009 she hosted the Channel 4 panel game The Big Food Fight.

In March 2010, Perkins appeared in a three part mini-series broadcast on BBC Two A Band for Britain in which she attempted to revive the fortunes of the Dinnington Colliery Band.

In 2010, she appeared on QI, where host Stephen Fry embarrassed himself by absent-mindedly calling her Mel. Alan Davies responded by calling him Hugh.

Perkins filmed two series which aired on BBC Two in 2010: Giles and Sue Live The Good Life, with Giles Coren, and The Great British Bake Off, a cookery competition series which she co-hosts with Mel Giedroyc, each episode looking at a different aspect of baking. The latter had a second series in 2011 and a third in 2012. She also narrated the 2011 game show Don't Scare the Hare. With Alison Steadman and Stephen Mangan she presented a mini-series on BBC Two called All Roads Lead Home, in October 2011, based on navigating short rambles, or nature walks, solely with the use of natural clues.

She presented and performed Mrs Dickens' Family Christmas, a sixty minute documentary for BBC Two broadcast on 30 December 2011 which examined the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife, Catherine.

She has, on occasion, presented The Culture Show. She presented this show when it came from the Edinburgh Festival in August 2012, and interviewed Nile Rodgers, a member of the American disco pop music group Chic (band).

She appeared with Charley Boorman in S01E01 of BBC World's Most Dangerous Roads: Alaska shown in 2011 where they drove the Dalton Highway. She then appeared with Liza Tarbuck in S02E02 of BBC World's Most Dangerous Roads: Ho Chi Minh Trail shown in 2012 where they drove in Vietnam & Laos.

Conducting

Following her success in Maestro, Perkins guest-conducted the London Lesbian/Gay Symphony Orchestra on 11 October 2009, at St Anne's Church Garden in Soho. She conducted two pieces, the Simpsons Theme by Danny Elfman, and the William Tell Overture by Rossini, the latter for the first time.

As part of A Band for Britain, Perkins conducted the Dinnington Colliery Band at the DW Stadium playing the National Anthem for a Four Nations rugby match, and also conducted them together with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band at Sheffield City Hall.

Perkins again conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at the first ever Comedy Prom at the Royal Albert Hall during 2011 Prom season.

Radio

Perkins is a panel member of Radio 4's The News Quiz and has made regular appearances on BBC Radio 2's It's Been a Bad Week. She is also a frequent panelist on another popular Radio 4 show, Just a Minute: in the 2012 television version of that series, she appeared in 4 out of the 10 episodes (more than any other panellist except Paul Merton who appeared in all 10) and won on all 4 occasions.

She was the chairman of BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge until the show finished in 2004. Perkins appeared every day in the last half hour of Mark Radcliffe's afternoon radio show on BBC Radio 2, when he sat in for Steve Wright.

Since 2006 Perkins has been a panellist on a Radio 4 show, The Personality Test, a quiz show about the host, presented by a different host each week. Past hosts include Gyles Brandreth and Rick Wakeman, and other panelists include Robin Ince, Lucy Porter, and Will Smith. Perkins is a regular cast member of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show.

While presenting a Radio 4 documentary on the Lake District's competition the "World's Biggest Liar", she ended up winning it.

In December 2008 she was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.

Perkins also chairs the Radio 4 panel game Dilemma, in which four humorous guests discussed moral conundrums she provided for them. The first series ran for six episodes on Sunday evenings from 13 November to 18 December 2011.

Books

Perkins was a judge for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.

Edinburgh Festival appearances

Perkins has performed two stand-up comedy solo shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, "Spectacle Wearer Of The Year 2006" in 2005 and "The Disappointing Second Show" in 2006.

Personal life

Perkins lives in London and Penzance.

She was outed as a lesbian in 2002 by her ex-girlfriend Rhona Cameron during Cameron's appearance on ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Perkins had a four-year relationship with artist Kate Williams, until early 2012.

In August 2012 she appeared on Tatler's list of coolest lesbians.

External links

• Sue Perkins at IMDb
• SuePerkins.com (redirects to Twitter account)
• Official MySpace (does not appear to be active)
• Official Mel and Sue website (has not been updated in many years)
• Sue Perkins at Biogs.com
• Sue Perkins Management - Debi Allen