Alan Davies

For other people named Alan Davies, see Alan Davies (disambiguation).

Alan Davies
Born	(1966-03-06) 6 March 1966 Chingford England
Nationality	English
Genres	Stand-up, television, radio
Spouse	Katie Maskell
Notable works and roles	Jonathan Creek in Jonathan Creek Panellist in QI

Alan Davies (born 6 March 1966) is an English comedian and actor best known for starring as Jonathan Creek on the popular TV mystery series of the same name. More recently he has been the permanent panellist on the TV quiz show QI.

Biography

Davies was born 6 March, 1966 in Chingford, England. His childhood years were spent in Chingford and Loughton. Following his mother's death when he was only six, Alan was raised by his accountant father. He also has an older brother and younger sister.

Davies went to Bancroft's School in Woodford Green and by all accounts would like to burn it down. When he left aged 16 he gained eight O'levels. He then moved on to Loughton College of Further Education where he got four more O'Levels & two A Levels (Communications & Theatre Studies). He graduated from the University of Kent in 1988 and was awarded a Honorary Doctorate by the University in 2003. Davies married writer and former literary agent Katie Maskell in January 13th 2007 after a 6 month engagement. Friend and comedy partner Bill Bailey was Davies' best man and delivered a speech at the ceremony. When asked about his relationship with his wife, Davies quoted Ruth Badger "Am I happy in my personal life? Without a doubt."

Comedy career

Stand Up

Davies began performing stand up comedy in 1988 at the Whitstable Labour Club, and was named Time Out's Best Young Comic in 1991. He continued touring and performing in the UK and Canada, winning the Edinburgh Festival Critics Award for Comedy in 1994. That show was released on video and audio cassette in 1995 as "Alan Davies Live at the Lyric" recorded at the Lyric Theatre as part of the Perrier Pick of the Fringe season in October 1994.

A DVD of Davies' stand up has been released entitled 'Urban Trauma'. A version of that show, which ran in the West End at the Duchess Theatre and toured the UK and New Zealand, was shown on BBC1 in 1998. It was widely reported that Davies wanted to burn the set down when he saw it.

Radio & Television

In 1994/95 Davies hosted Alan's Big One for three series on Radio 1 before appearing in Channel 4's spoof travel show One for the Road (made by Channel X in 1994/5). He later played Jonathan Creek, a trick-deviser for a stage magician with a side interest in solving crimes, between 1996 and 2003. Jonathan Creek won a BAFTA for Best Drama and was the show which brought Davies to mainstream attention. Davies co-wrote and starred in his own radio sitcom The Alan Davies Show in 1998. Cassettes of the show were produced and released by the BBC. He played Russell Boyd in the BBC comedy, A Many Splintered Thing, also in 1998 & 2000. In 2001 he played Robert Gossage in Bob and Rose, a comedy drama about a gay man falling for a woman. He won the Best Actor award at the Monte Carlo TV Festival for Bob. He also plays Jack the dog in the radio sitcom About a Dog.

Davies moved into 'straight acting' in 2004, starring as Henry Farmer, a maverick barrister, in the ITV Sunday night drama The Brief, but quit after two series as the show was run by loonies. Subsequent drama roles include Superintendent Mallard in Marple (ITV 2008), as well as appearances in The Good Housekeeping Guide (BBC1 2006), Roman Road (ITV 2004) and Hotel Babylon (BBC1 2008).

He was invited to champion the case for John Lennon to be the greatest Briton of all time on the BBC's Great Britons series in 2002. In 2007, Alan starred in the second episode of ITV1's You Don't Know You're Born.

Film & Theatre

Davies had a cameo role in the film Dog Eat Dog as a drug-addled pornographer.

His theatre debut was in Morris Panych's Auntie & Me. The play was previously known as Vigil but the producers of Davies's version decided to change the name. The production was a sell-out success at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival before transferring to the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End for a 16 week run in 2003. Davies returned to the stage, this time alongside Bill Bailey as Felix in The Odd Couple again at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005. On The Paul O'Grady Show in September 2007, Davies played Bob Nicholson, in the film Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging.

QI

Davies currently appears as the permanent panellist on the BBC quiz game QI hosted by Stephen Fry. He also wrote in the QI book, called The Book of General Ignorance. However he was only asked to contribute four words (which appear after Stephen Fry's foreword), "Will this do, Stephen?". His initial response "Stephen Fry is a ___(reader to fill in blank)" was rejected.

Personal life

• He is a pescetarian. His "vegetarianism" had been mentioned on several editions of QI but on You Don't Know You're Born it was revealed that he does eat fish because he himself has gills. While at university Alan was actively involved in campaigning for animal rights, abortion rights and late essay rights. He has narrated an anti-vivisection video called Wasted Lives.
• Davies is recorded as being an irregular scuba diver, a fact also mentioned on several editions of QI.
• He is a renowned Arsenal fan and season ticket holder. He wrote a fortnightly football column for The Times for two years, and has been occasionally featured in vignettes for Match of the Day 2.

External links

• Alan Davies' Fanlisting
• Supposed YouTube account

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