Leigh Francis

Leigh Francis
Born	(1974-05-30) 30 May 1974 Old Farnley, Leeds, England
Medium	Comedian, writer, actor and producer
Notable works and roles	Bo' Selecta (2002-2006) A Bear's Tail (2005) Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour (2008)

Leigh Francis (born 30 May 1974 in Old Farnley, Leeds) is an English comedy performer, son of Christopher and Hannah Malkin. He was most famous for his comedy series Bo' Selecta! and portrayal of fictional Romanian character Avid Merrion, and failed northern businessman Keith Lemon, in Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour.

Francis attended Harrington High School (latterly Farnley Park High) in Leeds, near his home in Old Farnley. He was discovered by television presenter Davina McCall, who got him regular appearances on MTV UK. This kick-started his television career. One of his first roles on TV was in the guise of a character Bobby Stark, who gave tips with the ladies on Dom (Dominik Diamond) and Kirk's (Kirk Ewing) Nite O Plenty, on Paramount TV. Bobby claimed to seduce female celebrities using Scotch and Bru, the combination of Irn-Bru and Scotch eggs.

Leigh Francis conducts nearly every interview and arrives at every celebrity function in one of his character guises, either Avid Merrion or Keith Lemon. In an interview given in the 3 May episode of Comedy Map of Britain, Francis confirmed that Avid Merrion's name, accent and certain speech patterns were inspired by his former teacher, Laimonis Mierins. He also pointed out that Merrion is a mis-spelling of Mierins and is nothing to do with the Merrion Centre in Leeds as many people assume.

He is rarely seen out of character, and many have trouble understanding that Avid Merrion or Keith Lemon are fictional creations, and consequently Francis's name means very little to the general public. He did conduct an interview as himself for The Frank Skinner Show and also appeared as himself on Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth with Russell Brand on Channel 4.

Francis also played many other celebrities in his series Bo' Selecta!, which ran for 4 series. He used comical masks and inappropriate accents to portray celebrities such as Mel B, Craig David, Michael Jackson and many more. His focus changed to a character called "The Bear" (a rude puppet bear) as part of his series A Bear's Tail. This follows the first use of Francis' real name at the end of the titles for the 2004 Christmas special.

He has now focused his comedy on another of his alter-egos, the failed northern businessman Keith Lemon. Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour started on Tuesday 11 March 2008 on ITV2 and has to date run for one series of six episodes, ending on 15 April 2008.

Avid Merrion

Avid Merrion, Leigh's fictional character creation, is most famously known from the British television comedy sketch show, Bo' Selecta! as a Celebrity Stalker. Born in the small town of Arachnipus near Transylvania, Romania to a father who was a Dracula impersonator that stripped, Avid grew up to be the "number one super fan, here in the world". He came to England because of "something to do with the police".

Merrion lived in his London flat for a long time with his dead mother slouched in one cupboard and Craig Phillips from TV's Big Brother chained up in another. His only other friend was Ozzey, a refugee who used to operate a T-Shirt printing business in the flat beneath Avid's. Avid claims, in a distinct eastern-European accent, "I don't know what he is!".

With his slurred and broken English, ginger mullet, peculiar sexual fetishes, abnormally penis-esque thumb and obsession with showbiz figureheads, he made one scary stalker of celebrities. He famously wears a neck brace and a penis-thumb allegedly due to an encounter with Liza Tarbuck which resulted in her punching him in the throat and breaking his thumb Merrion won the 1997 Best Newcomer Award in the 13th Annual British Academy of Adult Movies and Entertainment for his performances in Baker's Dozen and Red and Ready.

Avid spends most of his time harassing celebrities at functions such as book signings or movie premiers. He doesn't see it as harassment though but rather affectionate worship. Due to his hanging around at these events, he became noticed by the media during the third series of Big Brother on Channel 4 after he repeatedly attempted to break into the house to get closer to his television heroes.

After this, he was allowed to play his own part in the comedy series Bo' Selecta!. By the third series of this show, his newly elevated status in pop culture allowed him to talk one-on-one with celebrities rather than stalking them so his spots on Bo' Selecta! were transformed into his own chat show.

Avid has appeared on many other TV shows including Big Brother's Little Brother and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

Rubber Masks

Leigh Francis also portrayed many celebrities using rubber masks to do impressions of them. These impressions were often intentionally far from accurate to that of the real celebrities. The masks featured in all series of Bo Selecta! and A Bear's Tail. The reason why the masks featured in A Bears Tail was so they did not seem to be ignoring the original Bo Selecta fan base. The most popular and long running masks are of Michael Jackson, Mel B and Craig David, Craig David has often critisised Francis for portraying him in a bad way, and blames Francis for his failing career. Thick glasses were worn with all the masks. These were used to bridge the gap between Francis's eyes and forehead, and the masks.

The Bear

The Bear is a another of Leigh Francis' creations. The character originated from Bo' Selecta!. The Bear then went on to have his own show called "A Bear's Tail" in 2005, which came from a Christmas pilot aired in 2004. In his own spin-off show the Bear was adopted by the Hennersons, after they ran him over in their car at Christmas. The mother of the family was played by Patsy Kensit who adored the Bear. The dad though, who was played by Sean Pertwee, hated the Bear after he thought the Bear was stealing his wife. The series only lasted for one year as Leigh Francis decided to bring back Bo' Selecta, but in America. After A Bear's Tail the Bear featured in Bo! in the USA.

The Bear's personality is rather rude he often flirts with women who guest star on the show. in most instances when interviewing attractive women (and sometimes men) the bear will get an erection to which he will exclaim "Oh no, my tail popped out!". He gets it to "go away" by repeatedly saying "Gail Tilsley from Coronation Street", "Sonia from EastEnders" or "Christine Hamilton" to himself, however when Christine Hamilton guest-starred in an episode he had to say it in his mind.

Keith Lemon

Keith Ian Lemon is a recurring character in Bo' Selecta! and guest starred in the spin-off series A Bear's Tail. He now has his own show on ITV2, Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour

Keith Lemon is a failed businessman who was most successful in 1993 according to an episode of A Bear's Tail. Keith was awarded the prestigious Businessman of the Year award 1993 for his innovative creation, Rhino Jeans.

Keith first appeared as an 'Easter Egg' for the DVD of the first series of Bo' Selecta! It was a short mockumentary in which Keith tries to "Teach blokes out there, who can't get a bird, how to get a bird, or in other words, go Two's on a bastard". In the end, his plan failed, and he blamed Tess Daly (his date), saying that she was a 'lesbicanan'. Keith was not seen in the second series, but he made a re-appearance in the third series of Bo' Selecta! when Avid Merrion got his own talk show and needed an agent. Keith's face was never seen because Avid wanted him to be like "that guy out of Home Improvement, him who looks through the fence whose face you never see".

Keith finally showed his face in A Bear's Tail, the spin-off of Bo' Selecta starring The Bear. Mrs. Hennerson, who adopted the Bear was constantly irritated by Keith who fancied her. Mrs. Hennerson's husband did not appear in the series, but she did have a boyfriend called Richard Head. Richard didn't like Keith and considered him a threat. Keith also took a liking to Mrs. Hennerson's daughter, Lillian. Guests in the series included Katie Price (Jordan) and Jodie Marsh in the same episode, which upset Katie Price according to the DVD commentary.

In Bo! in the USA Keith is currently staying at the Merrion Hotel and constantly tries to impress female celebrities staying there. He also tried to get the Italian Fashion Model Fabio Lanzoni to help him advertise his market idea, Securipole, to try and get back into business.

Keith presented Big Brother's Big Mouth from 19 June to 22 June 2007, with his mother as a guest in the audience each episode (Leigh Francis's real mother in law). He announced on the 22 June that early next year will see a new series based on him, Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour

He was interviewed by Fearne Cotton on The Xtra Factor on 10 November 2007.

Keith was one of the Celebrity Hijackers for a day, in Big Brother Celebrity Hijack that was broadcast on E4 in January 2008.

Keith Lemon also appeared on ITV1's Loose Women in April 2008 as a guest. He talked about his new show, Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, an interview during which he shocked and surprised the hosts by talking about whales' 5ft7 long "tally whackers", piles, gay references, and laying on the studio desk and breaking it. The audience laughed as he was on the show and they seemed to be loving it. He made another appearance on 8th October 2008.

He is also featured in a new advert for Sony PSP's new "Go messenger Service" in which he stars alongside Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jermaine Jenas taking part in a dinner date via the Sony PSP.

Keith also appeared 3 times on the latest series of Big Brothers Little Brother on the 8 June 2008, the 27 July 2008 and on the final BBLB on the 7 September.

From Tuesday 13 August 2008, until Friday 16 August, Keith once again presentend Big Brother's Big Mouth on E4. He announced his DVD was to be released on the 3 November 2008. He also announced he was starring in a new show with "Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby". This turned out to be a panel game themed around celebrity gossip, which began airing on ITV2 on 24 September 2008 under the title Keith Lemon's Celebrity Juice.

Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour

On Tuesday 11 March 2008 his new series Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour premiered on ITV2 at 10pm, it featured celebrity guests Mel B and Mel C from the Spice Girls and also comedian Patrick McGuinness. The premier attracted 365,000 viewers and a 2.2% multichannel share over 30 minutes from 10pm.

Episode	First Broadcast	Location	Celebrity Guests
1	11 March	The USA	Mel C & Mel B
2	18 March	Australia	Holly Valance & Stefan Dennis
3	25 March	Mexico	Holly Willoughby
4	1 April	Egypt	Samia Smith & Sharon Osborne
5	8 April	Japan	Tamzin Outhwaite
6	15 April	Iceland	Dermot O'Leary

The DVD For "Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour" will be out in October which has been confirmed by Leigh Francis himself.

Here is what Leigh recently wrote on his Facebook page:

"At the mo there's no plans for another Bo' Selecta!. (I have) two shows in the pipes. One will be on telly October-ish (featuring Keith). The other will be early next year, featuring all new characters."

Family

Francis is the nephew of Dick Francis, the former racing jockey, and acclaimed equine fiction scribe.

External links

• Leigh Francis on Myspace Leigh Francis Myspace page
• Leigh Francis at IMDb