This Is Your Life: Frank Skinner

Frank SKINNER (1957-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Frank Skinner, comedian, was surprised by Michael Aspel at the end of his stand-up show at the London Palladium.

Frank, who was born Christopher Collins in West Bromwich, worked at a local metal factory after being expelled from school. After returning to education, he studied at the University of Warwick and later taught English at Hales Owen College.

Having been lead singer in the band Old English, Frank later began appearing at a series of pub comedy nights before trying his act at the Edinburgh Festival, where in 1991, he won the Perrier Award, which led to television work including Fantasy Football League and the sitcom Blue Heaven.

programme details...

Edition No: 931
Subject No: 907
Broadcast date: Wed 15 Nov 1995
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Sun 12 Nov 1995
Repeated: Thu 16 Nov 1995 2.35pm
Venue: London Palladium
Series: 36
Edition: 11
Code name: Goal

on the guest list...

Nora - sister
Terry - brother
Angus Loughran
David Baddiel
Sarah Bowden
Ogga
Tim
Fez
Jeff
Steve
Snib
Dermot Reeve
Steve Coogan
Basil Brush
Jonathan Ross
Jane Goldman
Nick Hancock
Paula Wilcox
Jeff Astle
former and current members of West Bromwich FC
Keith - brother
Jo Brand

production team...

Researcher: Mandy Nixon
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Director: Brian Klein
Associate Producer: John Graham
Executive Producer: Peter Estall
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

It's a Funny Old Life

it's all about the comedy

Jonathan Ross

Screenshots of Frank Skinner This Is Your Life

Frank Skinner recalls his experience of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, Frank Skinner...

The closest I've previously got to being 'biographed' was getting done by This Is Your Life. It was a strange dream-Iike experience. I was doing a gig at the London Palladium. It had been a bit of a stormer and, as I look my bows at the end after an hour and a half of fairly tasty stand-up, I was feeling pretty good. Happily, there was a lot of really loud cheering but then, in the midst of all this, there was a sort of secondary cheer which went up, even louder than the first one. Wow, I thought, they REALLY love me! Turned out the much louder secondary cheer was for Michael Aspel, sneaking on behind me. To be honest, I was a bit startled when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of him. Michael and I exchanged pleasantries before I was dragged off to my dressing room and locked in so I didn’t accidentally bump into any surprise guests. Meanwhile, they prepared the Palladium stage for This Is Your Life and to my amazement, the crowd hung around till 1.00 a.m. to witness the event.

It occurs to me now that this is quite a nice way to structure a biography: the comedian locked alone in his dressing room, waiting to be ‘This Is Your Lifed', and naturally he begins to reminisce until, 120,000 words later, he is awakened from his nostalgic meanderings by a knock on the door, 'Mr Skinner, we're ready for you now.' And he strides out into the bright light to be greeted by a deafening roar that is less about admiration and more about love. Thus, I tell my tale, like the old gal who used to be Kate Winslett, does in Titantic. As I say, it's a nice way to structure an autobiography. But … I don't fancy it.

Something struck me as I sat locked in my dressing room that night. My big surprise shouldn’t have been a surprise at all. I had had a phone message in the early hours of that morning telling me that Michael Aspel was going to be at the Palladium that night, and that I was his victim-to-be. It never occurred to me for one second that it might be true. It had, after all, been a strange week on the crazed messages front. On the previous Monday night, I did a gig in Oxford. When I left the building at around midnight, a female fan had written a lewd message in lipstick on my windscreen. It offered me ‘anal sex with no complications’ if I cared to visit her that night. There was a phone number but the woman was clearly a nutter. I mean, you should have seen the state of her lounge.

Anyway, I barely noticed the phone-message. It never occurred to me that I might be This Is Your Life material. Why would they be interested in me? (I sense you’re already getting fed-up with the modesty thing.) The words 'scraping' and ‘barrel’ should have come to mind but the didn’t. I discovered a dew days later that the phone-call had come from a couple of former colleagues from my comedy-club days, Malcolm Hardee and Jim Tavares. Malcolm knew about my special night because he was due to be a guest on the show. He was dropped when the producer heard about the phone-call. Malcolm actually had the cheek to turn up to the after-show party, but he completely redeemed himself in my eyes by performing a commando nerve-grip on Michael Aspel, causing the much-loved broadcaster to drop helplessly to his knees. I have the greatest respect for Mr Aspel but that is what I call comedy. If This Is Your Life was a live, late-night show it would be the best thing on television. Imagine a long line of ex-lovers, debtors, and discarded ex-friends coming on and haranguing the victim. Or friends and relatives cheerily striding on to talk openly of his surly manner and his various brushed with sexually transmitted disease. As it is, much wonderful stuff was lost in the final edit of my own TIYL. I can still see the incredibly professional way in which Michael Aspel smiled and nodded when Jonathan Ross and his wife, Jane, came on and thanked me for introducing them to anal sex.

Series 36 subjects