Alistair McGowan | |
---|---|
Birth name | Alistair Charles McGowan |
Born |
Evesham, Worcestershire, England |
24 November 1964
Medium | Television, radio and stand-up |
Nationality | British |
Years active | 1980s-present |
Genres | Impressions, sketch comedy |
Spouse | Charlotte Page |
Notable works and roles |
The Big Impression You Cannot Be Serious |
Website | Official website |
Alistair Charles McGowan (born 24 November 1964) is an English impressionist, comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression (formerly Alistair McGowan's Big Impression), which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes – winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003. He has also worked extensively in theatre and appeared in the West End in Art, Cabaret, The Mikado and Little Shop of Horrors (for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination). As a television actor, he played the lead role in BBC1's Mayo. He wrote the play Timing (nominated as Best New Comedy at the whatsonstage.com awards) and the book A Matter of Life and Death or How to Wean Your Man off Football with former comedy partner Ronni Ancona. He also provided voices for Spitting Image.
He made his début broadcast as a tennis commentator for BBC Sport at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.
In 2012, McGowan wrote and hosted the ITV comedy sports show You Cannot Be Serious, in which his impressions included Roy Hodgson, Jedward and Louie Spence.
McGowan was born in Evesham, Worcestershire, to Marion and George McGowan. Although they knew that their father had been born in Calcutta, India, Alistair and his sister Kay were unaware that their father had an ethnically Anglo-Indian background until McGowan explored his ancestry on BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are? programme in an episode broadcast on 26 October 2007, four years after his father's death.