FRANK SKINNER

'Frank Skinner', (born 'Christopher Graham Collins' on 28 January, 1957) is an English writer and award-winning comedian, best known for the hit football song "Three Lions" with David Baddiel and The Lightning Seeds as well as presenting, alongside Baddiel, the hit comedy show Fantasy Football League.

Contents

Career

Youth and Early Career (1957-1993)

Career Peak (1994-2005)

Post ITV (2006-present)

Videography

VHS Releases

DVD Releases

References

External links

Career

Youth and Early Career (1957-1993)

Born at Sandwell General Hospital, West Bromwich, Collins grew up in Oldbury, West Midlands, England. He attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from September 1968.
He passed 2 O-levels in the summer of 1973 and was allowed to take A-levels in English Language and Art, along with several O'level re-sits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. But he was caught embezzling the school meals service by selling cut-price meal vouchers to pupils and expelled just six weeks into his studies.
For several years he was known to the police after a series of minor offences including putting a length of pipe across a road and causing a car crash, although he never ended up in prison.
But he soon turned his life around by taking 4 A'levels (including English Language and Literature) at Warley College of Technology and then graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic (now the University of Central England) in 1981 with a degree in English. This was followed by a Masters degree in English Literature at the prestigious University of Warwick in Coventry the following year. After graduating, he spent four years as a lecturer in English at Halesowen College, whilst being a stand-up comedian on the side, before quitting his job in 1989 to pursue his comedy career full-time. During this period he quit drinking due to influenza and remains one of the UK's most high-profile recovering alcoholics.
Collins took on the pseudonym 'Frank Skinner' when the actors' union Equity told him there was already someone of the same name on their books (their rules do not permit two members with identical names). He took the name from a member of his late father's dominoes team.
Skinner had performed his first stand-up gig in 1987 and made his television debut a year later. In 1990 he co-wrote and starred in a weakly-received sitcom, ''Packet Of Three'', on Channel 4 but continued to see his reputation as a stand-up grow. He won the 1991 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, beating Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard.

Career Peak (1994-2005)

He often works with best friend and ex-flatmate David Baddiel, notably on the popular late night entertainment show ''Fantasy Football League'', from 1994 to 2004 and on ''Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned'' from 2000 to 2005.
The duo also co-wrote and performed the football song "Three Lions" with the Lightning Seeds and the England national football team for Euro 96, and re-released it for the 1998 World Cup. Both times the song reached #1 in the UK charts and it is widely regarded as the best of the English football anthems.
In 2001, he released his autobiography "Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner", which became an instant bestseller. An accompanying TV show, "Frank Skinner on Frank Skinner", in which Skinner showed where he lived as a child and interviews with Skinner, his friends and family members, was recorded and shown on ITV in 2001.
From 1995 to 1998, Skinner had his own chat show on BBC One, and moved it to ITV in 1999, where it ran until late 2005. He has appeared in a number of self-written sitcoms, including ''Blue Heaven'' (1994) and ''Shane'' (2004). In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. He has lived in London since the beginning of his comedy career in 1991, but still supports West Bromwich Albion F.C.^[1] and Warwickshire County Cricket Club. When West Bromwich Albion won promotion to the FA Premier League in 2004, he featured in an Express and Star article which commemorated the club's promotion.

Post ITV (2006-present)

In 2005, Skinner announced he was going to leave behind his television work in favour of returning to the stand-up comedy circuit. It was rumoured that ITV's decision not to offer him a new contract was the main driving force behind this decision. A second series of ''Shane'' has been made, but is lost amongst the wrangling.
In February 2006, he received an honorary degree from the University of Central England.^[2]
Skinner and David Baddiel covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup by podcast for ''The Times'', a British broadsheet. The podcasts received a nomination for the 2007 Sony Radio Academy Awards.
In May 2006, he appeared as a guest speaker at the Oxford Union.
Frank recently learned to play the banjo for a celebrity reality show, , which was broadcast on the BBC in March 2007. He had 3 months to learn the instrument before competing in a bluegrass festival. In the end, despite progressing well, he got very nervous when performing and made many mistakes.
In 2007, he announced a new live stand-up tour, his first for 10 years. On 1st May he performed a warm-up gig before a sell-out crowd at the Swindon Arts Centre, and followed this up on 26th May at the 150 capacity Forest Arts, New Milton. His final preview performance was at the Junction Theatre, Cambridge on 29th July. He will perform in venues around the UK and Ireland during Autumn 2007.
He will executive produce a CBS pilot version of ''Shane''. A novel called "Thunderman and Jeff Phillips" is due in August 2007.
Skinner returned to ITV to take part in a new show, ''Tough Gig'', which aired on Tuesday 12 June 2007 at 10pm, chronicling his visit to an Osho commune in Dorset.

Videography

VHS Releases

★ ''Frank Skinner - Live'' (1992)

★ ''Live At The Apollo'' (1994)

★ ''Fantasy Football Video'' (1994)

★ ''Just For Laughs - Highlights From The Montreal Comedy Festival'' (1995)

★ ''Live At The Palladium'' (1996)

★ ''Unseen Fantasy Football'' (1996)

★ ''Two Men And A Football - Fantasy Football 3'' (1996)

★ ''The Unseen Frank Skinner Show'' (1997)

★ ''More Unseen Fantasy Football'' (1997)

★ ''Live In Birmingham'' (1998)

DVD Releases

★ ''Baddiel And Skinner Unplanned - Live from London's West End'' (2001)

★ ''Fantasy Football 2004 (2004)

References

1. The bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy - Blue Heaven
2.

External links

★ Frank Skinner Unofficial Website

★ Unofficial Fansite