Английская Википедия:Alexander Armstrong

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Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong (born 2 March 1970) is an English actor, comedian, radio personality, television presenter and singer. He is the host of the BBC One game show Pointless, as well as the morning show on Classic FM.

Armstrong is one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller. His television credits include Armstrong and Miller, Beast, Life Begins, Hunderby and Danger Mouse. He is also known as the voice of Mr Smith, Sarah Jane Smith's alien supercomputer in The Sarah Jane Adventures and the series 4 two-part finale of Doctor Who.

Armstrong is a bass-baritone singer and has released three studio albums.

Early life

Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, on 2 March 1970, the youngest of three children, to physician Henry Angus Armstrong and Emma Virginia Peronnet (née Thompson-McCausland). The Armstrongs are a North East landowning family distantly related to The 1st Baron Armstrong. Armstrong's maternal grandparents were economist Lucius Thompson-McCausland and Helen Laura McCausland (6 April 1903 – February 2000), granddaughter of Captain Conolly Thomas McCausland (13 May 1828 – 25 June 1902) and Hon. Laura St. John (12 June 1842 – 21 October 1919), daughter of The 15th Baron St John of Bletso. The McCausland family held land at Drenagh in County Londonderry.

Armstrong was educated at Mowden Hall School in Stocksfield, Northumberland, and St Mary's Music School in Edinburgh, where he was a chorister at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral from the ages of 11 to 13. He attended Durham School and Trinity College, Cambridge, on music scholarships. He played the piano – which has been seen in several The Armstrong and Miller Show sketches – and the cello, the latter of which he dropped in favour of the "much more masculine" oboe.

At Cambridge, Armstrong studied English, receiving a third-class degree, and sang bass baritone as a choral scholar with the college choir. Armstrong joined the Footlights in his final year as part of the writing team for the 1992 revue and was Spooks creator David Wolstencroft's comedy partner.

Career

After graduating in 1992, Armstrong moved to London with friends to pursue a career in acting and comedy. While waiting for acting roles, he worked in several north London bars and restaurants. He was eventually introduced to Ben Miller, who had also moved to London, through Jez Butterworth. In 1996, Armstrong and Miller performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and were nominated for the Perrier Award.

Comedy

Armstrong and Miller co-starred in four series of Armstrong and Miller from 1997 to 2001, while also performing sketches in The Sunday Format. The duo decided to take a break and split for several years to forge their own solo careers. Armstrong renewed his partnership with Miller for the award-winning The Armstrong and Miller Show in 2007. The Armstrong and Miller Book was released in October 2010.

Armstrong appeared in BBC Radio 4's The Very World of Milton Jones, broadcast between 1998 and 2001. He narrated the animated cartoon series The Big Knights in 1999; it first appeared on BBC1 that Christmas. That same year he also starred as Prince Charming in ITV's Christmas pantomime, alongside Ben Miller, Samantha Janus, Paul Merton, Harry Hill, Frank Skinner and Ronnie Corbett. Between early 2000 and early 2001, Armstrong starred as a misanthropic, animal-hating vet in the BBC One sitcom Beast, and he has also been the star of a series of TV commercials for Pimm's.

On BBC Radio 4, Armstrong played John Weak in the office sitcom Weak at the Top. He also played Martin Baine-Jones for the Times Online's Timeghost podcast. Between September and November 2010, Armstrong took The Armstrong and Miller Show on tour in the UK, completing 62 dates. This was the second time The Armstrong and Miller Show had toured, the first tour being in autumn 2001.

Television presenting

On 1 September 2006, Armstrong was chairman of the short-lived Channel 4 panel show Best of the Worst which featured team captains David Mitchell and Johnny Vaughan. Armstrong presented the short-lived ITV1 quiz series Don't Call Me Stupid, in which mismatched celebrities taught each other a subject they are passionate about before facing a studio quiz on their new topic. He has been a frequent guest host on the BBC's satirical Have I Got News for You, having appeared 32 times; he has, to date, made the most appearances of any guest, whether as host or panelist. In 2008, he was the presenter and narrator for When Were We Funniest? and was the only person to feature in all 12 episodes. Armstrong in The Independent was reported to not want to be "pigeonholed" as a presenter, preferring to focus on acting and comedy.

Armstrong has been the presenter of the BBC One game show Pointless with former Cambridge University friend Richard Osman since it began in 2009. He also presented a documentary, Alexander Armstrong's Very British Holiday, for the BBC on 8 November 2009 about the history of the "great British summer holiday" and his attempts to explore its modern version. On 30 May 2011, Armstrong hosted the pilot for a new panel show, Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask for Dave with Dave Lamb, Katy Brand, Griff Rhys Jones and Robert Webb. After a positive response to the pilot, Dave commissioned the first series, which first aired on 6 February 2012. In July 2011, Armstrong became a co-presenter on BBC One's The Great British Weather. In August 2011, he began presenting Epic Win on BBC One.

In 2012–2013, Armstrong co-hosted ITV series Prize Island with Emma Willis. On the 3rd January 2015, Armstrong and Rochelle Humes co-hosted entertainment special Frank Sinatra: Our Way on BBC One.

On 1 June 2015, Armstrong presented a documentary, Rome's Invisible City, which used 3D scanning technology to discover the underground spaces below the city. Subsequently, it was announced he would be making a three-part series exploring the lost and hidden sites of Florence, Naples, and Venice.

In 2015, Armstrong presented a three-part factual series for ITV, called Alexander Armstrong in the Land of the Midnight Sun, in which he travelled half-way round the Arctic Circle meeting its inhabitants and exploring their ways of life. In January 2016, he guest presented Bruce's Hall of Fame on BBC One.

In 2017, he presented Don't Ask Me Ask Britain and Teach My Pet to Do That, both on ITV.

Singing and music

After over a decade in television and comedy, Armstrong returned to his musical roots and put together his own cover band, which plays a wide range of music from jazz to rock to pop classics. A classically trained bass baritone, he is the vocalist and is backed up by Harry the Piano on keyboards, Simon Bates on woodwind, Jeff Lardner on drums and Dave Swift on bass. The band's first tour ran from 19 September to 6 November 2013.

Armstrong mainly sang at his local parish church services or at weddings, away from the public eye. Armstrong impersonated Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" in the show Your Face Sounds Familiar and surprised the judges by singing in falsetto. He sang "Winter Wonderland" during the celebrities Christmas special of Pointless and "No Rhyme for Richard" from Blondel in BBC Two's Tim Rice: A Life in Song and collaborated with The Sixteen to record the single "Good King Wenceslas" to raise funds for the charity Crisis.

Since September 2014, Armstrong has presented the Saturday afternoon programme on the classical radio station Classic FM. He now also presents the mid-morning show on weekdays between 9am and noon.

Armstrong participated in VE Day 70: A Party to Remember on 9 May 2015, a televised commemorative concert from Horse Guards Parade in London, where he sang "We Must All Stick Together" by Ralph Butler and Raymond Wallace, and "London Pride", a patriotic song by Noël Coward. He sang in Songs of Praise: The Big Sing, broadcast on 20 September 2015, a special programme from the Royal Albert Hall to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II becoming the world's longest-serving monarch, singing "I Would Be True".

On 6 November 2015, Armstrong released his debut solo vocal album, A Year of Songs, on Warner Music Group's East West Records label. It reached number 6 on the UK Albums Chart in its first week and topped the UK Classical Chart, the first time a comedian/actor has reached number 1 in that chart. In January and February 2016 he carried out a 9-date UK tour with his band.

In June 2016 he began recording his second album, Upon a Different Shore, which was released on 28 October. It reached number 8 on the UK Albums Chart.

In December 2017, he joined the long list of celebrities who have narrated Prokofiev's Peter and The Wolf for children. Armstrong's version was recorded under the Warner Classics label with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

A third studio album, In a Winter Light, was released in November 2017.

Other work

In 1997, Armstrong and Ben Miller provided the voices for lead characters for the PC game 'Wings of Destiny', published by Psygnosis in 2000, as British airmen and Nazi officers covering the two comic-book plots in the game. From 2002 to 2009, Armstrong appeared in a series of British television adverts for the drink Pimm's. With Miller, he has formed a production company called Toff Media. In 2002, Armstrong provided the voice for the character Horse in the English dub of the series A Town Called Panic.

A book based on Armstrong's show Pointless, titled The 100 Most Pointless Things in the World was published in the UK by Coronet, an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton, in October 2012. It was written by Armstrong and his Pointless co-host, Richard Osman.

Also, in 2012, Armstrong was the voice of Professor M for the animation breaks for the McLaren F1 team, with the animations called Tooned (also featuring the voices of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button) broadcast on Sky Sports F1.Шаблон:Citation needed

In 2013, Armstrong and Miller appeared in the television advertising campaign for Spitfire Ale.

In 2014, Armstrong provided the narrator's voice for CBeebies animation Hey Duggee. In September 2014, it was announced that Armstrong would succeed David Jason as the voice of Danger Mouse in the 2015 revival of the 1980s animated series. Armstrong has done other voiceover work, including Mr Wolf and Captain Dog in Peppa Pig'.

In 2019, Armstrong also cameoed in Horrible Histories: The Movie as Procurator Catus Decianus.

In January 2024, Armstrong participated in the fifth series of The Masked Singer as the character "Chicken Caesar". He was eliminated and unmasked in the second episode.

Honours

In December 2015, Armstrong was awarded an honorary doctorate from Northumbria University.

Personal life

On 27 August 2003, Armstrong married Hannah Bronwen Snow, a stay-at-home mother; they have four sons. In July 2014 they moved to a Шаблон:Convert farm in Bledington in Gloucestershire on the border with Oxfordshire.

In February 2011, Armstrong became President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and launched their million pound appeal at a special gala event. He is a patron of several charities, including Family Links, the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust and Just A Drop.

Politics

In an interview with The Independent in March 2012, Armstrong spoke of his support for the rural campaigning organisation the Countryside Alliance, saying "I'd like people to be honest about what they don't like about country sports because if it's actually the people you don't like, then I'd much rather they would actually just say that." He has appeared in their advertisements and magazine to promote countryside shooting. He said that his family had traditionally voted for the Liberal Democrats. Armstrong described himself as a "floating voter", stating "I'm not greatly impressed by party politics, but I am by individual people. I'm a centrist, and very suspicious of any tribalism."

In August 2014, Armstrong was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

In 2017, Armstrong urged the UK government to do more to support music education and therapy, saying "in the weft and weave of politics I think these sorts of human stories get shoved to one side, but we have to make sure they are right up front and centre. It's not all about Brexit."

Filmography

Television

Non-presenting roles

Year	Work	Role	Channel	Notes
1995	You Bet!	Doctor Watson	ITV	Series 8, show 6 Guest appearance
	The Thin Blue Line	Unnamed Gentleman	BBC One	S1E6 "Kids Today" Guest appearance (credited as "Alex Armstrong")
1996	Sharpe	Lord John Rossendale	ITV
1998	Is It Legal?	Nick	Channel 4	S3E5 Guest appearance
1999	The Big Knights	Narrator	BBC One	Voice only
2000–2001	Beast	Nick
2001	Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible	Michael Masters	BBC Two	Episode 1
2002	I Saw You	Peter	ITV
	TLC	Dr Stephen Noble	BBC Two
2004–2006	Life Begins	Phil Mee	ITV
2005	Marple	DI Craddock		"A Murder Is Announced"
2006	Saxondale	TV presenter	BBC Two	S1E2 Guest appearance
2007–2011	The Sarah Jane Adventures	Mr Smith	CBBC	Voice only
2007	After You've Gone	Dr Howard Banks	BBC One	S1E7 Guest appearance
	Hotel Babylon	Aiden Spencer		S2E6 Guest appearance
	Christmas at the Riviera	Reverend Miles Roger	ITV	TV movie
2007	To the Manor Born	Adam fforbes-Hamilton	BBC One	Christmas special Guest appearance
2008	Doctor Who	Mr Smith		S4E12 "The Stolen Earth" (voice only) S4E13 "Journey's End" (voice only)
	Mutual Friends	Patrick Turner
2009	Micro Men	Clive Sinclair	BBC Four
2010	The Trial of Tony Blair	David Cameron	More4
	Reggie Perrin	David	BBC One	Series 2, 5 episodes Guest appearance
2011	Doctor Who	Reg Arwell		S7EX "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe"
	Rev.	Patrick Yam	BBC Two	One episode
2011–present	Peppa Pig	Captain Daddy Dog/Mr. Wolf	Nick Jr./Channel 5	Voice only
2012	Hacks	David Bullingdon MP	Channel 4
	Love Life	Dominic	ITV
2012–2013	Tooned	Professor M	Sky Sports F1	Voice only
2012	Hunderby	Brother Joseph	Sky Atlantic
2013–present	PAW Patrol	Jake	Nick Jr./Channel 5	UK dub
2014	Not Going Out	Himself	BBC One	Series 7, Episode 5: "Pointless"
2014–present	Hey Duggee	Narrator	CBeebies	Voice only
2015–2019	Danger Mouse	Danger Mouse	CBBC	Voice only (also voices Danger Mouse in live stage show at Butlins in 2017)
2015	Cockroaches	Doctor	ITV2
	The Sound of Music Live	Max Detweiler	ITV	UK adaptation of The Sound of Music Live!
2017	Lip Sync Battle UK	Himself	Channel 5
2020	Have I Got 30 Years for You		BBC One
	Michael McIntyre's The Wheel
	Anthony
2021	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Celebrity Special	Himself/Contestant	ITV
2022	Celebrity Catchphrase
	The Wheel	Himself/Celebrity expert	BBC One
2024	The Masked Singer	"Chicken Caesar"	ITV1
2024	Beat the Chasers	Himself/Contestant	ITV1	(season 5 episode 6)

Presenting

Year	Title	Role	Channel	Notes
2003–present	Have I Got News for You	Guest presenter	BBC One	Most frequent guest presenter to have appeared on the show
2006	Best of the Worst	Presenter	Channel 4
2009–present	Pointless	Co-presenter	BBC Two/BBC One	With Richard Osman until 2022, with rotating guest presenters each doing 11 episodes each since 2022.
2011	The Great British Weather		BBC One
	Epic Win	Presenter
2011–2013	Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask		Dave
2013	Your Face Sounds Familiar	Contestant	ITV
	Prize Island	Co-presenter		With Emma Willis
	The 12 Drinks of Christmas		BBC Two	With Giles Coren
2014	Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns	Presenter	BBC Four
2015	Frank Sinatra: Our Way	Co-presenter	BBC One	One-off special; with Rochelle Humes
	Sunday Night at the Palladium	Presenter	ITV	Guest presenter; 1 episode
	Alexander Armstrong in the Land of the Midnight Sun
	Rome's Invisible City		BBC One	One-off special
2016	Bruce's Hall of Fame			Stand-in presenter for Bruce Forsyth
2017	Italy's Invisible Cities	Co-presenter		With Dr. Michael Scott
	Don't Ask Me Ask Britain	Presenter	ITV
	Teach My Pet To Do That
	A Very Royal Wedding			One-off documentary
	Sheridan			One-off special
2018–present	The Imitation Game			Comedy panel show
2020	Britain's Favourite Christmas Songs		Channel 5	One-off special
2021	The Queen and Her Cousins with Alexander Armstrong		ITV	One-off documentary
	Iceland with Alexander Armstrong		Channel 5	Three-part documentary series
2022	South Korea with Alexander Armstrong			Three-part documentary series
2023	Alexander Armstrong in Sri Lanka			Three-part documentary series
	Buckingham Palace with Alexander Armstrong			Six-part documentary series

Film

Year	Work	Role	Notes
1994	There's No Business...	Tim	Starring Raw Sex
1999	Plunkett & Macleane	Winterburn
2001	Birthday Girl	Robert Moseley
2005	Match Point	Mr Townsend
2006	Scoop	Unnamed policeman	Guest appearance
2009	Skellig	Mr Hunt
2010	Jackboots on Whitehall	Red Leader
2019	Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans	Catus Decianus

Radio

• December 1998 – Children's Hour with Armstrong and Miller (BBC Radio 4)
• 2005–2006 – Weak at the Top (BBC Radio 4)
• July 2006 – Private Passions (BBC Radio 3)
• June 2020 - Hall of Fame (Classic FM)

Video games

• 2000 – Team Buddies
• 2003 – Hidden & Dangerous 2

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions	Certifications
		UK
A Year of Songs	Released: 5 November 2015 Label: East West Format: CD, digital download	6	BPI: Gold
Upon a Different Shore	Released: 28 October 2016 Label: East West Format: CD, digital download	8
In a Winter Light	Released: 24 November 2017 Label: East West Format: CD, digital download	24

External links

• Шаблон:Twitter
• Шаблон:IMDb name
• Alexander Armstrong at the British Film InstituteШаблон:Better source needed
• Шаблон:British Comedy Guide
• Alexander Armstrong: A Year Of Songs – Live Шаблон:Webarchive
• Alexander Armstrong on Classic FM