42 Facts About Ben Elton

Benjamin Charles Elton is a British comedian, actor, author, playwright, lyricist and director.

Ben Elton was a part of London's alternative comedy movement of the 1980s and became a writer on the sitcoms The Young Ones and Blackadder, as well as continuing as a stand-up comedian on stage and television.

Ben Elton's novels cover the dystopian, comedy, and crime genres.

Ben Elton is a nephew of the historian Sir Geoffrey Elton and a third cousin of singer Olivia Newton-John.

Ben Elton's father is from a German-Jewish family and Ben Elton's mother, who was raised in the Church of England, is of British background.

Ben Elton grew up in Catford, south London, before moving with his family to Guildford, Surrey in 1968, where he became involved in amateur dramatics groups.

In 1985, Ben Elton produced his first solo script for the BBC with his comedy-drama series Happy Families, starring Jennifer Saunders and Adrian Edmondson.

Ben Elton appeared in the fifth episode as a liberal prison governor.

In 1985 Ben Elton began his writing partnership with Richard Curtis.

Ben Elton became a stand-up comedian primarily to showcase his own writing, but became one of Britain's biggest live comedy acts.

The Ben Elton Show followed a format similar to The Man from Auntie and featured Ronnie Corbett, a comedian of the old guard that the "alternative comedians" of the 1980s were the direct alternative to, as a regular guest.

Ben Elton wrote the six-part sitcom Blessed, starring Ardal O'Hanlon as a record producer, first broadcast on BBC1 in 2005.

In Third Way Magazine, Ben Elton accused the BBC of allowing jokes about vicars but not imams.

On 10 October 2010, Ben Elton headlined the first episode of Dave's One Night Stand.

In 2016 Ben Elton wrote the sitcom Upstart Crow, parodying the writing and family life of William Shakespeare, and starring David Mitchell as Shakespeare.

Ben Elton wrote and produced The Thin Blue Line, a studio-based sitcom set in a police station, starring Rowan Atkinson, which ran for two series in 1995 and 1996.

In 2012 a new sitcom for BBC1 was commissioned, written and produced by Ben Elton starring David Haig.

Ben Elton starred with Adrian Edmondson in a sitcom based on the song "Teenage Kicks" for BBC Radio 2.

Ben Elton has authored 16 novels since 1989, the first four published by Simon and Schuster, and the rest by Transworld.

Ben Elton played Verges in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, in 1993.

In 2015, Ben Elton wrote a song for The Wiggles for the Wiggle Town DVD and CD: The Wonder of Wiggle Town.

In September 2016, filming began in Western Australia on Three Summers, a romantic comedy film written and directed by Ben Elton, which was released in 2017.

Ben Elton wrote All is True, released 2018, a speculative story of William Shakespeare's years in Stratford-upon-Avon after his retirement from the theatre and move from London.

Ben Elton collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on The Beautiful Game in 2000, writing the book and lyrics.

Ben Elton worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the musical Love Never Dies, which opened in London's West End in 2010.

In 1981 Ben Elton was hired by The Comedy Store in London as compere.

Ben Elton made two albums of comedy, Motormouth and Motorvation.

In 2005 Ben Elton toured for the first time since 1997, touring the UK with Get a Grip.

Ben Elton toured Australia and New Zealand with the same show in 2006.

In September 2019, Ben Elton embarked on a three-month UK stand-up tour, his first tour since 2005.

Ben Elton resumed it over a year later once trans-Tasman quarantine-free travel was launched.

Ben Elton received an honorary doctorate in 2004, from The University of Manchester.

Ben Elton has won 3 BAFTAs for Best Comedy Series for The Young Ones, Blackadder the Third and Blackadder Goes Forth.

Ben Elton's books have won the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award for Crime Fiction, the Swedish Kaliber Award, WH Smiths People's Choice Fiction Award and Prix Polar International Crime Writer Award.

Ben Elton first met 18 year old Australian saxophone player Sophie Gare in 1986 while working in Melbourne ; a year later in Edinburgh, a newly-single Ben Elton rekindled their friendship and they became a couple.

Ben Elton has speculated on a future move back to London when their children have completed their schooling.

Ben Elton has the distinction of being nominated twice for TV's Room 101, firstly by broadcaster Anne Robinson in 2001 and by comedian Stewart Lee who compared Elton, "as ranking lower ethically than Osama bin Laden".

Ben Elton was a Labour Party supporter and was one of the biggest private financial donors to the party.

However, Ben Elton distanced himself for over 20 years from the Party under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and New Labour in the mid-1990s, instead donating to and voting for the Green Party, although in April 2015, he stated that he was "back with Labour" for the 2015 general election.

Ben Elton has been criticised for writing a musical with Conservative Party supporter Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Ben Elton said he was a socialist at a time when "the media was on the whole slavishly worshipping of Thatcher".

Ben Elton parodied himself in the sketch "Benny Elton" for Harry Enfield and Chums in 1994, using the style of Benny Hill to send up his "right on" socialist image as a politically correct spoilsport, chasing Page 3 models around a park to chastise them and tricking heterosexual couples into becoming gay.