Julian Dutton

Julian Dutton is a British comedy writer and performer principally for television and radio,whose work has won a British Comedy Award and a BAFTA. Perhaps best known as one of the driving forces behind the hit BBC1 comedy show The Big Impression with Alistair McGowan, Dutton has also written and starredin several of his own series on BBC Radio 4, and writes extensively for many other TV and Radio shows.

Born in central London, Dutton grew up in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, attending Great Marlow School. Fellow pupils included Olympic Champion Steve Redgrave, the future internet entrepreneur John Wilmott - who was later responsible for the world's first financial transaction on the internet - and the painter Paul Wilmott.

Like Alistair McGowan Dutton attended Leeds University where he studied English and History, whilst performing extensively with the University Theatre Group. After leaving University he began work as an actor, touring with his own theatre company and writing and performing in his own play "The Candidate," at the New End Theatre, Hampstead. Early professional work included touring working men's clubs in the Midlands and North of England with a children's variety show - appearances in the West End with Charlton Heston and Ben Cross in "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," and a national tour with Ralph Bates in Alan Ayckbourn's "Absent Friends." He also toured Europe in productions of "The Taming of the Shrew" and "The Importance of Being Earnest," appearing in Rotterdam, Cologne, Antwerp and Amsterdam; as well as TV appearances in "Tucker's Luck," "The Bill," "Dempsey and Makepeace," and "Rockcliffe's Babies."

In the early 1990's he turned from the theatre to comedy, performing an impressionist act on the stand-up circuit in London, and at this time began writing comedy shows for BBC Radio, including "Weekending," which he worked on with Peter Baynham, Richard Herring, Stewart Lee, Harry Hill, Ben Moor, Armando Ianucci, Harry Thompson, and Sarah Smith; and the News Huddlines Roy Hudd's weekly topical sketch show. As well as performing cabaret on the club circuit, from 1991 to 1997 he wrote more than eighty half hour radio comedy shows, including "The Harpoon", the latter co-written with Peter Baynham and starring himself with Alistair McGowan, Peter Baynham, Susie Brann and Mary Elliot-Nelson. Three series of The Harpoon were broadcast, plus two Christmas specials, all produced by Sarah Smith.

The following year, in 1994, he was given his own series, Truly, Madly, Bletchley, which he wrote and starred in, along with David Battley, Liz Fraser, Simon Godley and Toby Longworth. "Truly, Madly, Bletchley" was the first sketch show in the history of radio comedy to have been written by one person - apart from "Harry Hill's Fruit Corner," which was being broadcast at the same time and which Dutton also performed in. In 1995 he married Laura Sutton, p.a. to the Head of Radio Comedy, with whom he has two children.

As a result of his radio work Dutton won the Peter Titheradge Award for Radio Comedy Writing, along with Richard Herring and Stewart Lee. At this period he was touring widely as a stand-up comedian, supporting Harry Hill in the West End, and performing with Al Murray, Jim Tavare and Jenny Eclair. TV appearances at this time included "The Bore of the Year Awards," in which he appeared in sketches with Peter Cook and John Sessions, "Time Gentlemen, Please," Al Murray's sitcom for Sky, and "Does China Exist?", performing with Paul Merton. Dutton was also cast in many TV commercials, including playing the new Secret Lemonade Drinker in adverts with Ronnie Corbett, Frankie Howerd, and John McEnroe. He was also cast as the Canon Man in the copier ads.

In 2000 he co-created, wrote and performed in Alistair McGowan's Big Impression, later to be renamed The Big Impression, which was BBC1's first sketch show for many years and their first impressions show since Mike Yarwood's. The show, produced by Charlie Hanson, proved a massive hit: in addition to writing the series Dutton was one of the supporting performers along with Ronni Ancona, Jan Ravens, and Duncan Wisbey, and performed impressions of, among others, Dustin Hoffmann, John Le Mesurier, and James Stewart. He wrote and performed in four series of the show, and two Christmas Specials: and won a British Comedy Award in 2001, and a BAFTA. A spin-off series, "Ronni Ancona & Co.", was commissioned in 2007, which Dutton wrote with Ancona, Alan Francis and Alex Lowe.

Dutton also writes extensively for children's television, including "Spoof," Chucklevision, and the forthcoming 13-part series "Scoop." Recent television appearances include the Emmy-Award nominated "My Life as a Popat" for ITV, "The Sarah Jane Adventures," a Doctor Who spin-off for CBBC produced by Russell T. Davies, and "Nuzzle and Scratch," a children's comedy series.

In 2006/7 he performed a London run of his impressions show "Look Back in Hunger," a one-man history of film and TV. He has also been commissioned to write and perform in a forthcoming radio series with fellow stand-up comedian and comedy actor Alan Francis for BBC Radio 4, and is also currently developing a visual comedy TV sketch show, "The Dumb Show." He has also written columns for the Sunday Times, the Independent on Sunday, and the London Evening Standard.

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