David Baddiel

At 59 years old, David Baddiel has this physical status:

David Lionel Baddiel (born 28 May 1964) is an English comedian, author, and television presenter.

He is best known for his role in The Mary Whitehouse Experiment and Frank Skinner's collaboration.

Baddiel is also a published novelist and a screenwriter who writes books for children. The Parent Agency, AniMalcolm, Birthday Boy, and Head Kid are among the children's books.

Early life

David Lionel Baddiel was born in Troy, New York, on May 28, 1964, the son of a Welsh father and a German mother. When he was four months old, he and his family escaped to England. Both his parents were Jewish: Colin Brian Baddiel's father came from a working-class Swansea family and spent as a research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, when he sold Dinky Toys at Grays Antique Market. Sarah, his mother, was born in Nazi Germany; a swastika appeared on her birth certificate. She was five months old when her parents took her to England in 1939, after her family had left Nazi Germany, where her wealthy father had been stripped of her assets as a victim of Kristallnacht. Her father was interned on the Isle of Man for a year after arriving in the United Kingdom as a "enemy alien." He had mental illness and hospitalization for the remainder of his life.

Who Do You Think You Are? An episode of the BBC's genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? Baddiel's past was investigated in more detail, but it was unable to establish his assertion that his mother was secretly adopted from another Jewish family who had no intention of escaping. He and his two brothers Ivor and Dan grew up in London's Dollis Hill neighborhood (one older, one younger). Ivor is a writer. Baddiel attended the North West London Jewish Day School in Brent and was then educated at Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, which was later developed. He studied English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and graduated with a double first BA. He began studying for a PhD in English at University College London but did not finish it.

Personal life

Baddiel and Morwenna Banks live in North London with their two children: Dolly, born 2001) and Ezra (born 2004). Despite his upbringing, he has referred to himself as a "10 out of ten atheist" and a "fundamentalist" Jewish atheist. He suffers from insomnia, and he has written guest blogs about it.

Baddiel is an avid fan of Genesis, and he was on hand to welcome them to their Turn It On Again: The Tour press conference in 2006. He also wrote sleeve notes for the reissue of the album Nursery Cryme as part of the Genesis 1970-1975 box set. He is a fan of the band's former lead singer Peter Gabriel and a journalist for The Times who mistakenly reported that he had been "loud and offensive" at one of Gabriel's concerts, something Baddiel has referred to in his live performance. David Bowie is also a fan of the singer, and he paid tribute to him on his 65th birthday in 2012 by expressing his ardent desire to see him come out of retirement. Following Bowie's death in 2016 and speaking to the audience, he attended Bowie's tribute concert at London's Union Chapel, describing him as "the greatest tunesmith we have."

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Career

Baddiel became a professional stand-up comedian in London after graduating from university, as well as a writer for films such as Rory Bremner and Spitting Image. Filthy, Rich, and Catflap, his first television appearance in a single episode of the showbiz satire Filthy, Rich, and Catflap. He was introduced to Rob Newman in 1988, and the two formed a writing partnership. They co-starred with Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, a comedy pair, on BBC Radio 1, where the Mary Whitehouse Experience went on for four seasons and a special. Following this success, the show was transferred to BBC2, where it ran for two seasons until the duos decided to end the show. Baddiel also co-hosted Channel 4's A Stab in the Dark during this period.

Baddiel and Newman re-teamed up for Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, which aired on BBC2, featuring character sketches, monologues, and observation routines after The Mary Whitehouse Experience. Despite a tense working partnership, Newman and Baddiel, a live performance, sold out shows as examples of comedy as "the new rock 'n' roll," and the performance (Newman and Baddiel: Live and In Pieces) culminating in the first-ever sold-out show at Wembley Arena, where it played to 12,500 people. Despite this success, rising tensions between the two teams culminated in them announcing that the tour would be their last together. On the Road to Wembley, the couple's final tour was the subject of a BBC2 documentary called Newman and Baddiel.

Baddiel then met and began sharing a flat with fellow comedian Frank Skinner. Both football fans have lived (Baddiel is a Chelsea F.C.). (fan): The pair invented, wrote, and performed Fantasy Football League, a huge entertainment show based on the burgeoning fantasy football obsession. During the 2010 World Cup, I was running for three series on BBC2 followed by a series of live broadcasts throughout the 1998 World Cup and later in 2004. During this period, the pair also topped the UK Singles Chart twice with the football anthem "Three Lions," co-written and performed with The Lightning Seeds. The song was first released as the England football team's official anthem for UEFA Euro 1996, but it was later re-released with updated lyrics as the unofficial anthem for the 1998 World Cup. The song has remained on social media and television and has resurfaced on TV in July 2018. The England national football team's progress has been lauded by fans and has resurfaced in July 2018, highlighting the England national football team's success at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Baddiel was chastised for his portrayal of black footballer Jason Lee in Fantasy Football League, which required him to wear a pineapple on his head and use blackface. Lee said that this was a form of bullying. Baddiel has issued several apology posts on social media and in an article for The Daily Telegraph, saying that it was "part of a very poor racial tradition." Lee said in 2020 that he had never been sent a personal apology from Baddiel or Skinner for the sequence of sketches. Baddiel's book Jews Don't Count said the use of blackface was racial, but he also stated that many people requesting him to apologize for the appearance only did so after he publicly condemned antisemitism.

The pair performed an improvised question-and-answer performance at the Edinburgh Fringe, which later became a television series called Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, as well as a a West End appearance at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2001, which culminated in the ending of Fantasy Football League.

The pair appeared on a television special entitled Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The Catholic Children's Society and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund were among the first celebrity contestants to raise £250,000 for their charities in 2001.

Baddiel has written four books: Time for Bed (1996), Whatever Love Means (2002), The Secret Purposes (2006), and The Death of Eli Gold (2011). He wrote and produced "Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9–13-Years" in June 2015 and released it as a children's book, which also included Baddiel and produced by Fox 2000 Pictures. The Person Controller (2015), AniMalcolm (2016), Birthday Boy (2017), and Head Kid (2018) are among his children's books. In 2016, he wrote The Boy Who Would Do What He Liked, a short story that was published on World Book Day.

Baddiel's Syndrome, a television sitcom starring Morwenna Banks, Stephen Fry, and Jonathan Bailey, which lasted for fourteen episodes, was released in 2001. Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Matt Lucas, and Miranda Hart appeared in the comedy film The Infidel. Since being turned into a musical with music by Erran Baron Cohen, Baddiel has adapted the film into a musical. Baddiel supervised the performance, which appeared at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in late 2014. Baddiel's other writing credits include The Norris McWhirter Chronicles for Sky 1, which also starred Alistair McGowan and John Thomson, and two episodes of Thunderbirds' ITV revival. Thunderbirds Are Go!

Baddiel introduced and hosted Heresy, a BBC Radio 4 panel show which features celebrity guests struggling to defy common sense and received wisdom. The show is now in its 10th series and has been hosted by Victoria Coren since 2008, with Baddiel returning to the show regularly as a visitor. Baddiel created and hosted Don't Make Me Laugh, a new panel show for Radio 4 that assigns guests with speaking for as long as possible on widely humorous topics without getting laughs. In 2016, the second series appeared on TV. David Baddiel Tries to Understand..., a BBC Radio 4 show where Baddiel's goal is to comprehend increasingly complicated topics as suggested by his followers on Twitter, has appeared in three series.

Baddiel has appeared in programs such as Little Britain, Skins, The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, and Horrible Histories as a regular guest on panel shows including 8 Out of ten Cats Does Countdown, QI, and Alan Davies' As Yet Untitled. David Baddiel On the Silk Road, a four-part travel documentary for Discovery, a 4,000-mile journey to experience the most popular trade route in history, as well as hosting two episodes of BBC2's Artsnight and becoming a regular host of The Penguin Podcast, in which he spoke to authors about the objects that inspired their books, including Johnny Marr, Zadie Smith and Ruby Wax, among other things. Baddiel and the Missing Nazi Billions, among other documentaries he has defended, include Baddiel and the Missing Nazi Billions (BBC2): Who Do You Want Your Child To Be? (BBC2), The World's Most Dangerous Roads (BBC2), as well as an episode of Who Do You Think You Are (BBC2). (BBC1) In 2018, he appeared on Desert Island Discs.

The Trouble with Dad, a Baddiel documentary about his father's dementia, was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2017.

Baddiel appeared in Taskmaster series 9 in 2019. In the overall series, he won one episode and finished fifth out of five.

Baddiel would appear as a contestant on the 4th season of The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off, which premiered in Spring 2021.

Fame (Not the Musical), a critically acclaimed show that appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, performed in London before heading to Menier Chocolate Factory and a subsequent national tour in 2013. Baddiel premiered My Family: Not the Sitcom at the Menier Chocolate Factory in Spring 2016; the confessional display tells the true tale of Baddiel's recently deceased mother and dementia-suffering father.

Following a five-week run, the show moved to London's West End in September 2016 for another five-week run at the Valiant Theatre. The Playhouse Theatre's final ten-week run in March 2017 was announced in spring 2017. The show was nominated for an Olivier Award in the Entertainment and Family category last month. Rob Newman attended one of these performances for the first time since 1993, the first time the two performers had met together in a room since 1993. Baddiel's most recent appearance was on a four-city tour of Australia. Trolls: Not The Dolls, not the Dolls, is the British tour guide to the UK in 2020.

The Soho Theatre, London, produced Baddiel's God's Dice in October 2019. The title refers to Einstein's interpretation of quantum uncertainty: "God does not play dice with the universe." The essay examines "an ageing [quantum physicist] who has been seduced to support a fundamental religious sect."

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