David Walliams

Walliams and Matt Lucas first met at the National Youth Theatre. At their first meeting, Lucas did an impression of Jimmy Savile and Walliams an impression of Frankie Howerd. They would not meet again for another year.[20] In the late 1990s, playing minor roles in sketches such as The Club, Walliams and Lucas played grotesque caricatures of various rock musicians in the series Rock Profile and in the spoof documentary series Sir Bernard's Stately Homes. They were also stars of the Paramount Comedy Channel show Mash and Peas, and it was in this guise that they appeared in the Fat Les video. Walliams and Lucas also had small roles in Plunkett and Maclaine as prisoners.

The duo appeared together in a music video for the Pet Shop Boys single "I'm with Stupid", in which the two are apparently auditioning their version of the song's video for Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, who are tied up and appear to be hostages.

The pair are best known for Little Britain, which ran from 2003 to 2009 on the BBC in the UK and from 2008 onwards on HBO in the USA. The programme first aired on BBC Three before moving to the more mainstream BBC One. Among the characters Walliams played were Emily Howard, a deluded "transvestite"; Ray McCooney, an insane Scottish hotel owner; and Sebastian Love, an aide de camp to the Prime Minister (portrayed by Anthony Head) on whom Love has a huge crush. A successful live stage show of the series, Little Britain Live, was produced in 2006. A number of seasonal and charity specials followed, up to 2009. A spin-off series produced in the United States by HBO, Little Britain USA, aired in 2008. The characters from Little Britain played by Walliams and Lucas appeared in a 2010 UK television advertising campaign for the Nationwide Building Society. In January 2005 Walliams and Lucas were named the most powerful people in TV comedy by Radio Times.[21]

Their later series was Come Fly with Me, a six-part series airing on BBC One.[22] The first episode was the third most-watched programme of Christmas Day 2010, and the most watched comedy of the year.[23] The duo have not worked or made any public appearances together since early 2011 (although they each make separate cameo appearances in Michael Winterbottom's 2013 film The Look of Love).

In October 2019, Lucas and Walliams announced Little Britain would be returning to BBC Radio 4 on 31 October 2019, for a one-off special entitled Little Brexit.[24]

Since 2012 Walliams has been a judge on the ITV talent show Britain's Got Talent with Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell. In 2015, 2018 and 2019, he was recognised at the National Television Awards as Best Judge[25] for his involvement in the series. His chemistry with Simon Cowell on the show has often been praised.

Walliams at the WORD Christchurch Festival 2015, NZ

In early 2008 Walliams signed a contract with HarperCollins to publish two children's books.[27] The debut novel, The Boy in the Dress, illustrated by Quentin Blake, was released worldwide on 1 November 2008. It explores several of the themes of Little Britain from Walliams' own life on an emotional level, such as the camp humour of cross-dressing and effeminacy.[10] The story recounts a neglected 12-year-old boy called Dennis' search for a female role model, his friendship with the popular girl in school, and the ways in which relationships develop along gender lines. The story has a strong resonance with Anne Fine's 1989 book Bill's New Frock. It was announced that this book would be adapted into a film for Christmas 2014.[28]

In November 2009 came Mr Stink, again illustrated by Quentin Blake, about a 12-year-old girl who meets a tramp and helps look after him. She keeps him hidden from her family. The book consists of 26 illustrated chapters full of jokes. It is aimed at teenagers and children over 9. It was the last of Walliams books to be illustrated by Quentin Blake. The book was awarded the Children's Award in the inaugural People's Book Prize in 2010,[29] and was made into a 60-minute film, which premiered on BBC One on 23 December 2012.

On 28 October 2010 Walliams published his third book Billionaire Boy, illustrated by Tony Ross,[30][31] telling the story of Joe Spud, the richest 12-year-old in the country. Joe's father is a famous inventor, and his wealth means that Joe has everything he could ever want: his own bowling alley, cinema and a trained orangutan who serves as his butler, but there is just one thing he really needs: a friend.[30] The book included a 'billion pound note' that was used to enter a competition to win a day as a billionaire in London. This was the first of his books to be illustrated by Tony Ross.

Walliams' fourth book, Gangsta Granny was released in October 2011 and again illustrated by Tony Ross. It tells the story of Ben who is bored every time he is made to stay at his grandma's house as all she wants to do is to play board games and eat cabbage soup. Ben learns that she was once an international jewel thief and all her life she has wanted to steal the crown jewels. Ben is determined that they do it together. It won a Red House Children's Book Award[32] and was adapted to be a 70-minute film for BBC One and shown on 26 December 2013.[33]

In September 2012 Walliams released his fifth children's book, Ratburger, telling the story of a young girl named Zoe whose life is a misery as she has an evil stepmother. It was made into a one-off drama for Sky One.[34]

Ratburger was followed in September 2013 by Walliams' sixth book, Demon Dentist, relating the tale of a young boy named Alfie with no family except his dad whose world goes upside-down when a new dentist arrives in town. The book won the top prize in the Younger Readers category at the 2015 Red House Children's Book Awards.[32]

Walliams' seventh children's book, Awful Auntie,[35] was released on 25 September 2014. This was the story of a girl named Stella whose Auntie has moved into her house with her owl, Wagner. It is the first (and currently only) of Walliams' books to not include Raj the newsagent, due to the book being set in the 1930s before Raj was born.

In September 2015 he released Grandpa's Great Escape. The story follows a boy called Jack trying to rescue his Grandpa who suffers from Alzheimer's disease from a care home run by an evil matron. The book was adapted for BBC One, with the script written by Walliams and Kevin Cecil, and starring Tom Courtenay as Grandpa. This book, although set in the 1980s like Awful Auntie is, sees the return of Raj the newsagent. The same year that Grandpa's Great Escape was published, Walliams backed children's fairytales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF, together with Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Ewan McGregor, Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley, Michael Caine, Charlotte Rampling and Paul McKenna.[36]

The Midnight Gang was published in November 2016. Bad Dad was published in November 2017. Walliams sold £16.57 million worth of books in 2017.[37] The Ice Monster was published in November 2018. Walliams' latest children's novel, Slime, was published in April 2020.

Illustrated in colour by Tony Ross, Walliams' three The World's Worst Children short story collections, centered around 'five beastly boys and five gruesome girls', were published in May 2016, May 2017 and May 2018, respectively.

In May 2019, it was announced that The World's Worst Teachers would be published on 27 June.[38][39]

On 26 August 2008 Walliams made his stage debut at the Gate Theatre in Dublin opposite Michael Gambon in Harold Pinter's No Man's Land, in front of an audience that included Pinter himself. The production transferred to London later in the year.

In 2013, he played the part of Bottom in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Noël Coward Theatre opposite Sheridan Smith as Titania.

In July 2014, Walliams appeared on stage with Monty Python during their live show Monty Python Live (Mostly) held at the O₂ Arena, London. He was the special guest in their "Blackmail" sketch.[40]

In addition to his writing credits for his Sketch Shows and adaptions of his novels, it was announced in November 2015 that he would be co-writing an animated feature with filmmaker Edgar Wright for DreamWorks Animation. In July 2016, it was announced that it would be titled Shadows and be released in 2019.[41]

In 2018, Walliams also starred in the British Airways Safety video, which was conducted in conjunction with Comic Relief for the airlines in house charity. Walliams most notable occasion in the video is the lifejacket instruction. Since then the video has been reworked with a mixture of the previous version; however, Walliams still appears in the new version.

In early November 2017, Walliams caused upset through his dressing as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for Halloween and posting it online. He had shared the photograph on his Twitter account, in costume, wearing a black suit, wig, and artificial prosthetics that appeared to alter his eyelids and hairline. There was an immediate backlash online, many Twitter users branding the outfit "racist" and accusing Walliams of "yellow-face".[42] Others made the point that it was insensitive for Walliams to dress as Kim Jong-un given the North Korean leader's 'appalling' human rights record.[43] Walliams responded to the backlash lightly, constructing a fake text message from Kim Jong-un which he posted to Twitter, reading: "Hi Dave, Loved the Halloween outfit mate! Wet meself laughing. Don't see what all the fuss is about. Kim x. PS Can't wait to read Bad Dad."[44]

In June 2020, Netflix, Britbox, NOW TV and BBC iPlayer dropped Walliams and Lucas' Little Britain and Come Fly With Me, over the use of blackface and stereotypes to portray black, disabled, working class, transgender, and gay people.[45] In Little Britain, both Walliams and Lucas use make up to portray different races, with Walliams portraying a black health-spa guest called Desiree Devere.[46] Variety Magazine attributed the widespread removal of the series on streaming platforms to heightened awareness in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests.[47] After the removal announcement, Walliams and Lucas released identical apologies on their Twitter:

"[We] have both spoken publicly in recent years of our regret that we played characters of other races. Once again we want to make it clear that it was wrong & we are very sorry.” [48]

In July 2020, author and activist Jack Monroe branded the content of Walliams' children's book The World's Worst Parents as "classist" due to the inclusion of a character on the basis that she was raising her family in a tower block flat.[49] Harper Collins issued a response, stating "David Walliams's books have a diverse readership which is reflected in their content".[49]

Walliams co-hosted a segment of the Sport Relief telethon in 2012, co-hosting the 22:00–22:40 slot with Miranda Hart when the show moved over to BBC Two while the BBC News at Ten was aired.

Walliams also co-hosted the 2014 Sport Relief telethon. This time, he hosted the earlier slot between 19:00–22:00 with Gary Lineker and later Davina McCall.

On 4 July 2006 Walliams swam the English Channel for Sport Relief.[62][63] It took him 10 hours and 34 minutes to swim the 22-mile (35 km) stretch of sea, equivalent to 700 lengths of an Olympic-size swimming pool. This was wrongly reported as one of the top 50 recorded times for an unaided Channel crossing; in reality Walliams placed 167th at the time of crossing in only the CSA listings, excluding the CSPF listings.[64] He raised over £1 million in donations. Under the supervision of his trainer, he trained for nine months to prepare for the swim.[65] The training had to coincide with Walliams and Lucas's Little Britain Live tour, so he daily had to train for several hours before performing on stage in the evening.

Walliams first swam from Lee-on-the-Solent near Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight in around two hours and also completed an eight-hour swim off the coast of Croatia before embarking on the cross-Channel attempt. Walliams has insisted that prior to his challenge he had never seriously taken part in any sport. The Bluetones' lead singer Mark Morriss wrote a song, "Fade In/Fade Out", in honour of Walliams' achievement; it can be found on their self-titled album, released on 9 October 2006.

On 7 March 2008 Walliams, along with James Cracknell, swam the 12-mile (19 km) Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco, again for Sport Relief. He successfully completed the swim in just over 4½ hours.[66]

In March 2010 Walliams and a group of celebrities cycled an end-to-end journey through the UK, raising over £1 million for Sport Relief. Walliams suffered a serious fall when tackling the Kirkstone Pass, a thousand-foot climb in the Lake District but was able to complete the ride.[67]

In March 2011 Walliams undertook 24 Hour Panel People, in which he took part in back-to-back recordings of various panel show formats over the course of 24 hours to raise money for Comic Relief. The recordings were streamed live on the BBC website. He took part in 19 episodes of "classic" TV panel shows.

Walliams in 2011 after swimming the Thames for Sports Relief

From 5 to 12 September 2011 Walliams swam the length of the River Thames (140 miles [230 km]) and raised more than £2 million for Sport Relief. In the process, he saved a dog from drowning in the river. Once he had got out of the river Walliams said "I think a bath is the only water I will be seeing for a while."[68][69][70] The swim resulted in him getting giardiasis and injuring an intervertebral disc.[71] In late 2013, Walliams had emergency back surgery to alleviate issues caused by the swim.[72]

• Inside Little Britain (with Boyd Hilton and Matt Lucas): London: Ebury Press: 2006: ISBN 0-09-191231-8

Autobiography

• Camp David (2012)

The first two novels are illustrated by Quentin Blake, the rest are illustrated by Tony Ross.

• The Boy in the Dress (2008, ISBN 978-0007279036)
• Mr Stink (2009, ISBN 978-0007279050)
• Billionaire Boy (2010, ISBN 978-0007371044)
• Gangsta Granny (2011, ISBN 978-0008147419)
• Ratburger (2012, ISBN 978-0007928798)
• Demon Dentist (2013, ISBN 978-0007453566)
• Awful Auntie (2014, ISBN 978-0007453603)
• Grandpa's Great Escape (2015, ISBN 978-0007494019)
• The Midnight Gang (2016, ISBN 978-0008164614)
• Bad Dad (2017, ISBN 978-0008164652)
• The Ice Monster (2018, ISBN 978-0008164690)
• Fing (2019, ISBN 978-0008349080)
• The Beast of Buckingham Palace (2019, ISBN 978-0008262174)
• Slime (2020, ISBN 978-0008342586)
• Code Name Bananas (2020, ISBN 978-0008305833)

Illustrated by Tony Ross.

• The World's Worst Children (2016, ISBN 978-0008197032)
• The World's Worst Children 2 (2017, ISBN 978-0008259624)
• The World's Worst Children 3 (2018, ISBN 978-0008304591)
• The World's Worst Teachers (2019, ISBN 978-0008364007)
• The World's Worst Parents (2020, ISBN 978-0008305796)

• The Slightly Annoying Elephant (2013)
• The First Hippo on the Moon (2014)
• The Queen's Orang-utan (2015, for Comic Relief)
• The Bear Who Went Boo! (2015)
• There's a Snake in My School! (2016)
• Boogie Bear (2018)
• Geronimo (2018)

• Blob (2017)