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Alexei Sayle

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Alexei David Sayle is an English comedian, actor and author. He was born in Anfield, Liverpool, England on August 7, 1952. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early Eighties. He has written several novels and television series, and has made many television and film appearances.

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Early life

Sayle grew up in Liverpool, the son of Jewish working-class parents who were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In the aftermath of May 1968, he joined the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). After leaving school in dubious circumstances, Sayle took a foundation course in art at Southport before attending Chelsea College of Art and Design in London.

Career

When the Comedy Store opened in London in 1979, Sayle responded to an advert for 'would-be comedians' and became its first compere.

In 1980 he was seen at the Edinburgh Festival by comedy producer Martin Lewis, producer of The Secret Policeman's Balls shows and films who became his manager and mentor. Under Lewis' management Sayle became the leading performer at the new "Comic Strip" club. He also secured his own radio series for London's Capital Radio Alexei Sayle And The Fish People (1981) for which he won a Sony Radio Award (Sayle later released an album based on the show, The Fish People Tapes. He appeared on The Comic Strip Album (1981) and recorded his own album Cak! (1982). He also appeared in the stage show, film and comedy album of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1981-2) alongside established comedic performers. These strategies were all designed to bring Sayle to a broader audience. Following this exposure Sayle began to receive critical acclaim and his popularity grew.

The height of his early fame was with the single "Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?" culled from The Fish People Tapes, produced by Madness and Elvis Costello producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. Langer had been a member of the Lewis-managed Portsmouth Sinfonia. The single achieved notoriety because of the amount of swear words heard on the 12" single version of the record. After this record's success, Sayle went from being an underground cult hero to a more mainstream career. Some of his early fans felt that he had sold out but this was not detrimental to his commercial success. He became one of Britain's highest-paid voice-over talents providing narration for radio and television commercials.

In the late 1980s, Sayle scored another hit record, "Didn't You Kill My Brother?", which was accompanied by a popular music video.

He has starred in many TV series and films, including The Comic Strip Presents, The Young Ones, and many stand-up comedy series. He also co-wrote many programmes, including six series of his own stand-up/sketch shows (three series of Alexei Sayle's Stuff (1988-91), two series of The All New Alexei Sayle Show (1994-95), and one series of Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round (1998)). He was credited with providing "additional material" for The Young Ones. One of his nicknames is the "fat bastard," which is heard in his skits to refer to him; the opening credits for Stuff featured various characters asking "Who is that fat bastard?" as he passed by.

In 1989, Sayle was awarded an International Emmy for Stuff. In conversation with Mark Thomas on BBC Radio 4's informal chat-show Chain Reaction, Alexei revealed that the first he knew about the award was when he watched Channel 4 News and saw Benny Hill collecting the award on his behalf.

Much of Sayle's humour is in the tradition of Spike Milligan and Monty Python with riffs based on an absurd premise. For example a sketch in Alexei Sayle's Stuff featured Alexei playing the part of Godot, hitch-hiking across contemporary northern England but never managing to get a lift. Political themes are also prevalent. Sayle's trademark costume is a suit and tie a size or two too small for his body, and a usually shaved head.

Sayle alternates his comedic work with performances as a character actor ranging from serious (Gorky Park) to humorous (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). He also appeared in the Doctor Who serial Revelation of the Daleks and in a column for a British tabloid newspaper around the same time indicated that he wanted to become the "first socialist Doctor".

Sayle has also written several novels and short story collections, as well as a graphic novel.

He has been married to Linda Rawsthorn since 1974. In 1995, he was awarded an honorary professorship at the Thames Valley University.

As of 2006, he writes a motoring column in The Independent newspaper.

TV series

Radio

Movies

Records

Books

Sources

 

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