Griff Rhys Jones
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Griff Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a British writer and actor. He came to national attention in the 1980s when he starred with Mel Smith in a number of comedy sketch shows on British TV.
Rhys Jones was born in Cardiff, Wales, and was educated at Brentwood School, Essex, where he met Charlie Bean (Executive Director of the Bank of England) and Douglas Adams, the writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He was part of a group called The Clique by the school's headmaster for their antics. He followed Bean and Adams to Cambridge, reading History and English at Emmanuel College. Although not a hardcore follower of football he has taken time to visit Ipswich Town at events and has admitted he supported them as a kid.
While at University, Jones joined the prestigious Cambridge Footlights Club (of which he became Vice-President in 1976). He was also president of the ADC (Amateur Dramatics Club) during his time at Cambridge.
After University, he started appearing in numerous comedy programmes, usually with Mel Smith, including the second series of the notable 1980s sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News, alongside Smith, Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson. After Not the Nine O'Clock News he appeared in Alas Smith and Jones with Mel Smith. He has been the co-host on several of Comic Relief shows.
He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1984 (1983 season) for Best Comedy Performance in Charley's Aunt and in 1994 (1993 season) for Best Comedy Performance for his performance in An Absolute Turkey.
Jones was the presenter of the BBC's Restoration programme (he began filming its third series at Lincoln Cathedral on 3rd June 2006), and has done a considerable amount of fundraising work for the Hackney Empire theatre conservation project. He also starred in Russell T. Davies's drama series Mine All Mine, on ITV1. Jones' forthcoming TV projects include Restoration Village and a travelogue series, Mountains.
In 2003, Jones released the book To The Baltic With Bob, a book documenting a journey he made to St. Petersburg (and most of the way back) with a 'friend' called Bob on a small, slightly aged boat.
He recently appeared in the "Smith and Jones Sketch Book" (last episode broadcast - 2nd June 2006) - a series of shows featuring clips from the comedy sketches he has appeared in with Mel Smith. The show has received some criticism due to the BBC using it to repeat a series of programmes without resorting to unpopular re-runs.
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