Nick Hancock (actor)
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Nick Hancock (born January 25, 1962, Stoke-on-Trent) is a British actor and television presenter. Educated at Shrewsbury School, he hosted the "laddish" sports quiz They Think It's All Over for 10 years until he followed former regulars Lee Hurst, David Gower and Gary Lineker and left the show. He also formerly presented Room 101 (1994-1999) on TV, as well as its earlier radio version (1992-1994). From 2005 he began working for a friend's mortgage brokerage, Earth Mortgages.
He is an avid supporter of Stoke City F.C.
Personal life
Nick Hancock grew up with three elder sisters. His father Ken was a builder - and a Stoke supporter - and mother Adele was a teacher.The biggest surprise in the Hancock household was when Nick won a place at Cambridge University. He was the first member of his family ever to make it to university. Nick performed in the university’s famous theatrical revue, Cambridge Footlights. He went on to train as a teacher and practised stand-up comedy as a hobby before making it his career.
Nick formed Hancock & Mullarkey with Neil Mullarkey at Cambridge, performing their act (which consisted of spoofing television shows' title sequences to accompanying music) several times on television. This included Doctor Who, Kojak, and Dad's Army. One of his earliest TV breaks was presenting La Triviatta, a comedy/chat show about trivia for the short lived British Satellite Broadcasting station.
Nick met his wife, Iranian-born Shari Eftekhari, in the highly improbable setting of a George Best and Rodney Marsh football roadshow in Staines. Nick proposed to Shari down the pub: "We were playing pool in the Nellie Dean. I said to Shari: 'Have I got something stuck between my teeth?' As she looked I stuck out my tongue - there was an engagement ring on it. She said: 'That's lovely, yes, I will - but can we change the ring?'" Nick and Shari got married in Staffordshire two years after they first met and have two young children – Dolores and Harvey. In 1998 he starred in a documentary/comedy about the Iranian national football team called "The Outsiders".
Nick is TV’s most famous Stoke fan. In September 2001, he paid £20,000 at Sotheby's Football Memorabilia auction in London for the FA Cup winner's medal awarded to Sir Stanley Matthews in 1953.
Nick claimed to be unambitious and puts all his TV success down to pure luck: “"I'm one of the most professionally lazy and unmotivated people, so my career has really been an ad-hoc series of leaps from the unknown."
Nick got into showbiz by working in a cabaret act, replacing Mike Myers, who had gone to work in Canada and went on to become famous in the Austin Powers films. Nick’s comedy idol is Peter Cook and he got the chance to meet him when Cook appeared on Room 101.
Nick enjoyed hosting They Think It's All Over - especially when guests got in hot water, as boxer Chris Eubank once did. "Chris was slagging off Kiwi rugby star Jonah Lomu, who's 6ft 5in and about 18 1/2 stone. I knew Jonah was backstage, about to come on for our 'feel the sportsman' round. It was a very pleasing moment!”
Nick appeared on Red Nose Day's "The Ultimate Makeover". He hooked up Anna Ryder Richardson, Phil Turner and TV gardener Joe Swift in Liverpool to transform a play centre for kids whose parents couldn’t afford child-care.
Nick has said that if he was ever invited to guest on a chat show, he would refuse. There isn't that much of himself to give, he has insisted: "I can’t think of anything I’ve ever done that would be of interest to anybody." However, in 2006 he appeared on TV Heaven, Telly Hell, discussing his TV likes and dislikes, with 'Trinny and Susannah' being his number one hate.
Television credits
- Bostock's Cup
- Fantasy Football League
- Great Railway Journeys - Cuba
- They Think It's All Over
- Holding the Baby
- The Pall Bearers Revue starring Jerry Sadowitz
- MAC
- The Mary Whitehouse Experience
- Mr Bean
- Nights
- Punt and Dennis
- Room 101
- Swot or Wot
- The Danny Baker Show
- The Outsiders
- Lose or Draw
- You, Me and Him
- TV Heaven, Telly Hell
Radio credits
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External links
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