David Baddiel

David Lionel Baddiel (/bəˈdiːl/; born 28th May 1964) is a British-American comedian, novelist and television presenter. He is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in The Mary Whitehouse Experience and partnership with Frank Skinner. Baddiel is also a screenwriter and a published novelist.

Early Life

Baddiel was born in Troy, New York, and moved to the UK with his parents when he was four months old. He is the second of three sons.

His parents were both from Jewish families. His father, Colin Brian Baddiel, was Welsh-born from a working-class background and worked as a research chemist with Unilever before being made redundant in the 1980s, after which he sold Dinky Toys at Grays Antique Market. His mother, Sarah, was German-born. She died in 2014, and was a five-month-old refugee child when she was brought to the United Kingdom in 1939 by her parents after escaping from Nazi Germany, where her father, Ernst, had been stripped of his assets. Soon after their arrival, Ernst was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man for a year.

Baddiel grew up in Dollis Hill, Willesden, north London. He attended primary school at the North West London Jewish Day School in Brent. After studying at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, a public school near Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, he studied English at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Footlights, and graduated with a double first. He began studies for a PhD in English at University College London but did not complete it.

Career

After leaving university, Baddiel became a professional stand-up comedian in London, as well as a writer for acts such as Rory Bremner and series including Spitting Image. His first television appearance came in one episode of the showbiz satire Filthy, Rich and Catflap. In 1988 he was introduced to Rob Newman, and the two formed a writing partnership. Subsequently, paired up with Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, another comedy duo, they began writing and performing in The Mary Whitehouse Experience on BBC Radio 1, where the show ran for four series and a special. This success led the show to transfer to BBC2, where it ran for two series, after which both duos decided to end the show. During this time, Baddiel also co-hosted the Channel 4 programme A Stab in the Dark.

After The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Baddiel and Newman re-teamed up for Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, which ran for seven episodes on BBC2, featuring character sketches, monologues and observation routines. Despite a fraught working relationship, the show saw Newman and Baddiel find enormous success as live performers, held up as examples of comedy as ‘the new rock ’n’ roll’, with their tour (Newman and Baddiel: Live and In Pieces) culminating in the first ever sold-out gig for a comedy act at Wembley Arena, playing to 12,500 people. Despite this success, increasing tension between the pair led to them announcing the tour would be their last together. Their final tour was the subject of a BBC2 documentary, Newman and Baddiel on the Road to Wembley.

Baddiel and Skinner

Baddiel subsequently met and began sharing a flat with fellow comedian Frank Skinner. Both lifelong football fans (Baddiel is a Chelsea FC fan), the pair created, wrote and performed Fantasy Football League, a popular entertainment show based on the growing fantasy football craze. Running for three series on BBC2, followed by a series of live specials throughout the 1998 World Cup and then again through the 2004 European Championship, as well as a series of podcasts for The Times from Germany at the 2006 World Cup, and another series for Absolute Radio from South Africa during the 2010 World Cup (amassing over 3 million downloads). During this time the duo also twice topped the UK Singles Chart with the football anthem "Three Lions", co-written and performed with The Lightning Seeds. The song was originally written as the England football team's official anthem for UEFA Euro 1996 and was subsequently re-recorded with updated lyrics as the unofficial anthem for the 1998 World Cup. The song won the hearts of many England fans and has had unofficial re-writes for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

After ending Fantasy Football League, the pair took an improvised question-and-answer show to the Edinburgh Fringe which then became a television series, Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, which ran for five series on ITV, as well as a West End run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2001.

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

On the Official UK Charts on 13 July 2018, the song Three Lions by Baddiel, Frank Skinner and The Lightning Seeds also re-entered the charts at Number 1, celebrating the progress of England national football team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup with the phrase "it's coming home" featuring heavily on social media and television.

Stand-up

In 2013, he returned to stand-up comedy with his critically acclaimed show FAME: Not the Musical, which ran at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe before transferring to London's Menier Chocolate Factory and a subsequent nationwide tour. In Spring 2016 Baddiel premiered his latest show, My Family: Not the Sitcom, again at the Menier Chocolate Factory. The confessional show tells the true story of Baddiel's recently deceased mother and dementia-suffering father.

Following a five-week run, the show transferred to London's West End in September 2016 for another five-week run at the Vaudeville Theatre. In spring 2017 it was announced that the show would return to the West End for one final ten-week run at the Playhouse Theatre in March 2017. In the same month, it was announced that the show was nominated for an Olivier Award, in The Entertainment And Family category. The show was performed as part of the Montreal Comedy Festival in 2017, and will tour the UK in 2018. Most recently, Baddiel took the show to a four-city tour of Australia. His new show about social media, Trolls: Not The Dolls, tours the UK in 2020.

Plays

In October 2019 Baddiel's play God's Dice was produced at the Soho Theatre, London. The title is an allusion to Einstein's view of quantum uncertainty: "God does not pay dice with the universe". The work deals with "an ageing [quantum physicist] seduced into supporting a radical religious sect".

Personal Life

Baddiel has two children with his partner, fellow comedian Morwenna Banks – a daughter Dolly (born 2001) and a son Ezra (born 2004). They live in North London. He has two brothers – Ivor, who is a writer, and Dan.