# Paul Whitehouse

Paul Julian Whitehouse (born 20 May 1958) is a Welsh actor, writer, presenter and comedian. He was one of the main stars of the BBC sketch comedy series The Fast Show and has starred with Harry Enfield in the shows Harry & Paul and Harry Enfield & Chums. He has appeared with Bob Mortimer in the BBC series Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing and has also acted in films including Corpse Bride (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and The Death of Stalin (2017).
In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was in the top 50 comedy acts voted for by comedians and comedy insiders.

## Early life

Whitehouse was born on 20 May 1958, in Stanleytown, Glamorgan, Wales. His father, Harry, worked for the National Coal Board and his mother, Anita (née Jones), was a singer with the Welsh National Opera. The family moved to Enfield, Middlesex, when he was four years old, which led to his discovering his talent for mimicry:
   At school I didn't say a word for the first four weeks – I called it my Silent Month. I think it was because everyone was speaking so differently from how it had been in Wales. Then, after four weeks, I came home one day and said, 'Muumm, I wanna go to Sarfend!' For her that was the end because I had lost my lovely Welsh lilt. So I became very conscious of speech and the effects it can have. But when I went back to Wales I would start talking all Welsh, 'like that, you see' before going all Alf Garnett while coming back the other way.

## Career

Whitehouse attended the University of East Anglia reading for a degree in Development Studies from autumn 1976, where he became friends with Charlie Higson. The pair spent little of their first year studying, instead playing guitar and performing with their punk rock combo, the Right Hand Lovers. Whitehouse dropped out and squatted in a council flat in Hackney, east London and occasionally worked as a plasterer. After Higson graduated in 1980, he moved in with Whitehouse, working by day as a decorator and performing at night and the weekends with his new punk-funk group the Higsons.
The pair began working as tradesmen on a house shared by comedians Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, which inspired them to start writing comedy. They moved to an estate where in a pub they met Harry Enfield, a neighbour with a stage act, and after he gained a place on Channel 4's Saturday Live, the pair were invited to write for him. Whitehouse created Enfield's character Stavros (a London-based Greek kebab shop owner), and then Loadsamoney (an archetypal Essex boy made good in Margaret Thatcher's 1980s); he also appeared as Enfield's sidekick Lance on Saturday Live. This success turned Whitehouse and Higson's career, and they began to appear on Vic Reeves Big Night Out and extensively for the BBC, with Whitehouse appearing on A Bit of Fry and Laurie as a man with a clinical need to have his bottom fondled, and Paul Merton: The Series, then on Harry Enfield's Television Programme, where he developed numerous characters including DJ Mike Smash of Smashie and Nicey, alongside Enfield as Dave Nice.

### TV career

While watching a preview tape of highlights from Enfield's programme, Whitehouse and Higson were inspired to create a rapid-fire delivery comedy series which would evolve into The Fast Show (when shown in the United States on BBC America, the show was titled Brilliant). Whitehouse's characters included Rowley Birkin QC, Unlucky Alf, Arthur Atkinson, Ron Manager and Ted.
An online series of The Fast Show commissioned by Fosters led to six weekly episodes launched on 10 November 2011.
In 2001 and 2002, Whitehouse and Fast Show collaborator Dave Cummings co-wrote two series of the BBC comedy drama Happiness; Whitehouse also performed the lead role as a voice-over actor with a mid-life crisis.
Whitehouse wrote, produced and appeared with Chris Langham in the 2005 comedy drama Help, also for the BBC. In this series he took 25 roles, all patients of Langham's psychotherapist (except one, who is Langham's psychotherapist's psychotherapist). The pair's collaboration resulted in Whitehouse taking the witness stand on 24 July 2007 in the trial of Langham, in regard to the charge of holding explicit images and videos of minors. Langham claimed he downloaded this material as research for a character in the second series of Help, but Whitehouse's testimony only partially corroborated this explanation.
He appeared in the BBC sketch series Harry & Paul (formerly Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul), starring alongside Harry Enfield. Whitehouse starred alongside Charlie Higson in the BBC2 comedy series Bellamy's People, with the first episode broadcast on 21 January 2010. The comedy evolved from the BBC Radio 4 program Down the Line. The show originally had the working title of Bellamy's Kingdom.
In October 2014, Harry Enfield and Whitehouse revived the classic characters Frank and George ("The Self-Righteous Brothers") from Harry Enfield and Chums, in a sketch for Channel 4's testicular cancer awareness comedy series The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night.
In 2015 his sitcom Nurse, based on his Radio 4 series of the same name (see below), debuted on BBC2 on 10 March.
In August 2015, Whitehouse, alongside Enfield, in celebration of their 25-year partnership, presented An Evening With Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.
In June and July 2018, Whitehouse appeared with his long-time friend and fellow comedian Bob Mortimer in a BBC2 six-part series, Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing. The two friends, who both suffer from heart conditions, share their thoughts and experiences while fishing at a variety of locations around the UK, often with anecdotes about Paul's health and Bob's misadventures. The fourth series of Gone Fishing began broadcasting in 2021. The fifth series began in September 2022, and returned for a Christmas special in December 2022. The duo returned for a sixth series broadcast on BBC.

### Radio

Whitehouse and Charlie Higson produced and appeared in a spoof phone-in show Down the Line on BBC Radio 4. The first series was broadcast May–June 2006. A second series was broadcast 16 January – 20 February 2007, during which they won a Sony Radio Academy Award. A third series was broadcast in January 2008, a fourth in January 2011 and a fifth in May 2013. In February 2014, Radio 4 broadcast Nurse, written by Whitehouse and David Cummings and starring Esther Coles in the title role, with Whitehouse playing a variety of characters, including Graham Downs who had previously appeared in Down the Line. The show would become the basis for the 2015 BBC Two TV series Nurse.

### Theatre

Whitehouse and John Sullivan's son, Jim Sullivan, have written Only Fools and Horses The Musical, which launched on 9 February 2019 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London. Whitehouse stars as Grandad. In October 2022 he temporarily handed the part over to Les Dennis.

### Other work

He also starred alongside Eddie Large and Russ Abbot in episode 4 of Horne & Corden. Comic Relief 2011 contained a new parody video of "Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind)" directed by MJ Delaney featuring Whitehouse and other Welsh celebrities lip-syncing to the song. It is available to download via iTunes.
Johnny Depp described Whitehouse as "the greatest actor of all time". Depp appeared in the 2000 finale of The Fast Show, and he and Whitehouse have appeared in five films together: Finding Neverland, Corpse Bride, Alice in Wonderland and its sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass, and Mortdecai. The latter has been noted for alluding to Fast Show characters.

## Influences

Whitehouse's main early influences were the sketches of Les Dennis and Dustin Gee and The Goodies. In 2001, when asked about comedians who had influenced him, Whitehouse said that Monty Python, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were the main influences from when he was young. He also cited his modern influences as Harry Enfield, of whom he said without meeting him, he would not have been doing what he does now, and the approach of Reeves and Mortimer who he described as "far and away the best comedians that we have had in this country for a long while."

## Personal life

Whitehouse married Fiona Wightman in 1992, and the couple had two daughters, Molly and Sophie, before separating in 2000. The couple divorced three years later. Whitehouse supported his ex-wife in a civil action she has pursued against a national newspaper, for accessing her medical records. The publisher later offered unreserved apologies.
He had a third daughter, Lauren, with costume designer Natalie Rogers.
Whitehouse met Dr Mine Conkbayir, who is of Turkish heritage, when she was aged 23, and 22 years his junior. She was working in a health food shop while studying. The couple have one daughter, Delilah. As of 2024 they have been together 20 years and married for five, but maintain separate homes.
Whitehouse is a fan of Premier League football team Tottenham Hotspur.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 2000 | Kevin & Perry Go Large | Bouncer | |
| 2004 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Sir Cadogan | Deleted scenes |
| 2004 | Finding Neverland | Stage Manager | |
| 2005 | Corpse Bride | William Van Dort, Mayhew, Paul the Head Waiter | Voice only |
| 2009 | Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva | Otis | English version |
| 2010 | Alice in Wonderland | Thackery Earwicket the March Hare | Voice only |
| 2010 | Burke & Hare | Drunk Gentleman | |
| 2015 | Mortdecai | Spinoza | |
| 2016 | Alice Through the Looking Glass | Thackery Earwicket the March Hare | Voice only |
| 2017 | The Death of Stalin | Anastas Mikoyan | |
| 2017 | Ghost Stories | Tony Matthews | |
| 2018 | Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires | Barney, Gussman | Voice only |
| 2018 | King of Thieves | Carl Wood | |
| 2019 | The Personal History of David Copperfield | Mr. Peggotty | |

### Television

| Year | Television | Role | Notes |
| 1990 | A Bit of Fry and Laurie | Man at the Bottom Fondled in Audience | Episode: "Episode #2.3" |
| 1990 | Vic Reeves Big Night Out | David Rowells Jean-Paul Gaultier Mr. Popkins | Episodes: "Episode #1.1" "Episode #1.5" "Episode #1.6" |
| 1990–1992 | Harry Enfield's Television Programme | Fred Git Lance Mike "Smashie" Smash Vincent | Also screenwriter |
| 1991 | Comic Relief | Mike "Smashie" Smash | TV film |
| 1991 | Paul Merton: The Series | Carver | Episode: "Episode #1.6" |
| 1992 | Bunch of Five | Spencer Pendel | Episode: "The Weekenders" |
| 1993–1995 | The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer | Jimmy Lea from Slade Heinrich Himmler | |
| 1994 | Smashie and Nicey, the End of an Era | Mike "Smashie" Smash | TV film |
| 1994–1997 | Harry Enfield & Chums | Mister Dead George Doberman Julio Geordio Fred Git Lance Michael Paine | Also screenwriter |
| 1994–2014 | The Fast Show | "Unlucky" Alf Archie Arthur Atkinson Brilliant Kid Poutremos Poutra-Poutremos Chris the Crafty Cockney The 13th Duke of Wymbourne Lindsey Ron Manager Rowley Birkin QC Ted Various roles | Also co-creator and screenwriter |
| 1998 | Ted & Ralph | Ted Rowley Birkin Kevin Brown | TV film |
| 1999 | You Ain't Seen All These, Right? | Various roles | TV film |
| 1999 | David Copperfield | Pawnbroker | TV film |
| 1999 | Hooves of Fire | Prancer (voice) | |
| 2000 | Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) | Sidney Crabbe | Episode: "A Blast from the Past" |
| 2001 | Jumpers for Goalposts | Ron Manager | |
| 2001 | Comic Relief: Say Pants to Poverty | Ted | TV film |
| 2001 | We Know Where You Live | Mike "Smashie" Smash George | TV film |
| 2001–2002 | Fun at the Funeral Parlour | Harrison Ford The News Agent | Episodes: "Death in the Valleys" "The Heron Incident" "Dead Aid" |
| 2001–2003 | Happiness | Danny Spencer | Also screenwriter |
| 2002 | I Love the 100 Best Top Ten Lists of the Fast Show Ever! | Various characters | |
| 2002 | Legend of the Lost Tribe | Prancer (voice) | |
| 2004 | The Ultimate Pop Star | Mike "Smashie" Smash | TV film |
| 2004 | Swiss Toni | Brickabrack Lennard | Episode: "Fothergill 2000" |
| 2005 | Help | Various characters | |
| 2005 | The Catherine Tate Show | Dad | Episode: "Episode #2.5" |
| 2007 | Close Encounters of the Herd Kind | Prancer (voice) | |
| 2007–2012 | Harry & Paul | Various characters | Also co-creator and screenwriter |
| 2009 | Comic Relief 2009 | Evan Davis Theo Profiterole Duncan Guillotine | TV film |
| 2009 | Horne & Corden | | Episode: "Episode #1.4" |
| 2010 | Bellamy's People | Various characters | Also director and screenwriter |
| 2014 | The Life of Rock with Brian Pern | Pat Quid Mike "Smashie" Smash | |
| 2014 | Harry and Paul's Story of the Twos | Various characters | |
| 2015 | Nurse | Billy | Also screenwriter |
| 2018– present | Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing | Himself | |
| 2020 | Smashie's Christmastastic Playlist | Mike "Smashie" Smash | |
| 2021 | Murder, They Hope | Monty | Episode: "Evil Under the Bun" |
| 2022 | The Lovebox in Your Living Room | Various | |
| 2023 | Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers | Himself | Two-part documentary |
| 2023 | Dodger | Royston, Chief of the Yeomen Warders | Episode: "Coronation" |
| 2023-present | The Change | | TV series |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Film/series | Result |
| 1995 | Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award | TV – Light Entertainment Shared with Harry Enfield, Simon Greenall, Ian Hislop, Geoffrey Perkins, Nick Newman, Harry Thompson & Kay Stonham | Harry Enfield & Chums | Won |
| 1996 | British Comedy Award | Top Male Comedy Performer | The Fast Show | Won |
| 1997 | BAFTA TV Award | Best Light Entertainment (Programme or Series) Shared with Charlie Higson, Sid Roberson & Mark Mylod | The Fast Show | Nominated |
| 1997 | Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award | TV – Light Entertainment Shared with Dave Cummings, Harry Enfield, Ian Hislop, Gary Howe, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Nick Newman, Geoffrey Perkins & Richard Preddy | Harry Enfield & Chums | Won |
| 1998 | BAFTA TV Award | Best Light Entertainment (Programme or Series) Shared with Charlie Higson & Mark Mylod | The Fast Show | Won |
| 1998 | BAFTA TV Award | Best Light Entertainment Performance | The Fast Show | Won |
| 1999 | British Comedy Award | Best TV Comedy Actor | Ted & Ralph | Nominated |
| 2002 | BAFTA TV Award | Situation Comedy Award Shared with David Cummings, Declan Lowney & Rosemary McGowan | Happiness | Nominated |
| 2006 | BAFTA TV Award | Best Comedy Programme or Series Shared with Jane Berthoud, Chris Langham & Declan Lowney | Help | Won |
| 2008 | Banff World Media Festival Award | Best Comedy Program Shared with Harry Enfield | Harry & Paul | Nominated |
| 2009 | British Comedy Award | Best Sketch Show Shared with Harry Enfield | Harry & Paul | Won |
| 2010 | British Comedy Award | Best Sketch Show Shared with Harry Enfield | Harry & Paul | Nominated |
| 2011 | BAFTA TV Award | Best Comedy Program Shared with Harry Enfield, Sandy Johnson & Izzy Mant | Harry & Paul | Won |