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Armando Iannucci (b. November, 1963) is a Comedian, writer,
satirist, TV and radio producer.
 Background
Iannucci's father is from Naples, Italy, while his mother is from Glasgow,
Scotland. He was educated at St. Aloysius' College, Glasgow, the University of
Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, where he read English.
He abandoned graduate work on 17th-century religious language with particular
reference to Milton's Paradise Lost to pursue his broadcasting career.
Career
Iannucci has an extensive history in British radio and television. First receiving
widespread fame in the early 1990s as the producer for On the Hour and then The Day
Today, he received critical acclaim for both his own talents as a writer and a
producer, and for first bringing together such comics as Chris Morris, Richard
Herring, Stewart Lee, Peter Baynham and Steve Coogan. The members of this group
went on to work on separate projects and create a new comedy "wave" pre-New Labour:
Morris went on to create Brass Eye, Blue Jam and the Chris Morris Music Show;
Stewart Lee and Richard Herring created Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard
Not Judy.
Baynham was closely involved with both Morris' and Lee & Herring's work —
simultaneously at one point. Lee would go on to co-write the controversial Jerry
Springer — The Opera, but perhaps the most famous "alumnus" of this group is Steve
Coogan's character Alan Partridge, who first appeared in On the Hour, and has
featured in multiple spin-off series.
Despite his involvement in many facets of British comedy as a producer, writer and
performer, Iannucci has remained relatively unknown amongst the British public. His
projects include Smokehammer, a web-based project with Chris Morris, the
short-lived topical satire Gash, as well as three programmes for BBC Radio 3,
including Mobiles Off!, a 20-minute segment on classical concert-going etiquette.
As well as television and radio work, he also wrote a book in 1997 entitled Facts
and Fancies, compiling some articles from his newspaper columns, which was turned
into a BBC Radio 4 series. A little-known radio series called Scraps With Iannucci
followed late in 1998, in which Iannucci used his tape-fiddling skills to present a
review of the year.
More recently, Iannucci devised, directed and was chief writer of The Thick of It,
a political satire-cum-farce for BBC Four. It starred Chris Langham as an
incompetent cabinet minister being manipulated by a cynical Press Officer, played
by Peter Capaldi and based on Tony Blair's former Press Secretary Alastair
Campbell. It was described by critics on BBC Two's Newsnight Review as a modern-day
counterpart to Yes Minister, which Iannucci had championed on the BBC's Britain's
Best Sitcom competition. He has also participated as a panelist on Radio 4's The
News Quiz, having produced the programme earlier in his career.
In January 2006 he took the post of News International Visiting Professor of
Broadcast Media at the University of Oxford, where he has delivered a series of
four lectures under the title "British Comedy — Dead Or Alive?", saying in his
introduction to the series that "It used to be that you went to Oxford to get into
comedy. Now you get into comedy to go to Oxford".
Iannucci has won two Sony Radio Awards and three British Comedy Awards. In 2003, he
was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. . He
was also subject of a 2006 edition of The South Bank Show.
His newest television programme, Time Trumpet, was a spoof documentary shown on BBC
2 during Summer 2006. It followed a similar format to his earlier one-off
programmes Clinton: His Struggle with Dirt and 2004: The Stupid Version in looking
back on past events through highly edited clips and "celebrity" interviews,
although this time was looking back on the present and near-future from the year
2031. One notable episode, featuring fictional terrorist attacks on London and the
assassination of Tony Blair, was postponed and edited in August 2006 amid the
terrorism scares in British airports at that time. The BBC was accused in some
quarters of lacking backbone.
He has also directed the latest series of Post Office adverts, featuring the actors
John Henshaw, Rory Jennings and Di Botcher alongside guest stars such as Joan
Collins, Bill Oddie and Westlife.
He has appeared on Radio 3 talking about classical music, one of his
passions.
Television
The Day Today (BBC 2 — creator, co-writer, producer plus occasional appearances.
The Day Today was the TV adaptation of On The Hour)
The Saturday Night Armistice (writer, producer, presenter etc. - later The Friday
Night Armistice)
Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge (co-writer, producer, creator)
I'm Alan Partridge (co-writer, producer, director)
The Armando Iannucci Shows (writer, performer, director and producer)
Clinton: His Struggle with Dirt (writer, director)
Gash (writer, presenter)
Have I Got News For You, twice as a panelist on 23rd April 2004 and 4 May 2007.
The Thick of It (writer, producer)
2004: The Stupid Version (Presenter, co-writer, producer)
Time Trumpet (writer, performer, producer)
Lab Rats (executive producer) (forthcoming)
Radio
On the Hour (BBC Radio 4 — creator, co-writer, producer)
No' The Archie McPherson Show (BBC Radio Scotland — presenter, writer,
producer)
Armando Iannucci (BBC Radio 1 — writer, presenter, producer)
The News Quiz (BBC Radio 4 — producer, also appeared as guest)
Quote... Unquote (BBC Radio 4 — producer)
Loose Talk (producer)
The Mary Whitehouse Experience (producer)
The 99p Challenge on BBC Radio 4.
Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive on BBC Radio 4 (writer, presenter) (the third
series of six weekly half-hour episodes on the Friday night comedy slot at 6:30 p.
m. started on August 17, 2007.)
Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World as various characters.
Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4 as a guest. Armando reveals how as a youngster he
rebelled against his parents "Classical Music listening ways" by playing
Wagner.
Scraps With Iannucci a BBC Radio 4 series from 1998.
Week Ending (BBC Radio 4 — producer)
Bibliography
Print
Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word by Steve Coogan, Peter Baynham, Armando Iannucci,
Patrick Marber (Michael Joseph, 2003) ISBN 0-7181-4678-6
Facts and Fancies (Michael Joseph, 1997) ISBN 0-7181-3951-8
Weekly newspaper column in The Observer
Audiobooks
Facts and Fancies (BBC Audiobooks, 1998) ISBN 0-563-55756-7
I'm Alan Partridge: Knowing Me, Knowing Yule (BBC Audiobooks, 1998) ISBN
0-563-55763-X
Knowing Me, Knowing You...: With Alan Partridge: Complete Series (BBC Audiobooks,
1995) CD ISBN 0-563-38896-X, cassette ISBN 0-563-38891-9
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Armando
Ianucci - Emotional Manifesting Generator - Biography
