Paul Whitehouse

Early life

Whitehouse was born on 17 May 1958, in Stanleytown, Glamorgan, Wales. His father, Harry, worked for the National Coal Board and his mother, Anita ( 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:

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.

Television

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.

Whitehouse will portray Argus Filch in HBO's television adaptation of the Harry Potter series.

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 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 with costume designer Natalie Rogers.

Whitehouse met 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. 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

Television

Awards and nominations

References

Notes

References

1. "Paul Julian Whitehouse". Checksure.biz.
2. "Paul Whitehouse Movies & TV Shows List | Rotten Tomatoes | Rotten Tomatoes".
3. Fabbro, Lauren Del. (26 May 2025). "Gone Fishing success because of show's 'real life' origins, says Paul Whitehouse".
4. "Paul Whitehouse News & Biography – Empire".
5. [http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/comic-paul-tells-talent-change-2227829 Comic Paul tells of talent change], WalesonSunday.co.uk. 28 October 2007
6. (27 April 2009). "South East Wales Showbiz – Paul Whitehouse". BBC.
7. "Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing – Gone Christmas Fishing 2021".
8. (4 March 2001). "My team. Paul Whitehouse on Tottenham Hotspur". Guardian media.
9. (28 October 2014). "Comedy – Paul Whitehouse Profile". BBC.
10. (22 December 1996). "How We Met". The Independent.
11. Charlie Higson. (October 2015). "Charlie Higson: my days squatting with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse".
12. [http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/features/article2975305.ece On the move: Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson]{{dead link. (September 2024)
13. (5 November 2011). "Foster's Gold – The Fast Show – Vic & Bob – Mid Morning Matters and Good Call by Brad & Dan".
14. (24 July 2007). "England | Kent | Co-star 'did not know about porn'". BBC News.
15. "Comedy – Harry and Paul – Homepage". BBC.
16. Sanghera, Mandeep. (15 January 2010). "Ray to star in Bellamy's People". BBC News.
17. "[https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/1698/harry_enfield_paul_whitehouse_25_years_special/ BBC preparing special to mark 25 years of Harry & Paul]". [[British Comedy Guide]], 27 January 2015. Retrieved 25 September 2023
18. Hogan, Michael. (10 March 2015). "Nurse, review: 'a beautiful bedside manner'". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
19. "BBC Two – An Evening with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse". BBC.
20. "Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing". BBC.
21. "When is Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Christmas Fishing 2022 on?". [[Radio Times]].
22. Hibberd, James. (2025-04-14). "HBO Reveals 'Harry Potter' Remake Cast, From Hagrid to Snape to Quirrell".
23. (1 October 2007). "Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson: Making (radio) waves". independent.co.uk.
24. Nutkins, Katie. (2015-03-07). "Comedian Paul Whitehouse: 'If you can't laugh, you're in trouble'".
25. (16 July 2018). "A message from Jim Sullivan".
26. (19 July 2012). "Only Fools And Horses, The Musical: Paul Whitehouse & Les Dennis On Sharing The Role Of Grandad". ITV This Morning.
27. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p00frqrj/comic_relief_comic_reliefs_newport_state_of_mind/] {{webarchive. link. (15 August 2012)
28. Mitchison, Amanda. (27 September 2002). "That was a joke I made". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
29. (22 January 2015). "'Mortdecai': Film Review".
30. (23 January 2015). "Mortdecai – review: 'Johnny Depp has picked another flop for this misguided vanity project'". [[London Evening Standard]].
31. (19 March 2001). "FORUM | Comedian Paul Whitehouse quizzed". BBC News.
32. Steiner, Susie. (2001-09-22). "Whitehouse conspiracy".
33. Glass, Jess. (15 June 2023). "Whitehouse's ex-wife endured "inhumane" intrusion after cancer, hacking trial told". [[The Independent]].
34. Duerden, Nick. (25 October 2023). "Paul Whitehouse and The Fast Show fan who became his wife".
35. Kaidan, Melanie. (20 September 2021). "Paul Whitehouse lives separately from partner, who claims he was 'scared' of their age gap".
36. (2021-10-28). "Academic Dr Mine Conkbayir launches book alongside husband Paul Whitehouse".
37. Lavigueur, Louise. (2021-09-20). "Comedian Paul Whitehouse lives in separate house to his 22 years younger partner".
38. "Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers".
39. "BAFTA-winning hit BBC family comedy, Dodger, returns for Christmas special".
40. (5 July 2022). "Bridget Christie comedy reveals cast".
41. (14 April 2025). "Wands at the ready, we welcome our staff to Hogwarts".
42. "Paul Whitehouse Awards". imdb.com(index source only).