Phil Cornwell

Early life and career

Cornwell was born in Leigh-on-Sea, in the County of Essex. He first appeared on TV in 1980 in the BBC youth programme Something Else - Southend as an episode presenter.

Career

Cornwell started out as an impressionist and comedian in the early 80's, but also took on various acting parts. A major breakout role for Cornwell was providing the voice of Gilbert the Alien (an often improv laden multi-impression based puppet) in the 1980s TV series Saturday-morning kids TV show Get Fresh, which later span off into Gilbert's Fridge which he was also a credited writer for. Cornwell he also provided the voices of Mick Jagger and David Bowie for the Steve Wright in the Afternoon show on BBC Radio 1 and acted and voiced a variety of characters in TV shows such as Spitting Image, as well as appearing on further childrens Saturday morning TV first in What's Up Doc followed by Wow!.

In 1995, Cornwell received a significant profile boost with a role in the BBC TV Series The Glam Metal Detectives playing various characters and providing voice-overs.

In 1996, he performed in a comedy spoof sketch TV advert to The Professionals imitating Martin Shaw's character of Doyle (with the actor Ray Trickett playing Lewis Collins' Bodie) for the release of the Nissan Almera. In 1997 as part of the same advertising campaign he performed another spoof sketch of the 1970s television series The Sweeney.

In 1997 the BBC commissioned Cornwell and fellow impressionist John Sessions to produce comedy vehicle Stella Street that he both wrote and performed in. The show saw him performing parody impressions of famous actors and musicians such as the series narrator, Michael Caine. At the same time he took on the role of Dave Clifton, a local radio DJ on Radio Norwich - a fictional radio station in both series of I'm Alan Partridge, a role he reprised for the movie Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa in 2013.

Cornwell has appeared in several films made by the Comic Strip, including the role as Dave Spanker in Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown.

He played the part of Harry Noakes, Captain of the cockleboat Renown in the TV mini-series Dunkirk.

Cornwell also voiced Sir Lancelot and Robin Hood in the animated children's television series King Arthur's Disasters. He played King Stupid in the CBBC series Stupid!, having replaced Marcus Brigstocke, because the latter was involved in Excuse My French on BBC Two. Cornwell also appeared in the Doctor Who episode, "The Fires of Pompeii". In 2010 he presented/hosted the Friday night EuroMillions lottery draw show on BBC One. In 2011 he did several stand-up comedy gigs as character Switzerland McNaughtiehorse. Cornwell is a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and presents the weekly podcast The Spurs Show with Mike Leigh.

In January 2013, he appeared in the ITV comedy drama series Great Night Out as Tonky.

He is popularly known for voicing Murdoc Niccals in the virtual band, Gorillaz.

Cornwell played Sanson 'The Bourreau' in the 2023 movie Napoleon, directed by Ridley Scott.

Filmography

Film

Television

Direct-to-video

Web series

Video games

References

References

1. "Gilbert's Fridge". BFI.
2. (24 October 2014). "Nissan Almera GTi advert - spoof of "The Professionals" - full version".
3. (1997-03-16). "Cries & whispers".
4. [http://homepage.mac.com/elliottday/worldofpub/cornwell.html web of pub. Phil Cornwell: Not just a Tottenham fan...] {{webarchive. link. (18 April 2006)
5. [http://podcast.playbackmedia.co.uk/spurs.xml, Download Phil Cornwell Mp3 and Phil Cornwell Music at Playbackmedia]
6. (2005-12-22). "Watch Gorillaz to make Christmas speech".
7. (2017-04-20). "Watch Gorillaz’s Murdoc, 2D Give First On-Camera Interview".
8. (14 August 2002). "Postmortem: Pixelogic's The Italian Job". [[UBM plc.