After Dinner Speakers: Nigel Planer, Yazz, Duncan Goodhew

Nigel Planer was born in 1953 and brought up in London. After studying drama, he became a founder member of the Comedy Store and Comic Strip. He has achieved great success both as a dramatic actor and as a comedian. In the early 1980s, he played the hippie Neil in the classic TV sitcom ‘The Young Ones’, and has since starred in many major roles in television drama series and films, in TV shows, on stage in the West End, and has written two novels, comedy drama scripts for television, radio and theatre. He has twice been at the top of the Pop Charts in Great Britain and won the BPI Best Comedy Record award in 1985. In 1991, he formed Elephant Productions with TV comedy producers Jamie Rix and Clive Hedges. In December 1991, they made their first film, ‘The Return of the Magic Roundabout’. His books include 'The Right Man' and 'Faking It', the recent collection 'Unlike The Buddha', Poems for the Guardian Weekend, Articles for Punch magazine, The Tatler, The Guardian and The Independent. He appeared on TV, amongst others in ‘The Grimleys’, 1997 and 1999, ‘You Are Here: Whatever Happened to Baby Jo?’, 1998, ‘Jonathan Creek, 1997 etc. His latest appearance on stage was in ‘Feelgood’ which showed at the Garrick Theatre in 2001.