Sue Perkins

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Biography

Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born on 22 September 1969) is a British actor, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and writer.

She originally became well known through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc, as Mel and Sue. The pair were short-listed for the Best Newcomers award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993.

After a few years of writing for the comedy duo of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (and occasionally appearing on their BBC TV series, French & Saunders), Mel and Sue co-hosted a lunchtime show on Channel 4 entitled Light Lunch, and an early evening version titled Late Lunch, which ran between 1997 and 1998.

In 2002, Sue appeared on the second UK series of Celebrity Big Brother, alongside Mark Owen from Take That, and the TV presenter Les Dennis. She also hosted the second series of the short-lived BBC Choice news panel show Good Evening, Rockall.

In 2003, she joined the Channel 4 morning television programme RI:SE, and also provided additional written material for Jennifer Saunders' BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

In 2005 and 2006, she performed two solo stand-up comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Spectacle Wearer of the Year 2006 (2005), and The Disappointing Second Show (2006).

In 2007, she participated in the television series Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC, in which she and the food critic Giles Coren spent a week eating like a wealthy Edwardian couple, whilst wearing period clothing. Following the series, the pair were commissioned to present a new series called The Supersizers Go..., replicating the same format as Edwardian Supersize Me, but in different historical periods, including World War II, the English Restoration, the Victorian era, the 1970s, the Elizabethan era, and the Regency era. In 2009, she and Giles Coren appeared in another series titled The Supersizers Eat... on BBC Two. In 2010, the pair co-presented Giles and Sue Live the Good Life, a celebration of the 1970s BBC TV series The Good Life, in which they were challenged to live a self-sufficient lifestyle.

In 2008, Sue appeared in - and won - the BBC Two reality television series Maestro, in which she and other celebrities learned to conduct orchestral, choral, and operatic music. In 2009, she guest-conducted the London Gay Symphony Orchestra, at St Anne's Church Garden in Soho. In 2010, she appeared in a three part BBC Two mini-series, A Band for Britain, in which she attempted to revive the fortunes of the Dinnington Colliery Band. As part of the show, she conducted the band at the DW Stadium, playing the National Anthem for a Four Nations rugby match, and also conducted them, together with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, at Sheffield City Hall. In 2011, she conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra at the first Comedy Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2009, she hosted the Channel 4 panel game The Big Food Fight.

Between 2010 and 2016, she and Mel Giedroyc were reunited on screen as co-presenters of The Great British Bake Off. In 2015, Mel and Sue began hosting their own short-lived daytime chat show on ITV, aptly titled Mel and Sue.

In 2011, she narrated the game show Don't Scare the Hare, and presented the BBC Two series All Roads Lead Home, in which she learned how to use nature as a navigation tool. At the end of 2011, she presented and performed in Mrs Dickens's Family Christmas, a 60-minute documentary for BBC Two which examined the marriage of Charles Dickens through the eyes of his wife, Catherine.

Also in 2011, she featured in the BBC travel adventure show World's Most Dangerous Roads, driving the Dalton Highway in Alaska with Charley Boorman. In 2012, she returned for a second appearance on World's Most Dangerous Roads, driving the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam and Laos with Liza Tarbuck. In 2014, she returned to South-East Asia, travelling from the Mekong delta up to Tibet in the BBC show The Mekong River with Sue Perkins. In 2015, she presented a one-off travel show Kolkata with Sue Perkins on BBC One. In 2019, she presented Japan with Sue Perkins, a two-part BBC travel series about life in Japan.

In 2013, she wrote and performed in the sitcom Heading Out, in which she played a vet.

In 2015, she published her memoir, titled Spectacles. In 2018, she released an autobiographical travel book titled East of Croydon: Blunderings Through India and South East Asia, which was shortlisted in the Autobiography of the Year category at the National Book Awards.

In 2016, she began hosting the BBC Two panel show Insert Name Here, and was a commentator on the BBC game show Can't Touch This. She also co-presented The Big Spell, a weekly game show for Sky1, alongside Joe Lycett and Moira Stuart.

In 2021, she participated in the second series of The Masked Singer as the character 'Dragon', and finished in fifth place.

In 2022, she hosted and starred in the TV series Perfectly Legal.

Sue has been a regular host, guest, and cast member of numerous BBC Radio shows, including The News Quiz, It's Been a Bad Week, The 99p Challenge, The Personality Test, Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show!, Private Passions, Dilemma, Desert Island Discs, and Nature Table. She was a frequent panellist on BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute, and also appeared in the televised version of the show in 2012. After the original host of Just A Minute, Nicholas Parsons, died in 2020, she was a regular guest hosts of the show, until she was announced as the new permanent host in 2021.

She has also appeared as a guest or guest host on TV shows including Never Mind the Full Stops, What the Dickens?, Win, Lose or Draw Late, Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, QI, Room 101, Celebrity Weakest Link, Question Time, Newsnight, Celebrity MasterChef, Celebrity Poker, and News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald.

[Source: Wikipedia, 12/05/2023.]