Russ Abbot
Alfred P Doolittle

Russ Abbot is today acknowledged as one of the most popular entertainers in Britain.

As well as his outstanding TV success he has a strong theatre background with credits including West End runs of Neil Simon's Little Me, Willy Russell's One for the Road and Cameron Mackintosh's production of Oliver! in which he played Fagan at the London Palladium, on tour and at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. Other theatre credits include the title role of Dr Dolittle on tour, Russ Abbot's Palladium Madhouse at the London Palladium and the European premiere of Goosebumps Live On Stage at the Opera House, Blackpool. He recently opened to great acclaim in the West End run of Ray Cooney's Caught In The Net in which he starred with Eric Sykes and completed a national tour of the production at the end of last year.

He has had massive TV success with his own hugely popular series - Russ Abbot's Madhouse (LWT, six series); The Russ Abbot Show (BBC, six series); The Russ Abbot Show (Granada TV, two series) as well as three series of September Song for Granada TV in which he starred with Michael Williams, Married For Life for Carlton TV and countless specials and other appearances. He is the voice of the narrator in the high rating children's TV show Dream Street for ITV and he also regularly guested on BBC1 TV's popular series TV To Go. Russ' shows have been screened on prime-time TV throughout the United States and Australia.

His awards include the Advertising Industry's Golden Break Award for 'Best Actor in a TV Commercial; 'Top Variety Act' in the British Comedy Awards; 'Comedian of the Decade'; 'Funniest Man On Television in Europe' and for five years running was voted by TV viewers 'Funniest Man on Television in Britain'.

Radio shows include five series of the Russ Abbot Show for BBC Radio 2 and his record releases include 3 hit singles and a gold album. Russ has been the subject of This Is Your Life (BBC) and in 2001 Star Lives (ITV) profiled his life and career.