Adrian Edmondson

'Adrian Edmondson' (qv) was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. He went to Manchester University to study drama. Whilst he was there he met 'Rik Mayall' (qv), and the pair began performing as 20th Century Coyote. The act continued after university when Adrian & Rik moved to London, and they became two of the leading lights in the new 'alternative comedy' scene, performing at the newly established Comedy Store, and setting up their own club, The Comic Strip, with 'Peter Richardson' (qv), 'Nigel Planer' (qv), 'Jennifer Saunders' (qv), 'Dawn French' (qv), and 'Alexei Sayle' (qv). This spawned two 1980s TV series: _The Young Ones (1982)_ (qv), and _The Comic Strip Presents... (1982)_ (qv) In the 1990's Ade & Rik continued their partnership with a new series called _Bottom (1991)_ (qv), which ran for three seasons and became a major success on the live circuit. It was basically a live sitcom, liberally sprinkled with slapstick humour, and the pair did 5 long tours between 1993 and 2003. Simultaneously, Adrian established himself as an actor, doing to improvised TV films under the Screen One and Screen Two umbrella, with director 'Les Blair' (qv): _Screen Two: Honest, Decent and True (1986)_ (qv), and Screen One: 'News' (qv) Hounds (1990) (winner of the BAFTA for best single drama). He was a regular in the hospital drama _Holby City (1999)_ (qv) from 2005 - 2008. He took the lead in a drama documentary about the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in the series _Surviving Disaster (2006)_ (qv), and appeared as Henry Austen in the TV movie _Miss Austen Regrets (2007)_ (qv), the film _Blood (2012)_ (qv), and the drama series _Prey (2014)_ (qv). But his most notable dramatic role to date is that of Count Rostov in the BBC series _War & Peace (2016)_ (qv). He has been married to 'Jennifer Saunders' (qv) since 1985, and they have three children together.::'Adrian Edmondson' (qv)