Leigh Francis
After four years of Art College, Leigh landed his first job as senior artist for the infamous Yorkshire Evening Post. His fetish for dressing up and making home videos took over after his first TV appearance on Channel 4's Take Over TV.
During a live audition on another Channel 4 show Watch this Space, his comic talent was spotted and he was snapped up by The Paramount Comedy Channel.
Whilst at Paramount, Leigh learnt many aspects of television both in front and behind the camera. Starting in the graphics department, Leigh then moved on to development where he was responsible for coming up with ideas for interstitials for The World of Paramount.
Leigh began developing characters and started staging meetings with production companies in restaurants in various guises. Word got round about him and he landed a commission, his own show on Play UK. And so, TV stardom began.
Leigh was nominated as Best Newcomer at The British Comedy Awards in 2002 for his work on C4’s Friday night show Bo' Selecta!, fronted by celeb super-fan Avid Merrion. It was from this series that many of his now infamous characters (and their associated catchphrases) were born such as Mel B, Craig David and Kes and of course Michael Jackson. Another two series' of the hilarious sketch show followed and one of his characters The Bear even got his own spin-off show, A Bear’s Tail! At the end of 2005, Avid moved to Los Angeles with his wife (and sister) Sacha to open up a hotel, which was packed to the rafters with Hollywood A Listers in Avid Merrion’s XXXmas Special. Avid and Sacha later returned to their star-studded Hollywood hotel for a new series, Bo in the USA.
2009 saw the death of Leigh’s hero, Pop legend Michael Jackson, and so Leigh did a tribute to him in the only way he knew how, by donning the infamous Bo’ Selecta! rubber masks one last time and creating a one off unique program Cha’mone Mo’ Fo’ Selecta! Featuring highlights of MJ’s life for E4 and on DVD.
Leigh first introduced us to Keith Lemon “Businessman of the Year 93” In 2007 when Keith fronted a brand new comedy travel series, Keith Lemon’s Very Brilliant World Tour, his first ever show for ITV2. The series followed Keith as he took some time out to travel the world with the aim to “fatten his horizons and texturise his conversations” and is available on DVD now.
Leigh’s comedy creation, Keith Lemon, made his first venture in to prime time ITV1 when he hosted Sing If You Can during Spring 2011 – the debut episode was the highest rated original programme for the channel in over 3 years.
Keith Lemon released his debut book “Keith Lemon: The Rules” in September 2011 which has proven to be a massive hit, peaking at number 9 in the Sunday Times Book Chart. In November 2011 and Leigh fulfilled a lifetime ambition when the cameras started rolling on Keith Lemon: The Film – a film that not only he stars in, but that he also co-wrote and was released in cinemas in August 2012.
2012 has been an extremely busy year for Leigh, and not just because of his debut in the film world, which in its opening weekend was the highest ranking debut film at the box office! The Multi award winning Celebrity Juice returned for its 8th and 9th series’ during 2012 where Keith was again sandwiched between bang tidy co-presenters Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby and the show regularly broke ITV2 viewing records. Somehow he also managed to find the time to host the ITV1 primetime show Lemonaid during the summer, shortly before Lemon La Vida Loca aired when Keith was allowed his very own ‘Kardashian styled series’ and allowed the camera’s into his life to document all things Lemon. The series was an outstanding hit when it aired in August 2012 and a special two part Christmas Special will transmit in December.
The most recent achievement of Leigh’s is his new book, ‘Being Keith’ which was launched on November 8th and is selling like crazy, currently placed at Number 7 in The Sunday Times bestseller list.
In keeping with being Business Man of the Year 1993, various Keith Lemon merchandising is currently in stores, such as Keith Lemon Calendar, Keith Lemon t-shirt and DVDs including Celebrity Juice series 4-6 & Keith Lemon: The Film. What a successful year!
