Michael Barrymore facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michael Barrymore
Barrymore in 2020
Birth name	Michael Ciaran Parker
Born	(1952-05-04) 4 May 1952 (age 71) Bermondsey, London, England
Medium	Stand-up, film, television
Genres	Observational comedy One-liners Improvisational comedy Character comedy Physical comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday life
Spouse	Cheryl Cocklin ​ ​ (m. 1976; div. 1997)​

Michael Ciaran Parker (born 4 May 1952), known by his stage name Michael Barrymore, is an English comedian and television presenter of game shows and light entertainment programmes on British television in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. These included Strike It Lucky, My Kind of People, My Kind of Music, Kids Say the Funniest Things, and his own variety show, Barrymore. In 1993, he headlined the Royal Variety Performance.

At his peak, Barrymore was voted the UK's favourite television star several times, and became one of the highest-paid stars on television from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s. After his peak of popularity in the mid-1990s, Barrymore appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and other shows including The Friday Night Project, Graham Norton's Bigger Picture, This Morning, The Sharon Osbourne Show and The Saturday Night Show. He starred in Bob Martin from 2000 to 2001, a comedy drama in which he played the title role of a failing television game-show host.

Barrymore's television career effectively ended after the death of Stuart Lubbock in 2001 following a party at Barrymore's house in Essex. Barrymore was the subject of police investigations and legal action around the case over several years.

Early life

Born Michael Ciaran Parker in Bermondsey, he lived on the Dickens estate for the first 18 years of his life with his two elder siblings. His father left when Barrymore was 11 and they never saw each other again. Barrymore and his siblings were raised in the Roman Catholic faith of their Irish mother, Margaret.

Career

Early career

Barrymore spent his early career working as a Redcoat at Butlins holiday camps and then in the West End theatre shows of London, where he met dancer and lifelong friend Cheryl St Claire in 1974. They married in 1976. With Cheryl as manager and the mastermind behind Barrymore's rise to fame, he first won a 1975 edition of New Faces, became a regular panellist on Blankety Blank and then the warm-up man for Larry Grayson on the Generation Game and also for Little and Large theatre shows. In the early days, Barrymore used to do impressions of John Cleese and Norman Wisdom, among others.

Television career (1976–2002)

Barrymore rose to fame via appearances on Blankety Blank and Who Do You Do? and his television career began firstly by having his own sketch show entitled The Michael Barrymore Show in 1983, which starred a young Nicholas Lyndhurst, and he also appeared in Russ Abbott's Madhouse as various characters between 1981 and 1982. He walked out of his contract with LWT, who produced The Michael Barrymore Show, after only one series; he then landed the presenter's role on the BBC gameshow, Get Set Go!. He appeared in a number of Royal Variety Performance shows, his first being in 1983. He became the host of ITV gameshow Strike It Lucky (which later became Strike It Rich) in 1986 and it grew in popularity over the years and this was watched by 18 million viewers at its peak.

This was Barrymore's first successful presenting role (Get Set Go! had been cancelled after only one single series), which led then to his own light entertainment show, Barrymore in 1991. However, before that he had his own show between 1988 and 1989, produced for the BBC entitled Michael Barrymore's Saturday Night Out; it was set in Jersey and the theme tune, "Doin' the Crab" had been released as a single in 1987.

In 1991, Barrymore was given his own show entitled Barrymore where he interviewed guests, performed his comedy routines and joined in with other performers on the show. The show lasted throughout the 1990s right up to 2000, and was consistently nominated for awards over the years in the UK. Among the many famous guests that appeared on Barrymore were Cliff Richard, Uri Geller, and Spike Milligan.

Following his appearance on the 1993 Royal Variety Performance, where he performed a version of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" with soldiers, he became popular on television and on the stage. The Royal Variety Show performance brought the house down and cemented Barrymore's place at the heart of the British public. Barrymore became well known through his catchphrases of "Awight!", on making his entrance, and on Strike It Lucky, "Top, middle or bottom?" and "What is a hot spot not?", to which the studio audience would reply "Not a good spot".

He then made another series of Barrymore and recorded a new series called My Kind of People. He made a new series of Strike It Lucky, now called Strike It Rich and another Barrymore series. More editions of Strike It Rich and Barrymore were shown in 1997 and he also appeared in Spice World as Mr. Step.

A spin-off talent show, My Kind of People and game show My Kind of Music followed the success of both Barrymore and Strike It Rich. Following a dip in ratings, Barrymore was cancelled in 1997 (it later returned in 2000). He went on to new projects with Kids Say the Funniest Things, Animals Do the Funniest Things and Barrymore on Broadway. He was voted the UK's favourite TV star several times, and became one of the highest-paid stars on TV. Barrymore won the National Television Award for Most Popular Entertainment Presenter five out of the first six years, last at the 6th NTAs in 2000. This makes him the last winner of that award before Ant and Dec, who since the 7th NTAs in 2001 have been named Most Popular Entertainment Presenter (or, since 2016, Most Popular TV Presenter) every year the awards were held, 19 in all as of January 2020.

He recorded two new series called My Kind of Music and Kids Say the Funniest Things in 1998 along with more Strike It Rich. Newer editions of all three series were shown and another series of Barrymore was recorded and shown in 2000. The year 2000 also saw Barrymore move into acting in Bob Martin where he played the character of Bob Martin; he recorded two series of the comedy (2000–01). Barrymore also presented a second series of Kids Say the Funniest Things which aired in late 2000 and also a fourth series of My Kind of Music which was on the air at the time that Stuart Lubbock died in Barrymore's house on 31 March 2001. Following Lubbock's death, both Bob Martin and My Kind of Music stayed on the air but whilst the investigation was ongoing, he did not record any further programmes for ITV. They constantly backed him when asked by the newspapers and simply waited for investigations to conclude. In October 2001, Barrymore began recording a new series of My Kind of Music.

Death of Stuart Lubbock

Following a party at Barrymore's house in Essex in the early hours of 31 March 2001, a 31-year-old man, Stuart Lubbock, was discovered unconscious in Barrymore's swimming pool. Many tabloid newspapers asserted Barrymore had some responsibility for the death.

Barrymore and two other people were arrested on suspicion of murder on 6 June 2001. No other charges were laid against him or anyone else in connection with the death. The inquest that took place in September 2002 reached an open verdict.

Career revivals

Following the revelation of Lubbock's death, ITV terminated Barrymore's contract and his television career collapsed. A new series of Kids Say the Funniest Things recorded prior to the scandal was pulled from the ITV schedule and never broadcast. The Guardian reported that the BBC cancelled publication of Barrymore's life story. In September 2003, Barrymore staged a one-man show at London's Wyndham's Theatre, which closed after a few days. He subsequently emigrated to New Zealand to live with his partner, Shaun Davis. He has since had live stage shows in New Zealand and Australia. In 2005, he appeared in Chicago in Napier, New Zealand.

Celebrity Big Brother

In December 2005, it was announced that Barrymore was being paid £150,000 by Channel 4 to take part in Celebrity Big Brother commencing 5 January 2006. He had a difficult relationship with housemate George Galloway, which culminated in a 20-minute heated argument between the two men. On 27 January 2006 he finished runner-up to Chantelle Houghton.

After Celebrity Big Brother

Remaining in the UK, Barrymore was booked to be the guest host on Channel 4's The Friday Night Project for the edition broadcast on 3 February 2006. This is the last time that Barrymore appeared on a show as the presenter. The months following Barrymore's appearance on Big Brother were full of speculation that Barrymore was in talks with a number of television channels over the possibility of new shows, but nothing ever came of this. Barrymore's appearance on the Friday Night Project is the last time he presented a primetime television show.

It was announced that for Christmas 2006, Barrymore would play the title role in Bill Kenwright's production of Scrooge – The Musical. He performed the lead role at the Empire Theatre, Sunderland, but the production's scheduled transfer to the West End was cancelled. In January 2008, Barrymore took the role of comedian and writer Spike Milligan in the stage play Surviving Spike. It played Windsor and later the Edinburgh Fringe, but again, its West End transfer was cancelled. In February 2010, he appeared on Irish television on The Saturday Night Show, where he unexpectedly performed numerous bizarre antics, including pretending to be Jedward's father.

In May 2010, Barrymore startled his co-contestants on a reality TV show by revealing that he had fallen in love with a woman. Barrymore was filming an episode of Channel 4 show Come Dine with Me, with former Generation Game host Anthea Redfern and presenters Pat Sharp and Jenny Powell, when he said he was going to have a party to celebrate that he was "coming back in".

Barrymore's personal publicity, particularly in the tabloid press, continued to be negative. His only work in 2012 was on local radio stations, and on hospital radio. One was on Minster FM, on Greg Scott's breakfast show on 25 February 2012, where he was surprised to meet one of his all-time favourite television guests, Fiona Iverson, who had appeared on his show twenty years earlier.

In 2013, Barrymore appeared on the RTÉ programme The Saturday Night Show, where he discussed his harsh treatment by the press. Barrymore also appeared on The Nolan Show in June 2013.

In March 2019 Barrymore appeared on Piers Morgan's Life Stories.

In September 2019, it was announced that Barrymore would take part in the twelfth series of ITV's Dancing on Ice starting in January 2020. However, on 18 December 2019, he had to withdraw because of a broken hand and was replaced by former Blue Peter presenter Radzi Chinyanganya.

Personal life

Barrymore met Cheryl Cocklin in 1974 while she was a dancer in a West End theatre show. They married in 1976.

Cocklin became his manager and was the mastermind behind Barrymore's rise to fame.

After several aborted reunions, Barrymore and Cocklin divorced in 1997. In 2002 she published her autobiography, Catch a Falling Star, which described their acrimonious split. They subsequently had no contact.

On 1 April 2005, Cocklin died of lung cancer, aged 55, at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John's Wood.

Filmography

Stand-up videos

See also

In Spanish: Michael Barrymore para niños