| Brian Conley | |
| Birth Name: | Brian Paul Conley |
| Birth Date: | 7 August 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Paddington, London, England |
| Nationality: | English |
| Years Active: | 1977-present |
| Children: | 2 |
Brian Paul Conley (born 7 August 1961) is an English actor, comedian, singer and television presenter. Conley has been the host of The Brian Conley Show, as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. In his 40-year television career, he has starred in multiple award-winning television sitcoms including Time After Time and The Grimleys.
In the West End, he has played the lead role in musicals such as Me and My Girl, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hairspray, Oliver!, The Music Man, Barnum and Jolson for which he was nominated for a prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. As a musician, he has released five albums, including Brian Conley Sings, Let the Good Times Roll, and Stage to Stage. He has won numerous awards in his career including The National Television Award[1] for Most Popular Comedy Performer, Best Live Performer in Manchester Evening News and a British Comedy Award.
From 2021 to 2023, Conley appeared as Tom "Rocky" Cotton in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.
Conley was born on 7 August 1961 in Paddington, London. His father, Colin, was a taxi driver,[2] later working for the BBC in production as a prop man, including for BBC outside broadcast units.[3] His brother, Alan, is a BBC floor manager, including for Strictly Come Dancing.[4] Conley was brought up in Kilburn North West London and studied Performing Arts at the Barbara Speake Stage School.[2] As a teenager, Conley had a few minor television appearances, including an advert for hot dogs and a small role in a 1977 episode of the science fiction series Survivors.[2] At the age of 16, by lying about his age, Conley started work as a Pontin's Bluecoat.[2]
Conley's first major showbusiness success was fronting a comedy showband called Tomfoolery, who performed in pubs and clubs across England and Wales, sometimes as a support act for artists such as Johnny Mathis and the Nolans.[2] The group broke up due to internal disputes when Conley was 19, but his work with the band led to his being talent spotted by agent Bob Voice.[2] As a result of this, Conley started working as a warm-up man for television personalities such as the Krankies, Kenny Everett and Terry Wogan.[2]
Conley's career was then advanced by TVS casting director Bill Hatterley, who secured him onscreen appearances on comedy shows such as Make Me Laugh (1982), The Laughter Show (1984–1985), Live from Her Majesty's (1984–87) and Five Alive (1987).[2] In 1989, with the support of London Weekend Television (LWT)'s light entertainment controller, Conley starred in his own comedy sketch show, .[2] This programme was popular, but not hugely successful.[2]
After two series of the show, Conley made his first appearance in the West End, playing the lead role of Bill Snibson in a production of Me and My Girl.[2]
In 1992, LWT offered him another opportunity to star in his own comedy programme, with The Brian Conley Show. At the suggestion of producer and director Nigel Lythgoe, this new show had a variety format rather than being purely sketches.[2] This different format proved popular, and the show became Britain's most-watched light entertainment programme.[2] Conley's next success was a sitcom entitled Time After Time, in which he played the lead role of reformed criminal Kenny Conway; the show was named Best ITV Sitcom at the 1994 British Comedy Awards.[5]
Conley played the titular role in Jolson at the Victoria Palace theatre from 1995 to its close in 1997. It won the Olivier award for Best Musical in 1996.
In 1999 he then went on to play the Doug 'Dynamo' Digby, starring opposite Amanda Holden, Nigel Planer and Noddy Holder in The Grimleys. He was also given An Audience with....
Conley recorded a live show in 1996 titled Brian Conley: Alive and Dangerous, which was televised and featured stand-up plus special Nick Frisby/Larry the Loafer and Dangerous Brian sketches. The show was put on VHS and later on DVD.
Around 2000, Conley was given a new show for ITV consisting of chat and music called, once again, The Brian Conley Show. The show lasted for three series. The show's guests included some major Hollywood names like Kathleen Turner and Leslie Nielsen.
Conley also worked at the BBC for a couple of shows. His first being We've Got Your Number, a game show part of a long series of National Lottery game shows. Conley would later return to the BBC to present Let Me Entertain You in 2006.
He has done much stage work, including the parts of Buttons in Cinderella and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In 2006, Conley returned to television, hosting a daytime variety show called Let Me Entertain You, a Lion TV production for BBC Two where 13-year-old operatic baritone Matthew Crane was the first series champion. On 1 December of the same year, he appeared as a guest presenter on The New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4, where Larry the Loafer made an appearance in the beginning, and Conley referred himself to "Dangerous Brian" as he was about to enter the "Tank of Doom" as part of a Bushtucker trial.
Later in 2007, Conley presented a second series of Let Me Entertain You on BBC Two, and presented a gameshow, Dirty Rotten Cheater for the BBC. Twenty shows were recorded in May at the Maidstone Studios in Kent.
Conley presented the Midweek Lottery show on BBC One in 2008. On 24 April 2008, Brian took over from ill presenter Paul O'Grady on The Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4, where he starred once again as 'Dangerous Brian' and he contested against 'Nearly Dangerous Joyce'. Larry the Loafer also made an appearance. On 22 June 2008, Conley performed a cameo role in Last of the Summer Wine as "Boothroyd", Barry's fitness mad neighbour.
He appeared as part of Team Ant on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, and took over from Michael Ball in the musical Hairspray playing the role of Edna Turnblad at London's Shaftesbury Theatre. He also played the same role in the UK Tour of Hairspray, sharing the role with Michael Ball and actor Michael Starke, at selected UK venues. He has also partaken in his own live show, "The Best of Brian Conley", which showcases 'the best' of Conley's material from his past shows, interspersed with occasional showreels of either Larry the Loafer, Dangerous Brian (depending on who Brian is about to come on stage as) or a generic showreel of his work. Like the Brian Conley Show, the stage show invites guests to perform on stage alongside Conley. In 2010, the show went on tour again, covering more areas of the country.
He then played Fagin in Cameron Mackintosh's Oliver! and also finished a West End run as Edna Turnblad in Olivier Award-winning Hairspray. His recent stage career has included lead roles in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Music Man at the Chichester Festival, Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show (directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood) and Olivier Award-winning Jolson, in which he played Al Jolson.
On 7 November 2012, ITV confirmed that Conley would feature in the 2012 series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. On 19 November 2012, Brian left the jungle on medical grounds.[6]
In April 2014, Conley was a contestant on CBBC's Driving Academy programme. In 2014, he hosted a game show for Challenge called Timeline and he presented two series of the daytime BBC show The TV That Made Me in 2015 and 2016.
On 18 August 2017, it was announced that Conley would be taking part in the fifteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing.[7] He was partnered with Welsh professional dancer Amy Dowden.[8] Conley and Dowden were voted off the show in Week 5 after their Jive to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual".[9] In February 2021, it was announced that he would be joining the BBC soap opera EastEnders as series regular Terry Cant, the long-lost father of established character Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy).[10] [11] However, it was later revealed that his character was not Terry Cant and was in fact Tom "Rocky" Cotton.[12] In September 2023, Conley confirmed that he had decided to leave EastEnders.[13]
He spoke at length about his exit from Albert Square during his appearance on award-winning motoring podcast Fuelling Around.[14] Conley was on the show to talk about motoring, one of his biggest passions away from the stage and screen.
Conley's appearances on chat shows include Aspel & Company (1993), This Morning (1993 & 2005), Open House with Gloria Hunniford (1998), The New Paul O'Grady Show (2005 & 2009), GMTV (2005), Breakfast (2008), The Alan Titchmarsh Show (2009), The One Show (2009), The 5 O'Clock Show (2010), The Michael Ball Show (2010) and Loose Women (2007–11, various episodes).
Additionally, Conley has appeared as a talking head on many compilation shows and documentaries including: The 100 Greatest Musicals (2003), Bob Monkhouse's Comedy Heroes (2004), Who Killed Saturday Night TV? (2004), The Story of Light Entertainment (2006), 100 Greatest Stand-Ups (2007), 50 Greatest Comedy Catchphrases (2008) and The Nolans: In the Mood for Dancing (2009).