David Benson

David Benson (born David Hodgson on 11 January 1962) is an English theatre actor, writer and comedian.

He was born in Oxford, England, and has a twin sister, Miranda, and an older brother, Jonathan.

Educated at Park Hall Secondary Modern in Castle Bromwich, Warwickshire, and at Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education, he went on to gain a Degree in Drama and Theatre Studies at the Royal Holloway College, University of London.

In 1975, at the age of 13, Benson wrote a story called "The Rag-and-Bone Man" for a contest on the BBC1 children's series Jackanory.

His entry won, and was performed by Kenneth Williams on the show.

It was this initial writing credit, which only by chance was performed by Williams (Benson had written the piece with Spike Milligan in mind), that later influenced him when he was trying to decide on a subject for his first one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe.

From 1985 he lived in Edinburgh, but moved to New York in 1993 where he spent much of the following four years.

Between 1990 and 1996 he worked in the Edinburgh-based Grassmarket Project Theatre Company, performing in a series of award-winning semi-documentary dramas, often improvised, ranging from homeless men (Glad, 1990–92) to pensioners (One Moment, 1993), and a young lady whose brother was killed in police custody (20/52, 1995).

These productions gave him his first taste of theatrical success, when One Moment, an improvised drama devised by Jeremy Weller, won a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993.

He changed his surname in 1996 on joining Equity, the actors' trade union.

Primarily a stage performer, he initially became known for his one-man stage show, entitled Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, about the life and career of the actor, for which he won the Scotsman's Fringe First award in 1996; and for his television role as Noël Coward in the 1990s BBC comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart.

His theatrical repertoire includes many of Coward's songs, performed in-character as Coward.

When not touring in the theatre he worked on BBC radio, including playing the character parts in the science fiction comedy series The Scarifyers.

He has a dozen one-man shows in his theatrical repertoire, with which he tours.

He also sings: performing a wide range of the songs of Noël Coward, amongst others, in a flamboyant cabaret style, performed in-character as Coward.

He has also written and directed professional stage productions for other performers.

His theatrical, television and radio work has mainly revolved around comedy.

His most famous roles, impersonating comic actor Kenneth Williams, comedian Frankie Howerd, and playwright and composer Noël Coward, have all used his talent for mimicking well-known stars of stage and screen.

It was at the Edinburgh Fringe, in 1996, that he premiered his first one-man show, Think No Evil of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams, a semi-autobiographical production based around the life and career of English comedy actor Kenneth Williams, performed mainly in character as Williams; and which, as with his subsequent Edinburgh shows (with the exception of Star Struck) was entirely written by himself.

The show was an immediate hit with audiences, winning a Scotsman Fringe First award.

In 1997 the production began a national tour of the UK, culminating in a three-week West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre during 1998.

In 1998 and 1999 Benson played Noël Coward in the BBC television series Goodnight Sweetheart for its final two series

. He also lent his voice to the 1998 Reputations documentary on the life and career of Kenneth Williams, reading excerpts from Williams's published diaries.

Both engagements came about due to the fame of his one-man show, in which he had performed in-character impressions of Williams and Coward.

After leaving college, Benson moved to Edinburgh where he held down various jobs, including working as a "skivvy" in a restaurant kitchen and as an assistant in Scotland's first gay and lesbian bookshop.

In 1998 he premiered his second one-man show, at the Assembly Rooms, during the Edinburgh Fringe.

Titled Nothing But Pleasure, it was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and consisted mainly of a detailed description of the events at her funeral.

Nothing But Pleasure was subsequently invited to the Sydney Festival, where Benson and pianist/arranger David Paul Jones performed it in The Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House in January 1999.

The show then ran at the Jermyn Street Theatre London during 2000, under the revised title Mourning Glory.

In 2001 he moved permanently to London, where he currently resides.

He revived it in 2001 and continued to tour it for the following ten years: he once claimed he would continue touring the show "'till I drop".

After a brief interlude of theatrical inactivity, he returned to the Fringe and to touring in 2001, writing and performing a sequel to Think No Evil Of Us, and in the process breaking a vow he had made in 1998 never to play another dead, camp comic ("As if I intended to spend the rest of my life impersonating dead, camp comedians!"), turning his attention to the late Frankie Howerd.

To Be Frank played The Pleasance, Edinburgh at the 2001 Festival.

As well as being an examination of the life and career of Howerd, the show, like all of Benson's work, had a strong autobiographical element: he gave an uncompromising account of his "period of theatrical inactivity" in a sequence which culminated in the uproarious "slaughter" of a collection of "irritating television personalities".

In January 2002 Benson appeared, for the first time, in a play.

He stepped into the breach to take a role in the Peepolykus production of Eugène Ionesco's absurdist classic Rhinoceros, which toured the UK for the first half of the year, before returning for a season at the Lyric Hammersmith and Battersea Arts Centre.

During the long drives to and from these shows, Benson and Peepolykus founder David Sant discussed the possibility of working on a new show together.

The result, in 2003, was Star Struck, his fourth one-man show, in which he appeared in character as, amongst other stars, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Noël Coward and even Judy Garland – which he premiered, once again, at that year's Edinburgh Fringe.

During 2003 he also appeared in a production of Joe Orton's Loot directed by Cal McCrystal, at the Derby Playhouse, in which he took the role Kenneth Williams had played in the original 1966 West End production.

The production is one he was still touring with in 2011, subtitled Frankie Howerd and the Secret of Happiness (an ironic comment on the fact that Frankie never seemed to find that secret).