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Leigh Francis (born 30 May 1974 in Leeds) is an English comedy performer. He is most famous for his comedy series Bo' Selecta! and portrayal of fictional Romanian character Avid Merrion, as well as northern businessman Keith Lemon, in Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour & Celebrity Juice.

Early life and career

Francis attended Harrington High School (latterly Farnley Park High) in Leeds not Manchester, near his home in Old Farnley. Before making his television breakthrough, he was a graphic designer. He was discovered by television presenter Davina McCall. One of his first roles on TV was in the guise of a character Lolly Stark, who gave tips with the ladies on Dom and Kirk's Nite O Plenty, aired on Paramount TV from January to July 1996. Bobby claimed to seduce female celebrities using Scotch and Bru, the combination of Irn-Bru and Scotch eggs. Leigh also appeared in character guise as Barry Gibson in the early series of Channel 4's Popworld.

Leigh Francis conducts nearly every interview and arrives at every celebrity function in one of his character guises, either Avid Merrion or Keith Lemon. In an interview given in an episode of Comedy Map of Britain, Francis confirmed that Avid Merrion's name, accent and dialects were inspired by his former teacher at the Leeds College of Art, Laimonis Mierins. He also pointed out that Merrion is a mis-spelling of Mierins and is nothing to do with the Merrion Centre in Leeds as many people assume.

He is rarely seen out of character, and many have trouble understanding that Avid Merrion or Keith Lemon are fictional creations, and consequently Francis's name means very little to the general public. He did conduct an interview as himself for The Frank Skinner Show and also appeared as himself on Celebrity Big Brother's Big Mouth with Russell Brand on Channel 4.

Francis also played many other celebrities in his series Bo' Selecta!, which ran for 4 series. He used comical masks and inappropriate accents to portray celebrities such as Mel B, Craig David, Michael Jackson and many more. His focus changed to a character called "The Bear" (a rude puppet bear) as part of his series A Bear's Tail. Based on Ronnie Corbetts solo jokes part on the Two Ronnies This follows the first use of Francis' real name at the end of the titles for the 2004 Christmas special.

He has now focused his comedy on another of his alter-egos, the failed northern businessman Keith Lemon. Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour started on Tuesday 11 March 2008 on ITV4 and has to date run for one series of six episodes, ending on 15 April 2008. He is good friends with comedy actor Paddy McGuinness. He also made an appearance as Keith Lemon on T4 On the Beach in 2009, where he ran around the stage shirtless.

Avid Merrion

In Bo'Selecta, Francis' main character was Avid Merrion, a Romanian who stalks celebrities. Initially Avid buttonholed unsuspecting celebrities in-character at public events such as book signings; the breaching experiment humour sprang from their bemused response to his apparently deranged fan behaviour. As with Ali G, once the character became too well-known to fool celebrities, Francis began interviewing co-operative celebrities in character. Francis has appeared in character as Avid Merrion as a guest on other programmes.

Rubber Masks

Leigh Francis also portrayed many celebrities using rubber masks to do impressions of them. These impressions were often intentionally far from accurate to that of the real celebrities. The masks featured in all series of Bo Selecta! and A Bear's Tail. The reason why the masks featured in A Bears Tail was so they did not seem to be ignoring the original Bo Selecta fan base. The most popular and long running masks are of Michael Jackson, Mel B and Craig David; Craig David has often criticised Francis for portraying him in a bad way, and blames Francis for his failing career, even though he willingly appeared on one of the episodes as himself. All the masks featured an old pair of glasses; These were used to bridge the gap in the masks between Francis's eyes and forehead. As the masks had large faces, the glasses also enlarged Leigh Francis' eyes in order to appear in proportion with the rest of the face.

The Bear

The Bear is another of Leigh Francis' creations. The character originated from Bo' Selecta!. The Bear then went on to have his own show called "A Bear's Tail" in 2005, which came from a Christmas pilot aired in 2004. In his own spin-off show the Bear was adopted by the Hennersons, after they ran him over in their car at Christmas. The mother of the family was played by Patsy Kensit who adored the Bear. The dad though, who was played by Sean Pertwee, hated the Bear after he thought the Bear was stealing his wife. The series only lasted for one year as Leigh Francis decided to bring back Bo' Selecta, but in America. After A Bear's Tail the Bear featured in Bo! in the USA.

The Bear's personality is rather rude he often flirts with women who guest star on the show. in most instances when interviewing attractive women (and sometimes men) the bear will get an erection to which he will exclaim "Oh no, my tail popped out!". He gets it to "go away" by repeatedly saying "Gail Tilsley from Coronation Street", "Sonia from EastEnders" or "Christine Hamilton" to himself, however when Christine Hamilton guest-starred in an episode he had to say it in his mind. Keith was later stated to be gay.

Keith Lemon

Keith Ian Lemon is a recurring character in Bo' Selecta! and guest starred in the spin-off series A Bear's Tail. He now has his own show on ITV2, Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour

Keith Lemon is a failed businessman who was most successful in 1993 according to an episode of A Bear's Tail. Keith was awarded the prestigious Businessman of the Year award 1993 for his innovative creation, Rhino Jeans.^[1]

Keith Lemon is currently promoting Tacheback, the Everyman campaign to raise awareness for male cancers.^[2]

Personal life

Francis lives between North London and Leeds. On 31 October 2003 he married Jill Carter, a beauty therapist, and they have a baby daughter, Matilda together (born late February 2009). They were married at Allerton Castle, North Yorkshire.

Leigh is a massive fan of Leeds United A.F.C.

References

1. ^ http://www.keithlemon.co.uk
2. ^ http://www.tacheback.com

External links

• Leigh Francis on Myspace Leigh Francis Myspace page
• Leigh Francis at the Internet Movie Database