Biography for
Frank Skinner (II) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

28 January 1957, West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, UK

Birth Name

Christopher Graham Collins

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Spouse

Lisa Jones

(? - ?) (divorced)

Trivia

Comedian.

With David Baddiel he sang the vocals to "Three Lions", the official England song released to celebrate the 1996 UEFA European Championships. The track topped the charts in summer 1996 and an updated version topped the charts in summer 1998 to celebrate England's participation in that year's FIFA World Cup.

Chose the stage name Frank Skinner after a man in his father's pub dominoes team

Is a self-confessed alcoholic, hasn't had a drink since September 1987

Is a passionate Elvis fan and purchased one of Elvis' shirt from a US auction for $15,000

Left school with no qualifications and worked in a metal factory. Enrolled in night school and eventually enrolled at University and graduated with a Masters degree in English literature.

Was previously an English tutor at Halesowen College in Dudley, England.

Won the Perrier Award for Comedy at the Edinburgh festival in 1991, narrowly beating Eddie Izzard.

Performed first ever stand up comedy gig at the Portland Club in Edgbaston, Birmingham in 1987 aged thirty.

Shared a flat with best-friend and frequent co-presenter David Baddiel for four years.

Passionate supporter of West Bromwich Albion (The Baggies) Football Club from the English Premier League.

Was awarded the freeman of the borough (for Sandwell, West Midlands) in March 2004.

Was brought up in Oldbury, West Midlands which is not far from West Bromwich. Probably uses West Bromwich as his home town because most people know it for West Bromwich Albion football club and Oldbury is relatively unknown.

Plays the banjo.

Has two brothers called Terry and Keith.

Has one sister called Nora.

Has a girlfriend called Caroline.

Personal Quotes

I hate classical music in all its manifestations.

[at the Lord Of The Rings premiere] "Did I like it? Well, it's like Monty Python and the Holy Grail but without the jokes."

My CD collection has become The Fall and the rest. This is terrible. I've got the new Sigur Rós album, which I really like and I'm thinking, 'this is great, but I could be listening to The Fall'.

You know, Chaucer (Geoffrey Chaucer) used swearing. It's a very time-honoured language part and shouldn't be ghettoised the way it is just because some people don't like it. I don't want people using so much swearing that there's a blanket ban because there won't be then any room for the clever swearing, the beautiful, eloquent swearing. So I just think we need to back off on the stuff that's not necessary. But I think it's absolutely important that we keep swearing as a tool, a comic tool for television and any other area of comedy.

If you're going to have tennis coverage, you ask Sue Barker. If you're going to have something about offensive material, you ask me. (On presenting "Panorama" (1953) in 2009)

I don't watch cookery programmes. Not because I don't like the swearing, I don't like the cookery.

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