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D
avid Walliams is impossible
to pigeonhole – he’s the
outrageously camp funny man
we see taunting Simon Cowell
on Britain’s Got Talent, a serious actor,
has outsold JK Rowling as a children’s
author and has swum the English
channel to raise millions for charity.
Born in Wimbledon on August 20
1971, David grew up in Banstead,
Surrey, with his mum
Kathleen, a lab technician,
and father Peter, a London
Transport engineer, who
passed away in 2007.
David’s flamboyance
was evident from early
on. ‘I used to have a silk
dressing gown an uncle
bought in Japan and when
I came downstairs in it,
my dad used to call me
Davinia,’ he recalls. ‘There
was never embarrassment
about that kind of thing.’
Still, he remembers
his father as a distant
figure, later writing in his
autobiography Camp
David: ‘I never felt good
enough to be his son.’
While attending Reigate
Grammar School, he
was already in the grip
of a lifelong battle with
depression. Aged just 12, he has since
revealed, he tried to kill himself in the
woods during a Sea Scouts trip.
Comedy had been a lifeline. ‘My
favourite thing was locking myself in
the bathroom and practising comedy
routines,’ he says. He was cast in a
school play as 17th-century Queen
Henrietta Maria – in drag. His camp
performance brought the house downand David imagined a brighter future
for the first time. ‘I had generated
laughter,’ he writes. ‘It was as beautiful
as moon dust. I knew what I wanted
to do with my life, I wanted to make
people laugh.’
After another suicide attempt
following a break-up aged 18, David
went on to study drama at Bristol
University, and joined the National
Youth Theatre
during the
holidays. It was
there he met
comedy partner
Matt Lucas in
the early ’90s
and the pair
took their show
Sir Bernard
Chumley Is
Dead... And
Friends to
Edinburgh
in 1995.
With a
shared love of
impressions,
the pair wrote
sketch show
Little Britain,
which aired on
Radio 4 from
2000 to 2002.
The following year it moved on to TV
and the duo became instant household
names. ‘I’d never thought beyond that:
being in a big comedy show was my
life’s ambition, so that
was the end point,’
David said.
In fact, it was a
turning point. With
his life goal achieved,
David set himself a
completely different
challenge – swimming
the Channel for Sport
Relief. His gallant effort
won him a Pride Of
Britain Award in 2006
and two years later
he did the same thing
across the Strait of
Gibraltar. Undaunted,
2011 saw him swim
140 miles along
the River Thames –
rescuing a drowning
dog along the way.
His acting career
was taking off, too,
with a serious role inStephen Poliakoff’s Capturing Mary in
2007, and a turn as Frankie Howerd in
Rather You Than Me the following year.
That same year he wrote the first of his
hugely popular children’s books, The
Boy In The Dress, a poignant tale about
a boy daring to be different. He has
since written a total of 26 books.
It was a settled time in his love life,
too. After being linked with a string
of glamorous women, including Lisa
Snowdon, Geri Horner and Patsy
Kensit, he met Dutch model Lara Stone
in 2009 and they married the following
year. In 2013, the couple welcomed
son Alfred, though David and Lara
later divorced in 2015. The split was a
blow, but David embraced his new role
as a father. ‘Being a parent is a great
thing because it makes you a lot less
self-obsessed,’ he said. ‘All you really
care about is that little person’s life
and what the future holds for them.
And your own worries really fade into
the background.’
In 2012 he landed his biggest role
to date – as a judge on Britain’s Got
Talent. The show proved the perfect
vehicle for his silly brand of comedy
and his unlikely double act with Simon
Cowell has had viewers hooked.
The role was enough to impress the
sons of his close friend Sir Elton John,
as David explains: ‘Their sons asked me
how I first met their daddy, Elton, and I
told them, as a joke, we’d met because
he auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent,
which was taken very seriously.’ And
much to the comedian’s
delight, he has beaten
Simon to win TV Judge
Of The Year three times
at the National Television
Awards! And no doubt
taking pride of place next
to his NTA is David’s OBE,
presented to him in 2017.
Throughout his
journey, it’s always been
David’s mother Kathleen
cheering him on from the
sidelines. He explains: ‘I
always think my mum is
prouder than me of my
achievements.’ We think
it’s time David took some
credit of his own!‘BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT: THE
CHAMPIONS’ STARTS ON ITV
ON AUGUST 31.s a a c ‘ C Opg, yy, jjWith Britain’s
Got Talent hosts
Ant and DecModel Lara and
David were married
for five years PHOTOGRAPHS BY WIRE IMAGE, FEATURE BY ANNA BAILEY
RADIO TIMES / RAY BURMISTONOK!On the TV BAFTAs
red carpet with his
mum Kathleen