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Alexei Sayle

Alexei Sayle brings the same unruly, confrontational energy to acting that made him a central figure in British alternative comedy. Born and brought up in Liverpool, he entered London’s emerging comedy scene when the Comedy Store opened in 1979, becoming its first master of ceremonies before establishing himself as a leading performer at The Comic Strip. On television, Sayle found an ideal home in the anarchic world of The Young Ones. Between 1982 and 1984, he appeared as several members of the sprawling Eastern European Balowski family, turning each arrival into a concentrated burst of comic disruption. He later took multiple roles in The Comic Strip Presents... and co-wrote and starred in Didn’t You Kill My Brother? His own television work gave him still more room to combine character comedy, satire and performance, including three series of Alexei Sayle’s Stuff, followed by The All New Alexei Sayle Show and Alexei Sayle’s Merry-Go-Round. Stuff received an International Emmy in 1989. His film roles show the useful range beneath the forceful comic persona. Sayle moved between serious character work in Gorky Park and broad adventure comedy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, while Carry On Columbus placed him among both contemporary comedians and veterans of the Carry On series. On stage, he played Trinculo, the king’s jester, in Jonathan Miller’s 1988 Old Vic production of The Tempest. Acting is only one part of Sayle’s career. He has also worked extensively as a screenwriter, author, radio performer and musician. His writing includes short stories, novels and two volumes of autobiography, while his radio work ranges from Alexei Sayle and the Fish People to Alexei Sayle’s Imaginary Sandwich Bar and Strangers on a Train. Across those forms, his appeal lies in a voice that remains unmistakably his own: politically alert, absurd, abrasive and capable of shifting from loud comic invention to sharply observed storytelling.