Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Comedian Leigh Francis Leeds Keith Lemon Life Story Interview….
Leigh Francis is the man behind ITV’s biggest comedy Star ‘Keith Lemon’.
He’s most famous for ITV2’s Celebrity Juice and the new Saturday night prime time show ‘Through The Keyhole’.
His major television breakthrough occurred when Channel 4 offered him a £250,000 deal to produce a series based around his portrayal of television characters. In 2002, Bo’ Selecta! was born.
Enjoy a rare and Exclusive chat with Alex Belfield and Keith Lemon – you have been warned…..
Francis was born in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, on 30 April 1973.
He attended Farnley Park High School. He later studied at the Leeds College of Art and received a qualification in graphic design.
Before making his major television breakthrough, he was discovered and encouraged by television presenter Davina McCall, performing in-role stand up comedy in a southern comedy club.
The series featured Francis portraying a series of celebrities by wearing face masks to impersonate them, as well as portraying the main, non-celebrity character, Avid Merrion.
The programme lasted for five series, airing between 2002 and 2006, however, the last two series were only loosely based on the original three. Season 4 was subtitled A Bear’s Tail, and was based around another of his characters, The Bear. Season 5 returned to Avid Merrion and was called Bo! in the USA.
Following the axing of Bo’ Selecta!, Francis took one of the series characters, Keith Lemon, and created a brand new show, Keith Lemon’s Very Brilliant World Tour, which aired on ITV2 in April 2008. The show was a success, and subsequently, Francis created another new show featuring Lemon, Celebrity Juice, which has aired twelve series to date.
Lemon also co-hosted Sing If You Can with Stacey Solomon, and since 7 April 2012 he has hosted his new show Keith Lemon’s LemonAid on ITV. In November 2011, it was revealed that Lemon would make his feature film debut in Keith Lemon: The Film, with production starting later that month
