Harvey Voices

Russ Abbot is today acknowledged as one of the most popular entertainers in Britain. His success goes across both TV and theatre with recent roles in Wizard of Oz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. His voice is instantly recognisable and he has a huge range of characters and accents

Russ Abbot is today acknowledged as one of the most popular entertainers in Britain. His success goes across both TV and theatre. Recently he has played ‘Jules Rendell’ in The Last Detective’ and ‘Chief Inspector Arthur Primer’ in Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder also both for ITV1 as well as guest starring in the BBC drama Hotel Babylon Last year he toured in the role of ‘Roger DeBris’ in The Producers followed by playing ‘The Tin Man’ in The Mayflower, Southampton’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Other theatre credits include the national tour of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’ in which he played the role of ‘Septimus Podgers’ and he received rave reviews for the role of 'Bottom' in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park. During the same season he also received excellent reviews as ‘Sir Pellinore’ in ‘Camelot’. In the West End he played Grandpa Potts in the hit musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang immediately following a hit season as Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Other hugely successful West End runs include Neil Simon’s Little Me; Willy Russell’s One for the Road and Cameron Macintosh’s production of Oliver in which he played ‘Fagin’ at the London Palladium, on tour and at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. He starred in the title role of Dr Dolittle on tour; Russ Abbot’s Palladium Madhouse at the London Palladium and the European premiere of Goosebumps Live On Stage at the Opera House, Blackpool. He appeared to great acclaim in the West End run of Ray Cooney’s Caught In The Net with Eric Sykes and completed a national tour of the production. He has had massive TV success with his own hugely popular series – Russ Abbot’s Madhouse (LWT, six series); The Russ Abbot Show (BBC, six series); The Russ Abbot Show (Granada TV, two series) as well as three series of September Song for Granada TV in which he starred with Michael Williams, Married For Life for Carlton TV and countless specials and other appearances. He was the voice of the narrator in the high rating children’s TV show Dream Street for ITV and he also regularly guested on BBC1 TV’s popular series TV To Go. Russ’ shows have been screened on prime-time TV throughout the United States and Australia. Radio shows include five series of the Russ Abbot Show for BBC Radio 2. His awards include the Advertising Industry’s Golden Break Award for Best Actor in a TV Commercial, Top Variety Act in the British Comedy Awards; Comedian of the Decade; Funniest Man On Television in Europe and for five years running was voted by TV viewers Funniest Man on Television in Britain. As well as a gold album, his record releases include 3 hit singles, including the hugely successful Atmosphere which got to No 7 in the pop charts, A Day in the Life of Vince Prince and another Top 20 hit, All Night Holiday. He has had the honour of being the subject of both the BBC’s acclaimed This is Your Life and also ITV’s Star Lives.