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26-493: Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke (born 13 June 1964) is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in sketch shows such as French and Saunders (1988–1999), played a recurring role as Magda on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), and performed frequent collaborations with fellow comedian Harry Enfield . From 1999 to 2001, she starred as Linda La Hughes on the BBC sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme , for which she received

52-619: A British Comedy Award and two BAFTA nominations. Burke made her film debut in the 1982 drama Scrubbers . For her portrayal of Valerie in the 1997 film Nil by Mouth , she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role . Her other film appearances include Sid and Nancy (1986), Dancing at Lughnasa (1998), Elizabeth (1998), This Year's Love (1999), Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000), The Martins (2001), Anita and Me (2002) and Once Upon

78-506: A Time in the Midlands (2002). Having spent most of the 2000s concentrating on her work as a theatre director , she returned to film roles in the 2010s with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Pan (2015) and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016). Starting from 2019, Burke fronted a series of documentaries for Channel 4 : Kathy Burke's All Woman (2019), Kathy Burke: Money Talks (2021) and Kathy Burke: Growing Up (2023). Burke

104-552: A Will There's a Wake podcast, with Dolly Alderton as her guest, Burke admitted " We don't like Morrissey anymore...because he's a racist wanker ". Alderton shared Burke's disappointment with Morrissey's views with Burke adding " We idolise these people...but then people are three-dimensional and you get to know what they really think about life and it's just always a disappointment " She became successful in her own right and although mainly associated with comedy, she has played several serious roles including that of Queen Mary Tudor in

130-547: A guest judge in series 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race UK . Burke directed ITV's four-part murder mystery series Holding , which premiered on 14 March 2022 and is based on Graham Norton 's novel of the same name. in 2022 Burke started a podcast called Where There's a Will, There's a Wake . In the podcast Burke talks a guest through how the guest believes (or hopes) they will die and what they want to be done for their funeral. Notable guests have been Jennifer Saunders , Dawn French , Emerald Fennell and Steve McQueen . The podcast

156-461: A member of Bananarama parody band Lananeeneenoonoo in 1989, and then as a member of Spice Girls look-alike band the Sugar Lumps in 1997. In real life Burke was a big fan of Morrissey and appeared in the video for his 1989 single " Ouija Board, Ouija Board " and later in the 2002 Channel 4 documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey . On the 7 November 2023 episode of her Where There's

182-638: Is produced by Sony Music Entertainment . Sketch comedy Sketch comedy has its origins in vaudeville and music hall , where many brief humorous acts were strung together to form a larger programme. In Britain , it moved to stage performances by Cambridge Footlights , such as Beyond the Fringe and A Clump of Plinths (which evolved into Cambridge Circus ), to radio, with such shows as It's That Man Again and I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again , then to television, with such shows as Not Only... But Also , Monty Python's Flying Circus , Not

208-526: The BBC Three sketch show series Horne & Corden , starring Mathew Horne and James Corden . Burke wrote and appeared as a nun in the short autobiographical film "Better Than Christmas" for Sky 1 's Little Crackers , a collection of comic shorts that aired in December 2010. On 19 January 2012, it was announced that Burke had written her first TV series; her short for Little Crackers had led to

234-631: The Head Crusher from The Kids in the Hall ; Martin Short 's Ed Grimley , a recurring character from both SCTV and Saturday Night Live ; The Nerd from Robot Chicken ; and Kevin and Perry from Harry Enfield and Chums . Recurring characters from Saturday Night Live have notably been featured in a number of spinoff films, including The Blues Brothers (1980), Wayne's World (1992) and Superstar (1999). The idea of running characters

260-561: The Old Red Lion Theatre . It was filmed and shown on Channel 4 the next year. In 2007, Burke contracted Clostridioides difficile while in hospital for an operation, resulting in her having to pass directing duties on Dying for It at the Almeida Theatre (which starred Charlie Condou and Sophie Stanton who she worked with on Gimme Gimme Gimme ). In 2009, Burke made her television directorial debut with

286-607: The 1970s and 1980s include If You Don't Stop It... You'll Go Blind and the sequel Can I Do It... 'Til I Need Glasses? , The Groove Tube , Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) , The Kentucky Fried Movie and its sequel Amazon Women on the Moon , and Monty Python 's And Now for Something Completely Different and The Meaning of Life . More recent sketch films include The Underground Comedy Movie , InAPPropriate Comedy , Movie 43 and Livrés chez vous sans contact . Many of

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312-634: The 1970s, largely growing out of The Second City in Chicago and Toronto , which was built upon the success in Minneapolis of The Brave New Workshop and Dudley Riggs . Notable contemporary American stage sketch comedy groups include The Second City, the Upright Citizens Brigade , and The Groundlings . In South Bend, Indiana , area high school students produced a sketch comedy series called Beyond Our Control that aired on

338-506: The 2015 Peter Pan prequel film Pan ,as Mother Barnabas. In November 2015, Burke presented the BBC topical news panel show Have I Got News for You . In 2019, Burke starred in her own self-titled three-part documentary Kathy Burke's All Woman . The programme aired on Channel 4 and focused on the stereotypes and expectations of modern women. Burke touched on subjects such as marriage, pregnancy and cosmetic surgery. In 2021, Burke appeared as

364-467: The Nine O'Clock News (and its successor Alas Smith and Jones ), and A Bit of Fry and Laurie . An early, perhaps the first, televised example of a sketch comedy show is Texaco Star Theater aka The Milton Berle Show 1948–1967, hosted by Milton Berle . In Mexico, the series Los Supergenios de la Mesa Cuadrada , created by Mexican comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños under the stage name Chespirito ,

390-659: The chat show The Last Resort hosted by Jonathan Ross on UK Channel 4 in the mid-1980s, playing the characters 'Tina Bishop' and 'Perry the Pre-pubescent Schoolboy". Bishop was a continually pregnant "expert" offering advice on household chores, always with disastrous results. Both Perry and Tina (renamed "Waynetta Slob") later re-appeared as recurring sketch characters in Harry Enfield programmes. Along with French and Saunders , she has contributed to two Comic Relief charity singles. She first appeared as

416-549: The film Elizabeth , which was released in 1998. In 1994 Burke was awarded the Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress, for her performance as the mute Martha in the 1993 BBC TV series Mr. Wroe's Virgins . The series was directed by Danny Boyle and is based on Jane Rogers ' book about John Wroe . Burke won the Best Actress award at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for her role in

442-503: The film Scum . Burke appeared in a non-speaking role in a 1985 public information film about heroin addiction. The following year she appeared in a non-speaking role as 'witness in doorway' in an award-winning advert for The Guardian ' s 'Points of View'. Burke first became familiar to television audiences as a player of minor roles in sketches by better-known performers such as Harry Enfield , Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders . Early TV work included regular appearances on

468-406: The four-part series "Walking and Talking", based on her teenage years. Burke appeared as a nun in each episode of the series, which aired in the summer of 2012 on Sky Atlantic . In 2011, Burke played Connie Sachs in the film adaptation of the novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy . She was long-listed for a BAFTA nomination for her performance as Supporting Actress in 2012. Burke appeared in

494-498: The gritty drama Nil by Mouth . Burke was so convinced she would not win that she made no plans to attend the ceremony; when told shortly beforehand she had won, she found her passport was out of date. The film also earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role . From 1999 to 2001 she appeared as Linda La Hughes in the BBC TV series Gimme Gimme Gimme (which she developed with writer Jonathan Harvey ) where she

520-545: The local NBC affiliate WNDU-TV from 1967 to 1986. Warner Bros. Animation made two sketch comedy shows, Mad and Right Now Kapow . Australian television of the '80s and '90s featured several successful sketch comedy shows, notably The Comedy Company , whose recurring characters included Col'n Carpenter , Kylie Mole and Con the Fruiterer . An early British example is the influential The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959). Sketch films made during

546-506: The same creative energy associated with acting that she used to have (she described it as a "feeling in my belly") and that this was the reason she had stopped acting. However, since then, she has done some voiceover work, including UK TV adverts for Ski yoghurt (2005) and the voice of Rita's mum in the animated film Flushed Away (2006). She also appeared in the 2007 Christmas Special of The Catherine Tate Show as Nan's daughter Diane. In February 1990, she wrote and directed Mr Thomas at

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572-540: Was 16 years old. She then studied at the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington . Burke's first role was in the 1982 film Scrubbers , directed by Swedish actress Mai Zetterling and featuring Pam St. Clement , Robbie Coltrane , Miriam Margolyes , Honey Bane , Debby Bishop and Eva Mottley . The film was set in a young offenders' institute for girls and was seen as a female version of

598-619: Was born at the Royal Free Hospital , London, on 13 June 1964, and was brought up in Islington , North London , by her Irish Catholic parents Paddy and Bridget. She has two elder brothers. Her mother, known as Bridie, died of cancer when Burke was two years old. She lived with her father, a builder who was an alcoholic, and attended the Maria Fidelis Convent School , a secondary school in Euston , until she

624-536: Was broadcast between 1968 and 1973, creating such famous characters as El Chavo del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado . While separate sketches historically have tended to be unrelated, more recent groups have introduced overarching themes that connect the sketches within a particular show with recurring characters that return for more than one appearance. Examples of recurring characters include Mr. Gumby from Monty Python's Flying Circus ; Ted and Ralph from The Fast Show ; The Family from The Carol Burnett Show ;

650-790: Was nominated for three British Comedy Awards (winning one), two BAFTA TV Awards and a National Television Award for her performance. In 2000, she appeared in the cult film Love Honour and Obey with Ray Burdis , and as Perry in the comedy film Kevin & Perry Go Large . In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. Beginning in 2001, she refrained from acting and began theatre directing; something she considers to be one of her true passions. She said in an interview with Dawn French in Dawn French's Girls Who Do Comedy that she no longer felt

676-431: Was taken a step further with shows like The Red Green Show and The League of Gentlemen , where sketches centered on the various inhabitants of the fictional towns of Possum Lake and Royston Vasey , respectively. In Little Britain , sketches focused on a cast of recurring characters. In North America , contemporary sketch comedy is largely an outgrowth of the improvisational comedy scene that flourished during

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