Alistair Charles McGowan (born 24 November 1964) is an English impressionist, BAFTA award winning comic, actor, pianist, poet, and writer. He starred in The Big Impression (formerly Alistair McGowan's Big Impression). He has also worked in theatre and appeared in the West End (for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination in 2008. He also provided voices for the original Spitting Image.

In 2017, he released an album of classical piano music called The Piano Album. In 2024, he published his poetry collection named Not What We Were Expecting.

In 2012, McGowan hosted the ITV comedy series You Cannot Be Serious!, in which his impressions included Roy Hodgson, Jedward, Harry Hill, and David Beckham.

He has written and starred in three plays for BBC Radio 4 about Erik Satie (Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear), John Field (The Peregrinations of a Most Musical Irishman) and George Bernard Shaw (The 'B' Word). He devised stage shows showcasing the music and verse of Noël Coward (Sincerely Noel), and the music and writings of Erik Satie (Erik Satie's-faction). He wrote the stage play Timing which was nominated as Best New Comedy at the 2009 whatsonstage.com awards.

Early life

McGowan was born in Evesham, Worcestershire, in 1964, to his mother Marian, a talented pianist, and his father George, a school-teacher who was born in India. He studied English at the University of Leeds, He went straight into comedy, performing live at The Comedy Store and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Later he took over from Stephen Tompkinson playing Spock in the Tim Firth comedy drama, Preston Front.

McGowan is patron of the Ludlow Fringe Festival, where he first performed live in 2013. At the town's St Laurence's Church during the 2021 festival, he performed The Piano Show combining classical pieces played on a Steinway Grand Piano with stand-up comedy and impressions.

The Big Impression

McGowan starred in the TV show The Big Impression, formerly Alistair McGowan's Big Impression, with Ronni Ancona.

Return to acting and radio work (2005)

He made a return to dramatic acting in 2005, appearing in the BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel Bleak House.

In 2008 he made his directing debut at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (where he studied) with Noël Coward's classic comedy Semi-Monde.

In March 2009, McGowan starred as the Duke in the stage version of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

In 2010, McGowan appeared as a host on one episode of the fifth series of Live at the Apollo (2010).

Also in 2011, he co-starred as Piero di Cosimo de' Medici in season one of the CBBC series Leonardo.

In 2013, McGowan embarked on a fifty-date stand-up tour in his show Not Just A Pretty Voice.

In 2014, he teamed up with comedy great Jasper Carrott to present comedy shows where they shared 50% of the show with comedy stand up routines and impressions; They did over 100 shows together.

From 10 June to 11 July 2015, McGowan starred as Jimmy Savile in An Audience with Jimmy Savile, a play written by Jonathan Maitland, at the Park Theatre in London. McGowan was praised for his performance. The show was transferred to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August. He made another cameo as Savile in the movie Creation Stories about Creation Records owner Alan McGee.

In 2018, McGowan was a voice-artist, writer, and producer on the topical re-voicing show The Week That Wasn't on Sky One. In 2022, he narrated the documentary film My Name is Alfred Hitchcock as Alfred Hitchcock.

Music

In 2013 McGowan explained in a piece for The Guardian that he had "... hero-worshipped the French composer Erik Satie for many years. Not only was he a hugely innovative and visionary composer – but he was also a man with a passion for all forms of art." In 2014 McGowan narrated, in the guise of Satie, a concert of surrealist ballet music from Paris in the 1920s, given by the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and broadcast live by BBC Radio 3. In 2017 he released a debut album on Sony Classical featuring piano performances of classical music. Having previously had a very limited repertoire, McGowan practised intensively for nine months to complete the recording.

Environmental work

In 2004 he launched 'the BIG recycle' national recycling campaign.

In January 2009 it was announced that McGowan in partnership with three other Greenpeace activists, including actress Emma Thompson, had bought land near Sipson, Middlesex, a village under threat from the proposed third runway for Heathrow Airport. It is hoped that the area of ground, half the size of a football pitch, will prevent the government from carrying through its plan to expand Heathrow. The field, bought for an undisclosed sum from a local land owner, will be split into small squares and sold across the globe. When interviewed Mr McGowan said: "BAA were so confident of getting the Government's go ahead, but we have cunningly bought the land they need to build their runway."

In June 2011 it was announced that McGowan had become a Patron of the Friends of Brandwood End Cemetery, where over 30 members of his extended family are interred.

Other work

  • In October 2009, A Matter of Life and Death: How to Wean a Man Off Football, by McGowan and former comedy partner Ronni Ancona, was published by Faber & Faber.
  • Alistair's first poetry collection, Not What We Were Expecting, was published in 2024 by Flapjack Press.

Awards

The Big Impression (formerly Alistair McGowan's Big Impression). He received the Best Comedy Entertainment Award at the British Comedy Awards in 2000,

He wrote the stage play Timing which was nominated as Best New Comedy at the 2009 whatsonstage.com awards.).

Personal life

McGowan was in a relationship for seven years with fellow television comedian Ronni Ancona. In August 2013 McGowan married his girlfriend Charlotte Page alongside whom he had performed in The Mikado.

McGowan is a supporter of Leeds United, even claiming that he decided to study at Leeds partly because of its proximity to Elland Road, and Coventry City, the team closest to the area where he spent his late teens, and his interest in football forms the basis of his 2009 book A Matter of Life and Death.