Nigel Planer is the son of Dr George and Lesley Planer and was brought up in Mortlake, London.[1] He has two brothers, Geoffrey and Roger, (a businessman and a musician) His father George (d 2016) established a company which pioneered technology in controlled-rate freezers, IVF and stem cell research. His mother, Lesley (d 2000) was a speech therapist. Nigel attended Westminster School in central London, where he wrote a satirical play about the school with fellow pupil Stephen Poliakoff. He began a degree course in African and Asian Studies at the University of Sussex, but dropped out to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[citation needed]
Planer is best known for his role as Neil, the hippie housemate in the BBC comedy The Young Ones, which ran for two series broadcast in 1982 and 1984. He has starred in The Comic Strip Presents..., a series of short films broadcast from 1982 onwards, on Channel 4.
In 2003, Planer played Professor Dumbledore in a Harry Potter parody, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan.[5] He appeared on a BBC Four programme in the guise of Nicholas Craig in 2007, in which he was interviewed by Mark Lawson.[6]
Planer was in the original cast for the 1997 London revival of Chicago as Amos Hart. He was a member of the original West End cast of his co-star Ben Elton's Queen musical, We Will Rock You as Pop.
He took over the role of Wilbur, opposite Michael Ball, in the West End production of Hairspray on 2 February 2009.[8]
He featured in Doctor Who: Live touring the UK, as Vorgenson The Inter-Galactic Showman, before appearing in pantomime as Captain Hook at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield.
Planer went on to star as Grandpa Joe in the original production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which opened in London's West End in 2013[9] for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award for best supporting actor in a musical.
From September 2018 to November 2018, Planer toured with Ade Edmondson in a play that they wrote together called Vulcan 7.[10]
In 2020 he took on the role of Grandpa in the arena tour of David Walliams' Grandpa's Great Escape.
Planer played Den Dennis, one of the four members of the 1980s spoof rock band Bad News, which made two albums produced by Brian May. The band performed at the Hammersmith Apollo as well as the Donington and Reading Rock Festivals.
As Neil from The Young Ones, Planer gained a number two hit single in 1984 with "Hole in My Shoe" (originally a hit for 1960s band Traffic) winning him a Brit Award. After that, an album was produced by Dave Stewart, entitled Neil's Heavy Concept Album. Planer also took Neil's stage act on the road in that year as Neil in the "Bad Karma in The UK" tour. This culminated in a month-long run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and a night at The Hammersmith Apollo, London. The Young Ones also appeared on Cliff Richard's 1986 charity rerecording of "Living Doll", which spent three weeks at number one in the UK. He has a silver and a gold disc and a Brit award from his musical career. In 2015 he started a new music project called Rainsmoke with Chris Wade and Roger Planer.
In 2021, Planer released several of his own musical projects. "Five Songs Left" and "Four Songs More", collaborations with Chris Wade, are Nick Drake-inspired folk songs that he wrote in 1971, when he was eighteen. He also released two singles written more recently, "City in the Summer", a jazz song about the hot summer of COVID-19, and "Love Strikes". He has written lyrics for "Commit No Nuisance", a music collaboration with Neil Avery ("Talk it Out", one of the songs from the album, aims to encourage male mental health awareness,) and for Swedish rocker Matts Lindblom.
Voice acting
Planer was the reader of the first unabridged audiobook editions of many of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. He also appeared in the television adaptations of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and The Colour of Magic, and performed as a voice artist in the games Discworld 2 and Discworld Noir. Discworld Audiobooks narrated by Planer include (with number in parentheses indicating order of the book in the Discworld series):
In 2018, he voiced the character of Henry Davenant Hythe in the Big Finish Productions original production Jeremiah Bourne in Time, which he also wrote.
In the 1990s, he also narrated an audiobook version of Roger and the Rottentrolls, by Tim Firth and Gordon Firth, before the television series premiered.
Writing
Planer has written books, stage plays, TV shows, radio plays and newspaper articles as well as 105 episodes of The New Magic Roundabout.
Books
Neil’s Book of the Dead 1984 (with Terence Blacker)
I an actor: Nicholas Craig 1988 (with Christopher Douglas)
A Good Enough Dad 1992
Let’s Get Divorced 1994 (with Terence Blacker)
Therapy and How to Avoid it 1996 (with Robert Llewellyn)
Unlike The Buddha 1997
The Right Man 2000
Faking It 2003
Jeremiah Bourne in Time 2023
Making Other Plans 2023
Plays
On the Ceiling 2008
Death of Long Pig 2009
The Magnificent Andrea 2011
Game of Love and Chai 2018
Vulcan 7 2018 (with Adrian Edmondson)
She Devil! (Workshop production) 2019
All Above Board 2021
Credits
His television comedy and satire work includes:
Boom Boom...Out Go The Lights (1981, TV Special) as Self
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