Marc Wootton

Marc Wootton
Born	Marc James Wootton (1975-02-08) 8 February 1975 (age 49) Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian, writer
Years active	2002–present

Marc James Wootton (born 8 February 1975) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his role as Mr Poppy in the Nativity! film series. He also starred in the television series High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, La La Land, Nighty Night and voiced Max in Counterfeit Cat.

Career

Wootton made early television appearances on the Channel 4 comedy show The Eleven O'Clock Show and BBC Three's Cyderdelic, E4 comedy The Pilot Show and the BBC Two sitcom Thin Ice. His breakthrough role came with the Channel 4 comedy gameshow My New Best Friend, in which contestants had to convince their closest friends and relatives that a series of awful characters (played by Wootton) were their new best friend, for a prize of £10,000.^[1] He then wrote and starred in the BBC Three sketch show Marc Wootton Exposed, the first series of which started on 13 January and finished on 25 February 2008.^[2]

His regular character Shirley Ghostman, a parody of television psychics such as Derek Acorah and Colin Fry, was spun off into his own series, High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, for BBC Three. The series was shelved after an in-character appearance by Wootton on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, during which he made a number of jokes referencing "Jews, cancer patients and Hitler".^[3] The BBC apologised after receiving over 350 complaints.

Ghostman returned, along with other characters, in Wootton's six-part show La La Land. The series premiered on the Showtime USA network on 25 January 2010 and premiered on BBC Three on 27 April 2010. In 2018, Wootton wrote and starred in the six part comedy series High & Dry for Channel 4 in the UK, which debuted on the station on 4 May 2018.^[4]

Collaborations

Wotton played the role of softly spoken dating agent Gary Furze (Lasso The Moon agency) in the first series of Julia Davis' Nighty Night. In the second series he played Dennis, Linda's aggressive husband. Wootton collaborated with Julia Davis again in the semi-improvised character comedy Couples, for BBC Radio 4.^[5] In 2014, he starred in the first episode of the comedy anthology series Inside No 9, "Sardines".^[6]

In 2006, Wootton appeared in the film Confetti as a best man, Snoopy. In 2009 he starred in Debbie Isitt's Christmas comedy film Nativity, a role he reprised in the sequel, Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger, released in November 2012.^[7]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role[8]	Notes
2002-2004	Cyderdelic	Su Long	7 episodes
2003	My New Best Friend	Various	Also writer
	The Pilot Show	Various
2004-2005	Nighty Night	Gary Furze / Dennis	2 episodes
2005	High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman	Various	8 episodes
2006	Thin Ice	Dennis
	Confetti	Snoopy
2008	Marc Wootton Exposed	Various	3 episodes; also creator and writer
	Gavin & Stacey	Duncan	Series 2 episode 4
2009	Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel	Toby
	Brave Young Men	Owen Malloy
	Nativity!	Mr. Poppy
2010	La La Land	Various	6 episodes; also creator and writer
	Neighbors from Hell		3 episodes; voice only
2011	Arthur Christmas	Peter	Voice only
2012	Delocated	The Glaze	10 episodes
	Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger	Mr. Poppy
2013	Way to Go	Cozzo	6 episodes
	The Harry Hill Movie	Barney Cull
2014	Inside No. 9	John	Episode: "Sardines"
	Trouble & the Shadowy Deathblow		Short film
	Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey?	Mr. Poppy
	Psychobitches	The Goddess Kali	1 episode
2015	The Bad Education Movie	Officer Geoffrey
	High & Dry Blap	Brett	Also writer
2015-2016	Drunk History: UK	Harold Godwinson / Joe Mears / Dr. Robert Knox	3 episodes
2016-2017	Counterfeit Cat	Max	Voice only' 51 episodes
2018	High & Dry	Brett	6 episodes; also writer and creator
2020	Gooseberry	Noodle	Also creator
2022	Question Team	Harry Klunder	Season 2, episode 3
2023	Greatest Days	Jeff
2024	The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin	Moose Pleck

Theatre

• Season's Greetings as Eddie – National Theatre (2010–2011)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream as Nick Bottom – Royal Shakespeare Theatre – Royal Shakespeare Company (2011)
• The Same Deep Water As Me as Kevin Needleman – Donmar Warehouse (1 August – 28 September 2013)
• Bull – The Young Vic (2015–2016)
• Till the Stars Come Down as Marek - National Theatre (2024)^[9]

Radio

• And The Winner Is hosted by Matt Lucas, Panellist BBC Radio 2 (2011)
• Date Night, BBC Radio 4 (2019)

Awards

• Rose D'or Golden Rose Award Best Gameshow, 2004 My New Best Friend (2004)
• British Comedy Award Best New TV Comedy My New Best Friend (2003)
• BBC Two Greenlight Award Cyderdelic (2003)

References

1. Fordy, Tom (4 June 2020). "The most excruciating prank show ever made: meet the survivors of Marc Wootton's My New Best Friend". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
2. "Programme Information: Network TV Week 3" (Press release). BBC. Retrieved 26 December 2007.
3. Plunkett, John (19 April 2005). "Ross's psychic spooks chatshow viewers". London: MediaGuardian. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
4. Gibsone, Harriet (6 July 2018). "Marc Wootton: 'My funniest item of clothing? It has to be a Prada man dress'". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
5. "Couples – BBC Radio 4".
6. "Inside No. 9: Season 1, Episode 1 | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
7. "What the cast of Nativity! look like now". Cosmopolitan. 18 December 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
8. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1742630/?ref_=fn_al_nm_2 ^{[user-generated source]}
9. "Till the Stars Come Down | National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

External links

• Marc Wootton official site titled "Fooling Nobody"
• Marc Wootton at IMDb