Les Dennis

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Les Dennis

Les Dennis (born Leslie Dennis Heseltine on October 12, 1954 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England) is an English television presenter and actor. Dennis married actress Amanda Holden in 1995, but the pair have since divorced (November 18, 2003).

As a comedian in the 1980s Dennis has appeared on numerous light-entertainment shows and worked originally as a stooge to Russ Abbott on Russ Abbott's Madhouse before forming a successful comedy partnership with fellow impressionist, the late Dustin Gee. Following Gee's death in 1986, he is probably best known as the host of Family Fortunes, a fifteen year run from 1987 to 2002. He has also acted in soap operas Brookside, Casualty and the short-lived revival of Crossroads. Dennis appeared in the second series of the UK Celebrity Big Brother during the period that his marriage to Amanda Holden was collapsing. He was visibly fragile and in January 2006 he was one of only two former participants to refuse to allow archive footage of his time in the house to be used in a retrospective documentary about the first three series.

On August 11, 2005 Dennis appeared as a guest star in the BBC-series Extras starring Ricky Gervais. In this appearance, Dennis played himself and made several jokes about his career, or the lack thereof. He received praise from reviewers for being so honest and open about his career (and being willing to be the punchline of jokes about his apparent lack of success), and is even rumoured to have rejected the original script, claiming that it was too tame. This performance was also critically-acclaimed from all quarters. In September and October 2005 he appeared in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, in which he appeared at the winners' homes to present the prizes they had won.

In 2006, Dennis presented and performed in the BBC's The Sound of Musicals.

It has recently been announced that Dennis will star in a new comedy play called "Marlon Brando's Corset", which tours the UK from July 2006, including a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe - which incredibly marks Les's first appearance at the Fringe, despite an impressive career on the stage.

He appeared as a guest in August 2006 on the ITV drama series, The Bill starring as a suspected murderer of his father.

At the 2006 Edinburgh International Television Festival, it was announced Les would make a return to the gameshow genre, presenting a new big-money quiz show Speculation for Five. This turned out to be a working title and the show ended up being known as In the Grid. The show debuted on October 30, 2006.