Alan Gibbons is originally from Hull and began his acting career with the role of Mr Nixon in an early production of Teechers, directed by John Godber at Hull Truck Theatre.
Alan trained at Bretton Hall, a school from which a couple of years earlier had also graduated The League Of Gentlemen. Alan also honed his comic skills at Bretton Hall with a comic character called Allan Aspell and appeared often around the North both as a solo stand up and in devised comedy plays.
After moving to London Alan kept up his comedy work and was a regular on the London comedy scene for a few years, with his stand up work moving more and more towards scripted comedy character work, and his shows becoming more devised and directed short monologues, Alan decided to move back to acting full time as that was where his heart was.
The pure variety of Alan Gibbons’ tortured yet loving wife to the grown up Edward is something of a wonder to watch.
A recent theatre highlight was his stand out performance of Betty (Act I) and Edward (Act II) in the 30th anniversary production of Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine in London. His beautiful performance of the repressed colonial Victorian wife Betty, was perfectly balanced, both emotional and hilarious, and had the audience laughing one minute and crying the next.
Another highlight was playing a seven year old in Dennis Potter’s darkly humorous Blue Remembered Hills. Alan never fell into caricature and perfectly captured the mannerisms and behaviours of a seven year old boy in 1943.
His turn as Willie is so cryptically accurate and true to childish form that it is almost painful to watch. Gibbons’ expressions and actions are simply priceless.
Alan has recently appeared on our screens in an award winning promo for Ramsay’s Best Restaurant on Channel 4 as a chef literally reduced to a sobbing mess by Gordon Ramsay, directed by Siri Bunford. He has also appeared in the film shorts Eva, Table Two, Wings and Four Guests.
Alan is pleased to combine his comedy background with his acting work in his performances of pantomime dame, a role he loves and dedicates to his comedy hero Les Dawson. Alan was even the ‘Millennium Dame’ official back in 2000, and entertained tens of thousands of kids and adults with his comic banter.