Brenda Gilhooly (born 1964 in

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

. She studied English and Drama at the

University College of Swansea , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...

University of Wales The University of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Prifysgol Cymru'') is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff � ...

and graduated in 1987. She is best known for Gayle Tuesday, an archetypal

dumb blonde Blonde stereotypes are stereotypes of blonde-haired people. Sub-types of this stereotype include the " blonde bombshell" and the "dumb blonde". Blondes are stereotyped as more desirable, but less intelligent than brunettes. There are many blo ...

and ''

Page 3 Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishing ...

'' girl. She enjoyed brief success with this character appearing on various TV shows. She first appeared on

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

television in 1991 with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

series ''Remote Control'' and then with ''!

Viva Cabaret ''Viva Cabaret'' was a late night comedy variety television show that aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 1993 to 1994. The series was filmed in a sound stage in West London, with the set designed to resemble a cabaret club.

!'' in 1993, alongside similar character-based acts such as

Lily Savage Paul James O'Grady MBE DL (born 14 June 1955) is an English comedian, broadcaster, actor, writer and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, very popular in ...

and

Bob Downe Mark Trevorrow (born 4 February 1959 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian comedian, television host and media personality. In the early 1980s he had two Top 20 hits as part of Globos with Wendy De Waal, and in 1984 he debuted "Bob Downe", ...

. She has since appeared on shows such as the ''

Jack Dee James Andrew Innes Dee (born 24 September 1961), known professionally as Jack Dee, is an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter and writer known for his sarcasm, irony and deadpan humour. He wrote and starred in the sitcom ''Lead Balloon'' ...

Show'' and ''

Lily Live! Lily Live! is a flamboyant live/scripted comedy show which was produced by LWT and was broadcast for two series on ITV in 2000 and 2001, presented by Paul O'Grady (as Lily Savage). The show guest-starred the club act Gayle Tuesday, played by ...

'', as well as her own series ''Gayle's World'' in 1996.Gayle Tuesday: The Comeback
/ref> She has also appeared on

Lily Savage's Blankety Blank ''Blankety Blank'' is a British comedy game show which started in 1979 and is still running today, albeit with some sizeable gaps. The original series ran from 18 January 1979 to 12 March 1990 on BBC1, hosted first by Terry Wogan from 1979 un ...

. Most of her recent appearances have been as characters other than Gayle Tuesday, notably on ''

Harry Hill's TV Burp ''Harry Hill's TV Burp'' (also known as just ''TV Burp'') is a British television comedy programme broadcast between 2001 and 2012 on ITV. The show was produced by Avalon Television and was written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. Each epis ...

'' on which she is a writer as well as an occasional performer. Gilhooly is married and has two daughters. Gilhooly returned to television as Gayle Tuesday in 2010 with the

Living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * Hu ...

series ''Gayle Tuesday: The Comeback''. In 2019 Gilhooly wrote a new sitcom for BBC Radio 4 Madam Mayor. The first episode was aired on Friday 12 July 2019. Gilhooly starred as Madam Mayor and was supported by Jack Dee, Harry Hill, Michelle Collins and Elis James.

References

External links

* 1964 births English women comedians English comedy writers English television presenters Living people People from Epsom {{UK-comedian-stub