Terry John Alderton (born 31 October 1970) is an English comedian who had acting and presenting roles in the early 2000s before returning to stand-up comedy a decade later.

Personal life

Alderton was born on 31 October 1970 in Rochford,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He married a former model and Page Three Girl Dee Ivens in 2001 in

Epping Forest Epping Forest is a area of ancient woodland, and other established habitats, which straddles the border between Greater London and Essex. The main body of the forest stretches from Epping in the north, to Chingford on the edge of the London ...

. He has a sister named Corinna.

Career

Alderton began his career as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

with

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. Later he moved on to comedy. In 2004 the club re-signed him after injuries weakened their squad, following his performance in goal for the Celebrities team in the

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

reality television series '' The Match''. In 1999, Alderton was nominated for the

Perrier Comedy Award The Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. ...

. Later that year, television producer Johnny Finch himself attempted to launch his own BBC TV show dedicated to video games titled ''Bleeding Thumbs''. The series would have run between 1999 and 2000, and had hoped to emulate the success of the 1990s

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 ...

show '' GamesMaster'', for which Finch was part of the production team as well as being a co-commentator. Two pilots were created hosted by

Dermot O'Leary Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. (born 24 May 1973) is an English broadcaster who currently works for ITV and BBC Radio 2. His radio career began when he worked as a disc jockey at Essex Radio, but he is best known for being the presenter of ' ...

and

Kate Thornton Kate Thornton (born 7 February 1973) is an English journalist and broadcaster, best known as the first presenter of ''The X Factor'' (2004–2006) and for presenting daytime shows including ''Loose Women'' (2009–2011) and '' This Morning'' (20 ...

, and then Alderton accompanying Thornton; the

commissioning editor In book publishing, a commissioning editor is essentially a buyer. It is the job of the commissioning editor to advise the publishing house on which books to publish. Usually the actual decision of whether to contract a book is taken by a senior ma ...

decommissioned the show claiming that "People want to play games, not watch them". Alderton went on to present the National Lottery show ''Red Alert'' with

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, ...

later that year. In 2001, he hosted '' The Joy of Text'' with

Ulrika Jonsson Eva Ulrika Jonsson (born 16 August 1967) is a Swedish-British television presenter and model. She became known as a TV-am weather presenter, moved on to present the ITV show ''Gladiators'', and as a team captain of the BBC Two show '' Shooting ...

. He has also presented his own show on

Capital Radio Capital London is a radio station owned and operated by the Global media company as part of its national Capital FM Network. As Capital Radio it was launched in the London area in 1973 as one of Britain's first two commercial radio stations. ...

called ''Terry's Turnstiles''. He was also confirmed as a presenter on

Setanta Sports News Setanta Sports News was a television channel from Virgin Media Television and Setanta Sports. The channel launched on 29 November 2007.

channel. He also appeared on the Comedy Central show ''Comedy Store''. On 3 September 2016, Alderton teamed up with

Tim Vine Timothy Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and presenter best known for his one-liners and his role on the sitcom ''Not Going Out'' (2006–2014). He has released a number of stand-up comedy specials and has wr ...

for ''

Pointless Celebrities ''Pointless'' is a British television quiz show produced by Banijay subsidiary Remarkable Television for the BBC. It is hosted by Alexander Armstrong. In each episode four teams of two contestants attempt to find correct but obscure answers t ...

'', returning with Jack Carroll on 10 February 2018 and

Joe Pasquale Joseph Ellis Pasquale (born 20 August 1961) is an English comedian, actor and television presenter. He won the fourth series of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!'' in 2004 and participated in the eighth series of ''Dancing on Ice'' ...

on 10 November 2018. On 11 January 2019, he appeared on '' Celebrity Mastermind''.

Acting career

Alderton has also worked as an actor, one of his bigger roles was as the character Charlie Mead in the final series of '' London's Burning''. He currently presents a number of video shows on Virgin Media Sport. His characters include Mr Sheepskin and Danny Dire. He made his West End London début when he performed his one-man show at the Bloomsbury Theatre on 21 May 2010. In 2013, he joined the cast of ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'' as cockney cab driver Terry Spraggan.

References

External links

Terry Alderton's profile on comedy website ChortleTerry as Mr Sheepskin on Virgin Media SportTerry as Danny Dire on Virgin Media Sport*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alderton, Terry English male comedians 1970 births Living people Southend United F.C. players Association football goalkeepers People from Rochford English male soap opera actors 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians English footballers