Frank Skinner

Christopher Graham Collins (born 28 January 1957), known professionally as Frank Skinner, is an English comedian, actor, presenter and writer. At the 2001 British Comedy Awards, he was named Best Comedy Entertainment Personality. His television work includes Fantasy Football League from 1994 to 2004, The Frank Skinner Show from 1995 to 2005, Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned from 2000 to 2005, and Room 101 from 2012 to 2018. From 2009 to 2024 he hosted The Frank Skinner Show on Absolute Radio, broadcast live on Saturday mornings and released as a podcast. In October 2024 Skinner launched the Frank Off The Radio podcast, with the same crew as the radio show.

Along with David Baddiel, he provided vocals and wrote the lyrics for "Three Lions", the official song in collaboration with Liverpudlian indie band the Lightning Seeds, to mark the England national football team's participation in the 1996 European Championship (which was hosted in England); he also reprised his role to release two subsequent versions of the song for the England team's involvement in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2010 World Cup. The 1996 version is the only song ever to have four separate stints at number one in the UK singles chart with the same artists, the most recent coming in July 2018 following England reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup.

Skinner was born on 28 January 1957 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, and grew up in a council house in neighbouring Oldbury. He was the youngest of four children born to John Collins (1918–1990) and his wife Doris (1919–1989).

Skinner wrote in his autobiography that his father, who was born in West Cornforth, County Durham, played for Spennymoor United before the Second World War, and met his mother in a local pub after Spennymoor had played West Bromwich Albion in an FA Cup game in 1937. Club officials and historians could not find his father in their records.

Skinner attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from 1968 to 1973. He passed two O-levels in summer 1973 and took A-levels in English language and art, along with several O-level resits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. He subsequently took four A-levels (including English language and literature) at Warley College of Technology and graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University) in 1981 with a degree in English. This was followed by a master's degree in English literature at the University of Warwick in Coventry the following year.

Despite his given first name of Christopher, his parents called him by his middle name Graham; all his friends referred to him, and some still do, as Chris. Skinner once explained that whenever someone called at his house to ask if "Chris" was there, his mother would say yes, only to then turn around and shout for "Graham". He adopted the stage name Frank Skinner when the actors' union Equity told him there was already a singer from Burnley on their books called Chris Collins. He took the name from a member of his late father's dominoes team.

After graduating, Skinner spent three-and-a-half years on unemployment benefit before finding work as a lecturer in English at Halesowen College. In 1987, he decided to give stand-up comedy a try on the side. Skinner performed his first stand-up gig in 1987 and made his television debut a year later. In 1990, he co-wrote and starred in the comedy variety show Packet of Three on Channel 4 but continued to see his reputation as a stand-up grow. Before becoming a full-time performer in 1989, he suffered a bout of influenza in September 1986 that made him give up drinking, and he remains a high-profile recovering alcoholic.

Skinner won the 1991 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, beating Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard. He has worked with David Baddiel, notably on the popular late-night entertainment show Fantasy Football League from 1994 to 2004 and on Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned from 2000 to 2005. The duo also co-wrote and performed the football song "Three Lions" with the Lightning Seeds and the England national football team for Euro 1996, and re-recorded it for the 1998 World Cup. The song reached #1 in the UK charts both times. In 2001, he released his autobiography Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner, which became a bestseller. The accompanying TV show, Frank Skinner on Frank Skinner, in which Skinner showed where he lived as a child and interviews with Skinner, his friends and family members, was recorded and shown on ITV in 2001. In July 2018, "Three Lions" re-entered the charts at number 1. Fans were celebrating the progress of England at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with the phrase "it's coming home" featuring heavily on social media and television.