Colin Sell (born 1 December 1948)
[Roberts, Jem. ''The Clue Bible: The Fully Authorised History of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue from Footlights to Mornington Crescent''. Preface, 2009.] is a British
pianist who has appeared on the radio panel games ''
Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' and ''
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''. He has become famous mostly for his long service on the latter show, where he is frequently the butt of the host's jokes about the supposedly poor quality of his playing.
Personal life
Sell was born in
Purley, Surrey and grew up in
Croydon, attending
Trinity School. He gained a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the
University of Bristol in 1971.
Career
Sell wrote music for the
University of Bristol's revues in the early 1970s, leading to performances at the
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...
, where
Simon Brett saw Sell perform and offered him the pianist position on ''I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue''.
He also appeared with the
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre TIE company in the early 1970s, which also included two other well-known names,
Elizabeth Estensen and
Clive Hornby, both long-standing members of the ''
Emmerdale'' cast.
Sell became Head of Music at
East 15 Acting School, Essex in 1998, and remained on staff until at least April 2015.
Until 1998 he was Head of Music at
Rose Bruford College, Sidcup, and was instrumental in the creation of the BA (Hons) Actor-Musician course there. He occasionally provides live musical accompaniment for
The Comedy Store Players, a comedy improvisation group based in
The Comedy Store, London.
Sell appeared in an episode of ''
Foyle's War'' as a pianist and composed the score for the 1984
BBC Television Shakespeare production of Shakespeare's ''
The Life and Death of King John''.
Sell has also accompanied
Barry Cryer and
Willie Rushton in their stage show ''Two Old Farts in the Night''. After the interval he played (and sang) a solo: "We are the Boys in the Band". In 2013 he appeared with
Barry Cryer in
Richmond, Yorkshire, as part of the
Swaledale Festival
The Swaledale Festival takes place over two weeks in May and June each year, in churches, chapels, castles, ‘Literary Institutes’, pubs, fields and village halls scattered around Swaledale, Arkengarthdale and Wensleydale. The largest venues s ...
, performing jazz and blues and songs of his own composition.
He has also arranged and directed music for radio plays such as ''Born to be Wilde: An Ideal Husband'' in 2018
References
External links
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clue/interviews/colin_sell.shtml
* http://www.isihac.co.uk/people.html
List of plays scored by Colin Sell*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sell, Colin
Living people
1948 births
British keyboardists
British radio people
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
People from Purley, London