Vikki Stone is a British composer, comedian, actress and musician. In 2023, her show ''

Hey Duggee ''Hey Duggee'' is a British pre-school children's animated television series aimed at two to five-year-olds. Created by Grant Orchard, it is produced by Studio AKA, in association with BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide). The show is narra ...

Live'' was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Family Show.

Early life

Stone was born in

Rugby, Warwickshire Rugby is a market town in eastern Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, its population was 78,117, making it the List of Warwickshire towns by population, secon ...

, attending Eastlands Primary school and then

Rugby High School for Girls Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** ...

. She won a flute scholarship to attend

Wells Cathedral School Wells Cathedral School is an independent co-educational boarding and day school for 2–18 year olds located in Wells, Somerset, Wells, Somerset, England, which provides an all-round education alongside specialist music and chorister training. T ...

for the sixth form. In 1997, she became a flautist for the National Children's Orchestra. From 1999–2001, she was a member of the National Youth Music Theatre, performing in various productions. Later training was as an actor/musician at Rose Bruford College, and then a postgraduate at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

. In 2013, Stone was awarded a Foundation Fellowship from Wells Cathedral School, and in 2015, was made an Associate of the Royal Academy Of Music ( ARAM).

Television

She has appeared as a comedian on '' The John Bishop Show'' (

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

; 2015), ''Richard Hammond's Secret Service'' (BBC One), '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!'' (

ITV2 ITV2 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the fiv ...

), '' Dara Ó Briain: School of Hard Sums'' ( Dave), ''It Was Alright in The 70s'' (

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

), ''Celebrity Bigmouths'' ( Channel 5), ''Greatest Ever 3D Moments'' (Channel 4), ''50 Funniest Moments of 2014'' (Channel 4), ''Britain in Bed'' (

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

), '' Most Annoying People'' (BBC Three), '' The Hour'' ( STV), ''FlashPrank'' (

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

), '' That Sunday Night Show'' (ITV) and '' This Morning'' (ITV). She narrated the second series of '' Impractical Jokers UK'' for BBC Three in 2014. Following a spoof "How To" look like Hilary Devey sketch that gained popularity after the real Hilary Devey became a fan of the impression, Stone appeared in

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

's ''The Hilary Devey Story'', performing as Hilary. Stone released "The Phillip Schofield Song", in which Phillip Schofield plays a cameo of himself, where he talks to Stone through the television from the '' This Morning'' set. Following the success of the video, Stone performed the song live on ITV1 to Schofield on ''This Morning''. She also plays the character Miss Dotty in the

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

show ''Titch & Ted''.

Radio

Stone has appeared a number of times on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, most notably her appearances on '' The Now Show'', ''Live at The Fringe'' and ''Live at The Stand''. Throughout 2014, Stone hosted her own radio show, ''The Friday Night Show with Vikki Stone'', on Fubar Radio. Stone presents the

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

''Proms Unplucked'' podcasts, covering the 2016 and 2017 Proms seasons.

Compositions

*2015 – ''The Night Before Christmas'' – a choral work written with poet Luke Wright *2015 –

for BBC Learning's ''Titch and Ted'' – theme tune and songs *2016 – ''The Thing That Matters'' – commissioned by the National Youth Choirs Of Great Britain – world premier at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

*2017 – Stone's debut orchestral work The Concerto for Comedian and Orchestra, which was supported by the

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

and a PRS Bliss Trust composer's bursary premiered at the Glastonbury festival in June 2017.

Shows

In August 2011, Stone performed her Edinburgh debut show ''Big Neon Letters''. Kate Copstick giving four stars in The Scotsman wrote “really very good stand-up, and she delivers quite a punch...cleverly constructed stuff with some terrific one-liners, smart little callbacks woven into not just the chat, but the songs too. She is a woman to watch, I suspect. Those big neon letters cannot be far away”. In 2012, her second show ''Hot Mess'' sold out for the entirety of the festival, with extra shows added due to demand, again receiving positive reviews. In 2013, this show also transferred to Soho Theatre. In June 2013, Stone performed her full-length show at London's Southbank Centre, as part of the Udderbelly Festival. In August 2013, her third show, "Definitely", opened at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival, followed by her first national UK tour. In 2014, she launched her fourth show ''Instrumental'', and was her most personal and technically challenging to date. Focusing on her life as a musician and her father's struggle with alcoholism, she set herself the challenge to play twenty different instruments throughout the performance. Steve Bennett in Chortle describing it as "a lovely show, playful and happy with a good heart and an irresistible energy, neatly tied together and guaranteed to please. It’s easily Stone’s best show yet". In 2023, her show ''

Live'' was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Family Show.

Musicals

*2019 - Stone re-adapted the musical of Nick Hornby's ''

High Fidelity High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) ...

'' at Turbine Theatre in Battersea Power Station. *2020 -

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

for the Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith) *2020 - #zoologicalsociety for the Royal & Derngate, Northampton

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Vikki Living people 1983 births Actors from Rugby, Warwickshire Actresses from Warwickshire Rose Bruford College British women comedians Comedians from Warwickshire People educated at Wells Cathedral School People educated at Rugby High School for Girls