Keith Lemon

Keith Lemon is a fictional television personality in the British television series Bo' Selecta!, portrayed by Leigh Francis.

Background

In an interview, Leigh Francis claimed that Lemon is loosely based on his best friend. The character is easily distinguished by his camp demeanour, exaggerated Yorkshire accent, bleached mullet, ginger moustache and fake tan. According to Francis, Lemon's background is that of a failed businessman, who was most successful in 1993, when he won the prestigious Businessman of the Year award for his innovative creation, the securi-pole".

Bo' Selecta!

Lemon first appeared as a recurring character in the Channel 4 impersonations series Bo' Selecta!, which was created and performed by Francis. He appeared once in the first series, in a scene which depicted himself in a trendy wine bar attempting to chat-up Tess Daly. He did not appear again until the third series, where he was introduced as the agent of Avid Merrion, the main character, also played by Francis, after Avid gets himself his own television show. Lemon's face was not shown to camera during this series. He once again appeared in series four, which was sub-titled "A Bear's Tail", where he became the neighbour of the Hennerson family, who adopted another of the programmes' characters, the Bear, after they ran him over. He appeared in the final series of the programme, sub-titled "Bo! In The USA", where he became the American ambassdor for the securi-pole. He once flew to America for a special visit to have a sex change, but a few months later returned to have it reversed.

Very Brilliant World Tour

Following the conclusion of Bo! Selecta, Francis made the announcement that he was intending to create a brand new show featuring Lemon. The programme, entitled Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, depicted Lemon flying to six different countries around the world, in a shark-shaped flight plan, meeting various celebrity guests along the way. The series premiered on 11 March 2008 on ITV2. The series pulled in successful ratings, however, following all six episodes being aired, Francis announced he was working on another project, again with ITV2.

Celebrity Juice

In August 2008, Francis announced that he would be premiering Celebrity Juice, a comedy-style panel series, hosted by Lemon, in which two teams of celebrities would battle to see which knew the most about the past week's news. The series began airing in September 2008, featuring regular team captains Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton, as well as regular panellist, Rufus Hound. The series has been highly successful, and to date, five series have been aired, with a sixth series currently airing. The series revealed further details about Lemon, including his belief that he is the son of Billy Ocean; that all Irish people should be referred to as "potato", a quote frequently referred to when discussing Jedward, Louis Walsh or any other Irish personnel; and that "If I don't see ya' through week, I'll see ya' through window". The series has also popularised his quotes "Bang Tidy!","I'd smash your back doors in!",which first became known during Lemon's Bo! Selecta appearances, and more recently "Motting".

The Bang Tidy Show

Following the success of Celebrity Juice, ITV1 announced plans for a prime-time Saturday night series featuring Lemon, entitled Keith Lemon's Bang Tidy Show. A pilot for the series was filmed in June 2011, and a full series is expected to air from February 2012. The description of the series is as follows: "While there's all the usual celebrity guests from hit series Celebrity Juice, there's also a talking Orangutan, a door that leads to anywhere, audience games and prizes, a supermarket in the future staffed by old celebrities, and you, the audience, can ask Keith anything you want! Each episode will also finish with Keith performing with his celebrity guests.

Other projects

Since 2008, Lemon has made numerous appearances on the Big Brother companion shows Big Brother's Little Brother and Big Brother's Big Mouth, as a celebrity guest discussing the action in the house, and as the host of public phone-in competitions. In February 2009, Lemon appeared as a contestant alongside fellow comedian Paddy McGuinness on the first series of the charity competition Let's Dance for Comic Relief, where their performance made them the runners-up of the series. Since March 2010, Lemon has made regular appearances on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! companion show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here Now!, alongside host Caroline Flack. In July 2010, Lemon began recording a fitness DVD with Australian fitness instructor Deanne Berry. Since being released in November 2010, the DVD, entitled 'Keith Lemon's Fit', has sold over 50,000 copies. The DVD was subsequently aired on ITV2 in December 2010. Since August 2010, Lemon has also worked as an agony uncle on daytime television series This Morning, alongside his Celebrity Juice colleague Holly Willoughby. For one week in February 2011, Lemon became producer of the series, taking over from the absent Karl Newton. Also in February 2011, Lemon became a judge on the third series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief. In March 2011, Lemon became the co-host of ITV1 celebrity game show Sing If You Can with Stacey Solomon, after original intended host Vernon Kay pulled out. In September 2011, Lemon made his first ever public appearance, where he switched on the lights for the Blackpool Illuminations. Lemon is also currently promoting Tacheback, a campaign to raise awareness of male cancer. On the 8th of September 2010, it was revealed that Lemon would make his feature film debut in Keith Lemon: The Film, with production starting later that month.