Kathy Burke

Everything you could reasonably want to know about the actress and director

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What’s this site about?

Everything you could reasonably want to know about the actor and director Kathy Burke.

And why does it exist?

Because Kathy Burke is the best British character actress of her generation, a comic marvel, and a down-to-earth hero to millions.

She has won worldwide acclaim in both comedy and serious drama roles. She has range – in both life and work.

As an actress, she stunned as a battered wife in Nil by Mouth, appalled as a crass tart in her own sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, and amazed as a horny (male) teenager in Harry Enfield’s comedy show. Her cameos often steal the show.

As a director, Kathy has produced numerous plays to critical acclaim. And as a human being she has inspired, encouraged and cheered millions of ordinary citizens. Who else would Stephen Fry put in “Room Lovely” where everything about the world is good and life-enhancing?

See more on her, from recent news to a rundown of her career in films, television and theatre to date, interviews and articles about her and a small piece about Kathy and this website.

  • Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke
    Articles,  Media

    ‘I’d see her every day of my life if I could’

    April 10, 2002 /

    Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke get on like a house on fire. But does he really want to make a blue movie with her? Rupert Smith meets them The Guardian “Do you smoke?” Kathy Burke is generous with her fags; she and Ray Winstone have both got one on the go, and she’s eager to thicken the atmosphere. “No? Well, you do now.” An interview with Burke and Winstone, the pearly king and queen of British acting, is an exercise in passive smoking. It also becomes clear, after a few minutes, that the fizzing liquid they are guzzling with such relish after a hard day’s rehearsal is not Perrier. The main ingredient…

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    ‘I find brains sexy. What I’d really like is a plumber who can read’

    January 13, 2000

    Kathy comes home: A new sitcom paints a happier picture of Kathy Burke’s childhood

    June 21, 2012
    Kathy Burke. Pic by Clara Molden

    Kathy Burke: ‘A national treasure? I’m the opposite!’

    April 6, 2011
  • Articles,  Media

    Kathy comes home

    February 10, 2002 /

    …and brings Nigel Slater with her. Her kitchen may be full of Waynetta’s fag smoke and cockney vowels, but actress Kathy Burke is no slob when it comes to cooking, and an even bigger surprise – she’s a vegetarian The Observer ‘The night my dad died, I found myself in the kitchen at three o’clock in the morning, making fried egg sandwiches with tomato ketchup. The thing is, I had to go to the all-night to get the plastic bread and the ketchup because I never eat that sort of crap. It was something I hadn’t done since I was a kid – you know, making myself a white-bread fried-egg…

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    Kathy comes home: A new sitcom paints a happier picture of Kathy Burke’s childhood

    June 21, 2012

    ‘I find brains sexy. What I’d really like is a plumber who can read’

    January 13, 2000

    Burke’s peerage

    July 13, 1999
  • Films,  The Martins

    The Martins

    September 14, 2001 /

    Robert, who is out of work, lives with his long-suffering wife, pregnant daughter and accident-prone son. They are the family from hell but Robert dreams of winning a dream holiday for his family. When he fails he catches up with the elderly winners and steals their tickets… Year released 2001 Director Tony Grounds Character played Angie Martin IMDB

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    Kevin & Perry Go Large

    April 21, 2000

    Love, Honour and Obey

    February 9, 2001

    Anita and Me

    November 22, 2002
  • Articles,  Media

    Beautiful things: Kathy Burke and Jonathan Harvey

    March 18, 2001 /

    The Independent It’s official. Kathy Burke is a national treasure. Stephen Fry confirmed as much in his appearance last week on BBC2’s Room 101. Wishing to condemn Room 101 to Room 101, he proposed an alternative repository for everything fluffy in life: Room Lovely. The very first thing he suggested placing in Room Lovely was Kathy Burke. “She’s just great,” Fry rhapsodised. “She’s got everything that’s great about being great. She’s incredibly clever and charming – she writes brilliant plays as well as being a wonderful actress and extremely amusing. If she appears on television or in a film, we immediately think ‘oh great’. And she’s gutsy. If I was a woman, she’d be…

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    The gay, the sad and the ugly

    January 4, 1999

    Patron saint of underdogs

    March 13, 2001

    My acting days are over

    October 19, 2004
  • Articles,  Media

    Patron saint of underdogs

    March 13, 2001 /

    The Telegraph Kathy Burke is on her way to becoming an institution. As she puts it: “I’ve got one of those ‘national treasure’ labels.” The 36-year-old actress is often met with smiles from passers-by and a cheery “All right, Kaff?”. Burke has been cherished for some time. Appearing on TV with Harry Enfield throughout the 1990s made her a household name, her gallery of unlovelies inspiring widespread feelings of revulsion and adulation. Most memorably, she gave us Waynetta Slob, fag-in-mouth wife of Enfield’s foul, beer-bellied Wayne; Perry, mumbling sidekick to the acned adolescent monster Kevin; and Lulu, the dribbling baby sister of Enfield’s vindictive toddler Harry. It wasn’t until 1997,…

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    Meet the romantic lead in the new Merchant-Ivory film. (Just kidding)

    January 5, 1997

    Kathy comes home: A new sitcom paints a happier picture of Kathy Burke’s childhood

    June 21, 2012

    London’s most famous Burke

    April 11, 2002
  • The Martins
    Articles,  Media

    Kathy goes a stage beyond

    March 13, 2001 /

    The Evening Standard If I had been around 100 years ago, I would have been a male impersonator in the music halls, says Kathy Burke. Instead, the 21st century’s answer to Vesta Tilley has strutted her trousered stuff as the smaller, but stroppier, half of that wonderfully dopey duo Kevin and Perry for the delectation of the telly-watching nation. “It’s a great liberation for a woman to play a man’s role: I’ve been asked to play a couple of blokes on telly since Perry, and I was quite flattered, really. I said no because physically it’s quite painful, know what I mean?” she adds, miming an excruciating clamp-down in the…

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    Kathy comes home

    February 1, 2004

    Carlton preview of Kevin & Perry Go Large

    April 1, 2000

    Kathy comes home

    February 10, 2002
  • Films

    Love, Honour and Obey

    February 9, 2001 /

    Jonny has dreams of leaving his job as a courier by getting in with the toughest gang in North London… Year released 2000 Director Dominic Anciano Character played Kathy IMDB

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    Once Upon A Time in the Midlands

    Once Upon A Time In The Midlands

    September 6, 2002

    Kevin & Perry Go Large

    April 21, 2000

    Anita and Me

    November 22, 2002
  • Films,  Kevin & Perry Go Large

    Kevin & Perry Go Large

    April 21, 2000 /

    Kevin is a virgin and will do anything to lose his virginity while his friends help him every step of the way. Features a dance music sound track… Year released 2000 Director Ed Bye Character played Perry

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    Once Upon A Time in the Midlands

    Once Upon A Time In The Midlands

    September 6, 2002

    Love, Honour and Obey

    February 9, 2001

    The Martins

    September 14, 2001
  • Articles,  Media

    Carlton preview of Kevin & Perry Go Large

    April 1, 2000 /

    Carlton Preview Preview: Welcome to Preview Kathy, can you tell us about the film? Kathy Burke: It’s basically about Kevin and Perry wanting to go to Ibiza, where the DJs are and where everyone “gives it large”. They want to be DJs so they think Ibiza is the place for them. It’s also got lots of girls? Lots of girls for them to ogle at! Is it difficult making a film length version as opposed to the series? Well the only thing I was concerned about was, would it work? It’s okay doing a five-ten minute sketch, would it last and work over an hour. I was just worried that…

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    Kathy stars in a change of role

    February 2, 2005

    Q&A: Kathy Burke

    April 15, 2012

    60-second interview: Kathy Burke

    June 2, 2005
  • Articles,  Media

    ‘I find brains sexy. What I’d really like is a plumber who can read’

    January 13, 2000 /

    The Times Written off as “thick” at school, she was a virgin until the age of 22, then indulged in a spell of promiscuity during eight years of heavy drinking. Her roles as slobs and victims have won her international acclaim, yet the actress Kathy Burke loves fine art and is firmly in control of her life – although the right man with whom to share it still eludes her. Kathy Burke’s lament echoes the cri de coeur of her character, Linda, the lovelorn nympho in the ginger fright wig, shiny Eighties tights, heinous miniskirt and mouth like the Blackwall Tunnel from the surreal BBC2 comedy Gimme Gimme Gimme. “I…

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    Meet the romantic lead in the new Merchant-Ivory film. (Just kidding)

    January 5, 1997

    Kathy comes home

    January 16, 1999

    60-second interview: Kathy Burke

    July 9, 2002
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