| Biography | Faith Brown (born Irene Monica Carroll; 28 May 1944, Liverpool, Lancashire) is an English actress, singer, comedienne and impressionist.
Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, Faith Brown began her career as a singer in Bootle at the age of fifteen, backed by a local group which consisted of her three brothers, Lee, Ron and Mike, known as the Carrolls. She later became the resident cabaret singer in Liverpool's Rialto Ballroom. With her brothers in the Carrolls she released several records in the 1960s. Brown has also released several solo recordings.
Brown's television career was launched with appearances on Who Do You Do (197576) (ATV/ITV) - a showcase for a generation of impressionists and comics, and Ken Dodd's World of Laughter (1976). She then became the resident singer on the magic showcase show For My Next Trick on BBC1, alongside Paul Daniels.
Brown was a regular guest celebrity participant on several British TV games shows, between 1975 and 1979 on Celebrity Squares (ATV/ITV), 1979 and 1990 on Blankety Blank (BBC) and between 1979 and 1992 she was a regular 'girls' team member on the TV charades game show Give Us a Clue (Thames/ITV).
In 1980 she presented The Faith Brown Chat Show (Thames/ITV). Here, using split screen special effects, Brown interviewed herself in a succession of celebrity personas. Her "conversations" with Kate Bush are especially fondly remembered; the singer was delighted by Brown's impression, and wrote a four-page letter of thanks to the comedienne. Other "guests" included Pam Ayres, Mary Whitehouse, Margaret Thatcher, newsreader Angela Rippon and singers Barbra Streisand, Lene Lovich, Eartha Kitt, Diana Ross and Donna Summer. Brown was never fully happy with her depiction of Mrs Thatcher and stated in a televised interview with Michael Parkinson that her fellow impersonator Janet Brown (no relation) did a more believable representation.
Other television appearances at that time include Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show (Central/ITV) in 1984, and as Flast in the Doctor Who serial Attack of the Cybermen, (BBC) 1985. Brown was also featured on This Is Your Life (Thames/ITV) in 1982.
From 1993 to 1999, Brown was one of two celebrity team members on the daily BBC2 quiz show Today's the Day hosted by Martyn Lewis.
In 1996, Brown appeared as the social climbing Anne Bradley in the soap Brookside (Mersey Television/Channel Four), and toured the United Kingdom in a production of Summer Holiday, starring alongside Darren Day. |