Ben Elton has announced yet more dates tohis already extensive UK tour. These will be his first British gigs since he played to over 300,000 people on his record-breaking 1997 tour. With his trademark energy and signature delivery, Ben Elton is one of Britain's modern comedy icons. Althoughan incredibly successful best-selling novelist andwriter, as a trail-blazing story-telling comedian he is unmatched. It was as a stand-up comedian that Ben became best known, starting at the LondonComedy Store in 1981. His big break came in 1986 when he began to host Channel Four's cult hitSaturday Live. He has since become one of thebiggest live acts in Britain. Now, he is back on the road doing brand new stuff in front of an audience for the first time in eight years. He can still cut it live, but will you be able to keep up?

Ben Elton established himself as the leading figure in the generation of British comedy with the ground breaking smash hit BBC comedy 'The Young Ones'. This show became a worldwide cult and the 1984 book of the series was the biggest seller in Britain that year. The icons Ben has written for reads like a who's who list of the cream of comedy, including Lenny Henry, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson and Harry Enfield. In 1985 Ben began his successful writing partnership with Richard Curtis. Together they wrote 'Blackadder 2', 'Blackadder the Third' and 'Blackadder Goes Forth' - a series that achieved vast audiences all over the world and was awarded four BAFTAs and an EMMY. In 1995, Ben wrote and produced 'The Thin Blue Line', which again starred Rowan Atkinson. It achieved record audience figures for a new sitcom and went onto win the British Comedy Award for the Best New Comedy Series, also picking up both the Public and Professional Jury Awards at Reims.

Ben has also had serious success with his novel writing. His first novel 'Stark' was published in 1988 and became an instant number one best-seller and has gone on to sell over a million copies. His subsequent novels 'Gridlock' in 1991 and 'Eden' in 1993 matched it's success, and his next novel 'Popcorn' in 1996 went to number one in the best seller's list and remained there for six months. Two further novels by Ben - 'Blast from the Past' and 'Inconceivable' were released in September 1998 and October 1999 respectively, and were both best sellers. Interestingly enough, Ben’s ambitions were originally theatrical. After studying Drama at Manchester University he returned to the theatre with his first stage play, 'Gasping' which ran for nine and a half months in 1990 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London's West End. This was followed immediately by Ben's second play, 'Silly Cow' which kept the Haymarket Theatre full for a further eight months. The stage play of 'Popcorn' opened to rave reviews at the Apollo Theatre, London in April 1997. 'Popcorn' was also staged in Paris successfully completing an 18-month run and has since won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

In 1992 Ben began his acting career, starring in his own adaptation of his novel, 'Stark' - directed by Nadia Tass and filmed entirely in Australia. That year Ben also appeared alongside Michael Keaton as 'Verges' in Kenneth Branagh's acclaimed feature film, 'Much Ado About Nothing'. 2000 saw Ben make his screenplay directorial debut with Maybe Baby, (which he adapted from his novel 'Inconceivable') starring Joely Richardson, Hugh Laurie, Dawn French, Emma Thompson, Rowan Atkinson and Adrian Lester. Ben's first musical collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber 'The Beautiful Game' opened to critical acclaim at the Cambridge Theatre in September 2000. He is currently writing two screenplays for two feature films; Popcorn to be directed by Ridley Scott and Phantom of the Opera, which will be directed by Shekhar Kapur. His second musical project 'We Will Rock You', for which he wrote the story and script to accompany the music and lyrics of Queen, opened in London in May 2002. Now in its fourth successful year it has since opened in Madrid, Germany, Australia, Las Vegas and Russia. Since then Ben has written two books, Dead Famous and High Society, both top 10 bestsellers. It seems that there's nothing this man cannot do - involved in so many aspects of entertainment, Ben's success has been overwhelming with everything he touches turning to gold. Catch Ben on tour this year for a taste of his unique comedic style live and in the flesh.