Book Review: Camp David by David Walliams

Written by: Chris Hallam
Published: Monday 17th December 2012

Here's a question: when did you first become aware of David Walliams?

Did you notice him early on, perhaps enjoying his stint as the transgender performance artist Vulva in the cult sitcom Spaced? Or did you first become aware of him around a decade ago during his well-received turns in the TV flops Attachments or Cruise Of The Gods? Or perhaps through his appearances with Matt Lucas and Jamie Theakston in docu-spoof Rock Profile?

Or, like many others, maybe he only appeared on your radar with the huge success of the now often maligned Little Britain in 2006. It was certainly not until this point that Walliams became truly famous, and also at this point that this autobiography wisely comes to an end. Although the years since have seen Walliams successfully moving away from his comedy origins - unlike his co-star Matt Lucas he is now almost as associated with Britain's Got Talent judging and cross channel swimming as he is with Little Britain - it is universally acknowledged that most celebrity biographies go off at the point their star becomes famous.

In truth, Walliams had a long climb to the top, persisting throughout the entire 1990s and well into his thirties, long after the point when many people would have judged it sensible to stop. Along the way, he dated Jessica Stevenson, Caroline Aherne and Katy Carmichael (who played the fashion-obsessed Twist in Spaced), and fell out badly with producer-performer Jimmy Mulville, newspaper columnist Dominik Diamond and Richard Osman, the latter a comedy producer now best known as the ultra-tall co-presenter of BBC quiz show Pointless.

The ghost of Jimmy Savile recurs throughout the book even though it was clearly written before the truth about Savile's true nature came to light. As a child Walliams (then David Williams) applied unsuccessfully to appear on Jim'll Fix It in the hope of meeting his hero Brian Blessed. Walliams was probably lucky not to encounter Savile, although his life was already to be blighted by depression and sexual confusion, not helped by the bizarre decision by the head of Walliams' Sea Scout pack to take him and several other favoured boys on a trip to a nudist camp. A few years later Walliams was introduced to a teenage performer who immediately delivered an impressive Jimmy Savile impression. It was Matt Lucas.

The years with Lucas (Walliams had originally attempted to pair up with future Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury) were not always easy, partly because for at least a decade thanks to Shooting Stars and George Dawes, Lucas was by some margin more widely recognised than his older co-star.

At any rate, Walliams proves a likeable narrator and this is a good story. There are some signs the book has been written in a hurry: Walliams occasionally uses what are supposed to be old diary entries when he's feeling lazy. A section on his work for the disastrous It's Ulrika! is especially shoddily put together in this regard, referring to the Reeves & Mortimer sitcom Catterick, which began in 2004, in a diary entry supposedly from 1997.

But in truth, it's refreshing to read a celebrity biography in which the subject has at least earned his celebrity status.

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