The Irresistible Rise of David Walliams Little Britain's six-year lifespan saw it move from BBC Three to BBC One, spawn a successful stage show and a US version for revered cable channel HBO. Walliams" best-known characters were unconvincing transvestite Emily Howard (catchphrase: "I'm a lady!") and Sebastian Love, a Prime Ministerial aide with a huge crush on his boss - a dynamic which Walliams would later reprise with fellow judge Simon Cowell on Britain's Got Talent. Walliams could hardly be more middle class. He grew up in Surrey, the son of an engineer and a lab technician, and went to Reigate Grammar School and Bristol University. There's something silly and solidly suburban about his humour too. He's cartoonishly effete and partial to cross-dressing (as he acknowledged with the punning title of his memoir, Camp David), recalling the retro likes of Frankie Howerd (whom he played in a BBC4 biopic), Dick Emery or Larry Grayson more than the arena-filling observational stand-ups or postmodern character comics of today. He's not without his demons, though. Walliams has been diagnosed as bipolar with depressive periods of intense self-loathing. He admits suffering insomnia for nine months until he sought professional help. His bipolar disorder may go some way to explaining his prodigious work rate and restless project-hopping. Since Little Britain, Walliams has become something of a polymath, popping up on screen, stage, bookshelf and even emerging from our oceans. Despite being a self-professed sport-phobic and former tubby youth, Walliams has swum the Channel, Strait of Gibraltar and the length of the Thames, raising millions for charity. He's written five bestselling children's books, starting with the self-referential The Boy in the Dress. The follow-up, Mr Stink, was filmed by the BBC last Christmas and his last, Ratburger, won Children's Book of the Year. He joined the judging panel of Britain's Got Talent and rescued the ITV ratings juggernaut from the doldrums, not quite single-handedly but in tandem with "his Simon" - svengali Mr Cowell, with whom he's formed an entertaining double act. Walliams went on to compere last year's Royal Variety Performance, at which the newly-crowned BGT winner, dancing dog Pudsey, also performed. Walliams is now living the dream of every gawky wag who ever used wisecracks to fend off bullies or impress girls. He's proved he can do "proper" serious acting, attracting rave reviews for Stephen Poliakoff's Capturing Mary and a West End revival of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land. He's somehow squeezed in cameos in Hollywood films and Doctor Who, plus presented documentaries about two of his boyhood heroes, James Bond and Roald Dahl. His next project is to play Bottom in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the West End. He's even punched above his weight by marrying a supermodel 12 years his junior, statuesque Dutch blonde Lara Stone. The couple have just had their first child, a son named Alfred, so we can expect more kids" books from his doting dad. A multi-talented multi-millionaire, if David Walliams wasn't so darned nice, let's face it: we'd hate him. Big School begins at 9.00pm on Friday 16th August on BBC One