Ben Elton is an atheist. Elton studied at Stillness Junior School and Godalming Grammar School in Surrey, South Warwickshire College in Stratford-upon-Avon and the University of Manchester. His first television appearance was a stand-up performance on the BBC1 youth and music programme, The "Oxford Road Show". His first TV success, at 23, came as co-writer of the television sitcom, "The Young Ones", in which he occasionally appeared. In 1983/84 he wrote and appeared in Granada Television's sketch show "Alfresco", which was also notable for early appearances by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane. In 1985, Elton produced his first
Ben Thompson (writer) Ben Thompson (writer) Ben Thompson is an American business, technology, and media analyst, who is based in Taiwan. He is known principally for writing Stratechery, a subscription-based newsletter featuring in-depth commentary on tech and media news that has been called a "must-read in Silicon Valley circles". He also is the co-host of Exponent, a podcast focused on the same themes. Thompson's career includes stints at Apple, where he interned at Apple University; Microsoft, where he worked on its Windows Apps team; and at WordPress developer Automattic as a growth engineer. Thompson launched Stratechery as a blog while still a Microsoft