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 Roberts (writer) 22, Roberts was successfully running his own independent public-relations counseling firm and was contributing comedy material to several Broadway musicals. In 1941, he collaborated with another young writer, Ivan Goff, on the theatrical suspense thriller "Portrait in Black". He briefly worked in films in the early 1940s, returned to the stage for six years, then settled in Hollywood permanently in 1949. All of his subsequent film efforts, as both screenwriter and producer, were in collaboration with his old friend Ivan Goff. The pair contributed to the success of such varied projects as "White Heat" (1949), "Captain Horatio Hornblower" (1951), "Shake