Luke Kempner hit the comedy scene with a video parodying the ITV hit show Downton Abbey. Its success spawned a sell-out, award-winning show at the Edinburgh Festival. Now his show has brought him home, where his current tour finishes up in Tonbridge on Saturday, February 28
The Smallfield resident and Guildford School of Acting graduate has appeared in UK tours of musicals like Les Miserables and Avenue Q, and presented his own radio programme of music and impressions on Magic Radio.
Yet, it was success with a Youtube video of him doing spoofs of the hit ITV show Downton Abbey that drove him to give up his theatre work and concentrate on his impressionism work.
The video, Downstairs At Downton featured Kempner putting his impressionist talents to work as twelve different characters from the period drama and quickly won praise by big names in the talent industry, such as Stephen Fry to Tom Jones.
He then teamed up with director Owen Lewis to expand the show into a ninety-minute comedic play, renamed as The Only Way Is Downton. Doing so was no mean feat, especially with one actor playing over thirty characters, but it took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by storm and was a much-lauded sell-out tour.
Now, after receiving rave reviews from across the country from Downton fans – those who hate it – and even those who've never seen it at all – he returns with his spoof show to Guildford for a special one night performance, at the Electric Theatre.
The Only Way Is Downton shows on Feb 28, 7.30pm, EM Forster Theatre in Tonbridge (01732 304241)
To see some of Luke's impressions, including the video that sparked the show, check out his Youtube channel.