In addition to his books, and work on TV series like The Young Ones, Ben Elton is a playwright, having written "Gasping", "Silly Cow" and "Inconceivable" (recently filmed as "Maybe Baby") and a stand up comedian
Ben hosted the UK version of Saturday Night Live and had several BBC series of The Man From Auntie (Auntie being the affectionate name for the BBC). His comedic approach is a political ranting, left-wing style, and his catchphrase was "little bit of politics there". In his live shows, his language is extremely anglo-saxon
He has acted, both in the TV adaptation of his novel, Stark, and in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing
Also made a brief foray into hosting chat-shows, covering for Terry Wogan, leading to the funniest and most confrontational version of this bland format I've ever seen, when called upon to interview Conservative politicians such as Jeffrey Archer