Just Biggins - Christopher Biggins > Reviews (1)

I'm not sure when I first heard of Christopher Biggins; he just seems to have always been around. He was in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rentaghost, Poldark, Porridge, On Safari, Bad Girls, the list goes on. He even co-starred with Cilla Black in the early series of Surprise Surprise! (I had forgotten that.)

Then last year, he won I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!, catapulting himself back into the public eye in great style. A star was reborn.

Biggins turns sixty in December, so unlike some celebs who write their autobiographies at a ridiculously young age (Stand up, fifteen year old Miley Cyrus!!), he actually has had a good few years to fill with interesting things.

In Just Biggins, he writes about his family and childhood, his beginnings in the theatre, his adolescence and his relationships. There are a few surprises in here too and I learned more about him - which is surely one of the main reasons you read an autobiography!

Being openly gay, he writes beautifully about his sexuality and I am sure he would be an inspiration to other gay men out there. Biggins is successful, in a happy long term relationship with partner Neil and we all love him. He is in the 'National Treasure' category, one of those our country is proud of.

I liked the way he wrote this book, protecting the privacy of his ex-partners. He doesn't always name names, but when he does, he keeps most things secret - but in such a sweet way, you respect him and don't feel cheated out of knowing some gossip. I felt he was very respectful in this and I am sure none of his family and friends could be offended by the book.

There are plenty of celebrities mentioned in Just Biggins though - loads! He has so many showbiz friends! Joan Collins, Barbara Windsor, Bonnie Langford, Liza Minnelli, oh too many to mention, but it's great fun reading his anecdotes about them.

He comes across as being honest too and is not afraid of admitting his faults or allowing us to laugh at his silly antics. He has had career lows as often as career highs; he has also spent above his means and had financial problems. Life has not always been easy for him, yet he seems to have kept up his irrepressible optimism and good humour regardless.

However, in some ways, this humour made the book very slightly annoying by the end. While I completed the book in a few days and enjoyed reading it, I did feel almost that I had overdosed on his joie de vivre! I heard the book in my head with his booming tones and quick repartee, but by the end of the 274 pages, I felt I needed a sit down, a cup of tea and two Migraleve! I think the book needed a bit more change of pace and tone throughout.

I also felt I wanted a longer, more in-depth autobiography. I felt it was rather short and some sections of the book were skimmed over too quickly for my liking. It was hardly a rush job cashing in on his King of the Jungle title, coming out almost a year afterwards, so there was no reason for it to be shorter than necessary. Perhaps it was an editorial decision or maybe Biggins didn't want to write more?

Who knows?

Even the section on his jungle exploits was shorter than I would have liked. Everything he wrote was interesting, but I wanted more than twenty odd pages. While you can understand brevity on earlier sections of his life - privacy, memory lapses, perceiving them to be of less interest to the reader - there can be no excuses for cutting short the part of your life that all the readers will remember and will buy this book wanting to hear more from the winner.

So Just Biggins isn't perfect, but I did enjoy it overall. I finished the book still being a Biggins fan. I hope he continues to grace our television screens for many years to come. He is talented, warm, loving, quick-witted and I love his humour.

Long live King Biggins!