Alexander Henry Fenwick Armstrong is an English comedian, actor and television presenter, best known as one half of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller with Ben Miller, and as host of the BBC game show Pointless. Aside from his Armstrong and Miller sketch show characters, Armstrong's television credits include guest appearances in various TV series and he also voiced Professor M in Tooned and alien supercomputer Mr Smith in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Biography

On 27 August 2003, Armstrong married Hannah Bronwen Snow, an events organiser. They have four sons, Rex (born 2007), Patrick (born 2009), Edward (born 2010), and Henry (born 2014). He splits his time between Oxfordshire, where he and his family reside, and London.


Ancestry
In August 2010, Armstrong was featured in an episode of BBC One's Who Do You Think You Are?, through which he discovered that he was a descendant of William the Conqueror. His father comes from a land-owning family with deep connections to the North East and is a great-grandnephew of Robert Spence Watson and distantly related to William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong. With Armstrong's father's family history already well-known to him, the series traced his mother's side of the family, who were descended from Irish landed gentry. The McCauslands were originally seated in Drenagh, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland and trace their ancestry through the Rouse-Boughton family to Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester (1602/3-1667), a descendant of William the Conqueror via Edward III and the Beauforts, Dukes of Somerset.

Edward Somerset's first marriage was to Elizabeth Dormer (died 1635). Elizabeth's grandfather, Robert Dormer, 1st Baron of Wing (1551–1616), was half-brother to Jane Dormer (1538–1612), lady-in-waiting to Mary I.

Armstrong is a second cousin to Imogen Stubbs.


Affiliations
Armstrong is an active supporter of the Countryside Alliance, appearing in their advertisements and magazine to promote countryside shooting. In an interview with The Independent in March 2012, he said that his family had traditionally voted for the Liberal Democrats. Armstrong describes himself as a "centrist" and a "floating voter" stating "I'm not greatly impressed by party politics but I am by individual people. I'm a centrist, and very suspicious of any tribalism." However, Armstrong has personal connections with George Osborne.

In February 2011, Armstrong became President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and launched their million pound appeal at a special gala event.

In August 2014, Armstrong was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.