Early Life
Whitehouse was born in Stanleytown in the Rhondda Valley, Glamorgan, Wales. His father worked for the National Coal Board and his mother was a singer with the Welsh National Opera. The family moved to Enfield in North London when he was four years old, which led to him discovering his talent for mimicry:
"At school I didn’t say a word for the first four weeks - I called it my Silent Month. I think it was because everyone was speaking so differently from how it had been in Wales. Then, after four weeks, I came home one day and said, ‘Muumm, I wanna go to Sarfend!’ For her that was the end because I had lost my lovely Welsh lilt. So I became very conscious of speech and the effects it can have. But when I went back to Wales I would start talking all Welsh, ‘lyke that you see’ before going all Alf Garnett while coming back the other way.”
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