Duncan James

Duncan Matthew James Inglis (born 7 April 1978) is an English singer, actor and television presenter.

James, along with Antony Costa, convinced Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe in early 2000 to form the group Blue.

Blue's R&B-influenced pop allowed the group to achieve commercial success in the United Kingdom and many other countries, including Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, France, Australia and New Zealand.

He became widely known in 2001 as a member of the boy band Blue and later for playing Ryan Knight in the British soap opera Hollyoaks.

James grew up in Dorset as an only child, and was raised primarily by his mother Fiona Inglis and his grandparents, after his father abandoned his mother before he was born.

He was raised a "strict Catholic" and educated at Dumpton School in Wimborne (where his grandfather worked as a music teacher), Milldown School (Blandford Forum), Corfe Hills School (Broadstone), and Sidmouth College (East Devon).

At the age of 15 he played Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Dr Watson in Sherlock Holmes for Sidmouth Youth Theatre.

The band released their debut single "All Rise" in May 2001 and it reached No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

Their follow up single, "Too Close", was released in August 2001 peaking at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.

They went on to achieve a second number one in November with the ballad "If You Come Back".

The album All Rise was released in time for Christmas and reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, eventually selling in excess of 1.8 million albums in the UK.

The final single from the album, "Fly By II", reached No. 6 in March 2002.

Their second studio album, One Love, was released in October 2002; it entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 1 and sold more than 150,000 copies.

Three singles were released from the album: "One Love", which peaked at No. 3, "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word", featuring vocals from Elton John, which peaked at No. 1, and "U Make Me Wanna", which peaked at No. 4. Their third studio album, Guilty, was released in autumn 2003; it too entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 1, and sold 100,000 copies in the week of release.

The album spawned four singles, including "Guilty", which peaked at No. 2, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours", featuring vocals from Stevie Wonder and Angie Stone, which peaked at No. 11, "Breathe Easy", which peaked at No. 4, and "Bubblin'", which peaked at No. 9.

Two compilation albums Best of Blue and 4ever Blue were released in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

4ever Blue included three tracks only previously performed in Japan: "The Gift", "It's Alright" and "Elements".

It is indicated in the album booklet that a live version of "Lonely This Christmas" from the TV show CD:UK was intended to be track seven on the album; however, this was removed from the track listing for unknown reasons.

The album was available in several European countries, as well as Japan, Thailand and China; however, it was a commercial failure, and failed to chart anywhere.

The album was not released in the UK, despite copies being widely available.

James returned to the music scene in May 2006 with his solo single "Sooner or Later", releasing the video in early May and planning to release the single commercially on 5 June 2006.

The video reached No. 2 on The Box and No. 5 on The Hits.

However, the single was no commercial success and entered the British charts at No. 35, before slipping down to No. 72 in its second week.

"Can't Stop a River" was James's next single.

Released on 21 August 2006, the track only reached No. 59 in the UK and No. 97 in Ireland.

In continental Europe, where "Can't Stop a River" was released a day earlier than in the UK, it similarly proved unpopular, dropping out of the singles charts in many countries such as France, Turkey, Germany, and Belgium.

James' album also fell short, selling less than 1,000 copies in the UK in its first week (and failing to reach the Top 50).

The album sold a total of 412,350 copies around the world.

Although his debut album Future Past did not do as well as hoped (except in Italy, where it reached No. 2 on the chart and was certified platinum for shipments of 80,000 copies), on 2 February 2007, music channel B4 premièred the video for "Amazed", his new single which was scheduled to be released on 12 March 2007.

However, there was once again a lack of interest.

The release was cancelled and James was dropped from his recording contract.

He has since announced he has quit his solo career.

In 2007 he appeared in the West End production of Chicago.

He completed ten more weeks in Chicago from 10 December 2007 until 9 February 2008.

He appeared in an episode of The Bill entitled "The Morning After", which aired on 1 January 2009.

It was confirmed in February 2009 that James had been selected to replace Denise van Outen as presenter of Grease: The School Musical, the sequel to Hairspray: The School Musical.

Filming commenced in early 2009.

In May 2009, James announced the UK's voting in the Eurovision Song Contest.

He presented Hannah-Oke on Disney Channel UK, a singing and dancing contest based on the popular Disney TV series Hannah Montana.

He also appeared on Celebrity Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old? and raised £10,000 for his charities.