1.
Panel show
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A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participates. Participants may compete with other, such as on The News Quiz, facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on Match Game/Blankety Blank. The genre can be traced to 1938, when Information Please debuted on U. S. radio, the earliest known television panel show is Play the Game, a charades show in 1946. The modern trend of comedy shows can find early roots with Stop Me If Youve Heard This One in 1939. While panel shows were popular in the past in the U. S. they are still very common in the United Kingdom. Panel shows also feature comedic banter, friendly ribbing and camaraderie among the panelists, scoring is often deemphasized in panel shows. The American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway, acknowledged this with the introduction, Welcome to Whose Line Is It Anyway, the show where everythings made up and the points dont matter. Panel shows can have any number of themes, many are topical and satirical, such as Wait Wait. Have I Got News for You, The News Quiz and Mock The Week, involves wordplay, Ive Got a Secret is about secrets, To Tell The Truth and Would I Lie to You. Deal with lies, and It Pays to Be Ignorant and Im Sorry I Havent A Clue are parodies, some panel shows are variations of classic parlor games. Twenty Questions is based on the game of the same name, Give Us a Clue is modeled after Charades. Frequently, a panel show features recurring panelists or permanent team captains, most shows are recorded before a studio audience. The first known example of a show in the world is the radio program Information Please. An evolution of the show format, Information Please added the key element of a panel of celebrities, largely writers and intellectuals. Listeners would mail in questions, winning prizes for stumping the panel, U. S. panel shows transferred to television early in the mediums history, with the first known example being Play the Game, a charades show that aired on DuMont and ABC beginning in 1946. The celebrity charades concept has been replicated numerous times since then, the most popular adaptation was Pantomime Quiz, airing from 1947 to 1959, and having runs on each of the four television networks operating at the time. Other charades shows have included Stump the Stars, Movietown, RSVP, Celebrity Charades, Showoffs, TV panel shows saw their peak of popularity in the 1950s and 60s, when CBS ran the three longest-running panel shows in prime time, Whats My Line. Ive Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth, at times, they were among the top ten shows on U. S. television, and they continue to experience occasional revivals
2.
BBC Radio 4
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BBC Radio 4 is a radio station owned and operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967, the station controller is Gwyneth Williams, and the station is part of BBC Radio and the BBC Radio department. The station is broadcast from the BBCs headquarters at Broadcasting House and it is also available through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media and on the Internet. It is notable for its news bulletins and programmes such as Today and The World at One, BBC Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2 – and the most popular in London and the South of England. It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011 and was UK Radio Station of the Year at the 2003,2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards and it also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File On 4, Export Controls. Costing £71.4 million, it is the BBCs most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network, Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review, in 2010 Gwyneth Williams replaced Mark Damazer as Radio 4 controller. Damazer became Master of St Peters College, Oxford, music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the stations remit. It broadcasts occasional concerts, and documentaries related to forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs. As a result, for around 70 days a year listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or increasingly DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave is now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts take precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast, as well as news and drama, the station has a strong reputation for comedy, including experimental and alternative comedy, many successful comedians and comedy shows first appearing on the station. The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967 and it had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its radio stations. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday and these were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and an evening bulletin was aired at 5. 55pm. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations and these included Roundabout East Anglia, a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC Easts studios in Norwich each weekday from 6.45 am to 8.45 am. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in 1980, when local services were introduced to East Anglia with the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk. All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980 apart from in the south west, in September 1991 it was decided that the main Radio 4 service would be on FM as coverage had extended to cover almost all of the UK. Opt-outs were transferred to long wave, currently Test Match Special, extra shipping forecasts, The Daily Service, long wave very occasionally opts out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010
3.
Miles Jupp
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Miles Hugh Barrett Jupp is an English comedian and actor. Beginning his career as a comedian, he first became known on British television as the inventor Archie. His profile rose in Britain, after a spate of appearances on panel shows. In September 2015, Jupp replaced Sandi Toksvig as the host of The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4, Jupp was born in London, the son of a minister in the United Reformed Church. During his time at university, he performed with improvised comedy troupe the Improverts, Jupp won So You Think Youre Funny. Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year in 2001, and was a Perrier Award Best Newcomer nominee in 2003, Jupp is best known for playing Archie the Inventor in CBeebies Balamory. He also had a role in the BBC Scotland comedy programme Live Floor Show, in 2007, Jupp appeared fleetingly in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as a television weatherman, who complained about an incredibly hot drought. Following this role he appeared in BBC Scotlands comedy Gary, Tank Commander as Captain Fanshaw, in 2009, he appeared briefly in the film Sherlock Holmes as a waiter. In the same year, he appeared in Stewart Lees Comedy Vehicle. In 2010, Jupp appeared on Mock the Week, Michael McIntyres Comedy Roadshow, and as Nigel and he also appeared as an under secretary in the film Made in Dagenham. In January 2011, Jupp was a member with Goldie. In May and November 2011, and in April 2012, he appeared as a panellist on both Have I Got News for You and Would I Lie To You. On 22 August 2011, he appeared as the lunchtime guest on Test Match Special, where he revealed a love of cricket and that he had worked with the Test Match Special team and this became the basis of the book Fibber in the Heat. In October 2011, he appeared in Mock the Week. Jupp had a role in Johnny English Reborn in 2011. He appeared in Series 4, Episode 4 of the panel game Argumental. In 2012, he appeared again on Mock the Week, in January 2012, he won an episode of Celebrity Mastermind. In February 2012, he appeared on BBC Lets Dance for Sport Relief and he featured in the 2014 World War II film, The Monuments Men, as British officer Major Fielding
4.
John Lloyd (producer)
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He is currently the presenter of BBC Radio 4s The Museum of Curiosity, a spin-off of QI. Lloyd was born in Dover, England and his father, H. L. Harpy Lloyd, was an Anglo-Irish captain with the Royal Navy. As a child Lloyd lived in different places, owing to his fathers job. This led him to attend school only at the age of 9½. He was educated at West Hill Park School in Titchfield, Hampshire, a place where he claims bullying was endemic and he read Law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a member of the Footlights. There he befriended Douglas Adams, with whom he shared a flat. Lloyd is the nephew of John Hardress Lloyd. Lloyd worked as a producer at the BBC between 1974 and 1978 and created The News Quiz, The News Huddlines, To The Manor Born. He also produced The Burkiss Way, Lloyd then worked as a TV producer at both the BBC and ITV 1979–1989, where he created Not the Nine OClock News and Spitting Image. He also produced all four Blackadder series, Lloyd was originally to have been the host of BBC topical news quiz Have I Got News For You, with the programme initially intended to be called John Lloyds Newsround. A pilot episode of the show was recorded under this name in mid-1990, with Lloyd hosting alongside team captains Ian Hislop, Lloyd subsequently decided to pull out of hosting the programme full-time and the pilot episode was never broadcast. Lloyd was replaced by Angus Deayton as host and the show was renamed Have I Got News for You in time for its debut on BBC2 later that year, Lloyd is married to Sarah Lloyd and has three children. He has worked as a TV commercials director on and off since 1987 and his first new TV series for 14 years, QI, starring Stephen Fry and Alan Davies, began on 11 September 2003 at 10pm on BBC Two for a run of 12 episodes. In its eighth series, which started on BBC One in September 2010, all episodes of QI have been directed by Ian Lorimer. Lloyd currently presents the radio series The Museum of Curiosity, which he co-created with producers Richard Turner, in December 2011, Lloyd appeared as part of the winning Trinity College, Cambridge, team on the Christmas University Challenge. Lloyd was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting, Lloyd was also awarded an honorary degree from Southampton Solent University. In August 2014, Lloyd was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to Septembers referendum on that issue. His most recent work,1,411 Quite Interesting Facts to Knock You Sideways, a collaboration with John Mitchinson and James Harkin, was published in 2014 by Faber and Faber
5.
Leroy Anderson
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Leroy Anderson, was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as one of the great American masters of light orchestral music, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Swedish parents, Anderson was given his first piano lessons by his mother, who was a church organist. He continued studying piano at the New England Conservatory of Music, in 1925 Anderson entered Harvard University, where he studied musical harmony with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, canon and fugue with William C. Hill and Walter Piston, composition with Walter Piston and double bass with Gaston Dufresne and he also studied organ with Henry Gideon. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Magna cum laude in 1929 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, in Harvard University Graduate School, he studied composition with Walter Piston and Georges Enescu and received a Master of Arts in Music in 1930. At the time he was working as organist and choir director at the East Milton Congregational Church, leading the Harvard University Band, and conducting and arranging for dance bands around Boston. Andersons first work was the 1938 Jazz Pizzicato, but at just over ninety seconds the piece was too short for a three-minute 78-RPM single of the period, Fiedler suggested writing a companion piece and Anderson wrote Jazz Legato later that same year. The combined recording went on to one of Andersons signature compositions. In 1942 Leroy Anderson joined the U. S. Army, counter Intelligence Corps as a translator and interpreter, in 1945 he was reassigned to the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Desk of Military Intelligence. However his duties did not prevent him from composing, and in 1945 he wrote The Syncopated Clock, Anderson became a reserve officer and was recalled to active duty for the Korean War. In 1951 Anderson wrote his first hit, Blue Tango, earning a Golden Disc and his pieces and his recordings during the fifties conducting a studio orchestra were immense commercial successes. Blue Tango was the first instrumental recording ever to one million copies. His most famous pieces are probably Sleigh Ride and The Syncopated Clock, in February 1951, WCBS-TV in New York City selected Syncopated Clock as the theme song for The Late Show, the WCBS late-night movie. Anderson started the work during a wave in August 1946. The Boston Pops recording of it was the first pure orchestral piece to reach No.1 on the Billboard Pop Music chart, from 1952 to 1961, Andersons composition Plink, Plank, Plunk. was used as the theme for the CBS panel show Ive Got A Secret. Andersons musical style employs creative instrumental effects and occasionally use of sound-generating items such as typewriters. Anderson wrote his Piano Concerto in C in 1953 but withdrew it, in 1988 the Anderson family decided to publish the work. Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra released the first recording of this work, four other recordings, including one for piano, in 1958, Anderson composed the music for the Broadway show Goldilocks with orchestrations by Philip J. Lang
6.
Simon Hoggart
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Simon David Hoggart was an English journalist and broadcaster. He wrote on politics for The Guardian, and on wine for The Spectator, until 2006 he presented The News Quiz on Radio 4. His journalism sketches have been published in a series of books and he was the son of the sociologist Richard Hoggart and Mary Holt Hoggart. His brother is the Times television critic Paul Hoggart and he lived in South London with his wife, Alyson, a clinical psychologist, and their two children, Amy and Richard. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in mid-2010 and died of the disease on 5 January 2014. Hoggart joined The Guardian in 1968, later becoming the American correspondent for The Observer, having written on politics for some years in Punch magazine, Hoggart became the Parliamentary sketch writer for The Guardian in 1993. He also wrote a column for The Spectator. In the early 1980s he chaired the radio comedy show The News Quiz, in March 2006, Hoggart presented his last edition of The News Quiz commenting, Im getting a bit clapped out and jaded, and I think thats beginning to show. In 1998 he was part of BBC Radio 4s 5-part political satire programme Cartoons, Lampoons and Buffoons and he was also a contributor to the Grumpy Old Men and wrote for Punch magazine and an occasional column for New Humanist magazine. Hoggart was also a celebrity panellist on BBC2s antiques quiz show Going, Going. He coined the phrase the law of the reverse, which states that if the opposite of a statement is plainly absurd. The political sex scandal involving Quinn contributed to the resignation of David Blunkett from the Cabinet
7.
Barry Took
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Barry Took was an English writer, television presenter and comedian. His decade and a writing partnership with Marty Feldman led to the television series Bootsie and Snudge. He is also remembered in the UK for presenting Points of View, a BBC Television programme featuring viewers letters on the BBCs output, and he attended Stationers School but quit school at age 15. His older brother Philip would eventually work for the US Space Program before dying as a young man, with his limited education, Took found work as an office boy for a publisher and a cinema projectionist. In terms of his writing, Tooks best work was written in collaboration with Marty Feldman. The two men wrote for television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including The Army Game and its spin-off Bootsie. He co-wrote Beyond Our Ken for two series with Eric Merriman for BBC Radio before leaving after a disagreement with his fellow writer, with Marty Feldman he wrote most episodes of Round the Horne, the intermittent partnership between them continued until 1974. He resigned from this position when Stella Richman, his superior, on the Move, a programme linked to a national campaign against adult illiteracy, was written by Took and featured Bob Hoskins and Donald Gee. He was involved in two television series on the issue, Your Move and Write Away. In 1977 Took hosted his own sketch show, Took. Also featuring Robin Bailey, Chris Emmett, Andrew Sachs and Gwen Taylor, in 1979 he became chairman of The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4, a role he filled for the next 17 years. In the same year he became a presenter of Points of View and he had seven books published, including his autobiography and several histories of comedy. He also wrote Kenneth Williamss life story for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in 1996, during his time with the Royal Air Force he met his first wife, Dorothy Dot Bird, who was serving in the Womens Royal Air Force. They married in 1950 and had three children, but were later divorced, in 1964 he married Lynden Lyn Leonard, this second marriage resulting in a daughter named Elinor. The couple separated in 1999 and eventually divorced, Took was a self-confessed alcoholic, and later acknowledged its detrimental effects on his personal life and career. He also spoke publicly about his experiences with depression and undergoing extensive psychotherapy for several years, after suffering from bladder cancer for a period during the 1970s, in 1999 he was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus, and suffered a stroke four weeks after undergoing major surgery. He died at age 73 on Easter Sunday,2002 in a home in Enfield. A Point of View Barry Took at the Internet Movie Database Barry Took – Comedy Zone BBC News article reporting his death
8.
Sandi Toksvig
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Sandra Birgitte Sandi Toksvig OBE is a Danish-British comedian, writer, actor, presenter and producer on British radio and television, and political activist. On 21 October 2016, Toksvig took over from Stephen Fry as host of the BBC television quiz show QI and she was the host of The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 from 2006 until June 2015. She also presented the quiz show 1001 Things You Should Know on Channel 4 television in 2012–13, and began hosting a revived series of the same channels game show Fifteen to One on 5 April 2014. She is joint founder of the Womens Equality Party, was installed as Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth in October 2012, on 16 March 2017, Toksvig was announced as the new co-presenter of The Great British Bake Off, alongside comedian Noel Fielding. Her father, Claus Toksvig, was a Danish journalist and broadcaster and foreign correspondent, so Toksvig spent most of her youth outside Denmark and her mother, Julie Anne Toksvig is British. She attended Tormead School, an independent girls school near Guildford and her first job was a position as a follow spot operator for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar at the age of 18. She read law, archaeology and anthropology at Girton College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class degree, One of her law tutors was Lord Denning. Toksvig began her career at Girton College, Cambridge University. She was there at the time as fellow members Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Tony Slattery and Emma Thompson. She was also a member of the universitys Light Entertainment Society and she started her television career on childrens series, presenting No. 73, the Sandwich Quiz, The Saturday Starship, Motormouth, Gilberts Fridge and on programmes such as Island Race and The Talking Show. Toksvig said the allegations of inappropriate behaviour at the BBC did not surprise me at all, in the comedy circuit, Toksvig performed at the first night of the Comedy Store in London and was once part of their Players, an improvisational comedy team. In television, she appeared as a panellist in comedy shows such as Call My Bluff, mock the Week, QI and Have I Got News for You, where she appeared on the very first episode in 1990. She was also the host of What the Dickens, a Sky Arts quiz show and her final show was first broadcast on 26 June. She presented Radio 4s travel programme Excess Baggage until it was axed in 2012, in 1993 Toksvig wrote a musical, Big Night Out at the Little Sands Picture Palace, for Nottingham Playhouse, co-starring with Anita Dobson and Una Stubbs. In 2002, it was re-written, with Dilly Keane, for the Watford Palace Theatre, Toksvig and Elly Brewer wrote a Shakespeare deconstruction, The Pocket Dream, which Toksvig performed at the Nottingham Playhouse and which transferred to the West End for a short run. The pair also wrote the 1992 TV series The Big One and she has appeared in a number of stage plays, including Androcles and the Lion, Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors. In 1996, she narrated the Dragons, interactive CD-ROM published by Oxford University Press and developed by Inner Workings, along with Harry Enfield
9.
Nicholas Parsons
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Christopher Nicholas Parsons, CBE is an English radio and television presenter and actor. Parsons was born at 1 Castlegate, Grantham, Lincolnshire, he was the child of the family, having an older brother. His father was a general practitioner and his mother, born in Bristol to a founder of local company W. B. Maggs & Co, was training as a nurse when she met Parsons father at University College Hospital, London. Parsons was born left-handed but was made to write with his right hand, as a child, he had a stutter, which he managed to control as he grew older, and was slow to learn owing to dyslexia. He also suffered from migraines but nevertheless excelled at school, after education at Colet Court and St Pauls School in London, Parsons initial career plan was to become an actor. However, his parents believed that a career in engineering would be better, while at school he was best friends with Admiral Sir John Devereux Treacher KCB who was to become Commander-in-Chief Fleet. At school Parsons nickname was Shirley after the then burgeoning talent of Shirley Temple, while there, he also spent two six-month periods studying engineering at the University of Glasgow. He never graduated, but finished his apprenticeship and gained sufficient qualifications to become a mechanical engineer and he was offered a position in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, which he never took up due to illness. He started his career training as an engineering apprentice, he was discovered by Canadian impresario Carroll Levis. He also gained early experience in amateur concert parties. At the end of the Second World War, he became a professional actor. He made his debut in West End theatre as Kiwi in The Hasty Heart at the Aldwych Theatre in 1945 which ran for over a year. In 1952, he became a resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre and he starred in the West End show Boeing-Boeing for 15 months and later, other West End productions throughout the 1970s. He featured in the Stephen Sondheim musical Into The Woods at the Phoenix Theatre, London, one of his first TV appearances was in The Adventures of Robin Hood where he played Sir Walter of the Glen, a knight in Trial by Battle. Parsons became well known to TV audiences during the 1960s as the man to comedian Arthur Haynes. They had a season at the London Palladium in 1963. In the same year, the broke up after ten years at Hayness request, allowing Parsons to return to the stage. Parsons has been the host of the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game Just a Minute since it was first broadcast on 22 December 1967, the show continues to be transmitted and Parsons has been heard in every edition and has presented the show in six different decades
10.
Private Eye
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Private Eye is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986 and it is also known for its in-depth investigative journalism into under-reported scandals and cover-ups. Private Eye is Britains best-selling current affairs magazine, and such is its long-term popularity, the magazine bucks the trend of declining circulation for print media, having recorded its highest ever circulation in the second half of 2016. The forerunner of Private Eye was a magazine, The Salopian, published at Shrewsbury School in the mid-1950s and edited by Richard Ingrams, Willie Rushton, Christopher Booker. After National Service, Ingrams and Foot went as undergraduates to Oxford University, the magazine proper began when Usborne learned of a new printing process, photo-litho offset, which meant that anybody with a typewriter and Letraset could produce a magazine. The publication was funded by Osmond and launched in 1961. It was named when Osmond looked for ideas in the recruiting poster of Lord Kitchener and, in particular. After the name Finger was rejected, Osmond suggested Private Eye, the magazine was initially edited by Booker and designed by Rushton, who drew cartoons for it. Its subsequent editor, Ingrams, who was pursuing a career as an actor, shared the editorship with Booker, from around issue number 10. At first, Private Eye was a vehicle for jokes, an extension of the original school magazine. However, according to Booker, it got caught up in the rage for satire, others essential to the development of the magazine were Auberon Waugh, Claud Cockburn, Barry Fantoni, Gerald Scarfe, Tony Rushton, Patrick Marnham and Candida Betjeman. Christopher Logue was another contributor, providing the column True Stories. The gossip columnist Nigel Dempster wrote extensively for the magazine before he fell out with Ian Hislop and other writers, while Foot wrote on politics, local government, Ingrams continued as editor until 1986, when he was succeeded by Hislop. Ingrams remains chairman of the holding company, Private Eye often reports on the misdeeds of powerful and important individuals and, consequently, has received numerous libel writs throughout its history. Its defenders point out that it often carries news that the press will not print for fear of legal reprisals or because the material is of minority interest. As well as covering a range of current affairs, Private Eye is also known for highlighting the errors. It reports on parliamentary and national issues, with regional and local politics covered in equal depth under the Rotten Boroughs column. Extensive investigative journalism is published under the In the Back section, often tackling cover-ups, Stories sometimes originate from writers for more mainstream publications who cannot get their stories published by their main employers
11.
Punch (magazine)
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Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, after the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002, Punch was founded on 17 July 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells, on an initial investment of £25. It was jointly edited by Mayhew and Mark Lemon and it was subtitled The London Charivari in homage to Charles Philipons French satirical humour magazine Le Charivari. Mayhew ceased to be joint editor in 1842 and became suggestor in chief until he severed his connection in 1845, the magazine initially struggled for readers, except for an 1842 Almanack issue which shocked its creators by selling 90,000 copies. In December 1842 due to difficulties the magazine was sold to Bradbury and Evans. Bradbury and Evans capitalised on newly evolving mass printing technologies and also were the publishers for Charles Dickens, Punch humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the Punch cartoons led to the terms widespread use. The illustrator Archibald Henning designed the cover of the magazines first issues, the cover design varied in the early years, though Richard Doyle designed what became the magazines masthead in 1849. Artists who published in Punch during the 1840s and 50s included John Leech, Richard Doyle, John Tenniel and this group became known as The Punch Brotherhood, which also included Charles Dickens who joined Bradbury and Evans after leaving Chapman and Hall in 1843. Punch authors and artists contributed to another Bradbury and Evans literary magazine called Once A Week. In the 1860s and 1870s, conservative Punch faced competition from upstart liberal journal Fun, at Evanss café in London, the two journals had Round tables in competition with each other. Punch gave several phrases to the English language, including The Crystal Palace, several British humour classics were first serialised in Punch, such as the Diary of a Nobody and 1066 and All That. Towards the end of the century, the artistic roster included Harry Furniss, Linley Sambourne, Francis Carruthers Gould. Among the outstanding cartoonists of the century were Bernard Partridge, H. M. Bateman, Bernard Hollowood who also edited the magazine from 1957 to 1968, Kenneth Mahood. Circulation broke the 100,000 mark around 1910, and peaked in 1947–1948 at 175,000 to 184,000, sales declined steadily thereafter, ultimately, the magazine was forced to close in 1992 after 150 years of publication. Punch was widely emulated worldwide and popular in the colonies, however, the colonial experience, especially in India, also influenced Punch and its iconography. Tenniels Punch cartoons of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny led to a surge in the magazines popularity, colonial India was time and again caricatured in Punch and can be seen as a significant source for producing knowledge about India. Many Punch cartoonists of the late 20th century published collections of their own, Punch magazine ceased publishing in 1992
12.
Alan Coren
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Alan Coren was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was well known as a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC televisions Call My Bluff. Coren was also a journalist, and for nine years was the editor of Punch magazine, Alan Coren was born in Southgate, North London, in 1938, the son of a plumber and a hairdresser. This is a source of confusion, as some appear to think he was born in Paddington. Coren was educated at East Barnet Grammar School, followed by Wadham College at the University of Oxford to which he gained a scholarship, after taking a masters degree he studied for a doctorate in modern American literature at Yale and the University of California, Berkeley. Coren considered a career but decided instead to become a writer. He began this career by selling articles to Punch and was offered a full-time job there. At this time he wrote for The New Yorker. In 1966, he became Punchs literary editor, and went on to become deputy editor in 1969 and he remained as editor until 1987 when the circulation began to decline. Unsurprisingly, during the week in which he took over the editorship and his response was to rush around the office, waving a copy of the relevant edition, saying, This is ridiculous – I havent been Jewish for years. When Coren left Punch in 1987, he became editor of The Listener, known as the Sage of Cricklewood, where he lived, his columns always contained humour and criticism. From 1971 to 1978, Coren wrote a television review column for The Times, from 1972 to 1976 he wrote a humour column for the Daily Mail. He also wrote for The Observer, Tatler and The Times, from 1984 Coren worked as a television critic for the Mail on Sunday until he moved as a humorous columnist to the Sunday Express, which he left in 1996. In 1989 he started a column in The Times, which he continued for the rest of his life, Coren began his broadcasting career in 1977. He was invited to be one of the panellists on BBC Radio 4s new satirical quiz show. He continued on The News Quiz until the year he died, from 1996 to 2005 he was also one of two team captains on the UK panel game Call My Bluff. In 1978 he wrote The Losers, a sitcom about a wrestling promoter starring Leonard Rossiter. Coren published about twenty books during his life, many of which were collections of his columns, such as Golfing for Cats. From 1976 to 1983, he wrote the Arthur series of childrens books, One of his most successful books, The Collected Bulletins of Idi Amin was rejected for publication in the United States on the grounds of racial sensitivity
13.
Have I Got News for You
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Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is loosely based on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, the show has cultivated a reputation for sailing close to the wind in matters of libel and slander with its topical and satirical remit. Have I Got News for You is often cited as beginning the increasing domination of panel shows in British TV comedy, in recognition of this, the show received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2011 British Comedy Awards. It was the first time the honour had been bestowed upon a collective instead of an individual or double act, in 2016 they also received a BAFTA in the Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme category. For its first 10 years, the programme was shown on BBC Two, there have been 52 series of the programme broadcast. The UKTV channel Dave carries regular repeats of the show, the original line-up, from 1990 to 2002, was Angus Deayton as chairman, with Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, and comedian Paul Merton as team captains. Each captain was accompanied by a guest, usually a politician, journalist or comedian, Merton took a break from Have I Got News for You during the 11th series in 1996, making only one appearance as a guest on Hislops team. He was variously replaced as opposing team captain by Clive Anderson, Alan Davies, Merton later explained that at the time he was very tired of the show and that he thought it had become stuck in a rut. Nevertheless, he added that he felt his absence gave the programme the shot in the arm it needed, in May 2002, following newspaper headlines of his sex with a prostitute and use of illegal drugs, Deayton was relentlessly ridiculed on the show by Hislop and Merton. Following a second round of revelations about his life later in the year, leading to further mockery, Deayton was fired in October. At short notice, Merton hosted the first episode after Deaytons departure, a series of guest hosts appeared for the remainder of the series, including Anne Robinson, Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Clarkson. Despite an initial search for a permanent successor to Deayton, having a different guest host each week proved successful and it was therefore announced in June 2003 that this feature would continue permanently. Hislop is the person to have appeared in every episode — despite suffering from appendicitis during one 1994 edition. The others who have occupied all three positions are Clive Anderson and Frank Skinner, who have stood in for Merton as team captain. Anderson also filled in for Merton at the last minute for the live edition for 24 Hour Panel People for Red Nose Day 2011. The only guests to have worked on the production off camera are Kevin Day. Alexander Armstrong holds the record for both most appearances as guest presenter, as well as most guest appearances in total, having appeared 28 times in the central chair and he has never appeared in any other role. Many guests have appeared on the multiple times
14.
Lewis Black
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Lewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his face and his belligerent comedic style. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion and he hosted the Comedy Central series Lewis Blacks Root of All Evil, and made regular appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart delivering his Back in Black commentary segment. When not on the performing, he resides in Manhattan. He also maintains a residence in Chapel Hill, N. C and he is also a spokesman for the Aruba Tourism Authority, appearing in television ads that first aired in late 2009 and 2010. He was voted 51st of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central in 2004, he was voted 5th in Comedy Centrals Stand Up Showdown in 2008, Black has served as an ambassador for voting rights for the American Civil Liberties Union, since 2013. Black was born in Washington, D. C. the son of Jeannette, a teacher, and Sam Black and he was raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Silver Spring, Maryland, graduating from Springbrook High School in 1966. Black recounts in his book Nothings Sacred that he scored highly on the section of his SAT exam and later applied to Yale, Princeton, Brown, Amherst, Williams. There, he studied playwriting and was a brother of Pi Lambda Phi International fraternity, after graduating in 1970, he returned to Washington, where he worked at the Appalachian Regional Commission, wrote plays, and performed stand-up comedy at the Brickskeller in Dupont Circle. He earned an MFA degree at the Yale School of Drama in 1977, Blacks career began in theater as a playwright. Also with Rusty Magee, Black wrote the musical The Czar of Rock and Roll, Blacks stand-up comedy began as an opening act for the plays, he was also the master of ceremonies. After a management change at the theater, Black left and began working as a comedian, as well as finding bit parts in television and films. Blacks style of comedy is that of a man who, in dealing with the absurdities of life and his techniques include sarcasm, hyperbole, profanity, shouting and his trademark angry finger-shaking, which bring emphasis to his topics of discussion. He once described his humor as being on the Titanic every single day, Black has described his political affiliation as, Im a socialist, so that puts me totally outside any concept. the Canadians get it. But seriously, most people dont get it, the idea of capping peoples income just scares people. Oh, youre taking money from the rich and these people really need $200 million. Black lists his influences as George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Bill Hicks, Bob Newhart. In 1998, Black starred in his first comedy special on the series Comedy Central Presents and he starred in two additional episodes of the series in 2000 and 2002
15.
Rory Morrison
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Rory David Morrison was a newsreader and continuity announcer for BBC Radio 4. Rory Morrison was born in London in 1964, the eldest of Anne and he was brought up in Malvern, Worcestershire, and was educated at The Chase School and Malvern College. At College, he performed well in drama and art, the English-Speaking Union awarded him a scholarship to Australia. He graduated from Durham University in 1986 with a degree in English Language, Morrison began his radio broadcasting career as a travel reporter and presenter for Beacon Radio, an independent local radio station covering Shropshire, Wolverhampton and the Black Country. He first joined the BBC in 1990, as the presenter of a programme on BBC Radio Leeds. He later worked for two local stations, BBC Radio York and BBC Radio Cleveland. He then moved to the British Forces Broadcasting Service before returning to the BBC as a continuity announcer on Radio 4 in April 1994 and he later joined the newsreading team, and regularly appeared on The News Quiz, as a reader for amusing newspaper cuttings during the programme. Morrison married BBC journalist Nikki Jenkins in 1994, the couple met while working for BBC Radio Leeds, Morrison was diagnosed with Waldenströms macroglobulinemia, a rare type of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, in 2004. After his diagnosis, he involved in raising money for the Lymphoma Association. In 2008, he took part in a walk with other radio newsreaders to Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex. This event was organised for an edition of the radio programme Ramblings. Rory Morrison provided a live continuity announcement at the end of the programme. Rory Morrison died from lymphoma in the University College London Hospital, June 2013
16.
Broadcasting House
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Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast was made on 15 March 1932, the main building is in Art Deco style, with a facing of Portland stone over a steel frame. As part of a consolidation of the BBCs property portfolio in London. This involved the demolition of post-war extensions on the side of the building. The wing was named the John Peel Wing in 2012, after the disc jockey, BBC London, BBC Arabic Television and BBC Persian Television are housed in the new wing, which also contains the reception area for BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra. The main building was refurbished, and a built to the rear. The radio stations BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC World Service transferred to refurbished studios within the building. The extension links the old building with the John Peel Wing, the move of news operations from BBC Television Centre completed in March 2013. Construction of Broadcasting House began in 1928, programmes transferred gradually to the building. On 15 March 1932 the first musical programme was given by the bandleader Henry Hall, Hall also wrote and performed, with his Dance Band, Radio Times, the name of the BBCs schedule publication. The first news bulletin was read by Stuart Hibberd on 18 March, the last transmission from Savoy Hill was on 14 May, and Broadcasting House officially opened on 15 May 1932. George Val Myer designed the building in collaboration with the BBCs civil engineer, the interiors were the work of Raymond McGrath, an Australian-Irish architect. The building is built in two parts, dispensing with the oft-found central light-well of contemporary buildings this size, the central core containing the recording studios was a windowless structure built of brick. The surrounding outer portion, designed for offices and ancillary spaces, is framed and faced using Portland stone. While the outer portion had plenty of windows, the core required special sound-dampened ventilation systems. There were two areas where right of ancient lights would cause height restrictions, Underground structures, including a hundred-year-old sewer, also presented problems during construction. The building is above the Bakerloo line of the London Underground, the Victoria line was tunnelled beneath in the 1960s, noise from passing trains is audible within the radio theatre, but generally imperceptible in recordings. The ground floor was fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the street, the rapid expansion of the BBC meant this never occurred
17.
Central London
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Central London is the innermost part of London, UK. Over time a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. From 2004 to 2008, the London Plan included a sub-region called Central London comprising Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Wandsworth and it had a 2001 population of 1,525,000. The sub-region was replaced in 2008 with a new structure which amalgamated inner and outer boroughs together and this was altered in 2011 when a new Central London sub region was created, now including the City of London and excluding Wandsworth. However, districts at the edge of this subregion such as Streatham, Dulwich. During the Herbert Commission and the subsequent passage of the London Government Bill, the first two were detailed in the 1959 Memorandum of Evidence of the Greater London Group of the London School of Economics. It had an population of 350,000 and occupied 7,000 acres. The area had an population of 400,000 and occupied 8,000 acres. During the passage of the London Government Bill an amendment was put forward to create a central borough corresponding to the used at the 1961 census. The population was estimated to be 270,000
18.
BBC Radio 4 Extra
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BBC Radio 4 Extra is a British digital radio station broadcasting archive repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally,24 hours a day. It is the broadcaster of the BBCs spoken-word archive. It also broadcasts extended and companion programmes to those broadcast on sister station BBC Radio 4, the station launched in December 2002 as BBC7, broadcasting a similar mix of archive comedy, drama and current childrens radio. The station was renamed as BBC Radio 7 in 2008, then relaunched as Radio 4 Extra in April 2011, for the first quarter of 2013, Radio 4 Extra had a weekly audience of 1.642 million people and had a market share of 0. 95%. The station was launched as BBC7 on 15 December 2002 by comedian Paul Merton. The first programme was broadcast at 8pm and was simulcast with Radio 4, the station, referred to by the codename Network Z while in development, was so named to reflect the stations presence on the internet and on digital television in addition to radio. The station broadcast mostly archived comedy and drama, in that the programme was either three or more years old or had been broadcast twice on their original station, the station also broadcast a themed section for Childrens programmes. The segment also hosted the news programme on the network presented by the Newsround team. Because of the stations archive nature the station was scheduled, produced and researched by 17 people, the station was renamed on 4 October 2008 as BBC Radio 7 in an effort to bring it in line with other BBC Radio brands. It also coincided with the introduction of a new logo for the station. As a result, the station relaunched as BBC Radio 4 Extra on Saturday 2 April 2011, the channel uses ten continuity announcers to link between programmes. These currently are Wes Butters, Kathy Clugston, Jim Lee, David Miles, Joanna Pinnock, Susan Rae, Neil Sleat, Alan Smith, Zeb Soanes and Luke Tuddenham. Previous presenters, including those presenting Radio 7, include Penny Haslam, Helen Aitken, Rory Morrison, Steve Urquhart, Alex Riley, the station only operates on digital networks and so has no allocated analogue radio signal. Instead it is broadcast over the internet on the BBC website, on such as Radioplayer and TuneIn. The pan-European nature of this means that the signal can be received across northern Europe. The controller of the station is Gwyneth Williams and is answerable to the Radio board in the BBC and these include extended versions of programmes such as The News Quiz and Desert Island Discs, the broadcast of archived editions of the latter as Desert Island Discs Revisited. It has also included the addition of the programme Ambridge Extra, a more youth-orientated version of long-running radio soap The Archers. Some programming is organised into blocks of similar programmes
19.
Comedian
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A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, a comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comic. Since the 1980s, a new wave of comedy, called alternative comedy, has grown in popularity with its more offbeat and this normally involves more experiential, or observational reporting, e. g. Alexei Sayle, Daniel Tosh, Louis C. K. and Malcolm Hardee. Many comics achieve a cult following while touring famous comedy hubs such as the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal, the Edinburgh Fringe, often a comics career advances significantly when they win a notable comedy award, such as the Edinburgh Comedy Award. Comics sometimes foray into other areas of entertainment, such as film and television, however, a comics stand-up success does not guarantee a films critical or box office success. Comedians can be dated back to 425 BC, when Aristophanes and he wrote 40 comedies,11 of which survive and are still being performed. Aristophanes comedy style took the form of satyr plays, the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare wrote many comedies. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has an ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeares other plays. Charles Chaplin was the most popular comedian of the first half of the 20th century. He wrote comedic silent films such as Modern Times and The Kid and his films still have a major impact on comedy in films today. One of the most popular forms of comedy is stand-up comedy. Stand-up comedy is a monologue performed by one or more people standing on a stage. Bob Hope was the most popular comedian of the 20th century. Other noted stand-up comedians include George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Louis CK, another popular form of modern-day comedy is talk shows where comedians make fun of current news or popular topics. Such comedians include Jay Leno, Conan OBrien, Daniel Tosh, Chris Hardwick, Jimmy Fallon, David Letterman, a third form of modern-day comedy is television programs in which many comedians band together to make skits, such as Saturday Night Live. These shows often receive high ratings, likely because many comedians band together to create jokes, one of the most successful comedians is Ellen Degeneres, who has parlayed her comic career into film, television shows, and hosting major media events. In 1986, Ellen DeGeneres appeared for the first time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson since she began gaining popularity as a comic in the 1980s. Johnny Carson, who launched many contemporary comics careers, would invite them to join him on the couch for one-on-one conversation after their set
20.
Journalist
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A journalist is a person who collects, writes, or distributes news or other current information. A journalists work is called journalism, a journalist can work with general issues or specialize in certain issues. However, most journalists tend to specialize, and by cooperating with other journalists, for example, a sports journalist covers news within the world of sports, but this journalist may be a part of a newspaper that covers many different topics. A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes, and reports on information in order to present in sources, conduct interviews, engage in research, and make reports. The information-gathering part of a job is sometimes called reporting. Reporters may split their time working in a newsroom and going out to witness events or interviewing people. Reporters may be assigned a beat or area of coverage. Depending on the context, the term journalist may include various types of editors, editorial writers, columnists, Journalism has developed a variety of ethics and standards. While objectivity and a lack of bias are of concern and importance, more liberal types of journalism, such as advocacy journalism and activism. This has become prevalent with the advent of social media and blogs, as well as other platforms that are used to manipulate or sway social and political opinions. These platforms often project extreme bias, as sources are not always held accountable or considered necessary in order to produce a written, nor did they often directly experience most social problems, or have direct access to expert insights. These limitations were made worse by a media that tended to over-simplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as analysts, guiding “citizens to a deeper understanding of what was really important. ”Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom, as of November 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 887 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder, crossfire or combat, or on dangerous assignment. The ten deadliest countries for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq, Philippines, Russia, Colombia, Mexico, Algeria, Pakistan, India, Somalia, Brazil and Sri Lanka. The Committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as of December 1st 2010,145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. The ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey, China, Iran, Eritrea, Burma, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cuba, Ethiopia, apart from the physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war reporters, but their offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger
21.
Andy Hamilton
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Andrew Neil Andy Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter, radio dramatist, and novelist. Hamilton was born in Fulham, southwest London, Hamilton first came to notice while performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s he sustained himself by taking jobs at Harrods and his early radio work, mostly on BBC Radio 4 included Week Ending, The News Huddlines and The Million Pound Radio Show. He has since appeared regularly in Chelmsford 123, Have I Got News for You, The News Quiz, QI, Hamilton is frequently invited as a panellist on The News Quiz and as a guest panellist on Im Sorry I Havent a Clue. He is the voice of Dr Elephant, the dentist in the childrens show Peppa Pig and he was also the original voice of Bob Fish, who is also a dentist, in the cartoon Bob and Margaret. Hamilton is also voice of Captain Squid, the pirate in the childrens show Ben & Hollys Little Kingdom, since 1995, Hamilton has written and played the lead role of Satan in the Radio 4 sitcom Old Harrys Game. He toured with his UK stand-up show Hat of Doom in 2008, in 2009, Hamilton presented the BBC Four series Its Only a Theory with Reginald D. Hunter. Hamilton is 5 feet 3 inches tall and he has no thumb on his right hand. He is married to Libby Asher and lives in Wimbledon, south London, the couple have three children, Pip, Robbie and Isobel. co. uk
22.
Jeremy Hardy
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Jeremy James Hardy is an English comedian. Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire and he attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton. He started his career in the early 1980s, and won the Perrier Comedy Award in 1988 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is best known for his work, particularly on The News Quiz, Im Sorry I Havent a Clue. His experiences in Palestine during the Israeli army incursions of 2002 became the subject of a feature documentary Jeremy Hardy vs. the Israeli Army, Hardy wrote a regular column for The Guardian until 2001. His excruciatingly off-key singing is a joke on the radio panel show Im Sorry I Havent a Clue. He was married to American-born actress and comedian Kit Hollerbach, who featured him in the radio sitcoms Unnatural Acts. They adopted a daughter in 1990 and they separated in 2003 and are divorced. He now lives with film-maker Katie Barlow and he was a close friend of comedian Linda Smith, when she died of ovarian cancer on 27 February 2006, he publicly eulogised her in many media and wrote her Guardian obituary. He is currently touring on the tour alongside Francesca Martinez, Michael Rosen. The supporter organised tour is promoting and supporting the Labour leader, the Israeli Army How To Be Official website Jeremy Hardy at the Internet Movie Database Jeremy Hardys Twitter feed
23.
Zoe Lyons
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Zoe Ann Lyons is a British comedian. Lyons graduated from the University of York in 1992 with a degree in psychology and she appeared on the reality television show Survivor in 2001 in its first series and was the 11th of the 14 contestants to be voted out of the competition. She was voted out after two members of her Ular tribe alliance aligned with the winner, Charlotte to vote against her. She was voted out in a tie-breaker, where past votes from previous episodes come in to play, in 2004 Lyons won the Funny Women Awards. Since then, she has toured the UK stand-up circuit, as well as playing regular gigs in London and Brighton, in 2007, her debut solo show, Fight or Flight, was nominated for the best newcomer award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2008, her solo show, Mangled Mantra of the Messed up Modern Mind. Lyons featured in The Independents tenth annual Pink List for 2009, detailing the 101 most influential lesbian, Lyons was placed at number 81. In 2011 as part of her international tour, Lyons was invited to perform Clownbusting at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in Australia. Reviews were favourable, with a critic from Australian Stage reporting, Clownbusting is a magnificently written and delivered show which holds from start to finish. Lyons television credits include appearances on Mock the Week, Michael McIntyres Comedy Roadshow, The Paul OGrady Show, The Wright Stuff and they later lived in Surrey and Glasgow. Lyons first job was in a jam factory in Glasgow, Lyons, who is openly gay, lives in Brighton and since 2015 has been married to a Dutch woman
24.
Fred MacAulay
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Frederick Fred MacAulay is a Scottish comedian. For 18 years, until March 2015, he presented a daily BBC Scotland radio programme MacAulay and he has appeared on numerous TV shows. Born in Perth, MacAulay was educated at Killin Primary School, at Rattray Primary School and Blairgowrie High School, in 1978 he graduated from the University of Dundee with an MA in accountancy and jurisprudence. He went on to work as an accountant in a number of companies, in 1984 he married Aileen, the couple have three children. MacAulays first experience of stand-up comedy came at Bar Point in the West End of Paisley and he enjoyed vocal support from some close friends as he appeared alongside the established Glasgow comedian Bruce Morton. His first on-screen appearance came on STVs stand-up programme The Funny Farm, MacAulay became a full-time professional comedian in 1993. MacAulay has gone on to be a performer at the Edinburgh Fringe. He has presented BBC Radio Scotlands morning show since 1997, and for BBC TV he hosted one series of the talk show McCoist and MacAulay, in 2009, he hosted a panel game on BBC Radio 4 entitled I Guess Thats Why They Call It The News. In 2001 he was elected the Rector of the University of Dundee and was installed in office on 3 May 2001. In 2007, he competed in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy and was the student to be expelled
25.
Lucy Porter
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Lucy Donna Porter is an English actress, writer and comedian. She has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Brighton Festival and she has also a regular voice on BBC Radio 4 in various panel shows, including Quote. Her stand-up style is characterised as chatty and charming while dealing with themes from a womans point of view. Porter was born in Croydon, south London and she is married to Justin Edwards. She is small, describing herself as 4 ft 11 in when appearing on The Rob Brydon Show, in September 2009 Lucy appeared on The One Show on BBC One to do a feature on heights. After a degree in English literature from Manchester University, she worked as a journalist on The Big Issue in The North, Porter began to perform stand-up comedy whilst working as a researcher for Granada Television, on programmes such as The Mrs Merton Show. Her first performance was at a club in Chester, because that was far enough from home if it went badly no one would know her. As an actress, she made appearances in Lifes a Pitch. Her first high-profile acting role was alongside Christian Slater in the version of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. She reprised her role of a nurse for the 2005 London production, in 2005, she made regular appearances on Broken News as Claudia Van Sant. She has been one of the writers for all nine series of Parsons and Naylors Pull-Out Sections, Porter starred in The Powder Room alongside Julia Morris and Gina Yashere, which was also broadcast on BBC Radio 2. She wrote the scripts for two series of BBC Threes Anthea Turner, Perfect Housewife and she has appeared on several panel shows, including the first episode of Rob Brydons Annually Retentive. She appeared on news quiz show Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks. In May 2007, Porter became host of a The Guardian podcast, Many Questions, in June 2007, Porter came second in a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link. Porter appeared in 2007 on ITV2s Comedy Cuts, a programme showcasing the best of the British stand-up comedy circuit, in 2008, she began work as a team captain on the BBC Radio 4 panel game Act Your Age. Lucy Porter has recorded her stand-up show The Good Life for a DVD release by independent label Go Faster Stripe and she was the warm-up act for Mitchell & Webbs television series screenings at the BBC TV Centre. In 2009, Porter took her show The Bare Necessities on a tour, the same month, Lucy appeared on Celebrity Mastermind, achieving a record-breaking score of 35 with Steve Martin as her specialist subject. Porter presented FirstPlay, a digital magazine for European customers on the PlayStation 3
26.
Mark Steel
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Mark Steel is an English comedian, broadcaster, newspaper columnist and author. He is perhaps best known for presenting The Mark Steel Lectures, The Mark Steel Revolution, The Mark Steel Solution, Steel was adopted 10 days after he was born. His adoptive father worked in insurance and his mother was a housewife who supplemented the familys income through factory work and he had a close relationship with his adoptive parents. Steel later told UK newspaper The Guardians Veronica Lee, I knew I was adopted, strangely, I didn’t feel different or special, and I don’t ever remember giving the slightest damn about it. I knew because my very lovely auntie Gwen would tell the story of how she got talking to a girl, Frances. She was in a bit of a state because she was pregnant and her parents didn’t know and she’d run away from home. It was 1959, so this wasn’t easy to deal with, so my auntie Gwen said to her, ‘Well, I’ve got a solution. Have the baby and give it to my brother. ’ So this girl had me in 1960 and I was handed over to Doreen and he grew up in Swanley, Kent. Steel claims that he was expelled from school for attending a course without permission, I thought. The punishment for not coming in is that Im not allowed to come in and he traced his biological mother later in life but she said that she did not want to know him. She died soon after Steel attempted to contact her and he learned that she was from a Scottish working-class family with an active involvement in left-wing politics, and that she had subsequently married an Italian and lived in Rimini. She had met his father at a party in London. Steels biological father was an Egyptian Sephardic Jew whose family left Egypt after Gamal Abdel Nasser became president in the 1950s and his father had subsequently become a multi-millionaire trader on Wall Street, as well as a backgammon champion. He said he remembered Frances vividly but it was all a bit of a shock because he had all the arrangements to have me dispensed with. But she took the money and didnt go through with it, in the late 1970s his adoptive father suffered a mental breakdown and was placed into care at Stone House Hospital. Steel says that his first encounter with social injustice was when he saw how mentally ill patients were being treated in that hospital, the shabby conditions of the home reinforced Steels political beliefs. He is often described as having worked as a repair man. He worked the comedy circuit for years, and has acknowledged that his comedic influences included Alexei Sayle
27.
Armando Iannucci
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Armando Giovanni Iannucci, OBE is a Scottish satirist, writer, television director, and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, Iannucci studied at Oxford University and left work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy. Starting on BBC Scotland and BBC Radio 4, his work with Chris Morris on the radio series On the Hour was transferred to television as The Day Today. A character from series, Alan Partridge, went on to feature in a number of Iannuccis television and radio programmes including Knowing Me, Knowing You. In the meantime, Iannucci also fronted the satirical Armistice review shows and in 2001 created his most personal work, The Armando Iannucci Shows, for Channel 4. Moving back to the BBC in 2005, Iannucci created the political sitcom The Thick of It as well as the spoof documentary Time Trumpet in 2006. Winning funding from the UK Film Council, he directed an acclaimed feature film, In the Loop. As a result of works, he has been described by The Daily Telegraph as the hardman of political satire. Iannucci created the HBO political satire Veep, and was its showrunner for four seasons from 2012 to 2015, other works during this period include an operetta libretto, Skin Deep, and his radio series Charm Offensive. In March 2012, it was announced that he is working on his first novel, Tongue International and his father, also called Armando, is from Naples, while his mother was born in Glasgow to an Italian family. His father, who came to Scotland in 1950, ran a pizza factory, Iannucci has two brothers and a sister. He was educated at St Peters Primary School, St. Aloysius College, Glasgow, the University of Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, in his teens, he thought seriously about becoming a Roman Catholic priest. He abandoned graduate work on 17th-century religious language, with reference to Miltons Paradise Lost. Iannucci first received fame as the producer for On the Hour on Radio 4. Baynham was closely involved with both Morriss and Lee & Herrings work – simultaneously at one point, between 1995 and 1999, Iannucci produced and hosted The Saturday Night Armistice. In 2000, he created two pilot episodes for Channel 4, which became The Armando Iannucci Shows and this was an eight-part series for Channel 4 broadcast in 2001, written with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil. The series consisted of Iannucci pondering pseudo-philosophical and jocular ideas and fantasies in between surreal sketches, Iannucci has been quoted as saying it is the comedy series he is most proud of making. He told The Metro in April 2007 The Armando Iannucci Show on Channel 4 came out around 9/11, people had other things on their minds
28.
Ian Hislop
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Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, writer, broadcaster and editor of the magazine Private Eye. He has appeared on radio and television programmes, and is a team captain on the BBC quiz show Have I Got News for You. Hislop was born on 13 July 1960 in Mumbles, Swansea, to a Scottish father, David Hislop, from Ayrshire, Hislop did not know his grandparents. His paternal grandfather, David Murdoch Hislop, died just before he was born and his maternal grandfather, William Beddows, was originally from Lancashire. When he was five months old, Hislops family began to travel around the world because of his fathers job as a civil engineer, during his infant years, Hislop lived in Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. When Hislop was 12 years old his father died, his mother, Hislop and Newmans association continued when they attended Oxford University together, later working together at Private Eye and on a number of comedy scriptwriting jobs. Hislop applied to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford and his Oxford tutors included Bernard ODonoghue, John Fuller and David Norbrook. While at university, Hislop was actively involved in student journalism and he graduated with a BA in 1981. Hislop married Victoria Hamson on 16 April 1988 in Oxford and they have two children, both born in the London borough of Wandsworth, Emily Helen, who read English at Brasenose College, Oxford, and William David, who read History at Jesus College, Oxford. Hislops wife has a career as an author, and in 2010 Hislop played a role in the Greek television series The Island. The series premiered on 11 October 2010 on Greeces Mega television channel, Hislop enjoys visiting art galleries and museums, and has collected antique cutlery for over three decades. At Oxford, Hislop revived and edited the magazine Passing Wind, for which he interviewed Richard Ingrams, who was editor of Private Eye. Hislops first article appeared in 1980 before he sat his university finals, a parody of The Observer magazines Room of My Own feature, it described an IRA prisoner on the dirty protest decorating his cell in fetching brown. Hislop joined the publication immediately after leaving Oxford, and became editor in 1986 following Ingramss departure, Cook, reportedly drunk after the lunch, instead announced Hislop was welcome aboard. The new editor, dismissive of society gossip, sacked both McKay and Dempster from the magazine without hesitation. As editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop is reputedly the most sued man in English legal history, after the case Hislop quipped, Ive just given a fat cheque to a fat Czech. Hislop told reporters waiting outside the High Court, If thats justice, the award was dropped to £60,000 on appeal. In an interview with Third Way Magazine in 1995 he explained his intentions in his work, Satire is the bringing to ridicule of vice, folly, all the negatives imply a set of positives
29.
Jonathan King
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Jonathan King is an English singer-songwriter, record producer, music entrepreneur, and former television and radio presenter. King first came to prominence in 1965 when Everyones Gone to the Moon, a song which he wrote and sang whilst he was still an undergraduate, had success in Britain. As an independent producer, he discovered and named Genesis in 1967, after founding his own label, UK Records, he went on to release and produce songs for 10cc and the Bay City Rollers. Rod Liddle described him as someone who could storm the pop charts at will, while living in New York in the 1980s, King continued to appear on radio and television in the UK, including on the BBCs Top of the Pops and Entertainment USA. In September 2001 King was convicted of sexual abuse and sentenced to seven years in prison, for having sexually assaulted five boys, aged 14 and 15. In November 2001 he was acquitted of 22 similar charges and he was released on parole in March 2005. King was born in a home in Bentinck Street, Marylebone, London, the first child of Jimmy King and his wife, Ailsa Linley Leon. Originally from New Jersey, Jimmy King had moved to England when he was 14 and he attended Oundle School and Trinity College, Cambridge, before he joined the American Field Service during World War II and later Tootal Ties and Shirts as managing director. Kings birth was a delivery and a muscle on his upper lip was affected during it. King was sent to boarding school, first as a boarder to pre-prep school in Hindhead, Surrey, then. A year later, in 1954, his father died from a heart attack, brookhurst Grange was sold, and the family moved to Cobbetts, a cottage in nearby Forest Green. Music became a passion around this time, King would save his pocket money for train trips to London to watch My Fair Lady, The King and I, Irma la Douce, Salad Days, Damn Yankees and Kismet from the cheap seats in the balcony. He also discovered pop music and bought his first single, Guy Mitchells Singing the Blues, in 1958 King became a boarder at Charterhouse in Godalming, Surrey. He wrote that he loved Charterhouse immediately, with its history and every area of encouragement from sport to intellectual pursuits. Unlike at Stoke House, there were other boys there who appreciated pop music, I kept thick notebooks packed with copies of the weekly charts, adverts for new products, pages of predictions of future hits, reviews and comments about current artistes. Looking at them now, there was no way I could ever have avoided a future in the music industry, King left Charterhouse in 1962 to attend Daviess, a London crammer, for his A levels. Wearing a pinstripe suit and trainers, he approached John Schroeder of Oriole Records, I have been studying the music industry for the last three years and it is one big joke, Schroeder reported him as saying. Anyone can make it if theyre clever and can fool a few people, after hearing Kings demo, Schroeder booked a studio session with an orchestra but found that King could not sing in tune
30.
Sue Perkins
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Susan Elizabeth Sue Perkins is an English comedian, broadcaster, actress and writer, born in East Dulwich, south London. Perkins was ranked sixth in The Independent on Sundays 2014 Rainbow List and has been in the list every year since 2008, Perkins was born on 22 September 1969 in south London, where she grew up in Croydon with her two younger siblings and parents. Her father worked for a car dealer and her mother was employed as a secretary. She was educated at Croham Hurst School, a independent school for girls in South Croydon, Greater London. She later studied English at New Hall at the University of Cambridge, while at Cambridge, she was a member of the Footlights, where she met Mel Giedroyc. She was Footlights president during the academic year 1990–91, Perkins and creative partner Mel Giedroyc took their first steps into television under the name Mel and Sue. The duo began to gain success and were short-listed for the Daily Express Best Newcomers award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, in January 2015, Giedroyc and Perkins began hosting their own daytime chat show on ITV called Mel and Sue. In August 2015, it was announced that Mel and Sue had been cancelled by ITV, in 2002, Perkins appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in aid of four charities, Centrepoint, National Missing Persons Helpline, Rethink and Samaritans. During the series, she interacted with series winner Mark Owen from Take That, Perkins was evicted from the house on Day 9. She provided the voice for Messenger Bird in Dinotopia, produced for Hallmark Entertainment, in 2003, Perkins joined Channel 4 morning television programme RI, SE. In the same year, Perkins also provided additional material for BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. Perkins has appeared on several BBC shows including Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, QI, Room 101, Celebrity Weakest Link, Question Time, Perkins has commented that the BBC pay her a regular wage for blabbering on random shows. She has made appearances as a reporter for Armando Iannucci vehicle The Saturday Night Armistice. Perkins hosted the series of Good Evening, Rockall, a short-lived, news-orientated panel game shown on BBC Choice. In 2006, she appeared in BBC Fours vocabulary quiz show Never Mind the Full Stops and she was also a team captain on ITVs Win, Lose or Draw Late. During the same decade she made appearances on Celebrity MasterChef, Celebrity Poker, in April 2007, she participated in the television series, Edwardian Supersize Me for the BBC. She was joined by food critic Giles Coren, the series focused on spending a week eating the equivalent of a wealthy Edwardian couples food, whilst wearing period clothing. Following the series, Perkins and Coren were commissioned to present a new series called, the premise of Edwardian Supersize Me was replicated and focused on other periods throughout history
31.
Chris Addison
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Christopher David Chris Addison is an English comedian, writer, actor and director from Manchester. He is perhaps best known for his role as a regular panellist on Mock the Week and he is also known for his lecture-style comedy shows, two of which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4. He also co-created and starred in the BBC Two sitcom Lab Rats, on radio, he previously hosted the weekly comedy news satire show 7 Day Sunday on BBC Radio 5 Live from 2009 to 2010. Addison is a fully paid-up member of The Magic Circle, Addison was born in Cardiff, Wales to English parents and moved back with his parents to Worsley, near Manchester, when he was four. On the BBC Radio 4 programme Chain Reaction, he stated that he himself a middle class Mancunian. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, an independent school for boys in Manchester and this was followed by the University of Birmingham, where he studied English Literature with the original intent of becoming a theatre director. After his directing plans didnt work out, he drifted into comedy as a creative outlet. He currently lives in Bromley, South East London, with his wife, Addisons first solo show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was in 2003, for which he was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Perrier Awards. He continued to bring shows to the Fringe for several years, in 2005 he won the City Life Comedian of the Year Award, a stand-up competition in the North West of England. It ran for 14 episodes over three series on BBC Radio 4, ending in 2006, in August 2005, Radio 4 aired The Ape That Got Lucky, Addisons adaptation of his 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show of the same name. This programme featured fellow comedians Geoffrey McGivern, Jo Enright and Dan Tetsell, on 8 May 2006, The Ape That Got Lucky won the gold award in the comedy production category at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. Addison hosted a series of the Radio 4 comedy series 4 Stands Up, as host, Addison performs a short opening set and introduces the acts, in the style of a compère at a comedy club. The first episode was broadcast on 2 April 2009, on 10 May 2009, Addison hosted the Sunday Night Show on Absolute Radio in place of fellow stand-up comedian Iain Lee who was away due to being on his honeymoon. Addison hosted 7 Day Sunday, a news show on BBC Radio 5 Live along with his co-hosts Sarah Millican. The first episode aired in January 2010, Addison presented the second series of the show until February 2011, when he was replaced by Al Murray. He is also friends with Geoff Lloyd on Absolute Radio and has made a few appearances on Geoff Lloyds Hometime Show. Since 2005, Addison has appeared in the BBC television satirical comedy series The Thick of It as Oliver Ollie Reeder and he appeared in all episodes of the first three series, as well as the two specials Rise of the Nutters and Spinners and Losers. Chris Addison reprised his role as Ollie when The Thick of It returned for a fourth series, Addison also featured in the film spin-off of The Thick of It, titled In the Loop, playing Toby Wright, a character very similar to his part in the television original
32.
Kate Adie
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Kathryn Kate Adie /ˈeɪdi/, OBE DL, is an English journalist. Her most high-profile role was that of chief correspondent for BBC News. She currently presents From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4, Adie was born in Northumberland, within sight of St Marys Island. She was adopted as a baby by a Sunderland pharmacist and his wife, John and Maud Adie and her career with the BBC began as a station assistant at BBC Radio Durham, then she became a producer for Radio Bristol. She then switched to television, directing outside broadcasts and she was a reporter for regional TV News in Plymouth and Southampton, and joined the national news team in 1976. Her big break was the London Iranian Embassy siege in 1980, as that evenings duty reporter, Adie was first on the scene as the Special Air Service stormed the embassy. The BBC interrupted coverage of the World Snooker Championships and Adie reported live, Adie was thereafter regularly dispatched to report on disasters and conflicts throughout the 1980s, including the American bombing of Tripoli in 1986, and the Lockerbie bombing of 1988. She was promoted to Chief News Correspondent in 1989 and held the role for fourteen years, One of her first assignments was to report the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Major assignments followed in the Gulf War, the war in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, in 2003 Adie withdrew from front-line reporting. She currently works as a freelance journalist and also as a public speaker and she hosted two five-part series of Found, a Leopard Films production for BBC One, in 2005 and 2006. The series considered the life experiences of adults affected by adoption and her close-to-the-action approach once caused her to be shot at by an irate Libyan. The shot nicked her collar bone but she did not suffer permanent harm, indeed, it was this approach that elicited the wry adage that a good decision is getting on a plane at an airport where Kate Adie is getting off. While she was in Yugoslavia, her leg was injured in Bosnia, Adie is also a best-selling author, she published her autobiography, The Kindness of Strangers, in 2002. A second book, Corsets to Camouflage, Women and War, was published in 2003, in 2005, Adie published her third book Nobodys Child, which covers the history of foundling children and questions of identity. A fourth book, Into Danger, People Who Risk Their Lives for Work, was published in September 2008, in September 2013 Adie published Fighting on the Home Front, The Legacy of Women in World War One. Adie was appointed an OBE in 1993 and won the Richard Dimbleby Award from BAFTA in 1990 and she has honorary degrees from many universities, including York St John University and the University of Bath. She is an Honorary Professor of Journalism at the University of Sunderland, a profile from The Observer that speculates on Adies professional relationships Honorary degree from Nottingham Trent University for contribution to journalism and broadcasting
33.
Clive Anderson
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Clive Stuart Anderson is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts during his 15-year legal career, on BBC Radio 4, then later Channel 4. His Scottish father was manager of the Bradford & Bingleys Wembley branch, Anderson attended Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, where, from 1974 to 1975, he was President of Footlights. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1976 and became a practising barrister, Anderson was involved in the fledgling alternative comedy scene in the early 1980s and was the first act to come on stage at The Comedy Store when it opened in 1979. He made his name as host of the television comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway. Anderson hosted his own chat-show, Clive Anderson Talks Back, on Channel 4, Anderson moved to the BBC in 1996 and the shows name changed to Clive Anderson All Talk and was aired on BBC1. In one incident in 1996, Anderson interviewed the Bee Gees, Anderson once had a glass of water poured over his head by a perturbed Richard Branson. He also famously said to Jeffrey Archer, Theres no beginning to your talents, Archer retorted that The old jokes are always the best, for Anderson to reply Yes, Ive read your books. The last series of Clive Anderson All Talk aired in 2001 and he has been a frequent participant on Have I Got News for You, making ten appearances in total. He has also appeared on QI. In 2007, he featured as a regular panellist on the ITV comedy show News Knight, one heated exchange on HIGNFY occurred when he scathingly joked to fellow guest Piers Morgan that the Daily Mirror was now, thanks to Morgan, almost as good as The Sun. When asked by Morgan, What do you know about editing newspapers and he swiftly replied, About as much as you do. As a journalist for the BBC, he travelled around the world looking at problems in out-of-the-way places, featured episodes on monkeywrenching in American logging and 419 scams in Nigeria. In 2005 he presented the short-lived quiz Back in the Day for Channel 4, in January 2008, he appeared on the second episode of Thank God Youre Here and won. On 25 February 2008, he started presenting Brainbox Challenge, a new game show, in 2008, he presented a reality TV talent show-themed television series produced by the BBC entitled Maestro, starring eight celebrities who are famous amateurs with a passion for cajun music. In 2009, Anderson was the television host of the BBCs Last Night of the Proms, shows he has presented include, Clive Anderson Talks Back Our Man in… Whose Line Is It Anyway. Discovery Mastermind Back in the Day Clive Anderson All Talk Brainbox Challenge Maestro The Funny Side of. If I Ruled the World In recent years, Clive Anderson has combined his continuing interest in the law with his role as a presenter in the regular series Unreliable Evidence on Radio 4
34.
Jo Brand
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Josephine Grace Jo Brand is an English comedian, writer and actress. She is currently the presenter of The Great British Bake Off, in 2003, Brand was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. Brand was born in Wandsworth, London and her mother was a social worker and her father was a structural engineer. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers, when she was about four, the family moved to the village of St Marys Platt near Sevenoaks in Kent, and a year later, to Benenden. Brand was educated at St Marys Platt Primary School, Benenden Village Primary School, Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School until the age of 16, Hastings High School for Girls and Bexhill College. She then worked as a nurse for ten years, at the South London Bethlem, Cefn Coed Hospital in Swansea. Brand was persuaded by agent Malcolm Hardee to begin a career in stand-up comedy and she was part of the British alternative comedy movement, working in London alternative comedy clubs in the mid-1980s, and appearing initially on the Saturday Live television show. She shared a flat with fellow comic and comedy club owner Ivor Dembina, during her first gig, she faced an audience from hell and, waiting to perform last, drank seven pints of lager. She thus faced her first live audience with a bursting bladder, as Brand ascended the stage, a male heckler started shouting, Fuck off, you fat cow and kept up the abuse until her performance finished. There was no applause at the end of her act, Brands early style involved her delivering jokes in a bored monotone, one line at a time, with pauses in between. It drew heavily from pop culture and the media, with many jokes containing references to well-known celebrities, with her Doc Marten boots, her large size, and her short hair, her image remained the same for most of the 1980s and 1990s. Her appearance and material led to rumours that she was a lesbian. In 2007, Brand narrated Laughter & Tears, The Les Dawson Story, a tribute to Les Dawson. In 2010, Brand took part in Channel 4s Comedy Gala, Brand played the Demon Dinner Lady in the 2011 British live-action film Horrid Henry the Movie. She also provided a voiceover for the Lyric Hammersmith Theatres 2011 pantomime Aladdin, in August 2015, Brand judged the first ever Class Clowns competition at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she also announced the winner at the Gilded Balloon on the night. Brand has written an adaptation to her novel The More You Ignore Me. She will also star in the film, in 1993, Brand became a resident panellist, along with Tony Hawks, on BBC monologue show The Brain Drain. Brand has had several television series, and presented shows such as Jo Brands Commercial Breakdown
35.
Rory Bremner
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Roderick Keith Ogilvy Rory Bremner, FKC is a Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political satire and impressions of British public figures. He is also known for his work on Mock the Week as a panellist, award-winning show Rory Bremner. Who Else. and sketch comedy series Bremner, Bird, Bremner was born in Edinburgh, the son of Major Donald Stuart Ogilvy Bremner and his second wife Ann Simpson. He has a brother and an older half-sister. Bremner was educated at Clifton Hall School and Wellington College, and then studied Modern Languages at Kings College London, graduating with a degree in French and German in 1984. In 2009, Bremner was the subject of the series Who Do You Think You Are. in a quest to research about his father and his father had served in the 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment during the Second World War and was often away from home. Bremner travelled to s-Hertogenbosch, the Dutch city liberated by the East Lancs, while at university, he worked on the cabaret circuit in the evenings and was also active in a student drama club. He first came into the limelight in 1985, when his single, Bremner contributed to And Theres More, Spitting Image, and Week Ending, and by 1987 he had his own BBC2 show, Now – Something Else. He later moved to Channel 4 with Rory Bremner, Who Else. where his output became more satirical, having teamed up with veterans John Bird and John Fortune, he hosted Bremner, Bird and Fortune, which won numerous awards. Occasional one-off specials were shown, with Bremner impersonating Tony Blair, Gordon Brown. Bremner now regularly performs on Sunday AM, impersonating politicians, with a review of recent political events and he has also presented a BBC Radio 4 series, Rory Bremners International Satirists, in which he talks to comedians and impressionists from other European countries. In September 2009, he presented a BBC Four documentary, Rory Bremner, in the run-up to the 2010 UK General Election, he performed a 20-date Election Battlebus Tour, his first stand-up comedy tour in five years. Bremner has translated three operas into English, Der Silbersee by Kurt Weill, Carmen by Georges Bizet, one of the plays—the short comedy of manners A Respectable Wedding—was newly translated by Bremner, who also penned the title to the series. Bremner took part in the 2011 series of Strictly Come Dancing and his dance partner in the series was Erin Boag and they were eliminated 3rd, on 23 October 2011. In 2012, Bremner appeared on the BBC Four programme, The Story of Light Entertainment, in January 2013, he began hosting a new Channel 4 quiz show, Face the Clock. In 2013, Bremner presented Rory Goes to Holyrood, a show for BBC Scotland that takes a satirical look at Scottish politics. The programme was announced in March 2013, with plans for it to be aired later in the year, in a BBC press release for the show, Bremner spoke of his reasons for recording the programme. Coming back to Scotland in the run-up to the Referendum, I realised I knew almost nothing about Scottish Politics, and why is there so little political comedy in Scotland outside the Parliament. Time to make sense of it all, the programme featured Bremner presenting a one-off stand-up routine at Edinburghs Assembly Hall, airing on 13 June 2013
36.
Marcus Brigstocke
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Marcus Alexander Brigstocke also known by the stage names Montague Monty Forest and Philippe Lavavaseur is an English comedian, actor and satirist who also holds French citizenship. He has worked extensively in stand-up comedy, television, radio and he is particularly associated with the 6. 30pm comedy slot on BBC Radio 4, having frequently appeared on several of its shows, including The Now Show. He also attended Netherton Hall School, a school in Farway. He then attended the University of Bristol, where he studied Drama, moving to London with his then girlfriend, later wife, during the early nineties Brigstocke worked part-time as a podium dancer at the nightclub Ministry of Sound. He also worked on a North Sea oil rig around this time, many of the central themes of Brigstockes work were first addressed during his time as a student at the University of Bristol. While at Bristol he often performed in the comedy trio Club Seals, Brigstocke has a successful radio career including The Now Show and Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off. The Now Show provided an outlet for his dislike of David Blaine, referring to Blaine himself as a Git Wizard. Brigstocke hailed the failure of Blaines Drowned Alive as proof that Blaine is not special, not magic and he increasingly enjoyed mainstream success, appearing on such broadly popular TV shows such as Have I Got News for You and Jack Dees Live at the Apollo series. Brigstocke plays an arts journalist named Marcus in the Neil Gaiman film A Short Film About John Bolton, on 9 April 2006, Brigstocke appeared in BBC Radio 4s Classic Serial adaptation of The Code of the Woosters as Bertie Wooster with Andrew Sachs as Jeeves. Brigstocke hosts a programme on BBC4, The Late Edition. It is loosely based on the format made popular by the American programme The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. This commitment led to his absence from the final two Now Show series of 2006 with his place filled by other comedians referred to by the rest of the cast as our replacement Marcus Brigstocke and he did however return to series in 2007. Brigstockes first stand up comedy DVD Planet Corduroy, produced by Phoenix Film & Television Productions, in April 2008, Brigstocke and fellow comedian and snowboarder, Andrew Maxwell founded the Altitude Festival - a comedy and music festival in the ski resort of Meribel, in the French Alps. In 2009, Brigstocke starred in the UK tour of the American live improv show, Brigstockes second stand-up show God Collar toured in 2009. In June 2010, He announced that he had signed a deal with Transworld to turn the God Collar Tour into a book. He has also worked for television shows aimed at children for CBBC, Stupid. one of the best-known jokes Brigstocke uses is an ironic commentary on the controversy regarding the influence of video games on children. This joke is frequently quoted on the internet and often attributed to figures in electronics. I wrote it, then I took the rest of the day off as I was so chuffed with it, I am gutted that it has been claimed and passed around by so many people
