Lee Hurst

‘Lee Hurst is one of only a handful of comedians who very rarely swears on stage.’

After earning his spurs on the UK comedy circuit Lee became the warm-up man for many TV shows including Have I Got News For You?

The producer Harry Thompson needed a warm-up man for the pilot of a new comedy sports quiz, They Think It’s All Over, and hired Lee in to do it. Unbeknownst to Lee, Harry actually wanted Lee to be on the show. Although he had no sporting prowess and he knew next to nothing about football, he won over close to 12 million viewers each week with his quick witted banter. Lee appeared as a regular panelist in the first five series of They Think It’s All Over leaving in 1997.

Lee’s other TV credits include presenting Shark Tank, Saturday Live, Salvage Squad and The Warehouse, and guest appearances on The Stand Up Show and Have I Got News For You.

Lee was the creator of Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment, which ran for five series on Channel 5 between 1997 and 2000.

On radio, Lee has guested on The Steve Wright Show, Euromix, Two Men and a Transmitter and The Robert Elms Show. He was team captain on Hold The Front Page. He also presented Wriggling with Eels, a study of Cockney comedians for BBC Radio 4.

In 2000, Lee decided to semi-retire and concentrate on running his comedy venue, the Backyard Comedy Club, acting as resident compere.

In 2010, Lee closed this club, demolished the building and in its place Lee built a seven storey hotel with the new Backyard Comedy Club opening on the ground floor

To keep busy whilst the new club was being built Lee wanted to keep his hand in and so he performed a show called ‘Man v Woman’ in a few venues around the country. This was very well received and it spurred Lee on to book a 50 date tour called ‘Too Scared to Leave the House’ and then another tour called ‘Things That Make You Go Aaarggh’.

This was then followed by the 9th full tour show Lee has done,  ‘Comedy Show No.9’ began in 2016 and was extended into 2017 due to great demand. Lee completed his 10th stand up show ‘Mucking About’ in 2018 and has gone on to open a string of brand new comedy nights in the South East of England under the banner ‘The Local Comedy Club’,with Lee taking on his 12th venue in 2020