Al’s other TV appearances as The Pub Landlord includes three appearances on The Royal Variety Performance (ITV1), hosting both Live At The Apollo (BBC1) and Edinburgh and Beyond (Paramount Comedy Channel) and his edgy quiz show Fact Hunt (ITV1). He has also released six best selling live DVDs My Gaff, My Rules, Glass of White Wine For The Lady, Giving it Both Barrels, Live At The Palladium, The Beautiful British Tour and Barrel of Fun.

Out of character, Al is the host of 7 Day Sunday a weekly programme for BBC Radio 5, which has just finished its third series. He has also hosted Al Murray’s German Adventure, BBC Four, an historical series about the art and culture of Germany (without mentioning the War) and kicked off 2012 with Al Murray’s New Year Resolutions on BBC Radio 2 as well as appearances on QI (BBC1), What’s So Funny… (Channel 4), That Sunday Night Show (ITV), Frank Skinner’s Opinionated (BBC2), Have I Got News For You (BBC1) and The Road To Berlin, a 10 episode documentary series on WWII for Discovery.

Al’s huge stand-up tours have made him one of the most popular live comedy acts in the country, with sell out shows including the O2 Arena. He won the Perrier Award (after a record four successive nominations) and secured Olivier Award nominations for both of his celebrated sell-out West End runs. Internationally, Al has forged an enviable reputation with numerous sell-out runs in Melbourne, Sydney, Montreal and New Zealand.

His Pub Landlord, Book Of British Common Sense, was a best selling title when published in both paperback and hardback with 300,000 sales. His second hit book Think Yourself British was published in hardback in 2009 and was followed in 2010 with his ultimate pub quiz book Al Murray The Pub Landlord’s Great British Pub Quiz Book.

QUOTES:

“I laughed so much, lager came out of my nose.” – The Sunday Times

“The funniest live comedy show of the decade, possibly the entire century.” – The Observer

Alan’s three-year working partnership with his Sunday Night Project co-host, Justin Lee Collins, came to an amicable end in 2009 with both Alan and Justin off to pursue solo projects. ‘It was an amazing show,’ said Alan, ‘but there comes a time in a man’s life when you have to step away from the leotard and stilettos and move on.’

Elsewhere on the telly, Alan’s inimitable Channel 4 quiz show, Alan Carr’s Celebrity Ding Dong first aired in 2008 and on Red Nose Day 2009 Alan co-presented Comic Relief on BBC One as well as joining the men’s team for Comic Relief Does The Apprentice, alongside Jonathan Ross, Gerald Ratner, Gok Wan and Jack Dee. His team lost and Alan was fired (or as Alan Sugar put it ‘I’m doing you a favour’).

The DVD of Alan’s 2007 stand-up show, Tooth Fairy Live topped the HMV charts and was a Christmas 2007 best-seller. His autobiography Look Who It Is! was published in September 2008 by HarperCollins.

Son of one-time Northampton Town FC player and later manager, Alan Carr sportingly took on the Arsenal ladies team in 2008 in aid of Comic Relief. He sports some great moves. Watch Alan vs Arsenal Ladies.

Alan’s been described as ‘the spiritual son of Frankie Howard’ (City Life). His formative years were spent working in a supermarket as well as a call centre for lost and stolen credit cards. In 2002, his Edinburgh Festival show ‘Me ‘Ead’s Spinnin’ earned a four star review in Edinburgh bible, The List as well as the The Daily Telegraph’s Critic’s Choice. There were no surprises then, in 2003, when ‘I Love Alan Carr’ was rated a four star show in both the The Scotsman and The Independent, but it was at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 that things really started to happen for our Alan. He earned five star reviews across the board in The Independent, The Scotsman and Three Weeks as well as numerous ‘Pick Of The Fringe’ accolades. It was here that Alan came to the attention of the Channel 4 bigwigs.

Alan has gone from strength to strength appearing at comedy festivals all over the world, Melbourne, Montreal’s ‘Just For Laughs’ and Kilkenny as well as touring the length and breadth of Great Britain with his ‘Tooth Fairy’ tour culminating in a three night sell-out run at the Hammersmith Apollo. Alan doesn’t just perform for commoners, he has performed for her Majesty The Queen at the Royal Variety Performance too.

TV & Radio

Alan Carr: Chatty Man (Channel 4)
Going Out with Alan Carr (BBC Radio 2)
Alan Carr’s Comedy Outings (BBC Radio 2)
Alan Carr’s Celebrity Ding Dong (Channel 4)
The Sunday Night Project (previously Friday Night Project) (Channel 4)
Live From The Apollo (BBC1)
Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, guest (BBC1)
Graham Norton Show – BBC1
The Paul O’Grady Show, guest (Channel 4)
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Take Away (ITV1)
Top Gear, guest (BBC2)
8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4)
TV Heaven TV Hell (Channel 4)
Alan also covers for Adam & Joe and Stephen Merchant on BBC 6 Music

QUOTES

‘Sharp, sassy material with pitch perfect comic timing’ – The List

‘Bellyachingly funny’ – The Sunday Telegraph

‘Joyous stuff that most of us can relate to without it sounding clichéd, and it is delivered effortlessly by a comedian who owns the space he is working in so much, he could put up a flag’ – The Independent

Born in 1965 at Carrickmacross, Monaghan, Ireland, Ardal is one of six children to Rory O’Hanlon, an Irish politician and doctor.

After attending Dublin University, Ardal decided that he wanted to try his hand at stand up. But at the time Dublin had no real live comedy scene so he and a group of friends established Ireland’s first alternative comedy club – The Comedy Cellar, based in Dublin.

In 1994, he won the title of Comedy Newcomer of the Year and was soon spotted by Graham Linehan, one of the makers of Father Ted and the rest is history.

Making the role of Dougal Maguire his own, he created an iconic comedy creation and kick started his television comedy career.

In 1998, Ardal published his first novel entitled, Talk Of The Town. It was also published in the US under the rather dodgy title Knick Knack Paddy Whack.

Since then Ardal has been regular host on the long-running BBC comedy series The Stand Up Show, as well as Big Bad World.

He also broke into the mainstream playing down-to-earth superhero Thermoman AKA mild-mannered shopkeeper, George Sunday in the BBC sitcom, My Hero.

Raised in the West Country, Bill was once in a group called The Famous Five – an unsuccessful band with only four members. Although a talented musician, Bill always felt an urge to slip jokes into the music. This didn’t work out so, harbouring theatrical ambitions, he spent the early 80s touring with a Welsh Experimental theatre troupe, and appearing on stage with the Workers’ Revolutionary Party.

He supplemented these with stints as a lounge pianist, and a keyboard player in a jazz trio. It was a John Hegley gig that finally inspired him to fuse the music, jokes and theatricality and become a stand-up comedian. Bill formed the Rubber Bishops with Toby Longworth in 1984, using cassocks borrowed from a church in Edinburgh. They became well known on the club circuit for their off-the-wall musical comedy. Sometimes having to travel to several gigs in one night, Bill became something of an authority on motorway service stations. When Toby left the Rubber Bishops in 1989 to join the RSC, Bill and Martin Stubbs continued with the Rubber Bishops till 1994.

After the Rubber Bishops, Bill teamed up with Sean Lock for 1994 Edinburgh show Rock, before going solo in 1995 with Cosmic Jam and earning a Perrier nomination. This led to a 1996 TV broadcast of the show, featuring a souped up X-Wing-esque keyboard and a giant papier mache ant suspended from the ceiling.

In 1998 he wrote and starred in BBC Two show, Is it Bill Bailey?; a mixture of musical parodies, surreal sketches, and extended monologues on subjects such as the fine line between genius and madness and existential biscuit aisles.

The turn of the century brought a starring role in award-winning sitcom Black Books as increasingly deranged ex-accountant Manny Bianco, and guest appearances in acclaimed comedy Spaced as Bilbo Bagshot – comic store owner and die hard Hawk the Slayer fan.

Bill’s 2001 tour Bewilderness was a commercial and critical success, with The New York Times calling him “a treat for the funny bone, the brain and the ear”, and The Telegraph pronouncing him “a hobbit with a wicked sense of humour”.

Among other things, Bewilderness demonstrated Bill’s wide range of musical knowledge, making him an ideal choice to take over from Sean Hughes as team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2002. He remained in the captain’s chair on the show for 11 series before departing in 2008 to concentrate on developing other aspects of his career.

Bill’s next big tour, Part Troll, was met with equal acclaim and achieved success all over the world. Its beginnings were at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2003, a year when Bill also branched out as a dramatic actor in an extremely well-received production of 12 Angry Men, as the restrained Juror 4. Two years later he assumed the vastly different role of the slouchy, unkempt Oscar in The Odd Couple, and received equally excellent reviews.

In 2006 Bill premiered his show Steampunk in Edinburgh, and appeared on our screens on Sunday afternoons hosting Wild Thing I Love You, a Channel 4 wildlife show calling for Bill and his team to come up with innovative solutions to animals’ problems and in 2007 Bill took his audio-visual comedic extravaganza, Tinselworm, on a sold-out arena tour of the kingdom.

In 2008, Bill appeared in Channel Four’s Skins, and performed at a host of summer festivals, including the inaugural Comedy Session at the iconic Eden Project. He toured Australia and New Zealand with Tinselworm and then decided to make a stop at The Royal Albert Hall in order to perform Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra with Anne Dudley and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Bill finished a ten week run at London’s Gielgud Theatre early in 2009 and followed that with a summer tour of the UK, Bill Bailey: Live, for which (amongst other subjects) Bill drew inspiration from Darwin and all things evolutionary. Then came a nationwide tour of Bill Bailey’s Remarkable guide to the Orchestra (performing with various orchestras), to coincide with the DVD release of the same name, culminating in a performance at London’s O2 Arena.

Bill Bailey’s Birdwatching Bonanza was transmitted in January 2010 on Sky1 HD and Sky1 where Bill played host to two celebrity teams in a series of tough, competitive bird watching challenges. In March, he appeared at the O2 for Channel 4′s Comedy Gala to raise money for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, and followed that with an appearance as Farmer Macreadie in Emma Thompson’s feature film, Nanny McPhee and The Big Bang.

The Spring of 2010 saw the genesis of what would become Bill’s Dandelion Mind show. Bill toured the highlands and North of England (during which he hot footed it back to Kew Gardens for a day to have a pitcher plant named after him – the ‘Nepenthes Bill Bailey’ – at the Chelsea Flower Show), performing the show in the open air to a very large crowd at Bristol City’s football ground – Ashton Gate Stadium, before traveling to Dublin’s O2 to record his next DVD.

Bill played the part of Angus the hangman for John Landis’s feature, Burke and Hare, released in November 2010, and which coincided with the start of a 10 week West End run at the Wyndham’s Theatre in London with his Dandelion Mind show.

Little Crackers series was transmitted in December 2010, marking the debut of a raft of new British-originated comedies for Sky 1 HD. Featuring Carpark Babylon a 12 minute film written, co-directed by and starring Bill, in which his character temporarily forgets that Christmas is about giving, not gadgetry, the series also included films by Julia Davis, Stephen Fry, Catherine Tate, Meera Syal, Dawn French, Victoria Wood, Chris O’Dowd, Jo Brand, David Baddiel, Julian Barratt and Kathy Burke.

In January 2011 Bill hosted Comic’s Choice for Channel Four – a five episode celebration of comedy and comedic talent which was broadcast nightly in the run-up to the British Comedy Awards . Each episode saw Bill chatting to a British A-list comedian (Alan Davies, Lee Mack, Jo Brand, Jessica Hynes, Sean Lock) about their favourite comedy performers, actors and shows.

Directed by Phil Traill, the British snowboarding romantic comedy feature film Chalet Girl (Powder Girl for the USA release) came out in cinemas in February 2011 and saw Bill play a Dad called Bill, starring alongside Ed Westwick, Bill Nighy and Brooke Shields.

June saw Bill featured in the line up at The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival – a four-day, multi-stage camping festival held on a 700-acre farm in Tennessee every year. Bonnaroo brings together some of the best performers in rock and roll, along with dozens of artists in complementary styles such as jazz, Americana, hip-hop, electronica, and just about any contemporary music you can think of. Rolling Stone magazine named this revolutionary entertainment experience one of the 50 moments that changed the history of rock and roll, and it certainly geared Bill up for his next rock experience…

…In July 2011 Bill headlined the Saturn Stage at the Sonisphere Festival, Knebworth, sharing a line-up that included Slayer, Motorhead, Biffy Clyro and Metallica. Bill found himself faced with the daunting prospect of performing in front of a huge crowd of (quite possibly) rain-drenched metal-heads, there to see the likes of Slipknot, and, thinking there may be safety in numbers, he set about putting together a band. Bill was very fortunate to assemble a great bunch of musicians, especially as it turned out to be the biggest gig of his life to date with over 60,000 in the crowd.

It was as a result of this that the album Bill Bailey In Metal was produced and released in November 2011 on CD and download. Despite its title, it is an album of many musical styles, designed to delight both metal and non-metal fans alike. Another rock point-to-note is that Bill also guested with Deep Purple at The Royal Albert Hall for a Sunflower Jam fundraiser, which was one of the Summer’s highlights for Bill.

September saw him faring across the pond in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto before gearing up for his next UK arena tour: Dandelion Mind (Gently Modified) in the Winter of 2011, making a pitstop to record the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. The seventh Dr Who Christmas special since the show’s revival in 2005 brings a very busy year to a close. With a smattering of QI episodes, a Hustle and an appearance in Jo Brand’s Big Splash in there for good measure, it’s goodbye 2011.

2012 will see Bill continuing to develop more ideas for film and television with his own production company, Glassbox Productions (formed in November 2007), who are responsible for bringing to the screen Tinselworm, Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra and Dandelion Mind.

Danny began his stand up career in 1998. A year later he won The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award, the biggest national competition in the UK for new comics. In 2001, Danny debuted his first solo show at the Edinburgh Festival to audience enrapture and critical acclaim. Since then, he has continued to build on his stand up success in the UK, with 9 return visits to the Edinburgh Fringe, with his latest offerings packing out the biggest venues in town.

But, his success at home tells only a small part of the story. Since his first visit abroad to the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2003, Danny has become one of the most globally successful and prolific comics working in the world today. He has built up a massive following in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where he regularly tours record-breaking shows. As probably the most travelled comedian working in the world today, Danny’s unique brand of story-telling and razor sharp wit has been described as “effortlessly funny”, and the stand up equivalent of Bill Bryson.

Danny’s first two DVD’s ‘Live at The Opera House’, and ‘Live at the Athenaeum’ released only in Australia and New Zealand, enjoyed huge success. And in early 2012, Danny recorded his first worldwide DVD in his home town of Edinburgh, ‘Live At The Festival Theatre’ which is scheduled for release in the UK this Autumn, and everywhere else soon after. In addition to regular appearances on Canada’s ‘Just For Laughs’ galas, Danny has also performed TV spots on ‘Live At The Apollo’ in the UK and ‘The David Letterman Show’ in the US. He has also recorded a highly prestigious one-hour Comedy Central Special which aired in North America.

In early 2012, Danny returned to Canada for a massive theatre tour across the country, and later this year he will be on tour throughout theatres in the UK. Danny Bhoy’s worldwide fan base continues to grow at pace. 2012 promises to be another busy year for the gifted young Scot.

“He creates a remarkable intimacy with his audience. A must-see.” – The Age, Australia

“His routines have the mark of those which are quoted from, for years to come.” – The Herald, UK

For the past ten years Derren has created TV and stage performances that have stunned audiences, debunked the paranormal and encouraged many to improve and enhance their own mental abilities. His first show appeared in 2000, Derren Brown: Mind Control, and followed with Trick of the Mind, Trick or Treat and a series of Specials including the controversial Russian Roulette and the hugely popular Events.

Derren is a keen writer and has penned four books to date. Whilst his first two books, Absolute Magic and Pure Effect, are both out of print his third release Tricks of the Mindspent over 30 weeks on the Amazon best-seller list. His fourth release Confessions of a Conjurer was released in October 2010.

Derren has consistently stunned audiences across the nation with his live stage shows, earning him a string of award nominations. He has won both the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment Show, and a Silver Rose d’Or for Variety. A 2011 tour is planned as well as a possible broadway run.

While his performances create the illusion that he has some kind of paranormal powers, Derren is a prominent sceptic and a pronounced atheist. The Blogis a repository of news items that explore these facets of Derren’s persona. The articles are submitted by visitors to the Blog and discussed in the comments sections. A diverse range of topics are covered, encompassing Science, Technology, Art, Magic, Religion and some good old-fashioned silliness.

In addition to his award-winning performances on stage and television, Derren is also an accomplished artist. Specialising in a unique style of caricatured portraiture, Derren’s work has been exhibited at the prestigious Rebecca Hossack Gallery in central London as well as being published in a collected volume of worksin which Derren also writes about his passion for the medium and his development as an artist.

Eddie Izzard has been hailed as one of the foremost Stand-Ups of this generation

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Frankie’s first DVD, Frankie Boyle Live is officially the second fastest ever selling debut stand up release, selling just under 16,000 copies on its first day alone. The DVD was filmed on the final night of Frankie’s first national tour, Frankie Boyle Live, which was extended due to phenomenal demand with all 150 tour dates selling out.

In March 2010 Frankie hit the road again for a second national tour, entitled I Would Happily Punch Every One Of You In The Face. Extended due to overwhelming public demand – 52,000 tickets were sold on the first day they went on sale – the tour completely sold out and culminated with a string of arena dates. Once again the tour was recorded for DVD, this time filmed at the Hammersmith Apollo. Entitled If I Could Reach Out Through Your TV and Strangle You, I Would the DVD was released in mid- November and has proved to be every bit as popular as the Frankie’s first.

In November 2010 Frankie Boyle’s Tramadol Nights, his own stand-up and sketch show, aired on Channel 4 as a six part series and was one of the most talked about shows of the year. Other recent TV appearances include You Have Been Watching, Would I Lie to You? and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

QUOTES:

“His stand-up act is honed to gilt-edged perfection.” – The List

“Many, many funny lines here. A difficult book to read sedately in public.” -
Evening Standard (On ‘Frankie Boyle: My Shit Life So Far’)

“Boyle cleverly keeps the emphasis on being funny . . Bizarre, intelligent and abusively hilarious.” – List (On ‘Frankie Boyle: My Shit Life So Far’)

“Perfectly constructed, weird and wicked one-liners…His eye for absurdity is as sharp as his suits.” – The Guardian

“Frankie Boyle has suddenly gone from being one of many Scottish stand-ups to TV’s must-have funnyman.” – Daily Record

“Wit, poise and pace… it’s worth sneaking in just to see Boyle… Plays on all things Scottish with a welcome and vicious anti-authoritarian edge.” – Scotsman

Since his move to the BBC, Graham Norton has continued this success and attracted huge ratings with a string of talent shows. He has glided from Strictly Dance Fever and The One and Only to the West End audition vehicles Any Dream Will Do, I’d Do Anything and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

He has also launched a new Eurovision format and maintained his reputation as a chat show host, entertaining guests from Tony Curtis to Alice Cooper on The Graham Norton Show; away from television he still pops up occasionally on Just A Minute.

Graham’s break came when he stood in for the Jack Docherty Show on Channel 5, winning Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards. He went on to appear in Father Ted and become a BAFTA award-winning presenter on Channel 4 – spreading his wings as far afield as Japan, the US and Mexico.

His latest show on BBC 1, The Graham Norton Show, is sweeping the board again including winning a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance.

After first coming to prominence on TV with three series of the Broadcast Award winning Channel 4 series Harry Hill, he has since gone on to become one of comedy’s biggest TV faces. Harry has firmly planted himself in the primetime television schedule with his hit show TV Burp (ITV1) with the series winning the converted Rose d’Or Award at the Montreux International Television Festival.

He is the voice behind ITV’s hugely successful You’ve Been Framed and has also starred and performed in An Audience With Harry Hill (ITV1). Harry also created the children’s comedy show Shark Infested Custard for CiTV (ITV1).

Harry’s other TV appearances include Celebrity Stars in their Eyes as Morrissey (ITV1), the Royal Variety Performance (BBC One), Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire (ITV1), Room 101 (BBC Two) and was honoured with a show on This is Your Life. Across the Atlantic Harry has appeared on the legendary Late Show with David Letterman (CBS) seven times.

As a radio broadcaster, Harry recorded four series of Harry Hill’s Fruit Corner (BBC Radio 4) and is a regular contributor to Sorry I Haven’t Got A Clue (BBC Radio 4). He hosted his own Capital Radio series Funch and BBC Radio 2 broadcast his Christmas Special.
Harry has written two books. His first novel, Flight from Deathrow, is published by Time Warner and his children’s book Tim The Tiny Horse is published by Faber and Faber.
He has released a number of live stand up videos and DVD’s, the most recent being Hooves.

“Believe the rave reviews.” – The Sunday Times

“I was stunned by his genius..such energy, originality and wit and he leaves you breathless with the many turns his extraordinary mind takes.” – The Daily Mail