Actors who appear in hit sitcoms often have difficulties shaking off the role that makes their name. Beyond The Joke recently wrote about the way that Father Dougal still casts a shadow over Ardal O'... more
Interviews
I came across my interview with Benedict Cumberbatch from The Times, November 2007, in my archive and thought it might be of some interest. Back then Cumberbatch was a fast-rising star of stage and... more
I don't know if they have a secret installation hidden somewhere underground in America where they keep turning out brilliant comedians, but Bill Burr (picture by Koury Angelo) is the latest superb... more
Update 3/1/14. As we say below, 2014 looks like being a good year for Nick Helm. His BBC3 series Uncle starts later this month and he has just been nominated for The Times South Bank... more
Stephen Merchant's new sitcom, Hello Ladies, in which he plays lonely Brit Stuart Pritchard looking for love in LA, is on Sky Atlantic on Wednesdays at 10pm from October 16. You can read more about... more
I've interviewed Rik Mayall a few times and he was probably just as odd before his major quad bike crash as after it. This interview dates from 2003, five years after his accident, and while the chat... more
Danny Wallace is a journalist and TV presenter and for a while he shared a flat with comedian Dave Gorman. Then one day in the late 1990s he made a drunken wager with Gorman, betting him that he... more
The eternal quest for the perfect primetime mainstream sitcom continues with Father Figure, the TV transfer of Jason Byrne's hit madcap radio series about his eccentric clan. Byrne plays well-meaning... more
Just before the Edinburgh Fringe started I interviewed Seann Walsh for The Independent on Sunday on the ups and downs of drinking. Walsh has something of a reputation as an imbiber. He has talked... more
Is it really eight years since I interviewed Reece Shearsmith? Eight years since the League of Gentlemen's movie came out? This interview originally ran in the Evening Standard to coincide with The... more
