Punt and Dennis | |
---|---|
Medium | Television, radio |
Nationality | English |
Years active | 1980's-present (intermittent) |
Genres | Sketch comedy Political satire |
Subject(s) | Politics, current events |
Notable works and roles | The Mary Whitehouse Experience The Party Line The Now Show |
Punt and Dennis are a comedy double act consisting of Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The duo first met at the Footlights while studying at Cambridge University in the early 1980s. [1] Initially they were an amateur double act performing at various venues in London on the weekends due to Dennis' weekday job commitments. They have branched into acting and screenwriting.
Punt and Dennis first appeared on television in Jasper Carrott's shows during the late 1980s. They were two of the four main performers in The Mary Whitehouse Experience , a comedy show on BBC Radio 1 which then transferred to television. While the other two stars of the series, Rob Newman and David Baddiel, became major celebrities — playing to sell-out audiences at Wembley Arena [2] —Punt and Dennis never attained the same level of prominence as a double act. Their own TV series, The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show , did not meet the same success as The Mary Whitehouse Experience , but won larger audiences and was given a higher profile than the other pairing's spin-off project Newman and Baddiel in Pieces .
The duo continued to collaborate despite each having forged their own separate careers — Dennis as a panellist and presenter and Punt as a screenwriter. Their more prominent works include long-running radio shows It's Been a Bad Week (BBC Radio 2) and BBC Radio 4 shows The Party Line and The Now Show from 1998 to 2024. [3] They also contribute to the satirical hit panel game Mock the Week . Punt is a programme associate while Dennis is a regular panellist alongside Frankie Boyle and later Chris Addison.
In 1992 they went on the road themselves and toured the UK with a show called 'Punt And Dennis - The Milky Milky Tour'. The name of the show was inspired by a character called Mr Strange that Hugh Dennis played in The Mary Whitehouse Experience. The Milky Milky tour was filmed live on stage at Bristol's Hippodrome Theatre in 1992 and released on VHS Video.
In 2007 they performed a UK tour of their comedy called Stuff and Nonsense. In 2010 they announced November 2010 preview shows and a new tour for 2011 (that was titled 'They Should Get Out More') which ran from January to March. In 2014 they embarked on a new UK comedy tour called 'Ploughing on Regardless'. In 2024 they toured a new show called Punt and Dennis: We Are Not A Robot.
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The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy society is run by the students of Cambridge University.
The Mary Whitehouse Experience is a British topical sketch comedy show that the BBC produced in association with Spitting Image Productions. It starred two comedy double acts, one being David Baddiel and Rob Newman, the other Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. All four comedians had graduated from Cambridge University. It was broadcast on both radio and television in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Peter Hugh Dennis is an English comedian, presenter, actor, impressionist and writer. He was a panellist in every episode of the comedy show Mock the Week (2005–2022).
David Lionel Baddiel is an English comedian, presenter, screenwriter, author and singer. He became known for his early work alongside Rob Newman in The Mary Whitehouse Experience and later for his comedy partnership with Frank Skinner.
A double act is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' personalities. Pairings are typically long-term, in some cases for the artists' entire careers. Double acts perform on the stage, television and film.
The Now Show is a British radio comedy programme on BBC Radio 4, which satirises the weekly news from 1998 to 2024. The show is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. It features regular appearances by Jon Holmes, Laura Shavin, a monologue by Marcus Brigstocke, and music by Mitch Benn, Pippa Evans or Adam Kay. Later series feature a wider range of contributors.
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Canned Carrott is a comedy stand-up and sketch-show by Jasper Carrott. It gave rise to a spin-off series, and made the names of regular contributors Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis.
The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show, known simply as Punt and Dennis throughout its second series, is a British stand-up and sketch show written by and starring comedians Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The first series of 6 episodes was broadcast between 7 July and 11 August 1994.
Robert Newman is an English comedian, author and political activist. Newman found mainstream fame with The Mary Whitehouse Experience before forming a successful partnership with one of the programme's other comedians, David Baddiel, in the early 1990s.
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Hale and Pace were an English comedy double-act that performed in clubs and on radio and television in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s. The duo was made up of Gareth Hale and Norman Pace, with the Hale and Pace television show running for ten years and 66 episodes, from 1988 to 1998.
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