Richard Vranch | |
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 Richard Vranch performing at the Glastonbury Festival on his 60th birthday, 29 June 2019, with the Stephen Frost Improv All Stars | |
| Born | Richard Leslie Vranch 29 June 1959 |
| Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Comedian, actor |
| Website | richardvranch |
Richard Leslie Vranch (born 29 June 1959) is an English actor, improviser, comedian, writer and musician. He is known for providing the music for the British TV series Whose Line Is It Anyway? [1]
Vranch's parents were a teacher and a BT engineer. [2] He attended Bristol Grammar School [3] and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating from Cambridge University with a BA and PhD in physics. [4] [5] While a first-year doctoral student, he joined the Footlights in 1981 and was a contemporary of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Morwenna Banks, Tony Slattery and Neil Mullarkey. [6] He was also a member of the Light Entertainment Society and the Cambridge University Mummers. [3]
He was a researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory and a research fellow at St John's College, Oxford for nine months before going into comedy full-time. [7]
Vranch has performed since 1979. [8] He formed a comedy double-act with Tony Slattery in 1981. [9] The duo hosted the Channel 4 quiz The Music Game and over 100 episodes of Cue The Music on ITV. He was the improvising pianist and guitarist on the original British television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? from 1988. [10]
He co-wrote and performed in The Paul Merton Show at the London Palladium in 1994. [11] With Pippa the Ripper he is half of the hula-hoop/science double act Dr Hula. [12] In 2006, he appeared at the Ars Nova theatre, New York and co-founded the improv storytelling group The YarnBards. In 2012, with others he co-wrote and appeared in the UK tour and West End run of the stage show Paul Merton Out of My Head. [13]
Since at least 1988 Vranch has appeared at London's The Comedy Store. [14] He currently appears there every week with the Comedy Store Players.
Vranch has voiced TV and radio commercials for companies including British Airways, Lidl and Saab. He also narrates TV documentaries, including the first series of The Hotel Inspector .
Acting work includes Dogman, [15] The Dead Set, Hello Mum (1986) and sketch shows. He appeared as Gilmanuk in the audio Doctor Who story "Theatre of War" (Big Finish Productions). [16]
He has written for stage, radio and TV, and made several animated films with artist Lucy Allen. They have had their cartoons published in Maxim , Punch and The Spectator . [17] In 2002 he was commissioned by Tamasha Theatre Company (East is East) as a writer for their show Ryman and the Sheik [18] and worked for a few years as an Artistic Associate of the company. [19]
Vranch presented the children's shows Let's Pretend on ITV and Jackanory [20] on BBC One. He hosted his own science series, Beat That Einstein, on Channel 4 in 1994. [21] He was a guest on You Bet! in 1995 and appeared on BBC Radio 4's long-running panel game Just a Minute in 1999 [22] and in 2005 was a contestant on a charity special of The Weakest Link . He has appeared on the panel shows Puzzle Panel and The Infinite Monkey Cage [23] on Radio 4 and Mind Games on BBC TV. He discussed the switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider in September 2008 with Jeremy Vine and Simon Singh on BBC Radio 2.[ citation needed ]
In the early 2000s he presented a radio show Jammin with Rowland Rivron on BBC Radio 2. [24]
Little Britain featured a fictional tower block called Richard Vranch House. [25]
Clive Stuart Anderson is an English television and radio presenter, comedian, 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. He then became host of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, initially a radio show on BBC Radio 4 in 1988, before moving to television on Channel 4 from 1988 to 1999. He was also host of his own chat show Clive Anderson Talks Back, which changed its name to Clive Anderson All Talk in 1996, from 1989 to 1999. He has also hosted many radio programmes and made guest appearances on Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week and QI.
Whose Line is it Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy television panel show created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, presented by Clive Anderson, and produced for Channel 4 between 23 September 1988 and 4 February 1999. The programme features a panel of four performers,, conducting a series of short-form improvisation games, creating comedic scenes per predetermined situations made by the host or from suggestions by the audience. Such games include creating sound effects, performing a scene to different television and film styles, using props, and making up a song on the spot. The programme originally began as a short-lived BBC radio programme, before the concept was adapted for television.
Paul James Martin, known by the stage name Paul Merton, is an English comedian.
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The Comedy Store Players are a group of improvisational comedians who perform at The Comedy Store in London. The group first came into being in October 1985.
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Michael James Dominic Sweeney is an English actor and comedian, best known for his improvisation partnership with Steve Steen.
Neil Mullarkey is an English actor, writer and comedian.
The Sitcom Trials is a stage and TV show devised, produced, and presented by Kev F. Sutherland. Beginning in Bristol in 1999, it showcases new sitcoms and comedy items in a head-to-head format. The audience then vote for the one they like best and only see the ending of the winner.
Timothy Key is an English poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, both as a solo act and as part of the comedy group Cowards, and plays Alan Partridge's sidekick Simon in film and television. In 2009, he won the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.
Neil Cole is an English television presenter, comedian, radio broadcaster and actor.
Mark Andrew Watson is an English comedian, novelist and producer.
Paul Merton's Impro Chums is an improvisational comedy stage show, consisting of comedian Paul Merton heading a cast of Richard Vranch, Suki Webster, Mike McShane and Lee Simpson, as well as a special guest performer.
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game. For more than 50 years, with a few exceptions, it was hosted by Nicholas Parsons. Following Parsons' death in 2020, Sue Perkins became the permanent host, starting with the 87th series. Just a Minute was first transmitted on Radio 4 on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003.
Lee Simpson is a British actor and comedian best known as a member of the improvisational group The Comedy Store Players.
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