![]() |
The Nimmo Twins are a sketch comedy duo from Norfolk, UK comprising Owen Evans and Karl Minns. [1] First working together in 1996 in Norwich, they came to national attention after their show Posh Spice Nude was a sell-out success at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival, and they became regulars on Radio 4's Loose Ends programme with Ned Sherrin. The duo returned to Edinburgh in 1998 and 1999, and have performed internationally.
Owen Evans was raised in Cromer and attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) where he studied with the Moscow Arts Theatre school. As an actor, he has appeared in innumerable plays and theatre productions. He has also appeared in television adverts for Daewoo Cars, NatWest, Ikea, and Flora.
As a stand-up comedian, Karl Minns won the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award in 2001 and played the Montreal and Melbourne Comedy Festivals before returning to Edinburgh in 2002 in Comedy Clone with Nina Conti and Patrick Monaghan. The Nimmo Twins then became the face of Adnams Beer in Norfolk in TV radio and billboard adverts for two years.
The Twins got their start with the Crude Apache Theatre Company. [2] After their 1997 Edinburgh Festival show they made appearances on BBC One's Stand Up Show .
Minns has written plays, comedies, and musicals for both stage and radio. As a television writer he has written for Karen Taylor, Laura Solon, and Phil Nichol. He wrote the TV sitcom pilot Moonmonkeys starring Karl Theobald and Dan Antopoloski. He also wrote a weekly column for the Norwich Evening News from 2002 to 2007. He was awarded the EDF Regional Columnist of The Year in January 2007. He was also nominated for the Press Gazette Media Awards Regional Columnist of the year in the same year.
The Nimmo Twins briefly expanded to a trio in 1999 with the introduction of Andrew McGibbon, who performed with them during the spring and summer of that year.
The first Radio 4 comedy series The Nimmo Twins in... was broadcast in 2000 on BBC 7. Episodes included: A Stiff Upper Lip - a tale of a Victorian era gentleman without a beard; and Lord of the Onion Rings - the tale of a Tolkien-obsessed man who works in a petrol station. Their second series, The Rapid Eye Movement, about the troupe of actors performing a man's nightly dreams, starred Martin Freeman, Chris Langham and Kevin Eldon. The show ran for three series until 2005. The second series was nominated for the Douglas Adams Award for Radio Comedy in 2003.
Minns wrote the show Mouth to Mouth, for BBC3, a series of six interlinking monologues, whose stories intersected until the whole overall story was told. The Stage described it as an "intricately-plotted love hexagon... superb and understated".
As a writer and performer, Minns has also contributed to two series of Russell Howard's Good News on BBC3, credited as Programme Associate alongside Dan Atkinson and Steve Williams. The first series aired in winter 2009, the second series ran from March to May 2010. The programme is now in its seventh series with Minns now credited as writer. Minns is also credited as a writer on Spitting Image (2020).
Karl has been writing comedy professionally for nearly twenty years, also providing material for Loose Ends, Charlie Brooker, Unspun with Matt Forde, Al Murray the Pub Landlord and Have I Got News For You, amongst others.
In their native Norfolk, Evans and Minns are best known for their yearly sketch show, Normal for Norfolk , which in ten years grew from a pub show to a performance at the Norwich Playhouse, playing to over 4500 people over Christmas 2005.
In the early hours of 14 December 2007, Karl Minns was attacked while walking home after a performance at the city's Playhouse. He was badly injured, suffering a broken arm and fractured skull. The duo were forced to cancel the remainder of their shows for the year. [3]
Normal for Norfolk Show titles: [4]
Norfolk is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, and Suffolk to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Norwich.
Gregory Edward Hemphill is a Scottish–Canadian comedian, actor, writer, and director. Born in Springburn, an inner–city district in Glasgow, Scotland, Hemphill moved to Montreal in Canada in the late 1970s before returning to Scotland in 1988.
Baby Cow Productions Limited is a British comedy television production company based in London and Manchester, founded by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. Since its establishment it has diversified into radio, animation and film. According to their website, Baby Cow "produces bold, high-quality scripted entertainment across all genres for television, film and radio." The company's name is a reference to Coogan's early characters Paul and Pauline Calf.
David James Stuart Mitchell is a British comedian, actor and writer.
Julian Barratt Pettifer is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside comedy partner Noel Fielding.
Andrew McGibbon, is an English comedian, actor, writer, musician and composer. He has also produced and directed extensively, chiefly for radio.
Steven Jonathan Furst is a British comedian, actor and writer. He appeared in the Orange mobile phone cinema adverts in the UK, playing the role of Eliot, a spoof studio executive, and has appeared regularly in the BBC comedy television programme Little Britain as well as cabaret character Lenny Beige.
Julie Wilson Nimmo is a Scottish actress. She is known for portraying the roles of Miss Hoolie in the BBC Children's series Balamory, Mrs Sawdust in CBeebies show Olga Da Polga and DC Megan Squire in the BBC Scottish comedy series Scot Squad.
Matthew Crosby is an English comedian and writer.
Dan Antopolski is a British comic, actor and writer. He has appeared in various television programs and radio shows, and is best known to younger audiences for hosting the UK game show The Dare Devil. In 1998 Antopolski won the BBC New Comedy Award and in 2009 he won the Dave Award for Best Joke at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He has appeared at international comedy festivals in Montreal, Melbourne and New York. Antopolski has been a regular performer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, had minor roles in films and appeared in a number of panel shows.
Steve Edge is an English actor, writer and former stand-up comedian. He is most famous for his work on Starlings, Phoenix Nights, The Cup, The Visit, Peep Show, Benidorm, The Madame Blanc Mysteries and the satirical magazine show Star Stories.
Tom Price is a British actor, voice-over artist, radio presenter and stand-up comedian originally from Monmouth, Wales. He is most noted for portraying Andy Davidson in Torchwood.
Lloyd Woolf is a British comedy actor and writer from Swansea, Wales.
Andre Vincent is a comedian, writer, actor and comedy historian. A situational comic, Vincent is known for his observations about health matters, including his experiences with diabetes, cancer and kidney surgery.
David Humphrey Rivers Ker is a British actor, comedian, writer and football executive, who is a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls.
Karl John Lucas is an English comedian, actor and writer, who has written for and appeared in a number of television, music videos and radio comedy programmes, as well as various theatre productions.
Steven Canny is an Executive Producer for BBC Studios Comedy and has written a number of plays.
Chris Martin is an English stand-up comedian and writer. He currently lives and works in America with his wife, writing on The Late Late Show.
Liam Williams is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for his wry poetic presentation style. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2013 Edinburgh Comedy Awards and for Best Show at the 2014 awards.
Ben Ashenden is a British-Irish actor, writer and comedian. He is half of the double-act, The Pin, with Alexander Owen, with whom he has made four series for BBC Radio 4, picking up nominations at the 2017 Writers' Guild Awards. and Radio Academy Awards, and winning the BBC Radio Award for Best Comedy.