Tracey Ullman is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows A Kick Up the Eighties and Three of a Kind. After a brief singing career, she appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls on Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
British comedy, in film, radio and television, is known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots and settings, and has produced some of the most famous and memorable comic actors and characters.
Alistair Charles McGowan is an English impressionist, comic, actor, singer and writer best known to British audiences for The Big Impression, which was, for four years, one of BBC1's top-rating comedy programmes – winning numerous awards, including a BAFTA in 2003. He has also worked extensively in theatre and appeared in the West End in Art, Cabaret, The Mikado and Little Shop of Horrors. As a television actor, he played the lead role in BBC1's Mayo. He wrote the play Timing and the book A Matter of Life and Death or How to Wean Your Man off Football with former comedy partner Ronni Ancona. He also provided voices for Spitting Image.
The Big Impression, known as Alistair McGowan's Big Impression for the first three series, is a British comedy sketch show. It features Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona impersonating personalities from entertainment and sport. Four series and a number of specials were made by Vera Productions and it was first broadcast on BBC One between 2000 and 2004.
Veronica Jane Ancona is a Scottish actress, impressionist and author. She first became well known after appearing in The Big Impression.
Mark McGowan is a British street artist, performance artist and prominent public protester who has gone by the artist name Chunky Mark and more recently The Artist Taxi Driver. By profession, McGowan is a London taxi driver and occasional University speaker and arts tutor. McGowan is known internationally for his performance art including shock art, street art and installation art, and as a stuntman, internet personality, video blogger, social commentator, social critic, satirist, political activist, peace activist, and an anti-establishment, anti-war, anti-capitalist anti-monarchist and anti-power elite protester.
Ready Steady Go! was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light entertainment programme different from the low-brow style of light entertainment transmitted by ATV. The programme was produced without scenery or costumes and with a minimum of choreography and make-up. Allan recruited a fellow journalist, Francis Hitching, as producer. Hitching became a major figure in light entertainment in the 1960s. Robert Fleming was the first director, followed by the documentary director Rollo Gamble, then Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Daphne Shadwell and Peter Croft.
Robin Ince is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage with physicist Brian Cox, his appearances alongside Ricky Gervais, and his stand-up comedy career.
Galaxy was a British satellite television channel focusing on general entertainment and children's programmes, one of the five channels run by British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) and based at its Battersea Studios in the Marco Polo House Building. The channel broadcast a mix of home-grown programming, American imports and repeats from the BBC library.
Thomas "Tom" McGowan is an American actor. He first become known for his stage career both on and off Broadway. In 1991, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for his Broadway debut performance in La Bête. In 2011, McGowan also was also chosen to step into the role of the Wizard on Wicked on Broadway. In 2014, McGowan starred in Harvey Fierstein's original Broadway play, Casa Valentina which was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. Since then he has appeared in the Broadway revivals of She Loves Me (2016) and Kiss Me Kate (2019).
Cringe comedy is a specific genre of comedy that derives humor from social awkwardness. Often a cringe comedy will have an air of a mockumentary and revolve around a serious setting, such as a workplace, to lend the comedy a sense of reality.
Live at the Apollo is a British stand-up comedy programme performed from the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in west London. Despite the title, the programmes are recorded, not live.
Brian Limond, better known as Limmy, is a Scottish comedian, actor, screenwriter, producer, musician, author, podcaster, and streamer. While working as a website designer and Flash developer, he began releasing comedy on his website and blog, Limmy.com, which contained various humorous Flash-based projects. In late 2006, he released a daily podcast called Limmy's World of Glasgow, which received interest from the mainstream British media.
Cathy McGowan is a British broadcaster and journalist, best known as presenter of the rock music television show, Ready Steady Go!
Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English comedian, writer, and television presenter. In 2012, he was the highest-grossing stand-up comedian in the world. In addition to stand-up, McIntyre has hosted his own BBC One comedy programme Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, has featured in three episodes of Live at the Apollo and, in 2011, was a judge on Britain's Got Talent. He currently presents his own Saturday night series Michael McIntyre's Big Show on BBC One.
Geoff Atkinson is a British comedy writer and producer.
Simon Antony Bird is an English actor, director and comedian. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners (2008–2010), and its two films, and Adam Goodman in the Channel 4 comedy series Friday Night Dinner (2011–present).
Rose Arianna McGowan is an American actress, activist, author, model, and singer. After her film debut in a brief role in the comedy Encino Man (1992), McGowan achieved wider recognition for her performance in Gregg Araki's dark comedy The Doom Generation (1995), receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance. She had her breakthrough in the horror film Scream (1996) and subsequently headlined the films Going All the Way (1997), Devil in the Flesh (1998), and Jawbreaker (1999).
The British Academy Television Award for Best Comedy Programme or Series was first presented at the 1981 ceremony.
Simon John Blackwell is an English comedy writer and producer. He is best known for his work on The Thick of It, In The Loop and Veep, and for his collaborations with Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain on Peep Show, Four Lions and The Old Guys. Blackwell is the creator of the comedy series Back, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, as well as Breeders, starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard.
