I've done lots of bits on TV shows over the last few years. Some of them have been quite good, others maybe not so good. Life is always a mixture of both, isn't it?

Here's a little list of some of my TV apearances, anyways...

(* denotes a script credit)

 
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF SAKI (BBC4) (2007)

I read excerpts of letters and stories for this wonderful documentary about the life of Hector Munro, aka Saki. The show was broadcast as part of BBC4's Edwardian Season.

*DOLLBY CITY (CBBC 1) (2007)

After meeting a comedy producer at a sketch show in January 2006 and hearing that Childrens BBC were looking for new ideas for a set of comedy labs, I came up with the idea of setting a medical drama in a toy hospital. Casualty with teddy bears, basically. And they bought it! It was filmed in August 2006 with a great cast of actors and went out in March 2007. More details (pictures etc) to follow. . .

TOP TEN SCI-FI SHOWS (Channel 4) (2001)

I was a guest on this Saturday evening slot filler and very happy I was too. I got to talk about old programmes like Tomorrow People and Space 1999 and instead of being told to shut up, I was broadcast on national TV. Keep being a geek is the lesson here, kids. One day you too could have an opinion worth listening to!

*THE GREAT WEB RACE (Pilot for Ideal World TV)(2000)

This was a pilot gameshow for E4. Hosted by Emily Boof, the gorgeous star of Bits, it was a quiz where all the answers had to be found by using the World Wide Web. I had a lot of fun as the 'expert' in the corner, but unfortunately E4 decided not to buy the idea as a series. Boo.

TIME GENTLEMEN PLEASE (SKY One) (2000)

I used to do a double act with the fantastic Al Murray and we've stayed good friends ever since. His The Pub Landlord character is a work of genius and this sitcom (co-written by Rich Herring) is very funny indeed. I was in an episode called 'Day of the Triv-heads' and I played a computer nerd called Brian O'Green. I don't know where they got the name from. It was great fun to film and the whole cast on the show are brilliant. recently repeated on Paramount and may one day go to terrestrial TV.

*SKY ROCKET (SKY One) (2000)

This was Sky One's interactive Saturday night strand to link all their animated shows. I wrote and performed a series of short segments about the truth behind science fiction ideas and what would happen if they were for real. They were very stylishly shot and the whole Sky Rocket thing looked excellent, but I guess Sky changed its mind about the show halfway through and dropped it.

*CONSUMO! (Pilot for Ginger TV) (1998)

*CONSUMO! (Pilot for Yorkshire TV) (1999)

The Special Projects team (Dave Green, Danny O'Brien and I) wrote and presented two pilots of this brilliant idea. A mix of broken comedy about shopping and products and semi-serious investigations into how and why we consume what we do, it is undoubtedly the best concept I've ever been involved in. We first developed it at Ginger TV and shot a version where I co-hosted with the glamorous and funny Sara Cox. This kind of worked, but Ginger weren't sure exactly what it was. A comedy thing? A review show? Should it be late night and low budget, or should it be pitched for an early evening slot? Producer Gill Wilson took the show to Yorkshire TV to make another pilot which we shot in Leeds. Emma Kennedy co-hosted this time and was delightful. She went on to host The Flatmates, but Consumo! was rejected by Channel 4 for being too light and funny. How mad.

*OFF  LIMITS (C4) (1995)

I wrote and acted in a schools show for Channel 4 about work experience called 'When Roger Met Karen.' Luisa Bradshaw from 'This Life' was in it too and she was great, but the whole thing was a bit weird. Lots of problems with the script, but the programme looks great (directed by the fabulous Audrey Cooke) and a lot of the gags came over very well indeed.

* COMEDY NATION (BBC2) (1997)

I appeared in a few sketches for this (not quite as low budget as Planet Mirth, but nearly) late night BBC2 show. I wrote a few too. One about truant policemen who hang around in parks and hate solving crime because it's boooring. One about people swapping shirts like footballers at the end of games in inappropriate situations. Lots of good things came out of this show.

*PLANET MIRTH (ITV) (1997)

A co-production with the Sci-Fi Channel, this was just about the cheapest comedy show of all time. The budget, the time restraints and the shooting and writing conditions meant it was never going to be Star Wars, but there are lots of little things in the show I like. I did a series of sketches as a teacher explaining the truth about science fiction to his class and they were good fun. Also a writer with terrible movie ideas who just keeps on pitching them. Emma Kennedy has gone onto marvellous things and Rudy Lickwood and Milton Jones are both brilliant stand-ups.

CITY CENTRAL (BBC1) (1997)

I played a vegetarian protester in one episode of this cop drama. They often had bizarre subplots and mine was pretty good. For some reason I was dressed as 'Wally' from 'Where's Wally?' (Waldo, in the States) and this became a running gag. I handcuffed myself to a meat counter but gave the police the keys to my cuffs. What a fool. It was great fun to do and the cast and crew were just lovely.

THIS MORNING WITH RICHARD NOT JUDY (BBC2) (1998)

I played Richard's French exchange student chum, Nicolas, who still comes to visit him every year. This went out live at Sunday lunchtime and I don't think I was that good in it. Stew refers to me by my real name at one point, Rich corrects him but Stew insists I am really me and points out that I was on Planet Mirth. Comedy can be cruel.

FIST OF FUN (BBC2) (1994, 1995)

I did quite a few sketches for Lee and Herring's brilliant series. In the pilot (I was in a lot of pilots for great comedy shows) I was a mad man in the audience talking about my imaginary friend. We did this again in the run of the show. I was an Urban Man, running around in my pants in the cold. I was in the boy who cried wolf sketch. They are brilliant comedians and lovely men and the actor Kevin Eldon and Peter Baynham are likewisely marvellous.

THE FRIDAY NIGHT ARMISTICE (BBC2) (1995)

I appeared in a couple of items for this show which also went out as THE SATURDAY NIGHT ARMISTICE depending on the night of the week they broadcast it. In the pilot episode I sat at one side of the stage and judged things as either good or bad, right or wrong, or whatever, by flicking through a rolodex of all information. Eventually the item was run during the series except this time I was in a tennis umpire's chair high above the studio, calling the other contributors on whether their gags were in or out. In a later series I played a Tory MP, locked in a tank into which were placed single mothers, refugees, the homeless etc to see how upset they would make me.

MEN BEHAVING BADLY (BBC1) (1997)
In an episode called 'Cowardice' I played a Fightogram man. I'm only in the one scene right at the end, but still. I had big mutton chops at the time as I'd just been filming a Vodafone commercial with Kyle Maclachlan in Wales where I was a scary shepherd.

KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU WITH ALAN PARTRIDGE (BBC2) (1994)

In the episode where Alan takes the show to Paris, I am a member of Cirque des Clunes. This involved a tricky bit of lurid and unpleasant mime, choreographed by Dave Schneider, and then some upstaging of Alan as he tried to do his link. We also did a version of this for the non-broadcast pilot show.

My first TV break. Dave Green and I wrote a couple of minutes of comedy every week about the main science stories the show had covered. Then they'd run the credits underneath me. The show itself was really good and I had a blast doing the links. Learned a lot about the way TV gets made too.

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