British Comedy Awards
Encyclopedia
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.

History

The awards were shown live on ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 in December from 1990 to 2006, after which the broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 was suspended by ITV due to allegations of irregularities and deception in the awarding of the 2005 People's Choice Award and then ongoing related investigations about the 2007 British television phone-in scandal resulting in Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

's subsequently fining ITV a record £5.675 million for its misuse of premium-rate telephone lines.

After Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...

 presented the inaugural ceremony at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...

 in December 1990, subsequent shows have been presented by Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...

, staged at London Studios
The London Studios
The London Studios is a television studio complex which is owned by London Weekend Television and has been home to the London Weekend ITV provider since 1972...

, and produced by Michael Hurll Television  (MHTV), whose parent company is Unique Communications Group. Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...

 announced that he would not be presenting the 2008 awards, in light of the Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row
Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row
The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row concerned a series of voice messages that English entertainers Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross left on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs, which were labelled obscene by many media commentators and politicians...

 and was replaced by Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...

.

The 2007 show occurred on 6 December 2007, but was not televised due to the 2005 controversy and subsequent investigations. The following years ceremony was shown live on 6 December 2008. Compliance for the show was the responsibility of the ITV Compliance Unit of ITV Network Limited (consisting of members from ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...

, STV Group, UTV Media, and
Channel Television Ltd
Channel Television
Channel Television is a British television station which has served as an Independent Television contractor to the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey...

).

In June 2010, it was announced that awards were to be broadcast on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

 for three years.

1990

  • Best new TV comedy: Drop the Dead Donkey
    Drop the Dead Donkey
    - Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...

  • Top TV comedy actor: David Jason
    David Jason
    Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...

  • Top TV comedy actress: Jean Boht
    Jean Boht
    Jean Boht is an English actress.She is most famous for the role of Nellie Boswell in Carla Lane's comedy Bread....

  • Top TV comedy newcomer: Pauline Quirke
    Pauline Quirke
    Pauline Perpetua Quirke is a British actress. She is best known for her role as Sharon in the comedy series Birds of a Feather, alongside her lifelong friend and frequent acting partner Linda Robson...

  • Top British film actor: Griff Rhys Jones
    Griff Rhys Jones
    Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...

  • Top British film actress: Pauline Collins
    Pauline Collins
    Pauline Collins, OBE is an English actress of the stage, television, and film. She first came to prominence portraying Sarah Moffat in Upstairs, Downstairs and its spin-off Thomas & Sarah during the 1970s. She later drew acclaim for playing the title role in the play Shirley Valentine for which...

  • Top live stand up: Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

  • Top British TV comedy: A Bit of a Do
    A Bit of a Do
    A Bit of a Do was a British comedy drama series based on the books by David Nobbs. The show starred David Jason and was aired on ITV in 1989. It was made for the ITV network by Yorkshire Television.The show was set in a fictional Yorkshire town...

  • Top ITV/C4 sitcom: A Bit of a Do
  • Top BBC sitcom: Only Fools and Horses
    Only Fools and Horses
    Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

  • Top US sitcom: Cheers
    Cheers
    Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...

  • Top entertainment performer: Rowan Atkinson
    Rowan Atkinson
    Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...

  • Top variety act: Russ Abbott
  • Top comedy film: Shirley Valentine
    Shirley Valentine
    Shirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.-Plot:...

  • Top radio comedy: Victor Lewis-Smith
    Victor Lewis-Smith
    Victor Lewis-Smith is a British satirist, producer, critic and prankster. He is known for his sarcasm and biting criticism.-Radio and recordings:...

  • Best stage comedy newcomer: Mike Doyle
    Mike Doyle (comedian)
    Mike Doyle is a Welsh comedian, vocalist and broadcaster born in Carmarthen, but he is now based in Bridgend. Doyle made his debut television back in 1988, winning the BBC's Opportunity Knocks....

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: David Nobbs
    David Nobbs
    David Gordon Nobbs is an English comedy writer.Following an education at Marlborough College and Cambridge University, Nobbs wrote for many of Britain's comedy performers over the years, including Kenneth Williams, Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and The Two Ronnies...

  • Lifetime achievement award for stage: Norman Wisdom
    Norman Wisdom
    Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...

  • Lifetime achievement award for radio: Roy Hudd
    Roy Hudd
    Roy Hudd, OBE is an English comedian, actor, radio host and author, and an authority on the history of music hall entertainment.- Early life :...

  • Lifetime achievement award for film comedy: Peter Rogers
    Peter Rogers
    Peter Rogers was a British film producer.Rogers began his career as a journalist for his local paper before graduating to scriptwriting religious informational films...

     (Carry On films
    Carry On films
    The Carry On films are a series of low-budget British comedy films, directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. They are an energetic mix of parody, farce, slapstick and double entendres....

    producer)
  • Lifetime achievement award: Ronnie Barker
    Ronnie Barker
    Ronald William George "Ronnie" Barker, OBE was a British actor, comedian, writer, critic, broadcaster and businessman...


1991

  • Best new TV comedy: Have I Got News for You
    Have I Got News for You
    Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...

  • Best TV comedy actor: Richard Wilson (One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

    )
  • Best TV comedy actress: Patricia Routledge
    Patricia Routledge
    Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...

  • Top TV comedy newcomer: Angus Deayton
    Angus Deayton
    Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...

  • Best TV Entertainment presenter: Clive Anderson
    Clive Anderson
    Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...

     (Whose Line Is It Anyway)
  • Best ITV/C4 sitcom: Drop The Dead Donkey
    Drop the Dead Donkey
    - Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...

  • Best entertainment series: Alas Smith and Jones
    Alas Smith and Jones
    Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series featuring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. It was broadcast on the BBC from 1984 to 1998...

  • Top entertainment presenter: Clive Anderson
    Clive Anderson
    Clive Anderson is a British former barrister, best known for being a comedy writer as well as a radio and television presenter in the United Kingdom...

  • Top British entertainment performers: Mel Smith
    Mel Smith
    Melvin Kenneth "Mel" Smith is an English comedian, writer, film director, producer, and actor. He is most famous for his work on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Griff Rhys Jones.- Early life :Smith's father, Kenneth, was born...

     and Griff Rhys Jones
    Griff Rhys Jones
    Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...

  • Top variety performers: Vic Reeves
    Vic Reeves
    James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....

     and Bob Mortimer
    Bob Mortimer
    Robert "Bob" Renwick Mortimer is an English comedian and actor, who is best known for his double act with Vic Reeves...

  • Best comedy film: Home Alone
    Home Alone
    Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old boy, who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation...

  • Best radio comedy: On The Hour
    On the Hour
    On the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred Morris as the overzealous and...

    /The Million Pound Radio Show
  • Top radio comedy personality: Phil Holden
  • Top stage newcomer: Jack Dee
    Jack Dee
    James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.-Early life:...

  • Top comedy club performer: Jeremy Hardy
    Jeremy Hardy
    Jeremy James Hardy is a British alternative comedian who is also known for his socialist politics.-Career:Hardy was born in Farnborough, Hampshire. He attended Farnham College and studied Modern History and Politics at the University of Southampton...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: John Sullivan
    John Sullivan (writer)
    John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....

  • Lifetime achievement: Beryl Reid
    Beryl Reid
    Beryl Elizabeth Reid, OBE was a British actress of stage and screen.-Early life:Born in Hereford, England in 1919, Reid was the daughter of Scottish parents and grew up in Manchester where she attended Withington and Levenshulme High Schools.-Career:Reid applied for and was accepted in a revue in...

  • International lifetime achievement: George Burns
    George Burns
    George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...


1992

  • Best new TV comedy: Bottom
    Bottom (TV series)
    Bottom was a British sitcom television series that originally aired on BBC2 between 1991 and 1995. It was written by comic duo Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson who star as Richie and Eddie, two flatmates living on the dole in Hammersmith, London...

  • Best TV comedy actor: David Jason
    David Jason
    Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...

     (Darling Buds of May)
  • Best TV comedy actress: Stephanie Cole
    Stephanie Cole
    Stephanie Cole, OBE is an English stage, television, and film actress, best known for playing characters a great deal older than her actual age.-Early life:...

     (Waiting For God)
  • Best TV comedy newcomer: Alan Cumming
    Alan Cumming
    Alan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...

     (Bernard and the Genie)
  • Top TV comedy personality: Paul Merton
    Paul Merton
    Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...

  • Top variety performer: Les Dawson
    Les Dawson
    Leslie "Les" Dawson was a popular English comedian remembered for his deadpan style, curmudgeonly persona and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.-Life and career:...

  • Best sitcom: One Foot In The Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

  • Best ITV comedy: Men Behaving Badly
    Men Behaving Badly
    Men Behaving Badly is a British comedy that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang and his flatmates, Dermot Povey and Tony Smart It was first broadcast on ITV in 1992...

  • Best BBC sitcom: One Foot In The Grave
  • Best C4 sitcom: Desmonds
  • Best TV comedy drama: Murder Most Horrid
    Murder Most Horrid
    Murder Most Horrid is a BBC dark comedy anthology series starring comedian Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999....

  • Best C4 personality: Chris Evans
  • Best comedy film: Hear My Song
    Hear My Song
    Hear My Song is a 1991 film, written by the actors Peter Chelsom and Adrian Dunbar , based on the story of Irish tenor Josef Locke...

  • Top comedy club performer: Jo Brand
    Jo Brand
    Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand is a BAFTA winning British comedian, writer, and actor.- Early life :Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: David Renwick
    David Renwick
    David Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek....

  • Lifetime Achievement: Eric Sykes
    Eric Sykes
    Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...


1993

  • Best new TV comedy: Absolutely Fabulous
    Absolutely Fabulous
    Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...

  • Best comedy actor: Rik Mayall
    Rik Mayall
    Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...

     (Rik Mayall Presents)
  • Best comedy actress: Joanna Lumley
    Joanna Lumley
    Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...

     (Absolutely Fabulous)
  • Top TV comedy newcomer: Steve Coogan
    Steve Coogan
    Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

  • Top C4 entertainment presenter: Chris Evans
  • Best radio comedy: Knowing Me, Knowing You
    Knowing Me, Knowing You
    "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is a hit single recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. The song was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson, with the lead vocal sung by Anni-Frid Lyngstad. During recording sessions, it had the working titles of "Ring It In" and "Number 1, Number 1"...

  • Top variety entertainer: Ken Dodd
    Ken Dodd
    Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...

  • Best entertainment series: Barrymore
    Barrymore
    Barrymore is a surname and may refer to:*Barrymore family of American actors*Earl of Barrymore, a title in the Kingdom of Ireland dating to 1622- See also :* Barony of Barrymore, a barony in County Cork, Ireland...

  • Best BBC sitcom: One Foot In The Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

  • Best ITV sitcom: Watching
    Watching
    Watching is a British television sitcom, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast for seven series and four specials between 1987 and 1993....

  • Best C4 sitcom: Drop The Dead Donkey
    Drop the Dead Donkey
    - Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...

  • Best TV comedy drama: The Snapper
  • Top TV personality: Joanna Lumley
    Joanna Lumley
    Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE, FRGS is a British actress, voice-over artist, former-model and author, best known for her roles in British television series Absolutely Fabulous portraying Edina Monsoon's best friend, Patsy Stone, as well as parts in The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Sensitive...

  • Top female performer: Jennifer Saunders
    Jennifer Saunders
    Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...

     and Dawn French
  • Best comedy film: Groundhog Day
    Groundhog Day
    Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter-like weather will soon end...

  • Top stand-up: Eddie Izzard
    Eddie Izzard
    Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: Richard Curtis
    Richard Curtis
    Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Ken Dodd
    Ken Dodd
    Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...


1994

  • Best comedy series: Murder Most Horrid
    Murder Most Horrid
    Murder Most Horrid is a BBC dark comedy anthology series starring comedian Dawn French. It ran for four series runs, in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 1999....

  • Best new TV comedy: Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge
    Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge (TV series)
    Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge is a BBC Television series of six episodes , and a Christmas special in 1995...

  • Top TV comedy actor: Stephen Tompkinson
    Stephen Tompkinson
    Stephen Tompkinson is a British actor. He is best known for his work in comedy and drama productions such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Ballykissangel, Grafters, In Deep, Wild at Heart and DCI Banks....

     (Drop The Dead Donkey
    Drop the Dead Donkey
    - Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...

    )
  • Top TV comedy actress: Brenda Blethyn
    Brenda Blethyn
    Brenda Anne Blethyn, OBE is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...

     (Outside Edge
    Outside Edge
    Outside Edge is a play by Richard Harris about a cricket team trying to win a game of cricket whilst sorting out their various marital problems.-Plot:...

    )
  • Best TV comedy newcomer: Chris Morris
    Chris Morris (satirist)
    Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...

     (The Day Today
    The Day Today
    The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992...

    )
  • Best TV comedy series: Drop The Dead Donkey
  • Best BBC comedy series: Red Dwarf
    Red Dwarf
    Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...

  • Best C4 comedy: Drop The Dead Donkey
  • Best ITV comedy: Time After Time
  • Best comedy drama: Outside Edge
  • Best male TV performer: Steve Coogan
    Steve Coogan
    Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

     (Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge)
  • Top female comedy performer: Tracey Ullman
    Tracey Ullman
    Tracey Ullman is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author ....

     (Tracey Ullman Takes On New York)
  • Best ITV entertainment presenter: Michael Barrymore
    Michael Barrymore
    Michael Kieron Parker , better known by his stage name Michael Barrymore, is a British comedian who appeared as a presenter of game shows and light entertainment programmes on British television in the 1980s and 1990s. These included Strike It Lucky, My Kind of People, My Kind of Music and Kids Say...

  • Best BBC entertainment presenter: Noel Edmonds
    Noel Edmonds
    Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...

  • Best Channel 4 entertainment presenter: Chris Evans (Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
    Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
    Don't Forget Your Toothbrush is a Saturday night light entertainment show originally broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1994, and has also been adapted in Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands and Portugal...

    )
  • Top theatre variety performer: Billy Pearce
    Billy Pearce
    Billy Pearce is an award winning English performer, comedian, actor and entertainer. A regular on UK television in the 1980s and 1990s, Pearce has been described as a "supreme entertainer". His summer shows and pantomimes regularly break box office records.-Early life:Pearce was born in Leeds in...

  • Best comedy film: Four Weddings and a Funeral
    Four Weddings and a Funeral
    Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...

  • Top comedy writer: Jack Rosenthal
    Jack Rosenthal
    Jack Morris Rosenthal CBE was an English playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations.-Biography:...

  • Best radio comedy: A Look Back to the Future
  • Best live stand-up: Phil Kay
    Phil Kay
    Phil Kay is a Scottish stand-up comedian.-Early career:Kay became known to the public when he won the newcomer's competition, 'So You Think You're Funny', at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1989. He then went on to be nominated for the prestigious Perrier Award in 1993. He also won the award for...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: Jack Rosenthal
    Jack Rosenthal
    Jack Morris Rosenthal CBE was an English playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations.-Biography:...

  • Special award for Comedy: Armando Iannucci
    Armando Iannucci
    Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....

  • Lifetime achievement: Spike Milligan
    Spike Milligan
    Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

    , June Whitfield
    June Whitfield
    June Rosemary Whitfield, CBE is an English actress, well known in the United Kingdom since the 1950s for roles in radio and television comedy series....


1995

  • Best comedy show: Rory Bremner Who Else
  • Best new TV comedy: Father Ted
    Father Ted
    Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

  • Top TV comedy actor: Martin Clunes
    Martin Clunes
    Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin and the title character in Reggie Perrin....

     (Men Behaving Badly
    Men Behaving Badly
    Men Behaving Badly is a British comedy that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang and his flatmates, Dermot Povey and Tony Smart It was first broadcast on ITV in 1992...

    )
  • Top TV comedy actress: Caroline Quentin
    Caroline Quentin
    Caroline Jones known by her stage name Caroline Quentin, is an English actress. Quentin became known for her television appearances in Men Behaving Badly, playing Dorothy, and playing Maddy Magellan in Jonathan Creek for three years.-Early life:...

     (Men Behaving Badly)
  • Top TV comedy newcomer: Ardal O'Hanlon
    Ardal O'Hanlon
    Ardal O'Hanlon is an Irish comedian and actor, best known for his roles in television sitcoms as Father Dougal McGuire in Father Ted and George Sunday in My Hero.-Early life:...

     (Father Ted
    Father Ted
    Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

    )
  • Top female comedy performer: Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

  • Top male comedy performers: John Bird
    John Bird (actor)
    John Bird is an English satirist, actor and comedian.-Early life:Born in Bulwell, Nottingham, England, and educated at High Pavement Grammar School, Nottingham, Bird briefly joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain, while still at school...

     and John Fortune
    John Fortune
    John Fortune is a British satirist, comedian writer and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series Bremner, Bird and Fortune. He was educated at Bristol Cathedral School and King's College, Cambridge, where he was to meet and form a lasting friendship with John...

  • Best radio comedy: I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
    I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
    I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...

  • Best BBC comedy series: One Foot In The Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

  • Best ITV entertainment presenter: Michael Barrymore
    Michael Barrymore
    Michael Kieron Parker , better known by his stage name Michael Barrymore, is a British comedian who appeared as a presenter of game shows and light entertainment programmes on British television in the 1980s and 1990s. These included Strike It Lucky, My Kind of People, My Kind of Music and Kids Say...

  • Best BBC entertainment presenter: Noel Edmonds
    Noel Edmonds
    Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...

  • Best Channel 4 entertainment presenter: Chris Evans
  • Top TV personality: Jack Dee
    Jack Dee
    James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.-Early life:...

  • Best ITV sitcom: Is It Legal?
    Is It Legal?
    Is It Legal? is a British television sitcom set in a solicitors office in Hounslow, west London, which ran from 1995 to 1998. It was produced by Hartswood Films and was shown on ITV for Series 1-2 and Channel 4 for Series 3...

  • Best BBC sitcom: One Foot In The Grave
  • Best Channel 4 sitcom: Drop The Dead Donkey
    Drop the Dead Donkey
    - Major characters :* Gus Hedges — The unctuous Chief Executive of the company, and yes-man to Sir Roysten Merchant. A management stereotype, complete with clichés and clumsy metaphors, he swiftly transforms GlobeLink from a serious news network to a ratings-chasing tabloid channel...

  • Best comedy drama: Preston Front
  • Best radio comedy: I'm Sorry I Have't A Clue
  • Best entertainment series: Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
    Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
    Don't Forget Your Toothbrush is a Saturday night light entertainment show originally broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1994, and has also been adapted in Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Sweden, the United States, the Netherlands and Portugal...

  • Best comedy film: Bullets Over Broadway
    Bullets Over Broadway
    Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 crime-comedy film written by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath and directed by Woody Allen. It stars an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri, and Jennifer Tilly....

  • Best stand-up comic: Jo Brand
    Jo Brand
    Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand is a BAFTA winning British comedian, writer, and actor.- Early life :Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: Andy Hamilton
    Andy Hamilton
    Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...

     and Guy Jenkin
    Guy Jenkin
    Guy Jenkin is a comedy writer who is best known for working on sitcoms and comedies such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Jeffrey Archer: The Truth and Outnumbered...

  • Lifetime achievement for variety: Bruce Forsyth
    Bruce Forsyth
    Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson, CBE , commonly known as Bruce Forsyth, or Brucie, is an English TV personality...

  • Lifetime achievement for comedy: Bob Monkhouse
    Bob Monkhouse
    Robert Alan "Bob" Monkhouse, OBE was an English entertainer. He was a successful comedy writer, comedian and actor and was also well known on British television as a presenter and game show host...

  • Award for comedy: Peter Cook
    Peter Cook
    Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...


1996

  • Best comedy series: The Fast Show
    The Fast Show
    The Fast Show, known as Brilliant in the US, was a BBC comedy sketch show programme that ran for three series from 1994 to 1997 with a special Last Fast Show Ever in 2000. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and...

  • Best new TV comedy: Thin Blue Line
  • Top TV comedy actor: Dermot Morgan
    Dermot Morgan
    Dermot John Morgan was an Irish comedian, actor and former schoolteacher, who achieved international renown for his roles as Father Ted Crilly in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted and a strip club MC in Taffin....

     (Father Ted
    Father Ted
    Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

    )
  • Top TV comedy actress: Pauline McLynn
    Pauline McLynn
    Pauline McLynn is an Irish actress, comedienne and author, best known for playing Mrs Doyle in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted, and Libby Croker in the Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless.- Early life :...

     (Father Ted
    Father Ted
    Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

    )
  • Top TV newcomer: James Dreyfus
    James Dreyfus
    - Early life and career :Born in London, Dreyfus was educated at Harrow School and then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His parents divorced when he was very young. He is openly gay....

     (The Thin Blue Line)
  • Best BBC sitcom: One Foot In The Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

  • Best ITV sitcom: The 10%ers
  • Top ITV entertainment presenter: Cilla Black
    Cilla Black
    Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...

  • Top BBC1 entertainment presenter: Ruby Wax
    Ruby Wax
    Ruby Wax is a BAFTA nominated American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.-Early life:...

  • Top C4/BBC2 entertainment presenter: Chris Evans (TFI Friday
    TFI Friday
    TFI Friday is an entertainment show broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2000. The show produced by Ginger Productions, written by Danny Baker and hosted by Chris Evans, for the first 5 series. The final series was hosted by a number of Guest Presenters. It was broadcast on...

    )
  • Best children's comedy: Woof!
    Woof!
    Woof! is a Children's ITV television series produced by Central Independent Television about the adventures of a boy who turns into a dog. It was based on the book by Allan Ahlberg. It was directed by David Cobham. It was written by Richard Fegen and Andrew Norriss.-History:The show was first...

  • Top female comedy performer: Caroline Aherne
    Caroline Aherne
    Caroline Mary Aherne is an English comedian and BAFTA winning writer and actress, best known for Mrs Merton and The Royle Family.- Background :...

     (Mrs Merton)
  • Top male comedy performer: Paul Whitehouse
    Paul Whitehouse
    Paul Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer and comedian. He became known for his work with Harry Enfield and as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show, The Fast Show. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was in the top 50 comedy acts voted for by comedians and comedy insiders...

     (The Fast Show)
  • Best comedy film: Babe
    Babe (film)
    Babe is a 1995 Australian-American film directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of the 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the United States, by Dick King-Smith and tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog...

  • Best radio comedy: People Like Us
    People Like Us
    People Like Us is a British comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer...

  • Best comedy drama: Outside Edge
    Outside Edge
    Outside Edge is a play by Richard Harris about a cricket team trying to win a game of cricket whilst sorting out their various marital problems.-Plot:...

  • Best entertainment series: TFI Friday
  • International comedy: Frasier
    Frasier
    Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...

  • Top TV comedy personalities: Vic Reeves
    Vic Reeves
    James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....

     and Bob Mortimer
    Bob Mortimer
    Robert "Bob" Renwick Mortimer is an English comedian and actor, who is best known for his double act with Vic Reeves...

  • Best stand-up: Eddie Izzard
    Eddie Izzard
    Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: Johnny Speight
    Johnny Speight
    Johnny Speight , was a British television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.He emerged in the mid 1950s. He wrote for the radio comics; Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For television he wrote for the Arthur Haynes Show, Morecambe & Wise, and Peter Sellers...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Dave Allen
    Dave Allen (comedian)
    David Tynan O'Mahoney , better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian, very popular in Great Britain, Australia, and Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. He also became known in the United States through repeats of his shows on public television. His career had a major resurgence during the late...


1997

  • Best comedy show: The Fast Show
    The Fast Show
    The Fast Show, known as Brilliant in the US, was a BBC comedy sketch show programme that ran for three series from 1994 to 1997 with a special Last Fast Show Ever in 2000. The show's central performers were Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and...

  • Best new TV comedy: The Harry Hill Show
  • Best TV comedy actor: David Jason
    David Jason
    Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...

     (Only Fools and Horses
    Only Fools and Horses
    Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

    )
  • Best TV comedy actress: Dawn French (Vicar of Dibley)
  • Top comedy newcomer: Graham Norton
    Graham Norton
    Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...

  • Best C4 sitcom: Father Ted
    Father Ted
    Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

  • Top BBC1 personalty: Caroline Aherne
    Caroline Aherne
    Caroline Mary Aherne is an English comedian and BAFTA winning writer and actress, best known for Mrs Merton and The Royle Family.- Background :...

  • Top ITV personality: Cilla Black
    Cilla Black
    Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...

  • Top BBC2/C4 personality: Paul Whitehouse
    Paul Whitehouse
    Paul Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer and comedian. He became known for his work with Harry Enfield and as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show, The Fast Show. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was in the top 50 comedy acts voted for by comedians and comedy insiders...

  • Best radio comedy: People Like Us
    People Like Us
    People Like Us is a British comedy programme, a spoof on-location documentary written by John Morton, and starring Chris Langham as Roy Mallard, an inept interviewer...

  • Best comedy film: The Full Monty
    The Full Monty
    The Full Monty is a 1997 British comedy film directed by Peter Cattaneo, starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, William Snape, Steve Huison, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Barber, and Hugo Speer. The screenplay was written by Simon Beaufoy...

  • Cockburn's funniest comedy moment: Only Fools and Horses
    Only Fools and Horses
    Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

  • Best international comedy: The Larry Sanders show
    The Larry Sanders Show
    The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...

  • Best BBC sitcom: One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

    Christmas Special
  • Best ITV sitcom: Faith in the Future
    Faith in the Future
    Faith in the Future was a British comedy television show running from 1995-1998. It was a sequel to the show Second Thoughts. It aired on ITV for 22 episodes....

  • Best Channel 4 sitcom: Father Ted Christmas Special
  • Best BBC comedy drama: The Missing Postman
    The Missing Postman
    The Missing Postman is a two-part comedy drama originally broadcast on BBC One on the consecutive evenings of 29 March and 30 March 1997. Adapted from the Mark Wallington novel, it received the award for Best BBC Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Awards in 1997.-Synopsis:When Clive Peacock is...

  • Best ITV comedy drama: Cold Feet
    Pilot (Cold Feet)
    Cold Feet is a British television pilot directed by Declan Lowney. It stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale as Adam and Rachel, a couple who meet and fall in love, only for the relationship to break down when he gets cold feet. John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst appear...

  • Best children's comedy: My Dad's A Boring Nerd
  • Best entertainment programme: An Evening With Lily Savage
  • Top stand-up comic: Jack Dee
    Jack Dee
    James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee is an English stand-up comedian, actor and writer known for his sardonic, curmudgeonly, and deadpan style.-Early life:...

  • People's Choice: Only Fools and Horses
  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     achievement award: Ray Galton and Alan Simpson
  • Lifetime achievement award: Stanley Baxter
    Stanley Baxter
    Stanley Baxter is a Scottish comic actor and impressionist, best known for his British television shows. He worked in radio, theatre, television and film.-Early life:...


1998

  • Best comedy series: Goodness Gracious Me
  • Best new TV comedy: The Royle Family
    The Royle Family
    The Royle Family is a popular, BAFTA award-winning television comedy drama produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 onwards...

  • Best TV comedy actor: Steve Coogan
    Steve Coogan
    Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

     (I'm Alan Partridge
    I'm Alan Partridge
    I'm Alan Partridge is a BBC situation comedy starring Steve Coogan, of which two series of six episodes each were produced — the first in 1997 and the second in 2002...

    )
  • Best TV comedy actress: Emma Chambers
    Emma Chambers
    Emma G. Chambers is an English actress. Her work includes the role Alice Tinker in the BBC comedy The Vicar of Dibley and Honey Thacker in the film Notting Hill .-Early life:...

     (Vicar of Dibley)
  • Top TV comedy newcomer: Dylan Moran
    Dylan Moran
    Dylan Moran is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books , and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run...

     (How Do You Want Me?
    How Do You Want Me?
    How Do You Want Me? is a British television sitcom, produced by Kensington Films & Television, written by Simon Nye, and directed by John Henderson....

    )
  • Best TV sitcom: I'm Alan Partridge
  • Best light entertainment series: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
    Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)
    Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty...

  • Top BBC1 comedy personality: Harry Enfield
    Harry Enfield
    Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...

  • Top BBC2 personality: Steve Coogan
    Steve Coogan
    Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

  • Top ITV personality: Michael Barrymore
    Michael Barrymore
    Michael Kieron Parker , better known by his stage name Michael Barrymore, is a British comedian who appeared as a presenter of game shows and light entertainment programmes on British television in the 1980s and 1990s. These included Strike It Lucky, My Kind of People, My Kind of Music and Kids Say...

  • Best children's comedy: Sooty & Co
    Sooty
    Sooty is a British glove puppet bear and TV character popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. The children's television show which bears his name has continued in various forms since the 1950s and, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the...

  • Best television comedy drama: Underworld
    Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC TV series)
    Dalziel and Pascoe is a popular British television crime drama based on the Dalziel and Pascoe books by Reginald Hill, which was first broadcast in March 1996. It is set in Yorkshire, and is about two detectives...

  • Best comedy film: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
  • Best radio comedy: Old Harry's Game
    Old Harry's Game
    Old Harry's Game is a UK radio comedy written and directed by Andy Hamilton, who also plays the cynical, world-weary Satan. "Old Harry" is one of many names for the devil...

  • Best stand-up comedian: Tommy Tiernan
    Tommy Tiernan
    Tommy Tiernan is an Irish comedian, actor and writer. He and Hector Ó hEochagáin present The Tommy and Hector Show on i102-104FM. Tiernan also featured in Father Ted.-Early life:...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     writer of the year award: Denis Norden
    Denis Norden
    Denis Mostyn Norden CBE is a former English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir...

     and (posthumously) Frank Muir
    Frank Muir
    Frank Herbert Muir was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wrote BBC radio's Take It From Here for over 10 years, and then appeared on BBC radio...

  • People's Choice: One Foot In The Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Dame Thora Hird
    Thora Hird
    Dame Thora Hird DBE was an English actress.-Early life and career:Hird was born in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe. She first appeared on stage at the age of two months in a play her father was managing...


1999

  • Best new TV comedy: Dinnerladies
    Dinnerladies
    Dinnerladies is a British sitcom written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood. It ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.-Plot:...

  • Best TV comedy actor: Ricky Tomlinson
    Ricky Tomlinson
    Eric Tomlinson , known by his stage name Ricky Tomlinson, is an English actor and comedian, best known for his roles as Bobby Grant in Brookside, DCI Charlie Wise in Cracker and James "Jim" Royle in The Royle Family....

     (The Royle Family
    The Royle Family
    The Royle Family is a popular, BAFTA award-winning television comedy drama produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 onwards...

    )
  • Best TV comedy actress: Caroline Aherne
    Caroline Aherne
    Caroline Mary Aherne is an English comedian and BAFTA winning writer and actress, best known for Mrs Merton and The Royle Family.- Background :...

     (The Royle Family, Mrs Merton and Malcolm
    Mrs Merton and Malcolm
    Mrs Merton and Malcolm was a six episode BBC One sitcom produced by Granada and written by Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Henry Normal. It has never been repeated on the BBC although a DVD was released on 10 November 2008...

    ).
  • Best male comedy newcomer: Sacha Baron Cohen
    Sacha Baron Cohen
    Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, and Brüno...

     (The 11 O'Clock Show)
  • Best female comedy newcomer: Jessica Stevenson
    Jessica Stevenson
    Jessica Hynes is an English actress and writer. She was known professionally as Jessica Stevenson until 2007.She is possibly best known as one of the creators, writers and stars of the British sitcom Spaced....

     (Spaced
    Spaced
    Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...

    , The Royle Family)
  • Best comedy entertainment personality: Paul Merton
    Paul Merton
    Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...

  • Best 'broken comedy': Big Train
    Big Train
    Big Train is a surreal British television comedy sketch show created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, writers of the successful sitcom Father Ted...

  • Best comedy gameshow: Have I Got News For You
    Have I Got News for You
    Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...

  • Best comedy talkshow: So Graham Norton
    So Graham Norton
    So Graham Norton is a British television programme, hosted by Irish personality Graham Norton. It ran from 3 July 1998 to 1 March 2002.-Theme:...

  • Best TV sitcom: The Royle Family
  • Best TV comedy-drama: Cold Feet
    Cold Feet
    Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

  • Best comedy film: Notting Hill
    Notting Hill (film)
    Notting Hill is a 1999 British romantic comedy film set in Notting Hill, London, released on 21 May 1999. The screenplay was by Richard Curtis, who had written Four Weddings and a Funeral. It was produced by Duncan Kenworthy and directed by Roger Michell...

  • Best international comedy show: The Larry Sanders Show
    The Larry Sanders Show
    The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...

  • Best comedy entertainment programme: Comic Relief
  • Best radio comedy: The Sunday Format
    The Sunday Format
    The Sunday Format, "BBC Radio 4's first high-quality weekend broadsheet newspaper", is a British satirical radio comedy. The programme is a parody of British middle class newspapers, in particular the lifestyle supplements and glossy celebrity magazines that fill Sunday papers...

  • Best live stand-up: Bill Bailey
    Bill Bailey
    Bill Bailey is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his appearances on Black Books, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.Bailey was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     Award For Top Comedy Writer: Richard Curtis
    Richard Curtis
    Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Barry Humphries
    Barry Humphries
    John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...

    , The Two Ronnies
    The Two Ronnies
    The Two Ronnies is a British sketch show that aired on BBC1 from 1971 to 1987. It featured the double act of Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, the "Two Ronnies" of the title.-Origins:...


2000

  • Best TV comedy: Dinnerladies
    Dinnerladies
    Dinnerladies is a British sitcom written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood. It ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.-Plot:...

  • Best new TV comedy: That Peter Kay Thing
    That Peter Kay Thing
    That Peter Kay Thing was a series of six spoof documentaries shown on Channel 4 in January 2000. Set in and around Bolton, these followed the lives of different characters and starred Peter Kay as the subject of each documentary. All of the episodes displayed Kay's penchant for nostalgic humour and...

  • Best TV comedy actor: James Nesbitt
    James Nesbitt
    James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...

     (Cold Feet
    Cold Feet
    Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

    )
  • Best TV comedy actress: Sue Johnston
    Sue Johnston
    Susan "Sue" Johnston, OBE is a BAFTA nominated English actress best known for playing Sheila Grant in the long-running soap opera Brookside , Grace Foley in Waking the Dead from 2000 to 2011 and Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy The Royle Family between 1998 and 2000, and again in 2006, 2008, 2009,...

     (The Royle Family
    The Royle Family
    The Royle Family is a popular, BAFTA award-winning television comedy drama produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 onwards...

    )
  • Best TV comedy newcomer: Rob Brydon
    Rob Brydon
    Rob Brydon is a BAFTA-nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist...

     (Marion and Geoff
    Marion and Geoff
    Marion and Geoff is a BBC television mockumentary, produced by Baby Cow Productions and screened on BBC Two in 2000, with a second series following in 2003. The series starred Rob Brydon as Keith Barret, a naïve taxicab driver going through a messy divorce from his wife, Marion, who, though he...

    )
  • Best TV comedy-drama: Cold Feet
  • Best TV comedy personality: Graham Norton
    Graham Norton
    Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...

  • Best comedy entertainment programme: Alistair McGowan's Big Impression
  • Best comedy film: East Is East
    East is East (film)
    East Is East is a 1999 British black comedy/drama film, written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in a British household of mixed-ethnicity, with a British Pakistani father and an English mother in Salford, Lancashire, in 1971...

  • Best international TV show: The Simpsons
    The Simpsons
    The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

  • Best Of British: The Vicar of Dibley
    The Vicar of Dibley
    The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007...

  • Best live comic: Sean Lock
    Sean Lock
    Sean Lock is an English comedian and actor. He began his comedy career as a stand-up comedian. He won the British Comedy Award in 2000 in the category of Best Live Comic, and was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. He is also well known for his appearances on television and radio...

  • People's Choice: SMTV Live
    SMTV Live
    SMTV Live , also written SM:TV Live and in early promotional material SMTV://live, was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, first broadcast on ITV on 29 August 1998 and last broadcast on 27 December 2003.On the surface, the programme did not seem to stray away from the format...

  • WGGB
    Writers' Guild of Great Britain
    The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds .-Activities:...

     writer of the year: Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Alan Bennett
    Alan Bennett
    Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...


2001

  • Best TV comedy: One Foot In The Grave
    One Foot in the Grave
    One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...

  • Best new TV comedy: The Office
    The Office (UK TV series)
    The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...

  • Best TV comedy actor: Rob Brydon
    Rob Brydon
    Rob Brydon is a BAFTA-nominated Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist...

     (Human Remains)
  • Best TV comedy actress: Ronni Ancona
    Ronni Ancona
    Ronni Ancona is a Scottish actress, impressionist and author. Ancona won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.- Career :...

  • Best comedy newcomer: Johnny Vegas
    Johnny Vegas
    Johnny Vegas is an English actor and comedian. He is known for his angry rants, portly figure, high husky voice and support of St Helens rugby league club. More recently he has moved into dramatic acting.-Early life:He was born in St Helens, Lancashire, the youngest of four children of Laurence...

  • Best comedy entertainment personality: Frank Skinner
    Frank Skinner
    Frank Skinner is a British writer, comedian and actor. He is best known for his television presenting, often alongside David Baddiel, with whom he also collaborated for the football song "Three Lions."He is a radio presenter on the Saturday morning slot on Absolute Radio.-Youth and early career...

  • Best TV comedy drama: Bob and Rose
    Bob and Rose
    Bob & Rose is a British television drama, originally screened in six one-hour episodes on the ITV network in the UK in the autumn of 2001. It was produced for the network by the independent Red Production Company, and was that company's first prime-time drama for the ITV network.Bob & Rose was the...

  • Best comedy entertainment programme: So Graham Norton
    So Graham Norton
    So Graham Norton is a British television programme, hosted by Irish personality Graham Norton. It ran from 3 July 1998 to 1 March 2002.-Theme:...

  • Best international comedy TV show: Seinfeld
    Seinfeld
    Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

  • Best radio comedy: Dead Ringers
    Dead Ringers (comedy)
    Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and later BBC Two. The programme was devised by producer Bill Dare and developed with Jon Holmes, Andy Hurst and Simon Blackwell. It starred Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Phil Cornwell, Kevin Connelly and Mark Perry...

  • Best comedy film: Best In Show
    Best in Show
    Best in Show may refer to:* Best in Show , a 2000 film* Best in Show , a 2005 album by Grinspoon* The Best in Show award or the Best in Show competition in conformation dog shows** Best in Show winners of Crufts...

  • Best live stand-up: Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...

     (Award not presented on night)
  • The AOL people's choice: Cold Feet
    Cold Feet
    Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

    (Voted by viewing audience)
  • Writer of the year: Russell T Davies
  • Lifetime achievement award: David Jason
    David Jason
    Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...


2002

  • Best TV Comedy: The Office
    The Office (UK TV series)
    The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...

  • Best new TV comedy: The Kumars at No 42
  • Best comedy actor: Ricky Gervais
    Ricky Gervais
    Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

     (The Office)
  • Best comedy actress: Kathy Burke
    Kathy Burke
    Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress, comedienne, playwright and theatre director. She is best known for her portrayals of Perry in the Harry Enfield film Kevin and Perry Go Large, and of Linda La Hughes in the British sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme...

     (Gimme Gimme Gimme)
  • Best comedy newcomer: Kris Marshall
    Kris Marshall
    Kristopher "Kris" Marshall is an English actor, best known for his role as Nick Harper in My Family, and as Adam in the adverts for BT Group since 2005.-Career:...

     (My Family)
  • Best comedy entertainment Personality: Graham Norton
    Graham Norton
    Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...

  • Best comedy drama: Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
    Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
    Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven English migrant construction workers. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in Düsseldorf....

  • Best comedy entertainment programme: V Graham Norton
    V Graham Norton
    V Graham Norton was an entertainment programme shown on Channel 4 in the UK starring Graham Norton, broadcast every weeknight as a successor to the weekly So Graham Norton. It aired from 6 May 2002 to 26 December 2003. It featured celebrities who chatted with Graham and became involved in studio...

  • Best international comedy show: Six Feet Under
  • Best comedy film: Bend It Like Beckham
    Bend It Like Beckham
    Bend It Like Beckham is a 2002 comedy-drama film starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Anupam Kher, Shaznay Lewis, and Archie Panjabi first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...

  • Peoples choice award: Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights
    Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights
    Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights was a BAFTA-nominated English sitcom about The Phoenix Club, a working men's club in the northern English town of Farnworth, Greater Manchester. The show was written by Neil Fitzmaurice, Peter Kay and Dave Spikey, produced by Goodnight Vienna Productions and Ovation...

  • Writer of the year: Peter Kay
    Peter Kay
    Peter John Kay is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing , Phoenix Nights , Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere , Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours.-Early career:Peter Kay...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Michael Palin
    Michael Palin
    Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....


2003

  • Best TV comedy: Coupling
    Coupling (UK TV series)
    Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...

  • Best new TV comedy: My New Best Friend
    My New Best Friend
    My New Best Friend is a British Comedy broadcast on Channel 4 during 2003. The idea was a hidden camera show where a member of the public would enter into an agreement to be filmed for a whole weekend with the task of convincing their friends and family a character being played by Marc Wootton was...

  • Best comedy actor: Steve Coogan
    Steve Coogan
    Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

  • Best comedy actress: Ronni Ancona
    Ronni Ancona
    Ronni Ancona is a Scottish actress, impressionist and author. Ancona won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.- Career :...

  • Best comedy newcomer: David Walliams
    David Walliams
    David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...

     (Little Britain
    Little Britain
    Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

    )
  • Best entertainment personality: Ant and Dec
  • Best comedy drama: Cold Feet
    Cold Feet
    Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

  • Best comedy entertainment programme: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
    Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
    Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 November 2001. The programme featured Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band...

  • International comedy show: Malcolm In The Middle
    Malcolm in the Middle
    Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes...

  • Best comedy film: Calendar Girls
    Calendar Girls
    Calendar Girls is a 2003 comedy film directed by Nigel Cole. Produced by Buena Vista International and Touchstone Pictures, it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi based on a true story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a nude calendar to raise money for Leukaemia...

  • People's choice award: Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
  • Writer of the year: Mike Bullen
    Mike Bullen
    Mike Bullen is an English-born screenwriter. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands of England, attending the Solihull School and later Magdalene College, Cambridge. He left with a degree in history of art and became a radio producer for the BBC World Service...

  • Lifetime achievement award: Jimmy Perry
    Jimmy Perry
    Jimmy Perry OBE is an English writer, scriptwriter, producer, author and actor, most famous for devising and co-writing the BBC sitcoms Dad's Army with David Croft.-Education:...

     and David Croft

2004

  • Best TV comedy: Little Britain
    Little Britain
    Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

  • Best new TV comedy: Nighty Night
    Nighty Night
    Nighty Night is a British dark comedy sitcom written by and starring Julia Davis. It was first broadcast on 6 January 2004 on BBC Three before moving to BBC2....

  • Best TV comedy actor: Matt Lucas
    Matt Lucas
    Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...

     and David Walliams
    David Walliams
    David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...

  • Best TV comedy actress: Caroline Quentin
    Caroline Quentin
    Caroline Jones known by her stage name Caroline Quentin, is an English actress. Quentin became known for her television appearances in Men Behaving Badly, playing Dorothy, and playing Maddy Magellan in Jonathan Creek for three years.-Early life:...

  • Best comedy newcomer: Catherine Tate
    Catherine Tate
    Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...

  • Best comedy entertainment personality: Ant & Dec
    Ant & Dec
    Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...

  • Best comedy entertainment programme: Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
  • Best TV comedy drama: Doc Martin
  • Best international comedy show: The Simpsons
    The Simpsons
    The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

  • Best comedy film: School of Rock
    School of Rock
    School of Rock, also called The School of Rock, is a 2003 American musical comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, and starring Jack Black...

  • People's choice award: Little Britain
  • Writers of the Year: Ricky Gervais
    Ricky Gervais
    Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

     and Stephen Merchant
    Stephen Merchant
    Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...

  • Outstanding achievement: Matt Groening
    Matt Groening
    Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....

    , French and Saunders
    French & Saunders
    French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show written by and starring comic duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act....


2005

  • Best TV comedy: Little Britain
    Little Britain
    Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

  • Best new TV comedy: The Thick of It
    The Thick of It
    The Thick of It is a British comedy television series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. It was first broadcast on BBC Four in 2005, and has so far completed fourteen half-hour episodes and two special hour-long episodes to coincide with Christmas and Gordon Brown's...

  • Best TV comedy actor: Chris Langham
    Chris Langham
    Christopher "Chris" Langham is an English writer, actor and comedian. He is most famous for playing MP Hugh Abbot in BBC Four sitcom The Thick of It and as presenter Roy Mallard in People Like Us, first on BBC Radio 4 and later on its transfer to television on BBC Two, where Mallard is almost...

  • Best TV comedy actress: Ashley Jensen
    Ashley Jensen
    Ashley Jensen is a Scottish actress who is best known for her roles in the television series Extras for which she was nominated for an Emmy, and ABC's Ugly Betty...

  • Best comedy newcomer: Ashley Jensen
  • Best international Show: The Simpsons
    The Simpsons
    The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

  • Best entertainment Programme: The X Factor
    The X Factor (UK)
    The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international X Factor franchise. The seven series of the show to date...

  • Best comedy drama: Shameless
  • Best comedy entertainment Personality: Paul O'Grady
    Paul O'Grady
    Paul James Michael O'Grady MBE is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live, as well as his drag queen comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as...

  • Best comedy film: Festival
  • People's choice award: The Catherine Tate Show
    The Catherine Tate Show
    The Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Aschlin Ditta. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC...

    declared actual winner (2008); "mistakenly" awarded to Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
    Saturday Night Takeaway
    Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, is a variety show created by LWT and shown in the UK on Saturday evenings on ITV, presented and executively produced by Ant & Dec. It is broadcast live from The London Studios on the South Bank...

    (2005)
  • Ronnie Barker Writers of the year: Matt Lucas
    Matt Lucas
    Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas is an English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and...

     and David Walliams
    David Walliams
    David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...

  • Outstanding achievement: Julie Walters
    Julie Walters
    Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...

     and Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood
    Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...


2006

  • Best Comedy Entertainment Programme: Harry Hill's TV Burp
    Harry Hill's TV Burp
    Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme produced by Avalon Television for ITV and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances...

  • Best Comedy Film: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
    Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
    Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...

  • Best International Comedy TV Show: Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...

  • Britain's Best New TV Comedy: Star Stories
    Star Stories
    Star Stories is a British television comedy programme that takes a satirical look at celebrities and their lives. It was first shown on Channel 4 on September 15, 2006....

  • Best TV Comedy: Peep Show
    Peep Show (TV series)
    Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003. The show's seventh series makes it...

  • Best Stage Comedy: Little Britain
    Little Britain
    Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

    Live
  • People's Choice Award: Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
    Ant & Dec
    Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...

  • Best TV Comedy Actor: Stephen Merchant
    Stephen Merchant
    Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...

  • Best TV Comedy Actress: Catherine Tate
    Catherine Tate
    Catherine Tate is an English actress, writer, and comedian. She has won numerous awards for her work on the sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and four BAFTA Awards...

  • Best TV Comedy Entertainment Personality: Harry Hill
    Harry Hill
    Harry Hill , is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor , Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.-Personal life:Hill was born in Woking,...

  • Best Male Comedy Newcomer: Russell Brand
    Russell Brand
    Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...

  • Best Female Comedy Newcomer: Charlotte Church
    Charlotte Church
    Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...

  • Best Live Standup Tour: Jimmy Carr
    Jimmy Carr
    James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....

  • Ronnie Barker Award: Sacha Baron Cohen
    Sacha Baron Cohen
    Sacha Noam Baron Cohen is an English stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice artist. He is most widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat, and Brüno...

    , Peter Baynham
    Peter Baynham
    Peter Baynham is a screenwriter and a British comedian, writer, and performer. He often collaborates with Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and has worked with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. He is first heard on Morris' early radio DJ slots, often going out to places...

    , Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer
    Dan Mazer
    Dan Mazer is a British screenwriter, TV/film producer, and comedian. He is best known as the long-time writing and production partner of Sacha Baron Cohen and has worked with him on such characters as Ali G and Borat...

  • Writer's Guild Of Great Britain Special Award: Jonathan Ross
    Jonathan Ross
    Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...

  • Outstanding Contribution To Entertainment: Chris Tarrant
    Chris Tarrant
    Christopher John "Chris" Tarrant, OBE is an English radio and television broadcaster, now best known for hosting the first version of the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the United Kingdom and later Ireland, as the two national versions of the show merged in 2002.Chris...


2007

  • Best New Comedy Entertainment Programme: Al Murray's Happy Hour
    Al Murray's Happy Hour
    Al Murray's Happy Hour was a chat show presented by comedian Al Murray and produced by Avalon TV. The first series aired in early 2007. It is broadcast on the British terrestrial TV network, ITV, and the first series was broadcast on Saturday nights at 10pm. The second series aired on Fridays at 10pm...

  • Best Comedy Film: The Simpsons Movie
    The Simpsons Movie
    The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...

  • Best International Comedy TV Show: Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm
    Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...

  • Britain's Best New TV Comedy: Gavin & Stacey
    Gavin & Stacey
    Gavin & Stacey is a British comedy television series. A romantic comedy-drama, the show follows the long-distance relationship of Gavin from Billericay in Essex, England, and Stacey from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The writers of the show, actors James Corden and Ruth Jones, also...

  • Best TV Comedy: Peep Show
    Peep Show (TV series)
    Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003. The show's seventh series makes it...

  • Best TV Comedy Actor: David Mitchell
    David Mitchell (actor)
    David James Stuart Mitchell is a British actor, comedian and writer. He is half of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, alongside Robert Webb, whom he met at Cambridge University. There they were both part of the Cambridge Footlights, of which Mitchell became President. Together the duo star in the...

     (Peep Show
    Peep Show (TV series)
    Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003. The show's seventh series makes it...

    )
  • Best TV Comedy Actress: Liz Smith
    Liz Smith (actress)
    Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...

     (The Royle Family
    The Royle Family
    The Royle Family is a popular, BAFTA award-winning television comedy drama produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series between 1998 and 2000, and specials from 2006 onwards...

    : The Queen of Sheba
    )
  • Best Comedy Entertainment Personality: Simon Amstell
    Simon Amstell
    Simon Marc Amstell is a BAFTA nominated, award-winning English comedian, television presenter, screenwriter and actor, best known for his roles as former co-host of Popworld, former host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and co-writer and star of the sitcom Grandma's House.-Early life:Amstell was born...

     (Never Mind The Buzzcocks)
  • Best Male Comedy Newcomer: James Corden
    James Corden
    James Kimberley Corden is an English actor, television writer, producer and presenter. He is co-creator and star of BBC comedy shows Gavin & Stacey and Horne & Corden, and acted in the 2009 film Lesbian Vampire Killers....

  • Best Female Comedy Newcomer: Ruth Jones
    Ruth Jones
    Ruth Jones is a Welsh TV actress and writer. She starred in and co-wrote the multi-award winning TV comedy Gavin & Stacey and has appeared in many other successful comedies over recent years...

     (Gavin & Stacey)
  • Best Live Standup: Alan Carr
    Alan Carr
    Alan Carr is an English comedian and television personality. Born in Weymouth, he was raised in Northampton before moving to Manchester during his early 20's....

  • Ronnie Barker Award: Simon Pegg
    Simon Pegg
    Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...

  • British Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award: Stephen Fry
    Stephen Fry
    Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...


2008

  • Best Comedy Entertainment Programme: Harry Hill's TV Burp
    Harry Hill's TV Burp
    Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme produced by Avalon Television for ITV and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances...

  • Best Comedy Film: Hot Fuzz
    Hot Fuzz
    Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British action dark comedy film written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, and starring Pegg and Nick Frost. The three had previously worked together on the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead as well as the television series Spaced...

  • Britain's Best New British TV Comedy: The Inbetweeners
    The Inbetweeners
    The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom which aired for three series from 2008 to 2010 on E4. Created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will , and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The Inbetweeners Movie was...

  • Best TV Comedy: Gavin & Stacey
    Gavin & Stacey
    Gavin & Stacey is a British comedy television series. A romantic comedy-drama, the show follows the long-distance relationship of Gavin from Billericay in Essex, England, and Stacey from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The writers of the show, actors James Corden and Ruth Jones, also...

  • Best TV Comedy Actor: Ricky Gervais
    Ricky Gervais
    Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...

     (Extras
    Extras (TV series)
    Extras is a British sitcom about extras working on TV and film sets and in theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and is created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom also star in it...

    )
  • Best TV Comedy Actress: Sharon Horgan
    Sharon Horgan
    Sharon Horgan is an Irish actress, writer and comedienne.Horgan was born in London and moved to Dublin at age seven. She grew up in Bellewstown, Co. Meath, Ireland. She went to school in the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Drogheda. Later she went on to an English degree at Brunel University...

     (Pulling
    Pulling
    Pulling is a BBC comedy series, produced by Silver River Productions and broadcast on BBC Three, about three single female friends who live in Penge, south-east London...

    )
  • Best Comedy Entertainment Personality: Alan Carr
    Alan Carr
    Alan Carr is an English comedian and television personality. Born in Weymouth, he was raised in Northampton before moving to Manchester during his early 20's....

     (The Sunday Night Project
    The Sunday Night Project
    The Sunday Night Project was a British comedy-variety show by Princess Productions that first aired on Channel 4 in February 2005 under the title The Friday Night Project...

    )
  • Best Male Comedy Newcomer: Simon Bird
    Simon Bird
    Simon Antony Bird is an actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in E4’s BAFTA-winning TV comedy The Inbetweeners.-Early life:...

  • Best Female Comedy Newcomer: Katy Brand
    Katy Brand
    Katy Brand is an English actress, comedian and writer known for her ITV2 series Katy Brand's Big Ass Show and for Comedy Lab Slap on Channel 4....

  • Best TV Comedy Drama: Drop Dead Gorgeous
    Drop Dead Gorgeous (TV series)
    Drop Dead Gorgeous is a British comedy-drama for BBC Three. Set in Runcorn, it tells the story of 15-year-old Ashley Webb , whose life is turned upside-down when she is approached by a spotter from a local modelling agency...

  • Best Live Standup Performer: Russell Brand
    Russell Brand
    Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...

  • Best Comedy Panel Show: QI
    QI
    QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...

  • Ronnie Barker Award: David Renwick
    David Renwick
    David Peter Renwick is an English television writer, best known for creation of the sitcom One Foot in the Grave and the mystery series Jonathan Creek....

  • British Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award: Jasper Carrott
    Jasper Carrott
    Jasper Carrott OBE is a British comedian, actor, television presenter and personality.-Early life:...

  • Outstanding Contribution to Comedy: Geoffrey Perkins
    Geoffrey Perkins
    Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a comedy producer, writer and performer, and an important figure in British comedy broadcasting. This was recognised in December 2008 when he was awarded with an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award...


2009

  • Best Comedy Entertainment Programme: Harry Hill's TV Burp
    Harry Hill's TV Burp
    Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme produced by Avalon Television for ITV and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances...

  • Best Situation Comedy: Outnumbered
    Outnumbered
    Outnumbered is a British sitcom. Airing on BBC One since 2007, it stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a father and mother outnumbered by their three children...

  • Best New British TV Comedy: Psychoville
    Psychoville
    Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...

  • Best Comedy Panel Show: Have I Got News for You
    Have I Got News for You
    Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...

  • Best TV Comedy Drama: Pulling Special
  • Outstanding Contribution to British Comedy: Peter Kay
    Peter Kay
    Peter John Kay is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing , Phoenix Nights , Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere , Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours.-Early career:Peter Kay...

  • Best Television Comedy Actress: Katherine Parkinson
    Katherine Parkinson
    Laura Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian who is known for playing the part of Jen Barber in the Channel 4 comedy series The IT Crowd...

     (The IT Crowd
    The IT Crowd
    The IT Crowd is a British sitcom by Channel 4, written by Graham Linehan, produced by Ash Atalla and starring Chris O'Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry...

    )
  • Best Television Comedy Actor: Simon Bird
    Simon Bird
    Simon Antony Bird is an actor, writer and comedian. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in E4’s BAFTA-winning TV comedy The Inbetweeners.-Early life:...

     (The Inbetweeners
    The Inbetweeners
    The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom which aired for three series from 2008 to 2010 on E4. Created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will , and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The Inbetweeners Movie was...

    )
  • Best Comedy Entertainment Personality: Harry Hill
    Harry Hill
    Harry Hill , is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor , Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.-Personal life:Hill was born in Woking,...

  • Ronnie Barker Award: Graham Linehan
    Graham Linehan
    Graham Linehan is an Irish television writer, actor, comedian and director who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written or co-written a number of popular television comedies...

  • Best Comedy Film: In the Loop
    In the Loop (film)
    In the Loop is a 2009 British satirical black comedy film directed by Armando Iannucci. It is based on the BBC Television series The Thick of It satirising Anglo-American politics in the 21st century and the Invasion of Iraq...

  • Best Live Standup Performer: Michael McIntyre
    Michael McIntyre
    Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English stand-up comedian. He is well known for appearing at many British stand-up comedy events and for several roles on television stand-up programmes such as Live at the Apollo and his own show, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow...

  • Best British Comedy: Outnumbered
    Outnumbered
    Outnumbered is a British sitcom. Airing on BBC One since 2007, it stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a father and mother outnumbered by their three children...

  • British Lifetime Achievement Award: Sir Terry Wogan
  • Best Male Comedy Newcomer: Charlie Brooker
    Charlie Brooker
    Charlton "Charlie" Brooker is a British journalist, comic writer and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism...

     (You Have Been Watching
    You Have Been Watching
    You Have Been Watching is a British comedy panel game presented by Charlie Brooker, produced by Zeppotron for Channel 4 and filmed at BBC Television Centre and Riverside Studios in London. It first aired on Tuesday 7 July 2009, for a weekly eight-episode run...

    )
  • Best Female Comedy Newcomer: Ramona Marquez
    Ramona Marquez
    Ramona Marquez is an English child actress from Wandsworth, South London, most known for her role as Karen Brockman in the BBC One sitcom Outnumbered...

     (Outnumbered
    Outnumbered
    Outnumbered is a British sitcom. Airing on BBC One since 2007, it stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a father and mother outnumbered by their three children...

    )
  • Best Sketch Show: Harry and Paul

2010

  • Best Comedy Entertainment Programme: Newswipe
  • Best Comedy Panel Show: Would I Lie To You?
    Would I Lie To You? (TV series)
    Would I Lie to You? is a comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for BBC One. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007.-Format:The show was presented by Angus Deayton in 2007 and 2008, and by Rob Brydon from 2009 onwards...

  • Best Comedy Entertainment Personality: Harry Hill
    Harry Hill
    Harry Hill , is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor , Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.-Personal life:Hill was born in Woking,...

  • Best Male TV Comic: Michael McIntyre
    Michael McIntyre
    Michael Hazen James McIntyre is an English stand-up comedian. He is well known for appearing at many British stand-up comedy events and for several roles on television stand-up programmes such as Live at the Apollo and his own show, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow...

  • Best Female TV Comic: Jo Brand
    Jo Brand
    Josephine Grace "Jo" Brand is a BAFTA winning British comedian, writer, and actor.- Early life :Jo Brand was born 23 July 1957 in Wandsworth, London. Her mother was a social worker. Brand is the middle of three children, with two brothers...

  • British Comedy Academy Lifetime Achievement Award: Roy Clarke
    Roy Clarke
    Roy Clarke OBE is an English comedy writer.-Career:Clarke is best known for creating BBC Sitcoms; Last of the Summer Wine, Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances...

  • Best New British TV Comedy: Miranda
    Miranda (TV series)
    Miranda is a BBC television series co-written by and starring comedienne Miranda Hart, which first aired on BBC Two on 9 November 2009. The situation comedy also features Sarah Hadland, Tom Ellis, Patricia Hodge, James Holmes and Sally Phillips...

  • Best Male Comedy Breakthrough Artist: John Bishop
    John Bishop (comedian)
    John Joseph Bishop is an award-winning comedian.His television debut came on The Panel. As an actor, he has appeared in the E4 teen drama Skins as Mr Fitch, father of twins, Katie and Emily and in the Ken Loach film Route Irish...

  • Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artist: Samantha Spiro
    Samantha Spiro
    Samantha Spiro is an Olivier Award-winning English actress. She is known for portraying Barbara Windsor in the stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick and the television film Cor, Blimey!, and DI Vivien Friend in M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team.-Background:Born in Mill Hill, Spiro grew up...

     (Grandma's House
    Grandma's House
    Grandma's House is a sitcom television series for BBC Two. Written by Simon Amstell and long term collaborator Dan Swimer, the series stars Simon Amstell playing a version of himself: a television presenter searching for meaning in his life...

    )
  • Best Sketch Show: Horrible Histories
    Horrible Histories (2009 TV series)
    Horrible Histories is an award-winning British children's television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. The first series was thirteen episodes long, and was broadcast from 16 April to 9 July 2009 on CBBC on BBC One. A second series, of twelve episodes , aired from 31 May...

  • Best Sitcom: The Inbetweeners
    The Inbetweeners
    The Inbetweeners is a British sitcom which aired for three series from 2008 to 2010 on E4. Created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, the show follows the life of suburban teenager Will , and three of his friends at the fictional Rudge Park Comprehensive. The Inbetweeners Movie was...

  • Writers' Guild Of Great Britain Award: Sam Bain
    Sam Bain
    Sam Bain is one of the co-creators of Channel 4's Peep Show, which won a BAFTA for best Situation Comedy in 2008. He was also one of the writers of two series of the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the BBC Two sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look...

     and Jesse Armstrong
    Jesse Armstrong
    Jesse Armstrong is one of the co-creators of Channel 4's Peep Show, along with Sam Bain. He also co-wrote the BBC Four comedy The Thick of It and was one of the writers on series 1 and 2 of the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the BBC Two sketch show That Mitchell and Webb...

  • Best TV Comedy Actor: Peter Capaldi
    Peter Capaldi
    Peter Dougan Capaldi is an Academy Award and BAFTA award winning Scottish actor and film director. In 1995, his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...

  • Best TV Comedy Actress: Miranda Hart
    Miranda Hart
    Miranda Katharine Hart Dyke , known professionally as Miranda Hart, is an English actress, writer and stand-up comedienne. She writes and stars in the BBC sitcom Miranda...

  • Best Comedy Performance in a British Film: Kayvan Novak
    Kayvan Novak
    Kayvan Novak is an award-winning British Iranian television actor and voice artist.- Voice actor :Novak has provided voice work for three video games: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo...

  • Outstanding Contribution To British Comedy: Russell Brand
    Russell Brand
    Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian, actor, columnist, singer, author and radio/television presenter.Brand achieved mainstream fame in the UK in 2004 for his role as host of Big Brother spin-off, Big Brother's Big Mouth. His first major film role was in the 2007 film St Trinians...

  • People’s Choice Award For The King Or Queen Of Comedy 2010: Miranda Hart
    Miranda Hart
    Miranda Katharine Hart Dyke , known professionally as Miranda Hart, is an English actress, writer and stand-up comedienne. She writes and stars in the BBC sitcom Miranda...


Investigation of alleged irregularities and deception

At the 2005 British Comedy Awards show, the wrong show received the People's Choice Award. The award was "mistakenly given" to Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
Ant & Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...

even though The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Aschlin Ditta. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC...

received the most tabulated votes and should have been declared the winner, and Anthony McPartlin
Anthony McPartlin
Anthony David "Ant" McPartlin is one half of the English comedy and television presenting duo Ant & Dec, with the other being Declan Donnelly. He came to prominence in the children's drama series Byker Grove and as one half of the pop music duo PJ & Duncan...

 and Declan Donnelly
Declan Donnelly
Declan Joseph Oliver "Dec" Donnelly is one half of the English acting and TV presenting duo Ant & Dec, with the other being Anthony McPartlin. He came to prominence in the children's drama series Byker Grove and as one half of the pop music duo PJ & Duncan...

 (Ant & Dec
Ant & Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...

) were asked to return their 2005 award.

Charged by the awards show with investigating the allegations of irregularities, the independent law firm Olswang
Olswang
Olswang is an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and with additional offices in the Thames Valley, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and most recently Munich. It also works closely with a network of firms across eighty countries. The Lawyer ranked the firm 32nd largest in...

 summarized its findings as follows: "Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...

 was invited to present an award. It was understood that he would be happy [to do so] if the recipients were Anthony McPartlin
Anthony McPartlin
Anthony David "Ant" McPartlin is one half of the English comedy and television presenting duo Ant & Dec, with the other being Declan Donnelly. He came to prominence in the children's drama series Byker Grove and as one half of the pop music duo PJ & Duncan...

 and Declan Donnelly
Declan Donnelly
Declan Joseph Oliver "Dec" Donnelly is one half of the English acting and TV presenting duo Ant & Dec, with the other being Anthony McPartlin. He came to prominence in the children's drama series Byker Grove and as one half of the pop music duo PJ & Duncan...

. In order to ensure his attendance, this assurance was given. But it could not be definitively established that Williams' involvement led to the wrong winner being announced" [italics added].

Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
Ant & Dec
Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly , known collectively as Ant & Dec, are an English comedy and TV presenting duo from Newcastle upon Tyne, England...

 received the People's Choice Award 2006 at the British Comedy Awards 2006.

Phone-in scandal

Beginning on 26 July 2007, British tabloid newspapers reported the alleged involvement of the British Comedy Awards in the 2007 British television phone-in scandal. According to a report in the The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

, viewers telephoned a premium-rate number to vote for the People's Choice Award in the 2005 Awards during what was claimed to be a live broadcast; yet, at 22:30, the show went to a news broadcast, so that when the show returned, viewers thought it was still live, and thus still phoned the number, when the last half-hour was in fact a recording as the vote had already finished, rendering the call-in votes given during the recording pointless and a misuse of the callers' money.

ITV announced that they have postponed the British Comedy Awards 2007 due to the voting irregularities. In a statement, the company said: "Pending conclusion of the investigation, broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 will be postponed. ... ITV will not make any further comment regarding this matter until the conclusion of the investigation."

It was announced on 21 September 2007 that the British Comedy Awards 2007 would not be screened by ITV1; however, it was not confirmed then that the Awards would still take place in December, and it was not ruled out that they could be screened by another channel. The 2007 awards did take place on 5 December 2007, but that show was not televised. In early May 2008 Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

 announced its fining and sanctioning ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...

 in a press release.

On 15 August 2008, it was announced that a similar scandal could have been committed in the award ceremony in 2004 Awards.

Following the Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row
Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row
The Russell Brand Show prank telephone calls row concerned a series of voice messages that English entertainers Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross left on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs, which were labelled obscene by many media commentators and politicians...

 and his 12 week unpaid suspension from all of his BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 shows, Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...

 resigned from presenting the 2008 awards, in agreement with ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

, as he did not want to "take away from the awards themselves or the many talented winners of the awards." Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...

 replaced Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...

 as the host of the British Comedy Awards. Ross returned to presenting the awards in 2009.

See also

  • If.comedy award
  • British Comedy Guide Awards

External links

  • British Comedy Awards – Official website hosted by Unique Communications Group, the parent company of British Comedy Awards producer Michael Hurll Television (MHTV); site provides annual lists of winners.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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