I think Danny Baker deserves a mention here. One of the most intelligent, quick-witted broadcasting talents ever and among most of my mates, he's the annoying twat who fronted football blooper videos and Pets Win Prizes.
Of course, the ultimate example. The best broadcaster in the country.
He's not exactly a straight-up comedian as such, but I'm amazed Mark Heap isn't on more stuff than he is, especially as some of his some-time colleagues like Simon Pegg have been everywhere.
Heap's "Mr Lizard" performance in that sketch on Jam is one of the most disconcertingly and intensely brilliant pieces of comic acting I've ever seen.
Yeah but Pegg's a writer, that's a bit different. Heap's done a fair bit of good stuff: the mighty Love Soup and a great guest spot on Skins. But his big role this year was in super-comfy period drama Lark Rise to Candleford, which you'd be forgiven for missing.
4. Sean Lock, with reference to one particular programme.
'Fifteen Stories High'? I loved that show whenever I managed to penetrate the fog of secrecy the BBC generated about it existing.
It's out on DVD you know, Harri. I'd never heard of it until my best mate made me watch the first series with him about... oh, early this year sort of time. I'm very glad he did.
David Thewlis. An exceptional turn in Life Is Sweet, an impressive lead in Naked (though Johnny was far from one of Mike Leigh's best characters), then... regular work, going by his IMDB page, but very little to raise him into the realms of public consciousness, except for the Potter movies.
He married Anna Friel, played a nazi alongside Brad Pitt, worked with Marlon Brando and was the funniest nihilist in The Big Lebowski, which is not bad going.
I think he had a novel published last year too: a timely satire of the 1990s YBAs. Take that, Hirst!
Who I loved to watch and listen to when I lived in Australia. The only thing I ever saw them on in the UK was doing guest spots on Ben Elton's BBC show, where -- out of context -- they didn't work at all.
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