Comedians | Ginny Dougary

Joanna Lumley on her Bafta fellowship: “I have been thrashing about in this business for about 50 years – I think they felt it was a good time”

14 May 2017 by Ginny Dougary

“Hello-ohhh,” exhales a breathy voice. “How LOVELY to be talking to you, Ginny.” There’s something spookily captivating about that particular, familiar sound – the depth, the tone, the articulation, the capital-letter emphasis, the old-fashioned pronunciation (“theatah” for theatre). It belongs to La Lumley and we are speaking ahead of the announcement of her being granted …

Mrs Brown’s Boys is queen of the sitcoms – now creator Brendan O’Carroll is going after chat shows

25 March 2017 by Ginny Dougary

If there were a medal for hugging, Brendan O’Carroll (aka Mrs Brown) and his wife, Jennifer Gibney (aka Mrs Brown’s daughter, Cathy) would surely win gold. Even before our interview, I’m enfolded in the warmest of embraces by Jenny, with her broad grin and friendly eyes that crinkle at the edges, followed up by a Brendan bear-hug. …

Sandi Toksvig on QI, Stephen Fry and her open wedding

21 October 2016 by Ginny Dougary

It is quite exhausting merely listening to Sandi Toksvig’s seven-days-a-week action-packed work schedule: imagine living it. Where to start? There is her play, Silver Linings, opening in February at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, south-west London. “I wanted to write a play for the wonderful mature actresses in this country so it stars six fabulous …

Mel & Sue on “womance” and their new chat show

12 January 2015 by Ginny Dougary

Mel and Sue – how their names trip off the tongue mellifluously – have been bosom buddies for coming on three decades. They are the winning court jesters who have cleaved themselves to the affections of the nation, with the rise and rise of Bake Off. It’s a measure of the show’s success that there …

Steve Coogan on The Trip to Italy, politics and the future of Alan Partridge

4 April 2014 by Ginny Dougary

Steve Coogan eventually arrives, with his personal assistant and a young colleague from his film and TV production company, Baby Cow, in tow. He looks faintly academic – tweedy wool jacket, and short grey hair – which is curiously apt, given the lecturing, occasionally hectoring, tone of much of our encounter. The last time I …

Big School: David Walliams on superstardom, finding happiness and why being an outsider is good

16 July 2013 by Ginny Dougary

David Walliams and I are sitting opposite one another on benches round a long table in a school refectory in north London. Behind him is a counter and a sign on the wall, “I ❤ TUCK SHOP”, where the T has been subtly altered to mean something quite different. Walliams swivels round to have a …

Eddie Izzard on nails, running marathons and his quest to be London Mayor

23 May 2013 by Ginny Dougary

Eddie Izzard’s nails – long and burgundy, apart from one painted in a Union Jack and another that’s the European flag (he calls them his “political nails”) – have had quite an airing in recent months. They featured in his February television series, Meet the Izzards, which had Eddie travelling to Namibia, among other countries, …

Tim Minchin: I’ve said ‘No’ to Baz Luhrmann

27 January 2013 by Ginny Dougary

Tim Minchin, the Australian-to-London transplant and ginger-haired, kohl-eyed, bare-footed, foul-mouthed, proudly atheist, hippy comedian, musician, composer, lyricist, actor, is in a respectable café enthusing about his bottom. There’s no one sitting near us, but even if there were, it’s doubtful that he would tone himself down. We are talking about his post-Matilda the Musical career …

Miranda Hart on mirth, marriage – and Matthew Perry

26 December 2012 by Ginny Dougary

Our interview was such fun! And with a very, what I call, Miranda Moment. At one point, I almost fell off my chair – something that Miranda, at least in her eponymous show, does a lot. Could this be “method” interviewing? We meet in a photographic studio in Fulham, south-west London. Miranda lopes down the …

Armando Iannucci on The Thick of It, Steve Coogan and (not) living the American dream

8 September 2012 by Ginny Dougary

Armando Iannucci was too busy filming his own political satire – after a three-year gap, at last there’s another series of The Thick of It, hurrah! – to stay glued to the real-life drama of the Leveson Inquiry, but he has hinted that it, or something very like it, may feature quite heavily in the …