At the behest of BBC Comedy website I've done a short blog on the rigours of acting in Mongrels.

Mongrels, in which I play a cat, starts on BBC Three on 22nd June at 10pm.

As It Occurs To Me is currently half way through it's second series - if you haven't heard it, download it here.

My new acting showreel is up on my agent's website. If you like short clips of the same man in different things then you can watch it here.

I'm in the first two episodes of new BBC One drama, Five Daughters - the story of the five young women murdered in Ipswich in the winter of 2006, dramatised from the testimony of many of those closest to them. 

A repeat run of series 1 of A Series of Psychotic Episodes, written by Miriam Elia starts tonight on BBC 7 at 11pm.

Richard Herring's As it Occurs To Me is returning. Here's the information from Richard's newsletter:

As It Occurs To Me, Richard Herring's podcast that I appear in, has been nominated for Best Internet Programme at the 2010 Sony Awards. 

As part of my work as script editor on BBC7's Newsjack, I've written a couple of blog posts about the business of sketch writing.

You can read them here.

It's finally out. Are you excited? No, there's no reason you should be. I am though, let me have that, at least.

Buy it here.

There's a bit about the show, and an animation of one of part of the first show, on the BBC blog at the moment.

Have a look here.

This new series from Ian Hislop & Nick Newman and starring Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi starts on Christmas Eve at 6.15pm, Radio 4. Then at the same time on Christmas Day with the other 5 episodes running Monday 28th - Friday 1st Jan. What better way to take you into the new year?

More info here.

I'll be popping up as a Naval Officer in Monday 23rd November's episode of Miranda (8.30pm on BBC2).

Not that you'll be able to tell what I am from my costume - I thought my blazer made me look like Alan Partridge. Still, it's a funny episode as long as you're not one of those people who get angry about naval officers not wearing the correct tie.

T-shirts with my catchphrase 'Are you sure you want to be in the Navy?' will be available from all branches of Our Price.

This new series from the minds and pens of Ian Hislop & Nick Newman starts on Radio 4 on Christmas Eve (though I'm not in that episode). It stars Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi with Chris Addison, Lewis Macleod, Lucy Montgomery, Vicki Pepperdine, Alex Macqueen and myself doing the other bits.

There's something about on the BBC Comedy blog here.

This is what Herring has to say for himself about the matter...

As It Occurs To Me is a revolutionary new ten-part weekly stand-up and sketch show written and performed by RICHARD HERRING which will only be available via internet download from iTunes and the British Comedy Guide (http://www.comedy.org.uk/) as an audio podcast. All the material for each show will be brand new and written on the week of broadcast, based on things that have occurred to him, either events from his life or things he's been thinking about.

It is Do-It-Yourself comedy without the support or interference of a broadcaster or sponsor. It's untested and uncensored and completely unedited. It’s warts and all. HERRING says, "I was frustrated by the time and effort it took to get a radio and TV bosses to commit to an idea and then the censorship, interference and restrictions that were imposed upon you once you’d jumped through all those hoops. I realised that it is now possible to make your own show and have complete autonomy over content and not have to edit it down to fit a time slot. If I have 55 minutes worth of good ideas one week then the audience can hear them all, in their entirety. Or bad ones, of course."

For the last eighteen months HERRING has been producing a weekly improvised podcast with his colleague ANDREW COLLINS (The Collings and Herrin Podcast) which had proven popular with listeners and critics searching out puerile comedy which treats them like grown-ups. "Post Sachsgate, I think most normal people have felt patronised by the dilution and weakening of comedy. They can find comedy with balls in live comedy clubs and on the internet. Downloaded shows give people the freedom to choose. If you don't like it you don't have to listen to it, but also the broadcaster is not employed by anyone and so can not be 'sacked'. It makes for a much more fertile ground for creating comedy without having to second guess possible 'moral outrage'."

HERRING is hopeful that the costs of the show will be funded by the live audience who will pay £10 each to watch the recording. "If I can sell 400 tickets a week I will actually make about the same amount of money as I would by doing a radio show for the BBC. If I can sell 100 tickets then I should at least break even. It’s really not about the money though, which is probably lucky, it’s about creating something funny that I can be proud of. And taking the risk. There's every chance with such a fast turnaround that it might be shit."

HERRING will be joined by comedy actors DAN TETSELL and EMMA KENNEDY for all ten shows which will be recorded at the Leicester Square Theatre. The success or failure of this audacious project depends entirely on the patronage of comedy fans.

"My ultimate goal is to create an internet empire putting out sketch shows, stand up, sitcoms and films which will destroy television and radio as broadcast media. But for the moment it would just be nice if a few people turned up to watch on a Monday night."

As It Occurs To Me is at the Leicester Square Theatre every Monday from 12th October to 14th December 2009 Box Office: 0844 847 2475 or www.leicestersquaretheatre.com

So, you heard it here first. "It might be shit", what better recommendation could there be? Do come along.

If you bought/were given/stole a DVD of Lab Rats, you may have noticed the lack of extras. Well, Chris Addison, Carl Cooper and Simon Nicholls (tall writer/actor, shorter writer and mid-size producer respectively) have teamed up to do commentaries on all the episodes.

They're available to download here or they should be up on iTunes soon.

More details about Richard Herring's new internet sketch and stand-up show (which I will be appearing in) here.

The DVD of Series One (oh, alright, Series Only) of BBC2's Lab Rats is now available. Buy it here.

I'll be appearing alongside Emma Kennedy as Richard's sketch monkey in his new podcast / live  show Richard Herring: As It Occurs To Me.

It starts October 12th and is on at the Leicester Square Theatre at  7.30pm every Monday until  December 12th.


Tickets are £10 and will be available closer to the time from  the Box Office on  0844  847  2475 or  online at  www.seetickets.com.

I'm script editing on Newsjack, Radio 7's new open door topical sketch show. It's records on Wednesday nights  and goes out on Thursdays at 11pm (with a repeat on Sunday night). It's also available as a podcast.


If you're interested in sending in material, here's the Writers Brief.


Tickets are available here.

The BBC Writersroom now have two of my favourite Paperback Hells in their script archive.

Black Teeth Lane by Zandra Jones - the sprawling tale of London's sprawling immigrant Welsh community from series 2.

Forbidden Fire by Anonymous - a blisteringingly stupid erotic novel from series 3.

There's now a widget linking this site to my Twitter account. It should be in the menu on the left.

www.twitter.com/tetsell

After three and a half years, Radio 4's expert on all things passive aggressive, Professor Joy Klamp (Dawn French) returns to the airwaves. Written by Christopher Douglas and Nick Newman, the show also features Sally Grace, Katy Brand and Chris Douglas.

It's on Radio 4 at 11pm from Tuesday 24th February.

This new show from Will starts tonight on Radio 4. I'm in episode 4 as a louche rock star.

Will's own website is here.

I'm fulfilling the general vocal dogsbody role alongside Milton, Tom Goodman Hill and Ingrid Oliver in the first two episodes of the new series where, as usual, Milton bestrides the globe as an expert in his field, with no ability whatsoever. It starts on Monday 17th November at 6.30pm on Radio 4, with a repeat on Sundays at 12pm.

The BBC website says it's Ben Willbond. It isn't, it's me. Unless they re-recorded them behind my back. That would be humiliating.

I shall be appearing as a guest in one episode of Will's new show for Radio 4. We're recording on Wednesday 26th November at the BBC Radio Theatre. Tickets available here.

Young Dracula has been nominated for Best Drama at the Children's Baftas. Well done them. The ceremony is on 30th November.

Not in a Chinese zoo raffle, unfortunately.

Smalltalk Diaries, the innovative insect-doc for CBBC that I wrote and performed on has won two Panda Awards (for Innovation and for Best Series) at the 2008 Wildscreen International Wildlife and Enviromental Film Festival.

Well done to everyone involved.

I would like a real panda though.

Series one of The Museum of Everything is currently having a repeat run on BBC7 on Monday nights at 11pm.

I've got a few radio things coming up in the near future.

I appear in episode 6 of the current run of Ed Reardon's Week on Radio 4 (Monday 10th November, 11.30am) and in the first episode of Gus Murdoch's Sacred Cows by Steven Carlin on BBC7 (Sunday 2nd November, 11pm).

Another show for BBC7, Miriam Elia's A Series of Psychotic Episodes, starts in the next couple of months and will be accompanied by an online cartoon of me as a hamster. There's also a second series of Mastering The Universe with Dawn French recording in early December.

The BBC website for Lab Rats has just gone online. Visit it for clips, interviews, photos and more than you could ever care to know about the show.

www.bbc.co.uk/labrats

There's an interview with Chris and Carl about Lab Rats here . The series starts BBC 2 Thursday 10th July at 9.30pm.

Well, coming soonish.

We've just heard that Lab Rats - the sitcom written by Chris Addison and Carl Cooper in which I have a part - will be going out on BBC2 at 9.30pm from July 10th.

Thursdays, I hear, are funny.

I shall be appearing in a couple of episodes of the new series of Another Case of Milton Jones, made for Radio 4 by those good people at Pozzitive and written by Milton and Think The Unthinkable's James Cary. 

It's recording at the Drill Hall on Sunday April 20th.

The award-nominated Museum of Everything is being released on CD in June.

Pre-order your copy here.

Saturday sees (or hears) the return of the sitcom about hacks in space, Space Hacks. Written by Ian Simons and Stuart Sumner it stars Dan Mersh, Tim Key and Prunella Scales. I appear as Korg, their psychopathic alien editor and a variety of odd-sounding robots, aliens and loonies.

Tune in at 6.30pm on BBC7 on Saturday 1st March or Listen Again online.

"To Finity and no further!"

This four part sitcom starring Lenny Henry starts this week on Radio 4. Episode One 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' goes out at 6.30pm on Tuesday 26th February.

In what I think may be a first (or at least a second) for Radio 4, the  adaptation of my Edinburgh show recorded in front of a live audience will be going out this Friday, 1st February at 9pm as The Friday Play.

It's a longer version of the stage show (with no pictures obviously) and with added acting in the shape of Rachel Atkins, Alex Lowe and Ben Graves.

It will be available to on Listen Again for a week afterwards.

You can now get tickets to the pilot recording of our new sitcom Hey Hey We're The Monks from the BBC Ticket Unit.

The recording is Wednesday 20th February at Television Centre, London.

There is now an extra recording date for the Lenny Henry sitcom Rudy's Rare Records. Episode 4 will now be recorded on February 11th at 7.30pm at the BBC Radio Theatre.

Tickets available here.

My good friend Danny Robins has organised a monthly comedy / music gig. I shall be doing a bit at the first one. Here's the blurb...

Happy New Year and all that.

I've got a couple of things coming up in 2008.

February 1st - Sins of the Grandfathers goes out on Radio 4 as the Friday Play. Unless they move the date again.

February 20th - Studio recording of Hey Hey We're The Monks, a TV sitcom pilot written by Danny Robins and myself and starring Gavin & Stacey's James Corden. When tickets become available, I'll put the link up.

February 26th - Rudy's Rare Records, a sitcom starring Lenny Henry starts on Radio 4.

March 1st - The second series of Space Hacks starts on BBC7.

The new Chris Addison / Carl Cooper sitcom Lab Rats hopefully will air sometime around April. There'll also be another series of The Omid Djalili Show and series 3 of After You've Gone.

Some of the sketches I wrote for Omid Djalili are up on YouTube.

Meet The Parents -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVAP9soE5P8

Huggy -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVAP9soE5P8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY5fMqOANBw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lksDZhnQAE

Ethnic Bit Part Actor's Workshop -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBpnSoRyWCg

And the really too long but the money's on screen epic that is Pride & Racial Prejudice -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpPLG51uYek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzj40KINMsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqwmih7EgxY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TCX_RerWDM

The 'feature-length' Extras Christmas Special - in which I have a tiny, tiny part - goes out on Thursday 27th December  at 9pm, BBC One.

I'm playing a man that the casting notes says 'looks like Andy Milman'. My New Year resolutions are to shave and lose weight.

Tickets for the live audience recording of Rudy's Rare Records that Danny Robins and I are writing for Lenny Henry are now available from the BBC Ticket Unit. All tickets are free.

The recordings are on the 7th and 14th January 2008 at the Radio Theatre, Broadcasting House, London.

Some technically-minded person has put up another episode of We Are History on YouTube. It's the workhouse-tastic "Industrial Revolution: Factory or Friction".

I've just done a bit of filming with Lewis Georgeson and Will Kenning (of sketch act Big Day Out) on an episode of their Youtube comedy serial Blagger.

Check out episodes one and two and I'll be appaearing in episode three sometime soon. I'll be wearing a hat.

The third series of TWTTIN with Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Danny Robins and myself starts on Thursday 29th November at 11.30pm on Radio 2.

It's the usual mix of tenuously-linked historical stand-up and sketches with music from Christian Reilly and Novalounge.

From Wednesday November 21st, BBC7 are repeating the first series of The Museum of Everything at 10.30pm (and then again at 3.30am).

We now have a transmission date for the Radio 4 Friday Play adaptation of Sins of the Grandfathers, my 2005 Edinburgh show about my family's Nazi past.

It's going out at 9pm Friday 18th January 2008. It also features Alex Lowe, Rachel Atkins and Ben Graves and was produced by Sam Hoyle.

If you watch the episode of After You've Gone broadcast at 8.30pm BBC One, Friday 12th October you may see me briefly appearing as Angry Fairground Barker. It's rather like Colonel Kurtz at the end of Apocalypse Now or Norman's mother in Psycho.

"I've told you before - that ride is for the under tens", that's my catchphrase.

A new sketch show which I've written a bit of, starring that one who was that comedy Middle Easterner in them films, The Omid Djalili Show starts on BBC One on November 17th 2007.

History is, once again, repeating itself. We are recording a third series of TWTTIN, the Radio 2 history-based sketch show starring Richard Herring at the Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush on October 22, November 12 and December 3 - two shows per night.
Free tickets will be available from Lost In TV. Although it's a radio show.

The new sitcom from Chris Addison and Carl Cooper (writers of The Ape That Got Lucky and Civilization) starts recording on Friday September 7th and then every Friday until October 12th.

For anyone who can't live without a permanent record of me with a latex balloon on my head, both series of Hyperdrive are now available to buy on DVD.

Turn the box over, on the back, see that robot on the right? With a latex balloon on his head? That's me. Now THAT is a claim to fame.

The DVD of Series 1 of After You've Gone comes out on September 24th 2007 - just in time for Christmas. And the months leading up to Christmas.

Buy it here if you've a mind to. Come on, I've just had my bathroom done.

If anyone's interested, the BBC have added the script for the pilot episode of award-winning kids show Young Dracula to their Writers Room script archive.


To download the pdf file go here and scroll towards the bottom.

The new series from tall comedian Will Smith and featuring me as his difficult flatmate starts on Wednesday 1st August at 6.30pm on Radio 4.

Listen again here.

These things have turned up on Youtube and will probably be in cinemas soon, annoying you before the film.

Volkswagen Die Hard

Volkswagen Star Wars

Volkswagen Ghostbusters

If anyone asks, that stomach is a prosthetic, right.

News just in - the third series of Paperback Hell will be repeated on Radio 4, starting Wednesday 8th August at 11.15pm.

Joys in this series include The De Niro Code and Forbidden Fire, our only ever excursion into... erotica. Quite silly, unerotic erotica admittedly.

The second series of Hyperdrive by Kevin Cecil and Andy Reily and produced by WAH/MOE powerhouse Alex Walsh-Taylor starts on Thursday 12th July on BBC2. The episode where I appear as the leader of the Red Shiny Robots of Vortex with a big latex balloon for a head is on Thursday 2nd August.

The second series of school-based quiz School's Out with Danny Wallace that I wrote for starts on Saturday 30th June on BBC One at 5.40pm. This week's pupils are Rory Bremner, Shaun Williamson and Patrick Kielty. The show runs for eight weeks.

Continuing my career path of appearing in radio shows with very tall comedians*, I will be popping up in Will Smith's new Radio 4 show The Tao of Bergerac as Will's Flatmate. My parts have been pre-recorded, but you can see the rest of the show being recorded on June 12th and 26th at the newly-refurbished Radio Theatre, Broadcasting House. Tickets are here.

*I'd say Will's the tallest, then Chris Addison, then Marcus Brigstocke. Even Danny Robins is taller than me. Richard Herring, however, is a good couple of inches shorter. See, this is the stuff you never see on Wikipedia.

An interview with Jessica Stevenson (now Hynes) in The Guardian calls the badly-received According To Bex 'pretty awful'. This is surely an improvement on describing it as one of the 'TV Turkeys of 2005' or when they reported it had been scientifically proven to be one of the worst sitcoms of all time.

History is being rewritten before our eyes, my friends. Soon ATB will be remembered as fondly as those other family-favourites Ed Stone Is Dead, Mr Charity and Roman's Empire.

The second series of After You've Gone starts recording in early June - tickets are available here.

Radio 4 have commissioned a series of Rudy's Rare Records, a sitcom created by and starring Lenny Henry and written by Danny Robins and myself. More details about recording dates, cast and so forth, as I get them.

The second series of Museum of Everything starts a repeat run on BBC7 from Friday April 20th at 11pm. 

The second series of Ed Reardon's Week by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds starts a repeat on BBC7 on Monday 9th April at 10.30pm.

Armando Iannucci's Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive has been nominated for a Sony - radio's most prestigious and only award.

Full list of nominations here.

The CBBC show that Danny Robins and I created - Young Dracula   -   has won the Royal Television Society   award for Best Children's Drama.

The awards were presented at a glittering ceremony at London's glitzy Grosvenor House Hotel on London's Park Lane. It's a shame we weren't invited.

Congratulations to everyone involved with the writing, acting and production of Young Dracula. Except the person who didn't even bother telling us we were up for the bloody award.

A second series of Young Dracula is in pre-production. Apparently.

After a quiet start, After You've Gone ended its run with very healthy ratings*. My episode was watched by 5.5 million people on the Friday** with 2 million tuning in for the Sunday repeat.

Apparently there might be a second series.

*Not that it's important, in it for the art etc etc...

**Take that Inspector Jack Frost.

The Sony award-winning The Ape That Got Lucky starring Chris Addison, Geoffrey McGivern, Jo Enright and myself is back on Radio 4 (6pm Thursdays until March 22nd).

It's a repeat, obviously. Listen Again here.

Or CDs are still on sale...

My episode of After You've Gone airs on BBC1 this Friday 23rd at 8.30pm (with a repeat at 5.10pm on Sunday 25th). As well as the usual cast, it also stars Alexander Armstrong as the suave Dr Howard Banks - loveable Jimmy's nemesis.

If you're waiting for Lillies to start, why not tune in?

The Radio Times has said nice things about Space Hacks.

"At last, a sci-fi comedy that will fill the void left by Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker's. If that sounds a bit much, then at least it has grabbed your attention, because you should not miss this opening episode. Stuart Sumner and Ian Simons have made something that is smart, clever and yet not too big for its own space boots. Charlie (Dan Mersh) and Moog (Tim Key) are two humans who live in a spaceship disguised as a hedge on Clapham Common, with Prunella Scales as a baking-preoccupied computer they call Mother - how Freudian is that? They are in hiding because they are supposed to be reporters scouring the universe for news stories to send back to the Intergalactic News Federation - except that Charlie is lazy and just makes stuff up. Moog on the other hand wants to get out there and find the news. Invariably, though, the news seems to come to them. I predict great things"

There's also an article from the Bucks Free Press here, if you wanted to see a strange photo of Space Hacks hacks Stuart and Ian.

Space Hacks, a new sci-fi comedy series by Ian Sumner and Stuart Simons starts on BBC7 this Saturday at 6.30pm (with a repeat at half midnight).

The show's about two reluctant intergalactic reporters, played by Tim Key and Dan Mersh, and their onboard computer, played by Prunella Scales. I'm their evil alien editor, as well as a variety of pirates, robots and other space trash.

As always, if you miss it, you can Listen Again here.

After You've Gone - the new sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Celia Imrie - starts tonight on BBC One at 8.30pm. If you're not watching someone get killed on Coronation Street, why not tune in? Alternatively, there is a Sunday teatime repeat.

My episode will be on Friday 23rd February.

The BBC Online page for After You've Gone is here. Brilliantly, there's a link to Relate if you've experienced some of the issues raised by this family sitcom.

You can catch a repeat of the award-nominated series one of The Museum of Everything on BBC7  from Wednesday 3rd January at 11.30pm - or via Listen Again.

Well, there's this website. Do you like it?

AFTER YOU'VE GONE, the new sitcom starring Nicholas Lyndhurst and Celia Imrie starts on BBC One on Friday 12th January 2007 at 8.30pm. The episode with my name on it 'Out Of Africa' will go out on 23rd February (with a guest star appearance from Alexander Armstong).

A new series of SCHOOL'S OUT with Danny Wallace - and for which I will be scribbling down sarcastic jokes about minor soap stars and sportsmen - starts filming in February. Transmission dates as I get them, but it'll be Saturday nights on BBC One.

Not one, not three, but two chances to catch me in something science-fictiony over the next couple of months. I'm the sweaty body and muffled voice inside the Leader of the Shiny Red Robots of Vortis in the second series of HYPERDRIVE by Kevin Cecil and Andy Reily. That's on BBC2 quite soon. Also quite soon, but on digital radio station BBC7, is a series of SPACE HACKS by Ian Simons and Stuart Sumner. I'm the digitally-altered voice of Korg, editor of Intergalactic News, as well as a variety of space pirates, space postmen and space robots. More transmission details etc etc