Andrew John Parsons (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian and writer. He regularly appeared on ''

Mock the Week ''Mock the Week'' is a topical satirical celebrity panel show, created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson. It was produced by Angst Productions for BBC Two, and was broadcast from 5 June 2005 to 4 November 2022. Presenter Dara Ó Briain and pan ...

'' from Series 3 to Series 14. With comedy partner

Henry Naylor Henry James Naylor is a British comedy writer, director and performer. He is also a playwright. Early life Naylor read history and history of art at Downing College, Cambridge. Career Naylor was head writer for ''Spitting Image'', and has wr ...

, he wrote and presented nine series of ''

Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections ''Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections'' was a BBC Radio 2 satirical comedy show starring Andy Parsons and Henry Naylor. It also stars Richie Webb, and one female "special guest". Female guests included Lucy Porter, Jo Caulfield, Julia Morr ...

'' for

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

Early life

Parsons was born in

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

; his father was a headmaster. He attended Parc Eglos Primary School,

Helston Helston () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: ...

Comprehensive School in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and

Churston Ferrers Grammar School Churston Ferrers Grammar School (also known as CFGS) is a selective coeducational Grammar School with Academy status, situated in the village of Galmpton in Torbay, South Devon, England. It is also a specialist Humanities College. Year 7 annua ...

Torbay Torbay is a unitary authority with a borough status in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. It is governed by Torbay Council, based in the town of Torquay, and also includes the towns of Paignton and Brixham. The borough consists of ...

(Devon) before going to

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

to study Law, where he met and formed a

double act A double act (also known as a comedy duo) is a form of comedy originating in the British music hall tradition, and American vaudeville, in which two comedians perform together as a single act, often highlighting differences in their characters' ...

with

which twice toured with the National Student Theatre Company and once with the

Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

. After completing his studies, Parsons got a job working as a legal clerk on a case at the

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

s, which he describes as "the most tedious thing I'd ever done." With Naylor he established TBA, London's first sketch comedy club.

Writing/television

His first TV writing job was for ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...

'' and he went on to become one of the main writers. He has also appeared as a guest on '' They Think It's All Over'', '' QI'' and

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

's ''

Fighting Talk ''Fighting Talk'' is a topical sports show broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live during the English football season. The show is broadcast on Saturday mornings for an hour between 11.00 and 12.00 and is currently presented by Rick Edwards. This show is ...

''. Parsons left ''Mock the Week'' in October 2015 after nine series as a regular panelist, missing only five episodes. He, like the other regular panellists on ''Mock the Week'', kept the same seat throughout the series, Parsons being the one on host

Dara Ó Briain Dara Ó Briain ( , ; born 4 February 1972) is an Irish comedian and television presenter based in the United Kingdom. He is noted for performing stand-up comedy shows all over the world and for hosting topical panel shows such as ''Mock the Wee ...

's left. He has also presented The ''PMQ'' show on

and was a regular during the 2010 World Cup on the

show ''Never Write Off The Germans''. Parsons also appeared in ''World's Most Dangerous Roads'' alongside Ed Byrne, travelling along the Road of Bones in Siberia, visiting the coldest inhabited place on Earth and sleeping in a tent at -53 °C. After writing for ''

Week Ending ''Week Ending'' was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1970 and 1998. It was devised by writer-producers Simon Brett and David Hatch and was originally hosted by '' Nationwide'' presenter Michael B ...

'', Parsons and Naylor were offered their own show ''

'' in 2001. They have also performed live versions of the show at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

(1993–2001) and at international comedy festivals in Sydney (1998/99),

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

(both 1998).

Stand-up comedy

In Sept 2000 Parsons was making appearances at Up The Creek Comedy Club in Greenwich, often alongside

Jimmy Carr James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is an Irish-British comedian, presenter, writer and actor. He is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of One-line joke, one-liners. He began his comedy career in 1997, and he has regula ...

. Parsons regularly performs solo shows at comedy festivals, and also at

The Comedy Store The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. History The Comedy ...

. He is the '' Time Out'' Comedy Award Winner 2002. In 2008, he co-wrote and starred in a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

sitcom called ''The Lost Weblog of Scrooby Trevithick'' and a second series, ''Scrooby Trevithick'', aired in 2010. He toured in the UK with his show ''Andy Parsons: Citizens!'' in 2009. The show was recorded at the Lyric Theatre, London on 28 September 2009 and released on DVD in November that year under the title ''Britain's Got Idiots'' which was shown on BBC2 in October & December 2010. In 2010, Parsons took part in ''

Channel 4's Comedy Gala ''Channel 4's Comedy Gala'' is an annual British comedy benefit show organised by Channel 4 in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The show is filmed live at the O2 Arena in London, and then broadcast later by Channel 4. An inaugura ...

'', a benefit show held in aid of

Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Found ...

, filmed live at the

O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to: *The O2 Arena, London * O2 Arena, Prague *The 3Arena, Dublin, formerly known as The O2 *The Uber Arena, Berlin, formerly known as O2 World *The Barclays Arena Barclays Arena (originally known as the Color Line Arena an ...

in London on 30 March. His 2011 UK National Tour was called ''Gruntled''. and his 2013 tour was called ''I've Got A Shed''. His third DVD ''Slacktivist'' was released on 25 November 2013 and was televised on BBC Two in December 2014. His 2015 tour was entitled ''Live & Unleashed - But Naturally Cautious''. Also in 2015 Andy started the Slacktivist Action Group. Occurring monthly with MPs, journalists, experts and comedians. 2017 brought the new tour ''Peak Bullsh*t''. His 2019 tour, called Healing The Nation, ran from September 2019 to March 2020, and then resumed after the Covid pandemic, with new material, in September 2021. His 2023/2024 UK Tour is called Bafflingly Optimistic.

Activism

Parsons backed the

People's Vote People's Vote was a United Kingdom campaign group that unsuccessfully campaigned for a second referendum following the UK's Brexit vote to leave the European Union (EU) in 2016. The group was launched in April 2018 at which four Members of ...

, a campaign group that called for a public vote on the final

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

deal between the UK and the European Union.

Stand-up shows

DVD releases

References

External links

*
Artists Page on Agents Website
*
Review of ''Eat my Satire''
* *
Chortle
Andy Parsons' biography and his forthcoming gigs {{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Andy 1966 births English male comedians English stand-up comedians English television writers English satirists People from Weymouth, Dorset Living people Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge People educated at Churston Ferrers Grammar School 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians English male television writers Comedians from Dorset