Daphne is a British comedy trio made up of

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

s Jason Forbes,

Phil Wang Philip Nathaniel Wang Sin Goi (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Vòng Hîn-kùi''; born 22 January 1990) is a British-Malaysian stand-up comedian and comedy writer who is a member of the sketch comedy group Daphne, and co-creator of their BBC Radio 4 ser ...

and George Fouracres. Together they are the creators, writers and stars of the

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 ...

series '' Daphne Sounds Expensive''.

Background

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

Wang Wang may refer to: Names * Wang (surname) Wang () is the pinyin romanization of Chinese, romanization of the common Chinese surname (''Wáng''). It has a mixture of various origin with uncertain lineage of family history, however it is c ...

and Fouracres met while studying at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where they were members of the famous

Cambridge 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 ...

, co-writing and performing in the 50th annual Cambridge Footlights' Revue, which toured both the UK and the United States. The group 'Daphne' officially formed in September 2014 when the trio began hosting a comedy night called ''Nova Nova'', every other month at the Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, where they trialled their new material alongside guests, including British comedians

Harry Hill Matthew Keith Hall (born 1 October 1964), known professionally as Harry Hill, is an English comedian, presenter and writer. He pursued a career in stand-up following years working as a medical doctor, developing an offbeat, energetic performanc ...

and

James Acaster James William Acaster (; born 9 January 1985) is an English comedian, presenter, podcaster and actor. As well as the stand-up specials ''James Acaster: Repertoire, Repertoire'' and ''Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999'', he is known for co-hosting ...

. Daphne went on to win the London Sketchfest's prize for 'Best New Act' in 2015. Their first

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 ...

show, ''Daphne Do Edinburgh'', was critically acclaimed and Daphne were nominated for the 2015 Foster's (formerly Perrier) Award for 'Best Newcomer'.

Style and influences

In an interview with ''Comedy Blogedy'', Daphne cited an eclectic range of figures who have had an influence on their style from many different genres, various eras and from several parts of the world. The group is heavily influenced by

music hall Music hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment that was most popular from the early Victorian era, beginning around 1850, through the World War I, Great War. It faded away after 1918 as the halls rebranded their entertainment as Varie ...

and old

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

; and, in their "

Goon Show ''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September ...

-esque"

show, ''Daphne Sounds Expensive'', they are accompanied by a live nine-piece band.

Radio

''Daphne Sounds Expensive'' (BBC Radio 4)

In February 2016, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

announced that Daphne would be bringing a "

-esque" comedy called '' Daphne Sounds Expensive'' to

, with the first episode airing on 14 July 2016. The series consists of four thirty-minute episodes. ''Daphne Sounds Expensive'' was shortlisted for the 'Best Radio Sketch Show' award at the Comedy.co.uk Awards 2016. Radio 4 commissioned a second series which it would broadcast from 13 July 2017.

Awards and nominations

Daphne were the winners of London Sketchfest's prize for 'Best New Act' in 2015, and their debut

show, ''Daphne Do Edinburgh'', was nominated for the 2015 Foster's (formerly Perrier) Award for 'Best Newcomer'.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daphne British comedy troupes Comedy collectives