Geoffrey Frank Norcott (born 16 December 1976) is an English comedian, writer and political commentator. He first performed in 2001 and has appeared on ''

Mock the Week ''Mock the Week'' is a British 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. The programme was prese ...

'', '' Live at the Apollo'' and ''

Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

'', and written for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' and '' Spiked''.

Early life

Norcott was raised in

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, ...

. His father was a draughtsman for

British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...

and an active trade unionist. His parents divorced when he was nine, and his mother moved with him and his elder sister to a

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. I ...

. He attended Southfields Secondary School, before moving to

Rutlish School Rutlish School is a state comprehensive school for boys, formerly a grammar school with the same name originally located on Rutlish Road, Merton Park, and relocated in 1957 on nearby Watery Lane, Merton Park, in southwest London. History The sc ...

Merton Park Merton Park is a suburb in the London Borough of Merton. It is situated between Colliers Wood, Morden, South Wimbledon and Raynes Park. It is 11 miles (11.7 km) southwest of Charing Cross. The area is part of the historic parish of Merto ...

, the same school attended by Conservative

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Hunting ...

. Norcott holds an English degree from

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

, and worked as an English teacher.

Early career

Norcott performed at his first comedy gig in September 2001, initially performing as a way of supplementing his teaching income. In 2005, Norcott was approached to appear on

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

, as a panellist and presenter on shows for Talksport,

Nuts TV Nuts TV was a British television channel related to ''Nuts'' magazine. Nuts TV began broadcasting on Freeview channel 42 on 12 September 2007, and launched on Sky Digital on 21 January 2008. A 1-hour timeshift channel, Nuts TV +1 launched on ...

and the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

. He received an Operational Service Medal for five frontline tours entertaining the troops in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

Recent career

In 2013, Norcott was nominated for 'Best New Show' at the

Leicester Comedy Festival The Leicester Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival held in a number of venues across Leicester, England early in the year. History The festival started in 1994 with 40 events in 23 venues over 7 days throughout Leicestershire, attracti ...

for his show ''Geoff Norcott Occasionally Sells Out'', about – among other things – the fact he was now a Conservative voter, which he then took to the

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. He returned to the Fringe in 2015 with ''The Look of Moron'', a further development of his voice as a political comic, and again in 2016 with ''Conswervative'', which received wide political acclaim and a successful sold-out run. In early 2017, Norcott made his first of several appearances on the BBC's ''

'' and made his debut as a regular on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

's '' The Mash Report'', a programme he continued to appear on, including after 2021 when it relocated to Dave post-cancellation. Norcott took another show, ''Right Leaning, But Well Meaning'', to the Fringe the same year to further acclaim, and the show was later recorded as a radio special for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

, airing in 2018. In 2018, he made his first appearance on '' Live at the Apollo'', and took a new show, ''Traditionalism'' on a UK tour. Later the same year, Norcott appeared on ''

'' for the first time, being the first openly pro-Brexit comedian on the show. He has also appeared on several UK political debate shows, including ''

Politics Live ''Politics Live'' is a BBC News political programme which launched on 3 September 2018. It is presented by Jo Coburn and features at least four guests debating the political stories of the day, as well as reports and other content. It is broadca ...

'' and ''

Daily Politics ''Daily Politics'' was a BBC Television programme which aired between 6 January, 2003 and 24 July, 2018, presented by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn. ''Daily Politics'' took an in-depth review of the daily events in both Westminster and other areas ...

''. Norcott has written for a number of UK television shows, including ''

A League of Their Own ''A League of Their Own'' is a 1992 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Penny Marshall that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The film stars Tom Hanks, Geena Da ...

'', ''

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of '' Countdown'', but presented in a comedic panel show format seen on '' 8 Out of 10 Cats'', with the show being a crossover of the t ...

'' and '' Frankie Boyle's New World Order''. A 2019 appearance on ''Question Time'' prompted another online backlash for Norcott, after a clip of him criticising

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

President

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic Pl ...

went viral. The same year, he presented the BBC Two documentary ''How The Middle Classes Ruined Britain'', in which he investigated issues like how some people 'gamed' the system to secure places in good schools, and accusations of

social cleansing Social cleansing ( es, limpieza social) is social group-based killing that consists of the elimination of members of society who are considered "undesirable", including, but not limited to, the homeless, criminals, street children, the elderly, th ...

in housing. 2019 also saw Norcott become the first white male to join the BBC's diversity panel, by virtue of his working class background. He has spoken of the irony of having, as a "straight, white, middle-aged man", taken advantage of diversity quotas to further his career. In November 2020, it was announced that Norcott would be publishing a memoir entitled ''Where Did I Go Right?,'' in which he "unpicks his working-class upbringing and his political journey". The book (and audio-book, voiced by Norcott) was released in May 2021 to mixed reception. In a three-star review in the ''Daily Telegraph'', critic Dominic Cavendish described it as a "frank, light-hearted account of how Norcott came from working-class origins in south London to forge a career in comedy" as well as "a sober mapping of the changing political landscape".

Podcast

In February 2019, Norcott launched a podcast entitled ''What Most People Think'', in which he aims to "get to the heart of what ordinary people think about social and political issues". Now recorded weekly, the podcast is funded by

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a com ...

donations from listeners. Norcott claims to have refused approaches from would-be advertisers so as to avoid the risk of his content being influenced or censored. The podcast has been described by

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

as "amiably polemical". Many of the episodes have featured interviews with guests, including fellow comedians

David Baddiel David Lionel Baddiel (; born 28 May 1964) is an English comedian, presenter, screenwriter, and author. He is known for his work alongside Rob Newman in ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' and his comedy partnership with Frank Skinner. He has als ...

, Katherine Ryan,

Romesh Ranganathan Jonathan Romesh Ranganathan (born 27 March 1978), is an English actor and comedian. He is known for his deadpan and often self-deprecating comedy. Ranganathan has made numerous appearances on television comedy panel shows, and in 2016 he co-p ...

, Andrew Doyle,

Henning Wehn Henning Wehn (; born 10 April 1974) is a German stand-up comedian based in the UK. Career Wehn studied Business Administration in Münster and worked in customer relations. In 2002, he moved to the United Kingdom to work in the marketing de ...

Marcus Brigstocke Marcus Alexander Brigstocke (born 8 May 1973) is a British comedian, actor and satirist. He has worked in stand-up comedy, television, radio and musical theatre. He has appeared on many BBC television and radio shows. Early life Brigstocke is ...

, Simon Evans, Konstantin Kisin,

Seann Walsh Sean Christopher Walsh (born 2 December 1985), known professionally as Seann Walsh, is an English stand-up comedian. Early life Walsh was born in Camden in London, but was brought up in Brighton. He left school with one GCSE examination pass, ...

Dominic Frisby Dominic Frisby (born September 1969) is a British author, comedian and voice actor. He is best known as co-host of television programme ''Money Pit''. Early life Dominic Frisby is the son of the playwright and novelist Terence Frisby, and Chr ...

and Leo Kearse. Outside of comedy, other guests have included journalists

Owen Jones Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, Pundit, political commentator, journalist, author, and Left-wing politics, left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' a ...

and

Garry Bushell Garry Bushell (born 13 May 1955) is an English newspaper columnist, rock music journalist, television presenter, author, musician and political activist. Bushell also sings in the Cockney Oi! bands GBX and the Gonads. He managed the New York C ...

, actor turned political activist Lawrence Fox, and trade unionist Paul Embery. Regular minor features which supplement the interviews include a "cuss count" in which Norcott recounts the number of swear words used in the previous episode; a letters section in which observations from listeners are discussed; and a final segment in which Norcott shares recent reviews left for the podcast on iTunes. In reading out listener contributions, Norcott often adopts

exaggerated Exaggeration is the representation of something as more extreme or dramatic than it really is. Exaggeration may occur intentionally or unintentionally. Exaggeration can be a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke stron ...

regional accents reflecting whichever part of the country the correspondent come from.

Personal life

Norcott lives in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

with his wife Emma, whom he married in 2004. In 2014 the couple's daughter Connie, was still-born at 34 weeks, Norcott has spoken openly of their loss and in May 2021 on an episode of Cariad Lloyd's

Griefcast ''Griefcast'' is a British podcast about grief and loss. Hosted by comic and actor Cariad Lloyd, the podcasts feature hour-long conversations about grief and bereavement with people who have experienced the death of loved ones. Lloyd asks guests " ...

podcast. The couple now have a son named Sebastian. Norcott describes himself as a " right-wing libertarian". He has previously claimed to be the only outspoken Conservative Party supporter on the British comedy circuit and more recently suggested that he is one of only "about six"

right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

comedians. In 2017, he was listed as one of the 'Top 100 Most Influential People on the Conservative Right'.

Live tours

* ''Conswervative'' (2016) * ''Right Leaning But Well Meaning'' (2017) * ''Traditionalism'' (2018) * ''Taking Liberties'' (2020) * ''I Blame The Parents'' (2021)

Television credits

* Would I Lie To You! BBC One, 2020 * ''

'', BBC One, 2017 – 2019 * ''The Jeremy Vine Show'', Channel 5, 2019 * ''

The Wright Stuff ''The Wright Stuff'' is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Bri ...

'', Channel 5, 2018 * ''Live at The Apollo'', BBC, 2018 * ''

'', BBC Two, 2018 * ''Dave’s Advent Calendar'', Dave, 2018 * ''

'',

, 2018 * '' The Blame Game'', BBC One Northern Ireland, 2017 * ''Edinburgh Nights'', BBC Two, 2017 * ''Comedy Bigmouths'', My5, 2017 * '' The Mash Report'', BBC Two, 2017–2021 * ''Daily Politics'', BBC, 2017 * ''All Out Politics'', Sky News, 2017 – present * ''Countdown'', Channel 4, 2022

Radio credits

* ''Right Leaning But Well Meaning'', BBC Radio 4 * ''Good Week, Bad Week'', BBC Radio 5Live * ''The Now Show'', BBC Radio 4 * ''Loose Ends'', BBC Radio 4 * ''Breaking the News'', Radio Scotland * ''The News Quiz'', BBC Radio 4

Writing credits

* '' Have I Got News For You'', BBC One * ''King Gary'', BBC Two * ''Xmas Live at the Apollo'', BBC Two * ''

'', Channel 4 * ''Judge Romesh'', Dave * ''A League of Their Own'', Sky 1 * ''The Sarah Millican Television Programme'', BBC Two * ''Roast Battle'', Comedy Central * ''Katherine Ryan Stand-up Show'', JFL * ''Frankie Boyle’s New World Order'', BBC Two * ''The Misadventures of Romesh'', BBC Two * ''Fake News'', Channel 4 * ''Safeword'', ITV 2 * ''

8 Out of 10 Cats ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' is a British comedy panel show broadcast on Channel 4 and its sister networks, airing since 3 June 2005. The show is hosted by Jimmy Carr; the current team captains are Rob Beckett and Katherine Ryan. The show is base ...

'', Channel 4 * ''Round Earth'', BBC Worldwide * '' The Outlaws'', BBC * ''

The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host Anne Robinson completed her contract. ...

'', BBC (2021 version)

References

External links

*
Chortle page, with tour dates
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Norcott, Geoff 21st-century English comedians Conservative Party (UK) people English libertarians English male comedians English stand-up comedians English television presenters Living people People educated at Rutlish School 1976 births