Joshua Michael Widdicombe (; born 8 April 1983) is an English comedian, presenter and actor. He is best known for his appearances on ''

The Last Leg ''The Last Leg'' (known during its first series as ''The Last Leg with Adam Hills'' and in Australia as ''Adam Hills: The Last Leg'') is a British late-night television humorous talk/sketch show that originally ran alongside the 2012 Summer Par ...

'' (2012–present), '' Fighting Talk'' (2014–2016), '' Insert Name Here'' (2016–2019), ''

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 ...

'' (2012–2016) and his

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

sitcom '' Josh'' (2015–2017). Widdicombe also won the first series of '' Taskmaster'' in 2015 and the show's first ''Champion of Champions'' special in 2017. Widdicombe also hosted ''

Hypothetical A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educated guess or tho ...

'' with fellow comedian

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 ...

(2019–2022). During the 2020

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

lockdown, Widdicombe started the ''Parenting Hell'' podcast with fellow comedian

Rob Beckett Robert Anthony Beckett (born 2 January 1986) is an English comedian, actor, and presenter. He was a co-host on the ITV2 spin-off show '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!'' from 2012 to 2014. Since 2016, Beckett has been a team captain ...

Early life and education

Widdicombe was born on 8 April 1983 in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, but grew up in Haytor Vale, near Widecombe in the Moor on

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. He attended Ilsington

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Primary School and

South Dartmoor Community College South Dartmoor Community College (SDCC) is a co-educational academy school located in Ashburton, Devon, England. The number of students on roll is 1,650. The school has a sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, ...

, later studying

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. After graduation, he moved to London to complete a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in magazine journalism at

City, University of London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" an ...

Career

Widdicombe began performing live in 2008 and made it to the final of the '' So You Think You're Funny?'' comedy tournament 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 ...

during the same year. In 2009, he co-wrote and performed in the sketch show ''Superclump'', and appeared with

and Nick Helm. In 2010, Widdicombe worked as a contributor for the '' Dora the Explorer'' magazine, and in 2011 he performed his debut solo show "If This Show Saves One Life..." at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and was subsequently nominated for Best Newcomer by the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards and for the

Malcolm Hardee Malcolm Hardee (5 January 1950 – 31 January 2005) was an English comedian and comedy club proprietor. His high reputation among his peers rests on his outrageous publicity stunts and on the help and advice he gave to successful British Alte ...

"Act Most Likely to Win a Million Quid" Award. In 2012, Widdicombe became a regular on '' Stand Up for the Week''. In July that year, he made his debut appearance on ''

''. He was also a main contributor to

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's daily alternative review of each day's events at the London

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

, '' The Last Leg with Adam Hills'', alongside

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

and Alex Brooker. He also appeared on ''The Last Leg of the Year'', the show's end-of-year special. In September 2012, Widdicombe appeared on '' The Million Pound Drop'' with ''The Last Leg'' co-host Brooker. The pair won £100,000 for their selected charities. His chosen charity was Scope. He has pectus excavatum, which he discovered after mentioning it to Christian Jessen on season 11, episode 10 of ''

8 Out of 10 Cats ''8 Out of 10 Cats'' (stylised as ''8 out of 10 CATS'') is a British comedy panel show that aired from 3 June 2005 to 17 January 2021. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 from 2005 to 2015, then More4 from 2016 to 2017, and finally E4 from ...

''.

In 2013, Widdicombe was again a regular on ''

'', after Channel 4 renewed the show for nine further episodes, beginning on 25 January 2013. A third series started on 31 July 2013, a fourth on 31 January 2014 and a fifth on 1 August 2014. In May 2013, Widdicombe was a guest on the second series of '' Dara Ó Briain: School of Hard Sums'' with

Marcus Brigstocke Marcus Alexander Brigstocke (born 8 May 1973) is a British comedian and actor. 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 the son of N ...

. Following this, he featured as a comedian on '' The Apprentice'' spin-off show, '' The Apprentice: You're Fired!'' In June 2013, he again appeared as a panellist on ''

'', featuring on several episodes of the show's 12th series. In 2014, Widdicombe appeared again on ''Mock the Week'' and on ''QI'', and also made his debut on '' Have I Got News for You''. Widdicombe won '' Celebrity Mastermind'' broadcast 31 December 2013 with a score of 24, on the specialist subject of his favourite band, Blur. His chosen charity was The Lily Foundation. On 1 July 2014, 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 Widdicombe would be joining its Radio 5 Live team from August 2014 as the new host of '' Fighting Talk'' along with Georgie Thompson. Both hosts announced on 10 August 2016 that they would not be returning to the show for series 14 in September due to their "increasingly busy schedules". In August 2014, Widdicombe starred in the BBC Three '' Comedy Feeds''

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

'' Josh'', which he co-wrote with comedian Tom Craine and which was directed by David Schneider. A full six-episode series of ''Josh'', also directed by Schneider, ran on BBC Three from 11 November to 16 December 2015. BBC Three ordered a second full series of ''Josh''; and a third and final series followed in 2017. In 2015, Widdicombe was a contestant on the first series of the Dave game show '' Taskmaster'' and won the series. For one of the tasks, Widdicombe got a tattoo of host

Greg Davies Gregory Daniel Davies ( ; born 14 May 1968) is a Welsh comedian, actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as Mr Gilbert in ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008–2010), Ken Thompson in ''Cuckoo'' (2012–2019), Dan Davies in '' Man ...

's name on his left foot. He then returned for a team task in series two where he was partnered with

Richard Osman Richard Osman (born 28 November 1970) is an English television presenter, producer, and novelist. He is the creator and former co-presenter of the BBC One television quiz show ''Pointless''. He has presented the BBC Two quiz shows ''Two Tribes ( ...

and Jon Richardson. Widdicombe has performed on radio on

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 ...

's '' Arthur Smith's Balham Bash'' and

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British digital radio station owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via digital audio broadcasting. The station focuses on alternative ...

's '' The Frank Skinner Show'', written for comedy panel shows ''

'', ''

'' and BBC Radio 4's '' Look Away Now'', and supported stand-up comedians

Russell Howard Russell Joseph Howard (born 23 March 1980) is an English comedian, television presenter, radio presenter and actor. He has hosted his own television shows, ''Russell Howard's Good News'' and ''The Russell Howard Hour'', and appeared on the topi ...

Michael McIntyre Michael Hazen James McIntyre (born 21 February 1976) is a British comedian, writer, and television presenter. In 2012, he was the highest-grossing stand-up comedian in the world. He currently presents the variety and stand-up comedy show '' Mic ...

Alan Carr Alan Graham Carr (born 14 June 1976) is an English comedian, broadcaster, and writer. His breakthrough was in 2001, winning the '' City Life'' Best Newcomer of the Year and the BBC New Comedy Awards. In the ensuing years, Carr's career burgeo ...

Stephen Merchant Stephen James Merchant (born 24 November 1974) is an English comedian, writer, director, and actor. He was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series ''The Office (British TV series), The Office'' (2001–2003), and co-writer ...

and Shappi Khorsandi on their respective live tours. Widdicombe hosted a weekly radio show on XFM (now Radio X) with Neil "Producer Neil" Fearn from February 2013 to July 2015, which was broadcast initially on Saturdays but which moved to Sundays in August 2014 coinciding with his new role as ''Fighting Talk'' presenter (see above). The show regularly featured contributions from comedians

Nish Kumar Nishant Kumar (born 1985) is a British stand-up comedian, television presenter and podcaster. He became known as the host of ''The Mash Report'' on BBC Two and U&Dave, Dave. He has also presented ''Newsjack'' on BBC Radio 4 Extra, ''Joel Domme ...

, Joe Lycett and several others along with occasional interjections and background laughter by XFM's "Intern Charles". The podcast of the show was named "iTunes Best New Audio Podcast" in 2013. The last edition of the show aired on 26 July 2015. Widdicombe has made four appearances on '' Live at the Apollo''. He was a featured performer on Episodes 7.8 (21 January 2012), 9.1 (22 November 2013) and 11.7 (AKA ''Nöel at the Apollo''; 20 December 2015) and hosted on Episode 12.2 (14 November 2016). In December 2015, Widdicombe announced that he was a team captain on the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

comedy panel show '' Insert Name Here'', appearing alongside

and host

Sue Perkins Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in ''Mel and Sue'', she progressed into radio a ...

. The show aired in January 2016 and returned for two more series in January 2017/2018. In December 2017, Widdicombe returned to ''Taskmaster'' for a two-part series alongside his fellow winners of previous series including Katherine Ryan,

Bob Mortimer Robert Renwick Mortimer (born 23 May 1959) is an English comedian, author, television presenter, writer and actor. He is one half of the comedy double act Reeves and Mortimer with Jim Moir, Vic Reeves, and appears in the ''Mortimer & Whitehouse ...

and

Noel Fielding Noel Fielding (; born 21 May 1973) is an English comedian, artist, and actor. He was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside Julian Barratt in the 2000s, and has been a co-presenter of ''The Great British Bake Off'' since 2017. He is kn ...

to compete in the '' Taskmaster - Champion of Champions''. He won the series. Widdicombe hosts 1990s

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

and live shows called '' Quickly Kevin, Will He Score?''. Guests include footballers such as Iain Dowie, Darren Huckerby,

Pat Nevin Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin (born 6 September 1963) is a Scottish former professional association football, footballer who played as a winger (association football), winger. In a twenty-year career, he appeared for Clyde F.C., Clyde, Che ...

and Matthew Le Tissier as well as comedians such as Elis James, Tom Parry, Ivo Graham and

Matt Forde Matt Forde (born 6 November 1982) is an English comedian, impressionist, writer and presenter. Background Forde attended Becket School in West Bridgford, Nottingham. His mother is a former nun. He joined the Labour Party when he was 15 and b ...

. In 2019 Widdicombe began hosting panel show ''

'' with James Acaster for UK television channel Dave. In 2020, Widdicombe started a parenting podcast with fellow comedian

, titled ''Lockdown Parenting Hell''. It was renamed ''Parenting Hell'' following the third national lockdown. It is a podcast about bringing up children, experiences, tips and face-palm moments. In 2021, it was announced that Widdicombe had written a book: ''Watching Neighbours Twice a Day... How '90s TV (Almost) Prepared Me for Life'', published in September 2021. It made ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' bestsellers list. In December 2024 he voiced over the part of Barnsley in the '' Bluey'' episode "Butlers". He also appeared in the

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

Christmas special, dancing a charleston with professional Karen Hauer to the song "Let It Snow" while dressed as a penguin. In February 2025 Widdicombe made his debut on

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 ...

sitting in for

Romesh Ranganathan Jonathan Romesh Ranganathan (born 27 March 1978) is a British comedian, actor, and presenter. His style of comedy is deadpan and often self-deprecating. Ranganathan has made numerous appearances on television comedy panel shows and has been a ...

on his Saturday Show, alongside with actor and presenter Siobhan McSweeney.

Personal life

Before becoming a comedian, Widdicombe worked as a

sports journalist Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in a par ...

, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. He supports Plymouth Argyle. He is a vegetarian. He is married to Rose Hanson, a

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

, with whom he has a daughter, Pearl, born in October 2017, and a son, Cassius, born in May 2021. The couple lived for a considerable amount of time in

Shoreditch Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...

, before moving to a "sleepier" area of

east London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

to raise their children. His claim of descent from

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould (; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 pu ...

was confirmed by a 2021 episode of the genealogical television series '' Who Do You Think You Are?'' The programme traced his ancestry further back via the

Baring family The Baring family is a German and British family of merchants and bankers. In Germany, the family belongs to the '' Bildungsbürgertum'', and in England, it belongs to the aristocracy. History The family's earliest known ancestor is Peter Bari ...

to the Knollys family, a noble family during the Tudor era;

Lettice Knollys Lettice Knollys ( , sometimes Latinisation of names, latinized as Laetitia, alias Lettice Devereux or Lettice Dudley), Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester (8 November 1543Adams 2008a – 25 December 1634), was an English noblewoman and ...

is a direct-line ancestor of Widdicombe's, and as such he is related to Queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

through her aunt,

Mary Boleyn Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary, (Antonia Fraser, ''The Wives of Henry VIII'' (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992), p. 119 – 19 or 30 July 1543) was the sister of List of English royal consorts, English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose fami ...

. His 10×-great-grandfather,

Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland (baptised 15 August 1590, died 9 March 1649), was an English courtier and politician executed by Parliament of England, Parliament after being captured fighting for the Cavaliers, Royalists during the Second Engli ...

was a close friend of King Charles I, for whom he was Groom of the Stool. Through Mary, Widdicombe is a direct descendant of King

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

. He has purchased a second home in Mullion Cornwall, previously owned by Barrie Cook, now extensively renovated.

Stand-up DVDs

*''Live: And Another Thing'' (18 November 2013) *''What Do I Do Now... Live'' (28 November 2016)

References

External links

*
''Fighting Talk''
*
2013 What's On Wales interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Widdicombe, Josh 1983 births Living people 21st-century English comedians People educated at South Dartmoor Community College People educated at Exeter College, Devon Alumni of City, University of London Alumni of the University of Manchester English radio DJs Comedians from Devon Comedians from the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham English male comedians English stand-up comedians People from Hammersmith Knollys family