Jack Dee (original) (raw)

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English comedian and actor (born 1961)

Jack Dee
Dee in 2014
Birth name	James Andrew Innes Dee
Born	(1961-09-24) 24 September 1961 (age 63)Bromley, Kent, England
Medium	Stand-uptelevisionradio
Years active	1986–present
Genres	Deadpanobservational comedy
Subject(s)	Everyday lifefamilymarriagehuman interactioncurrent events
Spouse	Susan Jane Hetherington ​ ​(m. 1989)​
Children	4
Notable works and roles	The Jack Dee Show (1992–1994)Just for Laughs (1992)'Art' (1998)Jack Dee: Live at the Apollo (2004–2006)Lead Balloon (2006–2011)Don't Sit in the Front Row (2012–2013)Josh (2014–2017)Bad Move (2017–2018)
Website	https://jackdeecomedy.com
from the BBC programme Loose Ends, 24 October 2009.[1]

James Andrew Innes "Jack" Dee (born 24 September 1961) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, presenter and writer known for his sarcasm, irony and deadpan humour.[2] He wrote and starred in the sitcom Lead Balloon and hosts the panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

His UK television appearances include being a team captain on Shooting Stars and hosting Jack Dee: Live at the Apollo, which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006. He also presented The Jack Dee Show, Jack Dee's Saturday Night and Jack Dee's Happy Hour. He won Celebrity Big Brother 1 in 2001.

Early life and education

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Jack Dee is the youngest of three children born to Rosemary (née Stamper) and Geoffrey Dee, after Joanna Innes Dee and David Simon Innes Dee. He was born in the Municipal Borough of Bromley, Kent[3] (now within the London Borough of Bromley) and grew up in Petts Wood[4] before moving with his family to Winchester when he was young. His father was a printer and his mother was the daughter of two repertory actors, Henry Lionel Pope Stamper (1906–1985) and Edna May Howard Innes (1904–1969).[5]

Dee was educated at both private and state schools. His first school, The Pilgrims' School, a preparatory school in Winchester, was followed by the state Montgomery of Alamein School for his secondary education, and for a period he attended Frensham Heights School. He took his A-levels at Peter Symonds' College, and left with a D and an F grade. Following this, he planned to attend drama college, but his plans were scuppered when his mother persuaded him to get a vocation, and so he entered the catering industry and became a waiter.[6]

Dee's first public act was an open-mic gig in 1986 at The Comedy Store, which he went to one evening after work.[7]

Since the 1990s, he has performed sell-out acts at many high-profile venues (including the London Palladium and the Hammersmith Apollo). After he won the British Comedy Award for Best Stage Newcomer in 1991, Dee was offered his own show; The Jack Dee Show first went out on Channel 4 in February 1992.[8] His combination of stand-up routines on television continued with Jack Dee's Saturday Night on ITV, Jack Dee's Happy Hour in 1997 and later Jack Dee Live at the Apollo in 2004 on BBC One.[9]

In 1996, he starred alongside Jeremy Hardy in Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives, a collection of mockumentaries similar to their previous collaboration, Jack and Jeremy's Police 4.[10] Each episode focuses on the pair playing bizarre characters from a particular profession. Shot on film and featuring no laugh track, the show failed to catch on. After three episodes, it was moved to air after midnight. Aside from his stand-up career, Dee has made appearances acting in television series. He played the part of Doug Digby in the Grimleys pilot (1997) before the role was recast for the series, and made guest appearances on such programmes as Silent Witness, Dalziel and Pascoe and Jonathan Creek.[11]

In 2001, he won Celebrity Big Brother (then linked to fundraising for Comic Relief). He has subsequently said that he dislikes the treatment of the housemates by the show and its producers, and has refused all permission for any of the clips to be shown again.[12]

In 2004, he played the role of Steven Sharples MP, the self-styled 'Deputy Home Secretary', alongside Warren Clarke and Dervla Kirwan in The Deputy. Dee's performance was praised, though the film itself received a lukewarm response.[13] Later that year he starred in another one-off drama, Tunnel of Love.[14] He was the celebrity advocate in Britain's Best Sitcom for Fawlty Towers and presented an hour-long documentary[15] about the series.

In 2005, he co-hosted Comic Aid, a one-off gathering of comedians that aimed to raise money for the Asian Tsunami Appeal.[16] In May of the same year he appeared on the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment of the BBC Two series Top Gear, achieving a lap time of 1:53.5 (52nd on the Suzuki Liana leader board).[17] His series Lead Balloon, which he also co-wrote, began on BBC Four on 4 October 2006. Described as "Britain's answer to Curb Your Enthusiasm",[18] Lead Balloon sees Dee play the semi-biographical role of Rick Spleen. A second series of eight episodes was commissioned and was broadcast on BBC Two in 2007, with a third series debuting on Thursday 13 November 2008. A fourth series finished on the BBC on 5 July 2011.[19] He also starred as Harry in the 2005 film Short Order.[20]

In February 2009, it was announced that Dee would be one of a trio of hosts to replace the late Humphrey Lyttelton for the summer series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (the others being Stephen Fry and Rob Brydon).[21] He subsequently became the permanent host from the 52nd series onwards.[22] He is also a frequent guest on QI and Have I Got News for You, which he has guest-presented ten times, and he hosts segments of the BBC's biennial Comic Relief telethon. He starred in advertisements for John Smith's Bitter in the 1990s, becoming known as "the midget with the widget". He made his stage debut in 1998, playing Yvan in Yasmina Reza's Olivier award-winning 'Art'.[23] He later returned as Serge for a 13-week run at the request of the director.[24]

Dee performing in 2020

In 2008, Dee took part in the 15th anniversary special of Shooting Stars where he replaced Will Self as captain of Team A. The show aired on 30 December 2008 on BBC2. Dee returned as team captain in series 6 of Shooting Stars on 26 August 2009, and again for the 7th series.[25] Over Christmas 2009, Dee played the role of John Tweedledum in The News at Bedtime.[26]

In 2010, Dee took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.[27] In 2013, Dee joined Dara Ó Briain, Chelsee Healey, Greg James, Melanie C and Philips Idowu in Through Hell and High Water, a Comic Relief challenge which involved celebrities canoeing the most difficult rapids of the Zambezi River.[28] They raised more than £1 million for the charity.

In 2017, Dee co-wrote and starred in Bad Move, a sitcom about a middle-aged man and his wife (played by Kerry Godliman) who move from the city to a country cottage in search of the rural dream, which becomes more of a nightmare. A second series was broadcast in 2018.[29]

In May 2024, Dee was announced as a contestant in the eighteenth series of Taskmaster, competing alongside Andy Zaltzman, Babatunde Aléshé, Emma Sidi, and Rosie Jones.[30]

Dee met Susan Jane Hetherington in 1986, when he was working as a waiter in Fulham and she was a receptionist at a nearby hotel.[31] They married in Winchester, Hampshire, in 1989.[32] The couple divide their time between a family home in Wandsworth, London and a holiday house near Chichester, West Sussex.[33][34] Together, they have four children.[32]

Dee suffers from depression, and he has claimed that his work is the best therapy for his condition, saying "if you have the impulse to be creative, you ignore it at your peril".[35]

In his twenties, Dee worked at the Ritz in Central London and started drinking heavily. He attended church and attempted to become a priest. After he realised that was not for him he gave it up, and never quit drinking, although he would later describe his condition as "alcohol abuse" rather than alcoholism, which was the diagnosis at the time.[36] Since the 1990s, he has advertised John Smith's Bitter, becoming known as "the midget with the widget". Following his appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, he had a relapse, though did not attend AA meetings because he did not want paparazzi photographing him leaving the meetings.[37]

In 2007, the Daily Express reported that he was in negotiations with publishers to release his autobiography.[38] He signed with Doubleday in 2008 and the book, Thanks for Nothing: The Jack Dee Memoirs, was released in October 2009, along with an audiobook of the same title which he narrates.[39] According to Dee, "it's really the story of how I got into comedy... It's kind of an autobiography but isn't, as it stops about 25 years ago. It goes right up to the first time I do stand up."[40]

In February 2009, Dee and several other entertainers wrote an open letter to The Times supporting Baháʼí leaders, then on trial in Iran.[41]

Dee is a director of Open Mike Productions, co-founded with Addison Cresswell,[42] which produces shows for television and radio including Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Alan Carr: Chatty Man.

Awards and nominations

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• Thanks for Nothing (Doubleday, 2009) ISBN 9780385615488
• What is Your Problem? (Quercus, 2021) ISBN 9781529413366

Stand-up VHS & DVDs

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• Live at the Duke of York's Theatre (1992)
• Live at the London Palladium (10 October 1994)
• Live in London (10 November 1997)
• Live and Uncut (13 December 1999) [extended version of _Live in London_]
• Live at the Apollo (18 November 2002)
• Live Again (14 November 2005)
• So What? Live (18 November 2013)

1. ^ "Loose Ends". Loose Ends. 24 October 2009. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
2. ^ Bassett, Kate (24 May 1997). "Mr Deadpan loosens up". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 February 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
3. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
4. ^ BBC Comedy Guide: Jack Dee. Retrieved 14 August 2006.
5. ^ Dee, Jack. Thanks For Nothing. Doubleday, 2009, pp. 133–34, 171.
6. ^ Cavendish, Lucy (23 October 2006). "Now I don't need to be drunk to be happy". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
7. ^ Different sources give different dates for the open-mike gig, with some saying 1986, some 1987 and some 1988. An interview with The Times in 2004 states 1987. Chortle gives 1986 and 1988 on the same page. His biography at Off The Kerb, which represents him, gives it as 1986.
8. ^ "The Jack Dee Show". Channel 4.
9. ^ "Jack Dee". Big Belly Comedy Club. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
10. ^ Rees, Jasper (31 May 1996). "TELEVISION: Jack and Jeremy's Real Lives (C4) | The Independent". The Independent. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
11. ^ "Jack Dee". Prime Performers. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
12. ^ Jack Dee, Mark Lawson (3 October 2006). Mark Lawson Talks to Jack Dee. BBC Four (TV-series).
13. ^ Flett, Kathryn (29 February 2004). "The ups and downs of pros and cons". The Observer. London, UK. Retrieved 14 August 2006.
14. ^ Low, Lenny Ann (23 January 2007). "Tunnel of Love". The Age. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
15. ^ "BBC – Press Office – Britain's Best Sitcom top 10". BBC. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
16. ^ Dessau, Bruce (10 April 2012). "Raising laughs for Comic Aid". Evening Standard. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
17. ^ "Top Gear/Star in a Reasonably Priced Car - The TV IV". tviv.org. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
18. ^ Byrne, Ciar (26 January 2006). "Dee writes BBC's answer to "Curb Your Enthusiasm"". The Independent. London, UK. Archived from the original on 14 September 2006. Retrieved 14 August 2006.
19. ^ "BBC Two - Lead Balloon, Series 4, End". BBC. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
20. ^ Sheehy, Ted (2 November 2004). "Hurt joins Short Order cast". Screen. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
21. ^ Nissim, Mayer (25 February 2009). "Fry, Brydon, Dee to host 'Clue' return". Digital Spy.
22. ^ "Jack Dee to host Radio 4's Clue". 16 October 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
23. ^ Paddock, Terri (20 January 1998). "Comedian Dee Makes Theatrical Debut in Art's Fifth London Cast". Playbill.
24. ^ Cavendish, Dominic (25 November 1998). "The Independent Recommends: Theatre | The Independent". The Independent. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
25. ^ McGreevy, Hannah (17 June 2023). "Jack Dee admits 'I'm not as miserable as people might think'". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
26. ^ Bennett, Steve. "It's Jack Tweedle-Dee : News 2009 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
27. ^ Bennett, Steve. "C4 Comedy Gala at the O2, London : Features 2010 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
28. ^ "Comic Relief celebrities complete 'Hell and High Water' Zambezi challenge". Charity Challenge Blog. 3 February 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
29. ^ Wilson, Benji (19 September 2018). "Bad Move, review: a confusing waste of Jack Dee's talents". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
30. ^ Mellor, Louisa (30 May 2024). "Taskmaster Series 18 Line-Up Revealed (Incl. Alex Horne's Dream Comedian Jack Dee!)". Den of Geek. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
31. ^ Farndale, Nigel (23 November 2009). "The Sunshine boy: Jack Dee interview". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 26 November 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
32. ^ a b Barfoot, Paul. "There's more to funny fella Jack Dee than just deadpan wit". BBC Entertainment. BBC. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
33. ^ "Jack on Jack: When Dee met Whitehall". 6 December 2013.
34. ^ "Jack Dee: " I just really, really love West Sussex"". 27 September 2021.
35. ^ The Sunshine boy: Jack Dee interview, The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
36. ^ Wark, Penny (8 March 2002). "Jack Dee: a seriously funny man". The Times.
37. ^ Billen, Andrew (17 February 2004). "Politics? I'd rather talk about God". The Times.
38. ^ Spencer, Kathryn (4 January 2007). "Jack's back in bid to sell his life story". Daily Express.
39. ^ "It's his autobiograph-Dee". Chortle. 4 December 2008.
40. ^ Thair, David (8 May 2009). "HIGNFY Guest Host interview: Jack Dee". BBC Comedy Blog.
41. ^ Bremner, Charles; Robertson, David (26 February 2009). "Stand up for Iran's Baha'is – Voices from the arts call for the imprisoned Baha'i leaders in Iran to receive a fair trial". The Times. London, UK. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011.
42. ^ Richardson, Jay (24 September 2012). "Interview: Jack Dee, stand-up comedian". The Scotsman.

• Jack Dee Archived 2 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine at Off the Kerb Productions
• Jack Dee – the website for his autobiography, Thanks for Nothing at the Wayback Machine (archived 18 November 2009)
• Jack Dee at BBC Online Guide to Comedy
• Jack Dee at the British Film Institute
• Jack Dee at the BFI's Screenonline
• Jack Dee discography at Discogs
• Jack Dee at IMDb
• Jack Dee on Twitter