Jack Dee
Jack Dee (born
September 24,
1962) is an
English stand-up comedian known for his sardonic,
deadpan style.
Dee first became well known to audiences in the early
1990s. During that decade he appeared in a series of high-profile adverts for the brewery
John Smith's in which he introduced the recently invented
widget.
Dee has presented a variety of television shows on the
BBC, the first of note being
The Jack Dee Show in
1997. His recent TV programmes have included
Jack Dee's Happy Hour ("it's not happy and it doesn't last an hour"), which ran for two series in
2000 and
2001 and most recently
Jack Dee - Live at the Apollo which aired in late
2004 (A second series followed in the Autumn of
2005). Each episode of
Live at the Apollo featured a half-hour performance from a well-known British or international comedian, with Dee introducing and concluding each programme. Guests included
Jo Brand,
Ross Noble,
Ardal O'Hanlon,
Joan Rivers,
Omid Djalili,
Marcus Brigstocke,
Julian Clary,
Rob Brydon,
Rich Hall,
Lee Mack, and
Dara O'Briain. Dee also regularly works with
Comic Relief.
A regular feature of Dee's stand-up performances involves members of the audience leaving messages for him during the show, to be read out, with his responses, during the end. This has occurred in the past with pen and paper; in episodes of
Live at the Apollo Dee gave out his
mobile phone number that the audience could
text messages to.
Dee has also had some success as a straight
actor, notably in an episode of the
BBC drama series,
Silent Witness and as a fairground owner in
Tunnel of Love. On 16 March, 2001, he showed another side of his character, endeared himself to viewers and was the winner of the
UK's first
Celebrity Big Brother. Dee does not look back fondly at his Big Brother experience, and in January 2006 he was one of only two participants to refuse to allow archive footage of his time in the house to be used in a retrospective documentary about the first three series.
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Jack Dee Unofficial Fansite*
BBC guide to Jack Dee's TV shows
