Bunch of cults

Win a guide to British comedy

A new primer to British comedy, written by Independent critic Julian Hall, was published by Rough Guides last month – and we have six copies to give away.

The book covered the cult comedians and TV shows to have entered public consciousness in the past 30 years – and we reviewed it here .

Theguide covers the rise of alternative comedy and surrealist sketch shows, and charts the evolution through to the triumph of reality comedies such as The Office.

Julian Hall said: ‘With the explosion in comedy since the 1980s, it’s really hard to believe there’s anyone over the age of 25 who hasn’t yet experienced one of the UK’s comedy nights, but there’s a first time for everyone. My hope is this book will help many more comedy virgins lose their innocence.’

Hall - who has set up a blog linked to the book here - also compiled a personal top 10 of stand-ups:

  1. Eddie Izzard
  2. Daniel Kitson
  3. Andrew Maxwell
  4. Alan Carr
  5. Robert Newman
  6. Ross Noble
  7. Mark Watson
  8. Jerry Sadowitz
  9. Brendon Burns
  10. Tim Vine

To stand a chance of winning one of our six copies,just answer the following question by December 22, when we will select the winners at random from all correct answers received. Bulk and automated entries will be disqualified.

Good luck!


Which of these acts is not profiled in the Rough Guide To British Cult Comedyl?

Your name:

Your email:

Published: 7 Dec 2006

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.