Former NHS haematologist Dave Spikey’s stand-up career started in 1992 after many years writing routines and sketches for other comedians, TV and radio.

He performed with Rick Sykes as the double act Spikey and Sykey, appearing on ITV's New Faces show. They split up soon afterwards.

In 1991 he won the City Life North West Comedian of the year title.

He went on to host gameshow Chain Letters in 1997, following on from Jeremy Beadle, among others.

His next big break came with his writing collaboration with Peter Kay, first on That Peter Kay Thing and then on Phoenix Nights, in which he also starred as club compere Jerry St Clair. It won the Best Newcomer award at the British Comedy Awards in 2002.

He has performed two tours, Overnight Success (which sold 75,000 copies on DVD) and Living The Dream.

In 2005, he wrote and starred in the ITV comedy-drama, Dead Man Weds, which he also co-starred in, and in 2006 he presented the revival of darts gameshow Bullseye on Challenge

And since 2005 Spikey has been one of the regular team captains on the Channel 4 panel game, 8 Out of 10 Cats.