But he admits some of the criticism was 'bang on'

Dara O Briain has admitted that criticism of early series of Mock The Week for being too combative and not diverse enough was ‘bang on’.

But he also says that ‘all we got was grief off people’  – to the extent that he was surprised when  viewers came forward to say they liked it after it was cancelled last year.

The comic appears on Desert Island Discs this morning and agreed:  ‘There were bits during the earlier years of it which were very combative, very elbow-sy and there was no space to mess around  It had a weird relationship with people

And he added that complaints that ‘there were things on which were wrong… I think that’s bang on.’

Suggesting a producer’s counter-argument, he said: ‘I think they would argue, and certainly it’s true, that it accurately reflected the lack of diversity that was in that section of the comedy world at the time, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have done more, and then did more, hopefully, later, in terms of bringing new talent in.

‘At the time, the excuse would have been: if you skim through the programme for the Edinburgh Festival in 2008 it’s a sausage fest, it’s just bloke, bloke, bloke, bloke, bloke, bloke… If you do it now, totally different. So, I’ve always said that the reason it [changed] is because a generation of female comics kicked the door in.’

Of Mock The Week’s cancellation last year after 17 years, he said: ‘It had been very good to me and it could have gone on, but equally you don’t get that kind of innings normally.

‘But it was kind of bittersweet was, after years of people [saying] "oh it’s rubbish, it’s rubbish", the minute it got axed they were like, "I’ve always been very fond of it".

‘Nobody told us that, all we got was the grief off people, we never got the impression that people were liking it!’

O Briain also spoke  about how he tracked down his birth mother after almost 50 years, saying he was inspired to make contact with his birth mother after watching  Dame Judi Dench’s powerful performance in the film Philomena.

Co-written by Steve Coogan, the 2013 Oscar-nominated movie told the real story of how nuns forced Irishwoman Philomena Lee to give up her son for adoption as  he was born out of wedlock.

O Briain, now 51, said he always knew he was adopted but said he 'sort of forgot' until watching the film.

He tells Lauren Laverne on the Radio 4 show: ‘I genuinely walked out of the cinema going "oh you eejit, you’re not the main protagonist in this story

‘Here’s a woman who gave a baby up for adoption 45 years ago and you have made yourself invisible because you’ve not engaged with the search, so therefore she’s no idea what’s going on.’

The Mock the Week host finally met his biological mother in a hotel room in 2020 but said it was not a thunderbolt moment.

He said: ‘It doesn’t answer any of the questions.  You sit across from this person; this stranger. There’s not some click of a button that happens and "oh, I’m finally home." People have lived their lives and gone off in different directions.’

However O Briain - who has talked about the reunion in his stand-up - added that   parts of the process of getting to know his birth mother have been ‘quite moving’ even though he is not ‘a hugely emotional’ person.

O Briain’s tracks included Gloria Estefan’s Cuba Libre, Groove Is In The Heart by Deee-Lite and Mozart’s Requiem.

He also chose an astrophotography rig as his luxury item.

• Desert Island Discs is on Radio 4 at 11.15pm today.

Published: 26 Mar 2023