Podcast Queen and award-winning Irish stand-up Alison Spittle!
Her chat show podcast ‘The Alison Spittle Show’ has amassed a huge following with guests such as Sharon Horgan, Adam Hills and David O’Doherty and she performs at podcast festivals across Ireland and the UK. She even has another new podcast ‘Are Findus Crispy Pancakes Feminist?’; an ambitious documentary on the role of Findus Crispy pancakes in the feminist movement of the late 21st century, featuring Kerry Katona.
Alison was a regular contributor to the RTÉ series Republic of Telly where she wrote and performed her own segment ‘A Guide to Mullingar’. She was a team captain on the panel show ‘Choose or Lose’, a correspondent on ‘This is Ireland’ with Des Bishop on RTÉ 2 and also presented television coverage of the music festival Electric Picnic. She wrote and starred in ‘Alison Spittle in Ireland’ a short film produced by Baby Cow Productions for Sky Arts.
Liverpool-born drag artist Danny Beard is the winner of season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, breaking records as the first bearded queen to appear on the show.
A self-proclaimed ‘shady, singing, cartoon clown’, Danny is a singer and performer with unique flare and humour.
Danny was a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent and is well-versed in performing. They are a regular on Manchester’s Drag scene, often appearing at cabaret nights mixing club kid aesthetic with old school drag performance style as well hosting and headlining pride festivals across the country.
Danny hosts a weekly LGBTQ+ podcast, The Gossip Gays where they and their co-star give us a run down on the weeks news, gossip, as well as turning agony aunt with hilarious consequences.
Darren Harriott is one of the most exciting comedians on the circuit. Over the last few years, he has hosted Live at the Apollo, BBC’s News Jack Unplugged and CBBC’s The Dog Ate My Homework. He has become a regular face on our screens on panel shows such Mock the Week and Don’t Hate the Playaz as well as giving his viewpoint on popular reality shows; The Apprentice: Your Fired and The Great British Bake Off: Extra Slice. He’s a Comedy Central favourite on shows such as The Comedy Bus and Roast Battle. Earlier this year he wrote and recorded his own 4 part series Black Label on BBC Radio 4.
His work is recognised across the creative industries. Not only did he receive Nominations at Edinburgh for Best Comedy Show in 2019 and Best Newcomer in 2017, but he has also been immortalised in a mural in Birmingham which celebrates the city’s rising Stars.
Following his Best Newcomer nomination for his debut show Defiant at Edinburgh in 2017, he sold out a solo run at Soho Theatre. After his second nomination for best show for Good Heart Yute in 2019, he will be doing not one but two runs at the infamous London location – the second of which is a 5 day run in February 2020.
Originally from Birmingham, and now living in London, Darren Harriott is a regular at clubs such as 99 Club, Top Secret, Backyard Comedy Club, The Boat Show, Up the Creek and The Glee.
A confident performer with a captivating charm, Darren’s comedy deals with everything from subverting stereotypes, to everyday observations, to that juiciest of topics, religion – all with a cutting edge.
Fiona Allen is the star and co-writer of Emmy and Bafta award winning TV series ‘Smack The Pony’
Fiona’s many other screen credits are extensive and include Dalziel & Pascoe, Coronation Street, Poirot, Eastenders, Casualty, Shameless, In Deep, Happiness, Skins (as wife to Bill Bailey’s character), Waterloo Road, Mock The Week, Alan Partridge’s Scissored Isle, Death In Paradise and 8 Out of 10 Cats. She has also appeared in numerous films including 24 Hour Party People, Fat Slags and Gladiatress.
Hal Cruttenden is one of the top touring stand up comedians working in the UK and Ireland today, as well as being a highly accomplished writer, presenter and actor.
He has made several appearances on ‘Live at the Apollo’ (BBC1 & 2), ‘Have I Got News For You’ (BBC1), ‘The Royal Variety Performance’ (ITV1), ‘Would I Lie To You’ (BBC1) ‘The One Show’ (BBC1), ‘The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice’ (BBC2 & Channel 4) and ‘The Apprentice: You’re Fired’ (BBC2).
He’s toured extensively in the UK and Ireland over the last 8 years, he has also taken shows to the Montreal, Melbourne, and New Zealand comedy festivals and he’s recorded three stand up specials for Next Up -‘Tough Luvvie’, ‘Straight Outta Cruttenden’ and ‘Chubster’. Hal’s current tour, ‘It’s Best You Hear it From Me’ is on the road now.
Hal wrote and starred in his own sitcom, ‘Hal’ on Radio 4, as an actor he trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, he has appeared in ‘Shackleton’; ‘Eastenders’; ‘Touching Evil’, ‘Bramwell’, ‘Mrs Dalloway‘, ‘Brexit’, ‘Making News’ and ‘Orwell A Celebration’.
The last few years have been extremely busy for the America’s Got Talent winner, on both sides of the Atlantic. 2016 saw Zerdin head to The Las Vegas Strip for a headline residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. 2017 and 2018 saw Paul appear on spin-off shows America’s Got Talent – The Champions and Britain’s Got Talent – The Champions. Since then Paul has toured the US and UK with his critically acclaimed ‘All Mouth’ and ‘Puppet Party’ shows.
Zerdin is arguably the UK’s number one ventriloquist and made his TV debut in 1993 as the host of GMTV’s ‘Rise and Shine’. He then went on to win ITV’s The Big Big Talent Show, hosted by Jonathan Ross. Since then he has appeared on countless TV shows including The World Stands Up (Comedy Central), The Stand Up Show BBC!, Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival, Comedy Rocks with Jason Manford (ITV1), Tonight at The London Palladium with Bruce Forsyth and Bradley Walsh (ITV1), Michael McIntyre’s Big Christmas Show (BBC1) and three appearances at The Royal Variety Performance. Winning Series 10 of America’s Got Talent in September 2015, Zerdin and his sidekicks soon went viral on YouTube, receiving millions of views from around the world.
2021 and 2022 Paul toured his Paul Zerdin – Hands Free show which he filmed for Television for a 2023 release.
Paul is a Gold Star Member of The Inner Magic Circle and lives with his foam family in South West London.
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical has been a rip-roaring success since the show started in 2008. It has had eleven sell-out years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, two West End runs, an Olivier award and a BBC Radio 4 series.
In the show, the audience meets a writer of musicals who is on a deadline – he needs their help. The audience shouts out suggestions of a setting, musical styles and the title of the show and they’re off!
The Showstopper team – cast and band – will then weave a brand new musical in front of the very eyes of the audience, complete with hilarious characters, fabulous dance routines, beautiful songs, epic story lines, all sprinkled with the pzazz of a Broadway show.
Every night is a premiere and they quite literally couldn’t do the show without you, so why not pop down and help them create the next hit musical?
Stacey Dooley is one of Britain’s most loved documentary presenters.
She rose to prominence in 2008, appearing as a contributor on BBC3 series Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts; a programme illustrating the typical fashion-obsessed consumer and highlighting throwaway fashion. From 2009 to present day, Stacey has produced an array of social-issue themed documentaries concerning sex trafficking, domestic abuse and prisons from some of the world’s most hostile territories.
In 2011, BBC3 aired Tourism and the Truth: Stacey Dooley Investigates. Over two episodes, Dooley investigated how tourism in Thailand and Kenya affects employees there regarding wages, corruption and environmental changes. She also began presenting CBBC’s Show Me What You’re Made Of, which has now finished its seventh series.
Shot in Stacey’s native Luton, My Hometown Fanatics was broadcast on BBC3 in 2012. A three-part series titled Coming Here Soon was broadcast on BBC3 later that year, in which she explored the lives of young people in three countries affected by the global financial crisis: Greece, Ireland and Japan.
Stacey’s impressive work in bringing a voice and platform to many earnt her an MBE for services to broadcasting in 2018.
later that year she worked on various projects for BBC1, including investigating the environmental impact that fast fashion has on our planet as well as working with Children In Need to explore the extent of homelessness in the UK. Celebrities on the NHS Front-line was to celebrate the 70th birthday of the National Health Service, where she presented alongside Jonnie Peacock and Michael Mosley and the staff at King’s College Hospital.
In the same year the series of Stacey Dooley Investigates took her to Russia, Florida, Iraq, and Hungary to explore more challenging issues such as child exploitation; sex offenders; war; domestic violence; pollution in the fashion industry and coming face-to-face with an ISIS soldier for which she won a One World Media Award. The episodes of this series won the title of the Most Watched Documentaries on BBC iPlayer.
Stacey was crowned the winner of the 16th series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in December 2018 and named as Grazia’s new Contributing editor for Investigations in early 2019.
The same year saw Stacey Dooley Sleeps Overdebuted on UKTV’s W Channel. The six-part series saw Stacey stay overnight in the company of families within the UK from all walks of life.
She is a big advocate for children’s TV and has worked closely with CBBC for a number of years on programmes such as Pets Factor and Nine to Five.
Her debut book On the Frontline with the Women who Fight Back, draws on encounters with the brave, wonderful women Stacey has met over her career to explore, at its centre, womanhood in the world today – it quickly made its way onto The Sunday Times Bestseller list. This prompted her to stage several talks and two UK book tours, where she invited a variety of well-known faces to interview her about her work.
2019 documentaries include; Stacey Dooley and the Lifers; Spy Cams and Creep Catchers; This World’s Spanish Narcos; Whale Wars; Stacey Dooley on the Ward and Bounty Hunters. Many of them quickly became most watched on BBC iPlayer.
Stacey continues to take on a diverse range of projects. She began presenting BBC3’s reality competition series Glow Up: Britain’s Next Make-Up Star which has just completed its second successful series and is available worldwide on Netflix.
In the same year, Stacey took on several challenging documentaries; this takes her documentary tally to over 80 in the years she has been presenting.
Inspired by the front line and others trying to make a difference during the Pandemic, Lockdown Hero’s is the latest BBC3 project for Stacey – armed with social media and a network of contract, she reaches out to people across the country in search of those who are trying to help others throughout the pandemic. Her second Panorama Stacey Dooley and the Lockdown Babies played on BBC1 in July 2020.
Albert Square came calling when Stacey was asked to host an interview show, Secrets of the Square whilst EastEnders took a summer break. Late 2020 saw Stacey filming This is my House, a primetime Entertainment format for BBC One. 2021 also saw the return of Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over for W Channel.
In 2022, Stacey Dooley released her new book Are You Really OK? Understanding Britain’s Mental Health Emergency, following on from her two BBC documentaries on mental health.
Stacey has also released another two part series with BBC2 on Stalkers. This saw her join a specialist police unit in Cheshire and a victim support organisation. Stacey’s most recent documentary The Convent was a one-hour immersive episode where she lived alongside the sisters, joining their strict timetable of work and contemplation and silence, in a bid to understand the way they live and to find out if there are aspects of this lifestyle she could bring into her own.
A third series of Stacey Sleeps Over will be on air for the W channel in April. Stacey stays with three new families whilst exploring more unseen areas of modern relationships and family life. She takes us through a 72-hour cycle as a house guest, learning all the routines and rituals that make each one unique.
A third series of Stacey Sleeps Over aired on the W channel in April. Stacey stayed with three new families whilst exploring more unseen areas of modern relationships and family life. She took us through a 72-hour cycle as a house guest and learnt all the routines and rituals that make each one unique.
Stacey’s current series for BBC two, DNA Family Secrets, sees Stacey meeting people across the UK who want to unlock
mysteries hidden within their genetic code. Working with one of the UK’s leading geneticist’s professor Turi King, as well as genealogists, social workers and doctors they use the very latest DNA technology to reveal lost heritage, track down missing relatives and detect debilitating diseases before it is too late.
