Joshy Michael "Josh" Widdicombe is an English comedian and radio presenter,
best known for his appearances on The Last Leg since 2012 and for his 2015
sitcom Josh on BBC Three. Early life and education
Widdicombe was born in Hammersmith but grew up in Haytor Vale near
Widecombe-in-the-Moor in Devon. He then attended South Dartmoor Community
College and later studied linguistics at the University of Manchester.
Widdicombe's elder half-brother, Henry, is now a comedy promoter and one of the
founders of the Machynlleth Comedy Festival.
He is related to Sabine Baring-Gould who is remembered particularly as a writer
of hymns, the best-known being Onward, Christian Soldiers and Now the Day Is
Over. Career
Widdicombe began performing live in 2008, and made it to the final of "So
You Think You're Funny" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival during the same year. He
has performed at the Fringe Festival every year since, co-writing and
performing in the sketch show Superclump in 2009. He also made appearances with
James Acaster and Nick Helm. At the 2011 Fringe Festival, Widdicombe performed
his debut solo show "If This Show Saves One Life...", and was subsequently
nominated for Best Newcomer by the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards and for
the Malcolm Hardee "Act Most Likely to Win a Million Quid" Award.
In 2010, Widdicombe contributed to 'Dora the Explorer' magazine, including by
writing a poem for one issue. Mark Ruffalo jokingly made some fairly hefty
accusations about Widdicombe's personal life regarding this when they both
appeared on The Graham Norton Show. Widdicombe has performed on radio on BBC
Radio 4's Arthur Smith's Balham Bash and Absolute Radio's The Frank Skinner Show,
written for comedy panel shows Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats and BBC Radio 4's
Look Away Now, and supported stand-up comedians Russell Howard, Michael
McIntyre, Alan Carr, Stephen Merchant and Shappi Khorsandi on their respective
live tours. In 2012, Widdicombe became a regular on
Stand Up for the Week and in July he made his debut appearance on Mock the
Week. He was also a main contributor to Channel 4's daily alternative review of
each day's events at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics, The Last Leg with
Adam Hills, alongside Adam Hills and Alex Brooker. He also appeared on The
Last Leg of the Year, the end of year special of the show. In September 2012,
Widdicombe appeared on The Million Pound Drop Live with The Last Leg co-host
Brooker. The pair won £100,000 for their selected charities. His chosen charity
was Scope. He has pectus excavatum, which he discovered after mentioning it
to Christian Jessen on an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats, and suffers from severe
hayfever. In 2013, Widdicombe was again a regular
on The Last Leg, after Channel 4 renewed the show for nine further episodes,
beginning on 25 January 2013. A third series started on 31 July 2013, a fourth
on 31 January 2014 and a fifth on 1 August 2014. In May 2013 Widdicombe was
a guest on the second series of Dara Ó Briain: School of Hard Sums with Marcus
Brigstocke. Following this, he featured as a comedian on The Apprentice spin-off
show, The Apprentice: You're Fired!. In June 2013 he again appeared as a
panellist on Mock the Week, featuring on several episodes of the show's 12th
series. In 2014 Widdicombe appeared again on Mock the Week and on QI and
also made his debut on Have I Got News for You. Widdicombe won Celebrity
Mastermind broadcast 31 December 2013 with a score of 24, on the specialist
subject of his favourite band, Blur. His chosen charity was The Lily Foundation.
Widdicombe hosted a weekly radio show on XFM with Neil "Producer Neil" Fearn from
February 2013 to July 2015, which was broadcast initially on Saturdays but
later 10am-1pm on Sundays. The show regularly featured contributions from
comedians James Acaster, Nish Kumar, Ivo Graham and several others along with
occasional interjections and background laughter by XFM's "Intern Charles". The
podcast of the show was named "iTunes Best New Audio Podcast" in 2013. The
last edition of the show aired on 26 July 2015.
He has made two appearances on Live at the Apollo
On 1 July 2014, the BBC announced Widdicombe would be joining its Radio 5
Live team from August 2014 as the new host of Fighting Talk along with Georgie
Thompson. In August 2014 Widdicombe starred in the
BBC Three "Comedy Feed" pilot Josh, which he co-wrote with comedian Tom
Craine. Josh, directed by David Schneider, was picked up for a full
series by the BBC in August 2014 and began airing on 11 November 2015.
In 2015, Widdicombe starred as a regular contestant in the Dave game show
Taskmaster. = Tours =
"Work in Progress" = DVDs =
"And Another Thing" References
External links Official website
Fighting Talk at BBC Programmes Josh Widdicombe at the Internet Movie
Database 2013 What's On Wales interview