Jack Dee is a British stand-up comedian from Bromley, known for a sardonic, deadpan style. He becomes well known in the early 1990s and appears in a series of John Smith’s television adverts during that decade, including campaigns built around the brewery’s recently invented widget.

Television work

Dee presents a number of BBC television programmes. His first notable show is The Jack Dee Show in 1997. He also fronts Jack Dee’s Happy Hour, which runs for two seasons in 2000 and 2001, and Jack Dee - Live at the Apollo, which airs in 2004 and continues with a second series in 2005. On Live at the Apollo, he introduces and closes each programme while guests provide a half-hour stand-up set. Guests include Jo Brand, Ross Noble, Ardal O’Hanlon, Joan Rivers, Omid Djalili, Marcus Brigstocke, Julian Clary, Rob Brydon, Rich Hall, Lee Mack and Dara O’Briain.

Other work and appearances

He works regularly with Comic Relief and also appears as a straight actor, including in an episode of the BBC drama series Silent Witness. His stand-up often includes reading out messages left by audience members, first on pen and paper and later by text message, with Live at the Apollo audiences given his mobile number for this purpose. He wins the UK’s first Celebrity Big Brother in 2001, though he later refuses permission for archive footage from that appearance to be used in a retrospective documentary.