Andy Parsons

One of the most recognisable faces and voices in British stand-up comedy, Andy Parsons is a huge talent who packs a punch for his size.

Despite having been seemingly around since almost the year dot, he is only 42 a real testament to his longstanding time in the comedy limelight. Andy Parsons is perhaps best known now as one of the team captains on Mock the Week and has only actually missed five episodes since the programme started.

Growing up in Cornwall, Andy Parsons developed a talent as a skilled pianist, reaching Grade 8, alongside a phobia of snakes from which he has never recovered, and the ability to make people laugh endlessly.

Away from his Mock the Week colleagues and his numerous other TV appearances, Andy has long been a star in his own right on the stand-up comedy circuit. Immensely politically and culturally aware, he is of the most well-informed comedians in the business and respected by fans, fellow comics and critics alike. He scooped the Time Out Comedy Award gong in 2002.

Among his sell-out and acclaimed Edinburgh Festival shows are the brilliantly titled and presented International Indoor Championship Moaning, Genocide, Suicide, Cancer (And Other Words That Make You Wince), Eat my Satire, Local Borough Pest Exterminator and Idiot Savant, all great titles for his stand-up comedy shows I’m sure you’ll agree.

He is currently on tour in the UK with his show Andy Parsons: Citizens, including a recent show at London’s Lyric theatre which was recorded for a forthcoming DVD.

But fans of radio comedy will have known him far longer, as with comedy partner Henry Naylor, he has written and presented nine seasons of comedy show Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections for BBC Radio 2.

The pair first met at Christ's College, Cambridge, where they formed their long-standing double-act (most marriages don't do this well) twice enjoying nationwide tours with the National Student Theatre Company and were the latest in a long line of torch-bearing comedians for the famous Footlights comedy society.

Having completed his law degree (no mean feat), the newly frocked Andy Parsons turned his back on "the most tedious thing I'd ever done" and instead returned to Naylor to help start their own sketch comedy club and pursue a new life as a professional stand-upcomedian.

After writing for and appearing on popular BBC radio show Week Ending, Parsons and Naylor were offered their own show Parsons and Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections for Radio 2 and have not looked back since. As well as the nine series of the show, they have also presented live versions of the show at the Edinburgh Festival from 1993-2001) and in Australia.

On his own, the now famous stand-up comedian Andy Parsons has written for the likes of Spitting Image and Alas Smith and Jones, and also appeared as a guest on They Think It's All Over, QI, and BBC Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk. In 2008, he co-wrote and starred in a BBC Radio 4 sitcom called The Lost Weblog of Scrooby Trevithick with Kiwi comedian Ben Hurley.

He even, and this is his proudest moment, provided the voice of "Cool Cat" in an episode of cult children's TV drama Press Gang, alongside the lovely Julia Sawalha.

He had a narrow escape when he was asked by the then Head of Comedy Entertainment at the BBC to submit ideas for the last series of Noel’s House Party, but fortunately they were all rejected.