Chris Neill

Details

“An expert storyteller with split-second comic timing” – Independent on Sunday

BBC Radio 4 regular Chris Neill is well known to millions of listeners from his waspish and acidic regular appearances on Just A Minute and Broadcasting House. He has written for and appeared on a multitude of other BBC networked shows including Linda Smith’s Brief History of Time-Wasting, Serious About Comedy, Sean Lock’s 15 Storeys High, Josie Long’s series All The Planet’s Wonders, Quote … Unquote, Audio Diaries, Today, PM and The Husky Betty Marsden (a documentary he wrote and presented) as well as various BBC World Service programmes and on 5Live.

Further voice work includes an acerbic narration for a ITV clip show, Owl in all 52 episodes of Poppy Cat for Nick Jr, Lord Cutler Beckett in a Disney Pirates of the Caribbean video game and yet another English baddie, Sir James Tyrrell, in an audio Dr Who.

The man memorably described as “sounding like a cross between Julian Clary and Kenneth Williams, but looking like Sgt Bilko” ( The Scotsman ) is a hit on the UK stand-up circuit with his trademark sharp tongue and fund of outrageous anecdotes. He has appeared all over the country with his tall tales and barbed asides leading the London Evening Standard to hail him, “this acidic storyteller is the natural successor to Kenneth Williams.” He was a core performer in the British Comedy Award-nominated Robin Ince’s Book Club, can be heard all too frequently on BBC Radio Scotland’s MacAulay & Co in his own weekly slot, and has worked as a TV warm-up man and an after-dinner speaker. A perennial hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in 2008 he presented his cookery-cum-comedy show Chris Neill’s Got A Bun In The Oven, as a result of which he recently presented a new ITV cookery show.

His writing has been published by amongst others Hodder & Stoughton, BBC, Daily Telegraph, Fire & Knives and The Spectator.

TV/Radio Credits

Regular panellist on ‘Just a Minute’ for BBC Radio 4 (2001-Present)

Regular appearances on a wide variety of radio panel games, quiz shows, sitcoms and sketch shows including ‘Quote…Unquote’, ‘Whispers’, The Best Policy’, ‘Audio Diaries’, ‘The Motion Show’ and ‘The Fruit Machine’

Critic – ‘Serious About Comedy’ BBC7

Starring role in ‘Linda Smith’s Brief History of Time-Wasting (series 1 and 2) for BBC Radio 4

Co-presenter ‘MacAulay and Co’ during Edinburgh Festival BBC Radio Scotland

Guest on The Fred MacAulay Show

Writer and Presenter ‘The Husky Betty Marsden’ for
BBC Radio 4

Reviews

“Fabulous, clever, camp raconteur”
- Time Out

“Delightfully tasteless…Neill is as camp as a branch of Milletts, but much funnier.”
- Evening Standard

“Raconteur, wit and general old cow.”
- Attitude

“Chris Neill is deliciously funny; bitchy and sharp, he would suit Have I Got News for You perfectly”
- The List

“A polished raconteur…Neill’s schtick is punctuated with classic lines”
- Metro

“Incredibly engaging, a Courtyard stormer”
- Three Weeks

“Not just funny but on the nose. Neill is the epitome of itelligent middle-class camp. Close your eyes and you get Julian Clary crossed with Kenneth Williams. Open them and you have Sargeant Bilko”
- The Scotsman

“Neill presides over proceedings with the gracious self-assurance of a party host having a chinwag with his guests. Both acidic and disarmingly sweet, he has an immaculate turn of phrase”
- Independent on Sunday

CRITICS CHOICE:
The Guardian, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Time Out