Rob Brydon (born Robert Brydon Jones, May 3, 1965, Swansea is a Welsh actor, comedian and impressionist most famous for his role as Keith Barret in the BBC comedy Marion and Geoff, Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive and The Keith Barret Show.
Brydon is famous for bizarre or unsettling black comedy, and has worked with a number of comedians and actors with a similar taste, perhaps most notably Steve Coogan.
In 2003, he was listed by The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
Early life
Brydon grew up in Baglan, near Port Talbot, and was educated at Porthcawl Comprehensive School, in Mid-Glamorgan.
Brydon’s career began with radio. His early broadcasts included DJing on BBC Radio Wales, and he was the main presenter of Rave, one of BBC Radio Five’s youth magazine and music programmes, between 1992 and 1994. Following this, in 1994 and 1995, he appeared in numerous episodes of the original Radio Wales version of the cult comedy show Satellite City with Boyd Clack. Though he stayed with radio as a comedy performer on BBC Radio Five Live’s The Treatment, he was initially known mainly as a voice artist. He provided several voices for the Discworld computer games and continuity announcements for BBC 1. In the early 1990s he spent a brief stint presenting for the Home Shopping Network, and began to find small roles in several successful films and television series. He finally made his mark in television comedy in 2000 with Julia Davis when the pair wrote and starred in Human Remains for the BBC.
Current acting career
He is also known for his voice-over work on numerous television advertising campaigns, including those for Renault, Tango, The Times, Tesco, Abbey National, McDonald’s, Toilet Duck, Cahoot, Mint Card, Pot Noodle, Crunchy Nut Cornflakes and The Observer. Additionally, he voiced the main character, Lewton, in the Discworld computer game Discworld Noir.
In 2006, he first appeared on the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, in which he showed off an unusually good singing voice (especially by the programme’s standards), during a rendition of Tom Jones’s Delilah in the Pick-up Song round, where his remarkably accurate performance earned him one of the longest rounds of applause in the show’s considerable history. He has since returned to the show four times, and has become its unofficial Tom Jones specialist with renditions of “Sex Bomb” and “She’s a Lady”.
He has also presented an episode of Have I Got News for You.
It has been commented that he very closely resembles Strictly Come Dancing’s Professional Dancer Anton Du Beke.
Personal life
On 6th October 2006 Brydon married Claire Holland at Windsor church.
Filmography and television/radio appearances
- Gavin and Stacey (2007)
- 100 Greatest Funny Moments (2006)
- The Big Fat Quiz of the Year (2004, 2005, 2006)
- Have I Got News for You (2006)
- I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue (2006-2007)
- Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive (2006-2007)
- A Cock and Bull Story (2006; based on Tristram Shandy)
- Flight of the Conchords BBC radio show (2005)
- Little Britain (2005)
- Supernova (2005)
- Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005)
- MirrorMask (2005)
- The Keith Barret Show (2004-2005)
- Shaun of the Dead (2004)
- Director’s Commentary (2004)
- QI (2003, 2005)
- Just a Minute (2004, 2005)
- Cruise of the Gods (2002)
- I’m Alan Partridge (2002)
- Legend of the Lost Tribe (2002)
- 24 Hour Party People (2002)
- The Way We Live Now (2001)
- A Small Summer Party (2001)
- Marion and Geoff (2000-2003)
- Human Remains (2000)
- Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
- Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence (1998)
- Cold Lazarus (1996)
- Lord of Misrule (1996)
- First Knight (1995)
- Eleven Men Against Eleven (1995)
- The Treatment (1995)
- Satellite City (sitcom) (1994)(radio)
- The Healer (1992)
- Rave (1992-1994)