About
Loved for his bumbling Englishness and polite (sometimes political) bite, Miles Jupp is the popular comedian and presenter best known from TV shows such as Have I got News For You and Mock the Week, and recognised by kids everywhere as Archie The Inventor in Balamory. In 2015 Miles Jupp took over what is arguably the biggest job in BBC radio comedy as host of The News Quiz, the Friday night topical laugh-off, now onto its 92nd series, drawing in several million listeners an episode.
As an award winning stand-up, multi-talented Miles started his live comedy career back in 2000 with victories in two new act competitions: Channel 4’s So You Think You’re Funny and Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year. He was then nominated two years later for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award for his show Gentlemen Prefer Brogues.
Having also successfully pursued work as an actor in Hollywood and in TV as John Duggan in The Thick of It and Nigel in the sitcom Rev, Miles returned to stand-up in 2007. He has been bringing his solo shows to the Edinburgh Fringe, performing on sell out national tours and in London’s West End ever since. His signature stand-up personae as the mild mannered English gent (who’s a tad stroppy but delivers the most cutting of quips) continues to bring him loyal fans and audiences across the UK and beyond.
Watch Miles Jupp: Is The Chap You’re Thinking Of
Indulge your stiff upper lip, British pride and self-deprecating awareness as mild mannered Miles takes you on a journey of middle class woes. Poking fun at his BBC Radio 4 listening, Waitrose shopping audience (as well completely surrendering to the fact he’s one of them) there are endless laughs to be had from Mr. Jupp’s inappropriately grandiose reaction to the slightest inconvenience. A thoroughly entertaining hour from the kind of chap who uses the word “chap”.
Watch Miles Jupp: Fibber in the Heat
In this touching tribute to the simple pleasures of fandom, Miles (having become disillusioned with comedy and acting) decides to jack it in and follow his dream to become a cricket journalist. He tells some fairly enormous ‘fibs’ and ultimately finds himself heading to India on a cricket tour with his heroes where ultimately, the age old adage that heroes are better from a distance, prevails.
Short Clips
See Miles Jupp Live
Information on Miles Jupp’s upcoming gigs and live shows can be found here.
Bio
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Miles Jupp spent most of his childhood in London. The son of a minister in the United Reformed Church, he was educated at three independent schools in North London, Windsor and Rutland and was drawn to comedy whilst a student at Edinburgh University. Following in his father’s footsteps, he was studying Divinity (although now a non-believer) and a working as trainee chaplain in the local psychiatric hospital. To let his hair down, he performed with improvised comedy troupe the Improverts on the side, also taking part in pantomime productions with the Edinburgh University Theatre Company at Bedlam Theatre.
It wasn’t long before Miles Jupp was starting to become a rising star of BBC Scotland, appearing in the comedy showcase Live Floor Show with Al Murray and his best pal Frankie Boyle. In the evenings, Miles would do his stand-up gigs, rather bravely performing jokes about being posh, and dressed in tweed, on Glasgow’s Sauciehall Street on a Friday night. After making headway by winning some new act competitions in London and Leicester and performing as a member of the sketch team The Lost and Lonely Rebels, Miles was beginning to become recognised as a real talent on the circuit. In 2002 his first solo show Gentlemen Prefer Brogues was nominated for a Perrier Best Newcomer Award.
In 2007 Mile performed his show Every Day Rage and Dinner Party Chit Chat and continued to write and perform on the Edinburgh Fringe until 2010 when he presented the critically acclaimed Fibber in the Heat – a memorable solo piece about his experience of blagging his way into the press corps during an England cricket tour of India. The show toured in 2011 and 2012, culminating in a sell out performance in London’s West End. His book of Fibber In The Heat was later published and shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book Of The Year.
In 2014 Miles embarked on another UK stand up tour and West End run with Miles Jupp Is The Chap You’re Thinking Of. In 2016 he performed Songs Of Freedom, the tour of which culminated with a West End performance at The London Palladium.
Described by the Telegraph as “a very British tour-de-force”, Miles Jupp has appeared as a performer across a wide range of genres: from plays for the National Theatre to major television series such as the award-winning BBC2 sitcom Rev, The Thick Of It, and the Netflix series The Crown. He has acted in Hollywood feature films such as George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, and Nigel Cole’s Made In Dagenham. He wrote and starred in the Radio 4 sitcom In and Out of the Kitchen, of which there have been four series so far and became a television show on BBC4.
As a self confessed man of privilege, his comic material is light hearted and liberal, often preoccupied by family life with his wife and 5 kids, or his great love of cricket. Although painfully aware of his fortunate position in life, Miles Jupp is unapologetic about being himself, telling The Independent “I am a white, middle-class man and that is not something I personally am looking to change.”