Dominic John Romulus "Dom" Joly ( /ˈdʒɒli/; born 15 November 1967)^[2] is a British television comedian and journalist. He came to note as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera show that was sold to over seventy countries worldwide. Since then, Joly has continued to make edgy off-beat television like World Shut Your Mouth for BBC1 and Dom Joly's Happy Hour, a spoof travel show for Sky One.

Joly is also an author with several books to his name, and an award-winning travel writer for both the Sunday Times and the Mail On Sunday. He writes several regular columns for various UK nationals and periodicals including a weekly sports column for The Independent and an eclectic weekly column for the Independent on Sunday.

Joly is currently developing a movie called War Of The Flea in the USA, and published The Dark Tourist in 2010, about dark tourism. He has also completed filming a documentary on Tintin for Channel 4 (Back2Back Productions) which aired on 19 March 2010.

Joly was a contestant on the tenth series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!; he finished in fourth place.

Early life[link]

Joly was born in Yazd, Iran to British parents and speaks French in addition to English.^{[citation needed]}

Education[link]

It was revealed on the game show Would I Lie To You? that, while in Lebanon, Joly attended the same school, Brummana High School, as Osama bin Laden. He said on Loose Women on 18 February 2011 that he and bin Laden were at the same school when he was 6 and bin Laden was 18.

Subsequently, Joly was educated in the UK, at two famous independent schools: first to The Dragon School in the city of Oxford in Oxfordshire, and then to Haileybury and Imperial Service College, near the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire, followed by the University of London (at the School of Oriental and African Studies), in Central London. ^[3]

Career[link]

Television[link]

After being recruited to work as a producer on ITN's House to House, a political discussion programme on Channel 4, Joly went on to work for The Mark Thomas Comedy Product because of his political knowledge. He then created his own show for the Paramount Comedy Channel called War of the Flea. Discovering that working in comedy was both easier and more fun than his previous employment, Joly began to develop Trigger Happy TV which had a similar structure to War of the Flea.

[edit] Trigger Happy TV

United Kingdom

Joly's anarchic surreal sketches first started appearing as interstitials during advert breaks on the British Paramount Comedy Channel. In 1999, following a successful fifteen-minute pilot on the Comedy Lab, Channel 4 commissioned Joly to make a TV series. Trigger Happy TV was born; a hidden camera show that went on to be sold to over seventy countries worldwide. Joly made two series and two Christmas specials before announcing that he wanted to do other things. Joly was nominated for three British Comedy Awards for the show, won the Silver Rose of Montreux, the BBC2 Award for Best Comedy and the Loaded/Goodfella Comedy Newcomer of the Year.

The three DVDs for the shows were best-sellers, as were the soundtrack albums that Joly had personally selected and mixed himself.

United States

A spoof documentary about Joly followed, called Being Dom Joly which was produced and written by Joly himself. This aired prior to screenings of Trigger Happy TV in the USA and earned critical acclaim, with one reviewer Bob Croft, LA Times calling Joly "the funniest man in Britain".

A new series of Trigger Happy TV was made for a US audience in 2003 with an altered format in that it featured a band of different "comedians" who performed skits without Joly. Though Joly did cameo sporadically on the show, he was very unhappy with the programme and called it "Trigger Happy by numbers - take joke, put it in slo-mo, add fluffy animals and random indie soundtrack - it was made by uncaring idiots".^[4] He had a producer credit on the show, but disassociated himself with the project.

2003 BBC contract[link]

Following the success of Trigger Happy TV on Channel 4, Joly was secured by the BBC for a rumoured £5 million.^[5] However, his first show for the BBC, This is Dom Joly, a spoof chatshow in which Joly played an appallingly egotistical media character who had the same name as him, thereby confusing a lot of the audience as to what was real and what wasn't, did not achieve the same success as Trigger Happy TV, leading to the hidden camera format being revamped on BBC1 as World Shut Your Mouth. Featuring all new material and an increased budget relative to Trigger Happy, allowing for pranks to be performed in different countries. It was later released on DVD.

[edit] Dom Joly's Excellent Adventure

In 2005, Joly starred in a one-off documentary as part of a series on Sky One. Dom Joly's Excellent Adventure involved him travelling back to Beirut for the first time since he left in the late 1980s, and embarking on a road trip through the Syrian Desert to find a cave in which he had scrawled his name in as a child, that he re-discovered after much searching.

[edit] Dom Joly's Happy Hour

His next project for Sky One was a critically acclaimed spoof travel series supposedly investigating attitudes to alcohol around the world, entitled Dom Joly's Happy Hour, in which Joly teamed up with his friend, Canadian digital artist Peter Wilkins. Together, they explored drinking habits around the world, travelling to the Southern United States, Russia, Australia, Europe and India. During the first documentary, the pair explored Miami drinking styles, met up with some hillbillies in the Appalachians tasting moonshine, and visited a gay cowboy bar in Atlanta before taking on the Christian right in Alabama's dry counties.

They went on to visit Russia, trying 80% alcohol (by volume) homemade vodka known as Samogon. He explained, "(y)ou have an hour where you feel you can take on the world, then you black out. But because it’s almost pure alcohol, no hangover - sadly because I can’t remember it, I don’t know if it’s worth doing". They then visited Australia, Mexico and Europe before ending the tour in India. It was described in The Guardian as "a brilliantly surreal take on the tired format that is the TV travel show."^{[cite this quote]}

The programme included a lot more than just attempting to discover foreign drinking habits, for instance, in Russia Dom received a haircut from a nude woman and both he and Wilkins performed their own version of a morris dance before a bemused dance academy. Another instance found them catching crocodiles in Australia.

"The premise of investigating alcohol is ridiculous," Joly admitted during an interview. "I wanted an excuse to travel the world, but they (Sky TV) wanted a focal point. So I said as a joke: 'Well, I quite like drinking.' And they went, 'Fantastic, that’s brilliant!'"^{[cite this quote]}

The DVD was released on 1 October 2007.

[edit] The Complainers

Dom Joly has appeared inThe Complainers for Channel Five in the UK. The show, in Joly's words- "intends to try and get a little revenge for the ordinary Brit on the morons, bureaucrats, health and safety officers, traffic wardens, timewasters that make all our lives a daily hell."^{[cite this quote]}

[edit] Made In Britain

In 2009, Joly fronted a show titled Made In Britain, shown on the Blighty channel in the UK.^[6] In the show Joly goes on a road-trip around the UK looking at what is still made there after his house is emptied of everything not made in Britain.

Journalism[link]

Joly writes for various publications. He was alleged to be the writer of a spoof column in The Independent called "Cooper Brown: He's out there."^[7] The column is published as the work of an American character called Cooper Brown and revolves around his putative adventures as "a garrulous American showbiz type".^[8]

His real-life eclectic weekly column for the Independent on Sunday covers subjects as varied as Middle East politics and fifty-foot chickens. Joly also writes a weekly column on the "Weird World of Sport" for The Independent Sports supplement on Mondays.

He is also a regular travel writer for The Sunday Times. At the end of 2006 readers of the paper were asked to vote on where Joly would go every week. He travelled the globe performing various adrenaline sports whilst making a weekly podcast from South Africa, Spain, The Arctic Circle, Paris and Fort William. He has also written for Esquire Magazine, GQ, The Mail on Sunday, The London Evening Standard, FHM, The Observer and The Spectator.

In September 2008 Joly won an award at the 2008 Canada Media Awards for "Best Travel Piece" - the piece was written for the Mail on Sunday about a trip to Muskoka in Canada.

Joly wrote a spoof autobiography called Look At Me, Look At Me!, published by Bloomsbury in 2004. Joly's second book, Letters To My Golf Club, is a book of humorous letters and correspondences sent to golf clubs around the world published by Transworld Publishing on 8 October 2007.

Joly published a humour travel book called The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the World's Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations (2010) which is about dark tourism.^[9] In the book Joly travels to places that witnessed great tragedy and death, including Chernobyl (which he visited on 4 May 2009), his childhood home of Lebanon, North Korea, various locations in the USA (visiting the places of famous assassinations), the Killing Fields of Cambodia and Iran for a skiing holiday^[10]. It was commissioned by Simon and Schuster and published on September 2, 2010 in the UK.

Joly recently starred in the ITV2 reality programme Deadline with Janet Street Porter where he had to become a paparazzo. Amongst other highlights he was punched by Lily Allen, hit over the head with a guitar by Pete Doherty, called a "persistent little fat cunt flap" by Pierce Brosnan and snorted vodka with Ingrid Tarrant.

Joly was a "special correspondent" for the Independent at the Beijing Olympics. He says: "it's always been an ambition to be a foreign correspondent and this is as close as I'll ever get."^{[citation needed]} While in Beijing he also appeared daily on the "Drive" programme on Five Live with Peter Allen.^{[citation needed]}

Political career[link]

In the 1997 UK general election Joly formed the Teddy Bear Alliance ("Mr Blair, where do you stand on fleas?") and changed his name to Edward 'Teddy' Bear (a reference to "Edward Bear", better known as Winnie-the-Pooh). He stood in Kensington and Chelsea against Alan Clark. Hiring out hundreds of teddy bear costumes, he staged mock protests at Westminster and came fifth out of nine candidates, receiving 218 votes (0.6%).^[11] The Alliance was not registered as a political party under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

Music[link]

Joly was the singer in an Indie band called Hang David in the early Nineties. He was a Goth and said that he looked more like Robert Smith than Robert Smith. Joly personally selects all the soundtracks for his TV shows. All three soundtracks albums for Trigger Happy TV were huge commercial hits. He has also directed a couple of music videos. Ian Brown - Golden Gaze, in which Joly made the whole video in one take, making Brown run through the streets of London being chased by gorillas, frog-men and ninjas before he took refuge in the Prince Charles Cinema. WigWam, the duo consisting of Betty Boo and Alex James from Blur asked Joly to direct their first single. Joly decided to pay a weird homage to The Beatles concert on a roof and filmed the band performing in cat costumes on the roof of a building opposite the Groucho Club in Soho.

Radio[link]

In June 2008, Joly became the co-star of the Cobra Pubcast, a podcast from British beer company Cobra Beer that he hosted with humorist Danny Wallace.

Joly also frequently sits in for Gabby Logan on her Sunday Five Live show.^[12] Joly was also a roving reporter for Five Live at both the Beijing Olympics and Wimbledon 2009.

Future projects[link]

Joly is developing a hidden-camera movie with his old sidekick, Sam Cadman, tentatively called War of the Flea as well as having written a screenplay for a movie based on the adventures of Cooper Brown.

Joly has also talked about plans for a television show based on popular social networking site Facebook, visiting random people who have added him as a 'friend'. Joly would only accept friend requests if he has any type of connection with them.^[13]

In June 2009, it was reported that Joly had completed a script for "a Trigger Happy movie" set in the US.^[14]

In 2010, Joly entered the jungle in the middle of the tenth series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! UK. He finished in 4th place.

Fool Britannia, an upcoming eight-part hidden-camera show and the spiritual successor to Trigger Happy TV, will air on ITV1 from October 2012.

Personal life[link]

Joly is married to Stacey Joly (née MacDougall), a Canadian graphic designer. The couple have a daughter, Parker (born 2000) and son Jackson (born 2004).^{[citation needed]}

Having lived in Notting Hill before their children were born, Joly and his wife bought a property in the Cotswolds. They sold his flat to Salman Rushdie^[15] and the family now live near Cirencester.

While they were on holiday in Canada, the house was affected by sewage from the 2007 UK floods.^[16]

In March 2011 Dom Joly announced his first live show, Welcome to Wherever I am, at the Underbelly in London on April 30th. ^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Dom Joly in The Independent
• Dom Joly in the Sunday Times
• Dom Joly on Twitter
• Bluffer's Guide to Gadgets with Dom Joly on Comet.co.uk
• List of Cooper Brown columns
• Goth Recruitment by Dom Joly on Funnyordie.co.uk.
• Dom Joly at the Internet Movie Database
• Dom Joly eyebrow magazine interview

Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Ross at Live 8 on 2 July 2005
Born	Jonathan Stephen Ross (1960-11-17) 17 November 1960 (age 51) Camden, London, England[1]
Nationality	British
Occupation	Broadcaster, film critic, Talk show host, Comedian
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Jane Goldman (m. 1988) «start: (1988)»"Marriage: Jane Goldman to Jonathan Ross" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Jonathan_Ross)
Children	2 daughters, 1 son
Parents	Martha Ross

Jonathan Stephen Ross, OBE (born 17 November 1960) is an English television and radio presenter, best known for presenting the BBC One chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross from 2001 until he left the BBC in 2010. Ross began hosting a new chat show on ITV1 starting 3 September 2011. Ross also hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio 2, and acted as a film critic and presenter of the Film programme. Other regular roles have included being a regular panellist on the comedy sports quiz They Think It's All Over from 1999 to 2006, and presenting the annual British Comedy Awards from 1991 to 2007, and 2009 onwards.

Ross began his television career as a programme researcher, before débuting as a television presenter for The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross on Channel 4 in 1987. Over the next decade he had several radio and television roles, many through his own production company, Channel X. In 1995 he sold his stake in Channel X, and embarked on a career with the BBC. In 1999, Ross took over presenting the Film programme from Barry Norman, and also began presenting his own radio show, while two years later he began hosting Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. For the chat show, Ross won three British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards for Best Entertainment Performance, in 2004, 2006 and 2007. By 2006 Ross was believed to be the BBC's highest paid star. In 2005, Ross was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to broadcasting.^[2] Ross has been involved in controversies throughout his broadcasting career.^[3][4] As a result, in 2008 he wrote a semi-autobiographical work titled Why Do I Say These Things?, detailing some of his life experiences.

Ross has been married to the author, journalist and broadcaster Jane Goldman since 1988; they have three children. Ross and Goldman have together established the television production company Hotsauce TV. Ross is known as an avid fan and collector of comic books and memorabilia, and has written his own comic book, Turf. Ross is known for his distinctive voice, flamboyant style of dress,^[2] and his light-hearted banter. He is also known for his characteristic difficulty in pronouncing the sound 'r'.

Personal[link]

Ross was born in Camden, London, England on 17 November 1960, a son of British actress and radio presenter Martha Ross.^[5] He grew up in Leytonstone^[1] and is the brother of journalist, television editor, and media personality Paul Ross; TV producer/actor Miles Ross; TV producer Simon Ross, and music industry professional Adam Ross. He was educated at Norlington School for Boys, a comprehensive school at the same time as his elder brother Paul, and at Leyton County High School for Boys, a comprehensive school. He also attended Southampton College of Art, now known as Southampton Solent University. ^[6] He then studied Modern European History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University of London.^[7]

Ross with his wife Jane Goldman at the British Academy Television Awards 2009

Ross married author/journalist/broadcaster Jane Goldman, ten years his junior, in 1988, when Goldman was 18. They have since had three children: Betty Kitten (named after Bettie Page), Harvey Kirby (named after Jack Kirby, a comic book creator whom Ross especially admires), and Honey Kinney. The family lives in Hampstead Garden Suburb.^{[citation needed]}

Ross and others have used his rhotacism for comic effect and he is sometimes known as "Wossy,"^[8] including on his Twitter feed (@wossy).

Ross is known for owning exotic pets. He is a big music fan and the first band he saw live was punk rockers X-Ray Spex at Islington's Hope and Anchor pub in North London.^[9] He is a big fan of David Bowie, Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry, Queen (he was in the audience for Queen at Wembley), British punk rock, Spandau Ballet, Sparks, Star Trek, Doctor Who (his favourite Doctor was Jon Pertwee), and comic books. Ross has even co-owned a comic shop in London with Paul Gambaccini and released Turf, his first comic book, in 2010, with American artist Tommy Lee Edwards.^[10] He was also the visual inspiration for the main character in the comic book Saviour. Ross is also greatly interested in Japan, presenting a BBC-TV series on many different aspects of Japanese culture, Japanorama, for three series between 2002–07. He was a regular at London's Blitz club during the early 1980s (famous for the Blitz Kids). He is a fan of the singers Morrissey and George Michael.^{[citation needed]}

He is a friend of comedian Ricky Gervais and bought him a kitten after Gervais' previous cat, Colin, had died. The cat's name is Ollie and was presented to him on an episode of Ross' talk show Friday Night With Jonathan Ross.^[11] He was one of the special celebrity guests in the final episode of Gervais's second season of Extras, in which Gervais's character, Andy Millman, and Ross were shown to be the best of friends after a fictional appearance on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross.^[12]

He is also a close friend of author Neil Gaiman, and he and his wife appear in Gaiman's short story "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch", collected in Fragile Things.

In 2005, Ross was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.^[13] He celebrated the news by playing "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols on his Radio 2 show.^[14]

When interviewing Colin Farrell on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 19 February 2010, Ross claimed not to have consumed alcohol for ten years.

Ross has attended a fund raiser for the James Randi Educational Foundation called The Amazing Meeting in London in 2009 and 2010. Interviewed by Rebecca Watson, Ross described himself as a big fan of James Randi and the other speakers – who were mainly prominent sceptics – and said that he and his wife had come to have a sceptical view of the world.^[15] Ross has been supportive of Simon Singh's efforts to defend an accusation of libel by the British Chiropractic Association and Ross has posed for the Geek Calendar 2011, a fund raiser for the libel reform in the UK.^[16]

At a book signing event in Central London in September 2010, Ross stated that as a youngster he went to school in Leyton (Leyton Senior High School) and supports Leyton Orient F.C.^{[citation needed]}

On 6 June 2011, it was announced that Ross' beloved pug Mr Pickle had been killed in an accident on board a train while Ross was filming a new travelogue show for ITV.^[17] Mr Pickle was well known to both viewers and listeners of Ross' TV and radio shows.

Career[link]

Child actor[link]

Following the acting lead of his mother, who appeared as an extra on television shows such as East Enders, Ross appeared in television ads as a child actor. His first, for the breakfast cereal Kellogg's Rice Krispies, gave him his television debut in 1970, when he was 10 years old.^[18][19] He also appeared in an ad for the laundry detergent Persil.^[20]

Early career[link]

Ross began his adult career as a researcher on the Channel 4 show Loose Talk. After leaving this, he worked on various other shows before beginning another research job on Soul Train, which became Solid Soul. It is believed his first appearance on television was as an extra in the 1981 It Ain't Half Hot, Mum episode, The Last Roll Call.^[21]

Channel X: 1987–95[link]

Whilst on Solid Soul, he met fellow researcher Alan Marke, and the two devised what would prove to be a breakthrough hit for Ross in 1987, The Last Resort with Jonathan Ross.

The pair based their concept on the successful American show Late Night with David Letterman, and formed a new production company called Channel X, to produce a pilot. Ross was not originally slated as the show's host, but with little time to find one Jonathan Ross stepped in and made his debut on the show in January 1987.^[22]

While the series was initially a co-production with Colin Calendar, ownership transferred to Marke and Ross, meaning that the latter retained a great deal of control as well as being presenter.^[23] The show proved popular for both Ross and for Channel 4, making him one of the major personalities on the channel.

A year later, his documentary series The Incredibly Strange Film Show introduced many to the works of cult filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Jackie Chan.

In 1989, he co-presented the biennial BBC charity telethon Comic Relief, the same year he launched One Hour with Jonathan Ross a short lived chat show on Channel 4, most notable for the game show segment "Knock down ginger" which introduced comedians such as Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson to television.

In 1991, he presented the annual British Comedy Awards on ITV. He has presented the event each year since, but in 2008 announced he would be stepping down from the role following his suspension from the BBC.^[24] In 1992 he presented an interview with Madonna about her Erotica album and Sex Book promotion.

In 1993, he was the narrator for FIA Formula One 1993 Season Review video.

Ross has appeared in numerous television entertainment programmes on several channels throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He was a regular panellist on the sports quiz They Think It's All Over, and hosted the panel game It's Only TV...But I Like It. Other projects include the BBC joke-quiz Gagtag, the Channel 4 variety show Saturday Zoo, new-acts showcase The Big Big Talent Show, and the ITV programme Fantastic Facts.

In 1995 he left Channel X, despite its profitable nature. He was quoted in a 1998 article as stating:

It was to do with a deliberate change in my life, moving away from TV as the core of my existence to focus on my family more. So I had to give up everything to do with Channel X, and I literally got only £1 for my share, which was unbelievable.^[25]

Television 1995–2006[link]

In 1995 he presented Mondo Rosso, a programme about old cult films. He took over presenting of the Film programme, the BBC's long-running cinema review series, in 1999 after Barry Norman left the show. Ross himself has made a number of cameo appearances in films, playing himself in the Spice Girls' film Spice World (1997) and voicing the character of Doris in the UK version of Shrek 2 (2004). He also played himself in Only Fools and Horses, presenting Goldrush, a fictional television quiz on which the main character, Del, was a contestant. In 2001 he voiced characters in two episodes of the animated comedy series Rex the Runt. In the 30 October episode of Film 2006, Ross also claimed that he had appeared as an extra in the 1981 film 'The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin', as an Israeli soldier raiding Entebbe Airport.^{[citation needed]} He also appeared on the first pilot show for Shooting Stars, acting as a team captain.

BBC Radio: 1999–2010[link]

Ross began presenting a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2 in 1999. He has also presented radio shows for BBC Radio 1 and Virgin Radio (having previously worked on Richard Branson's earlier venture, Radio Radio), as well as the now-defunct commercial radio network service The Superstation, where his producer was Chris Evans.

From 23 May 2009, Ross' BBC Radio 2 show was pre-recorded 24 hours before broadcast.^[26] This decision was made to make the show more watertight and, according to the press, to make sure any of Ross's off-the-cuff comments might be edited out.^[27]

Ross' show on Radio 2 last aired on 17 July 2010 when his contract at the BBC ended.

[edit] Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: 2001–10

Ross with friend Ricky Gervais at Live 8 in July 2005

On 2 November 2001, Ross began presenting his chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

In 2005, Ross anchored the BBC television coverage of the Live 8 concerts. Later that year he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting. He celebrated the news by playing "God Save the Queen" by The Sex Pistols (which was banned by the BBC when released in 1977) on his BBC Radio 2 Saturday morning show. On 21 June 2006 Ross was made a Fellow of University College London, where he studied.

In early 2006, Ross announced that after eight years he was quitting his regular panellist seat on the sport/comedy quiz show They Think It's All Over, stating:

I’ve had a great time on They Think It's All Over, imparting my vast sporting knowledge to the nation, but I need time now to focus on my other commitments and so regrettably I won't be back for the 20th series. It's a fantastic show and from now on I'll be able to actually watch it.

However, after Ross's departure, only two more episodes of the show were made before it was cancelled.

In January 2006 he presented Jonathan Ross' Asian Invasion, broadcast on BBC Four. The three-part documentary followed Ross as he explored the film industry in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, interviewing directors and showcasing clips. His interest in Asian culture and his self confessed love for anime and video games led him to making three series of BBC Three show Japanorama, as well as producing another series for the same channel called Adam and Joe Go Tokyo, starring Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish. He produced the latter programme through his own production company Hot Sauce.

In June 2006, a bidding war was sparked between BBC and other broadcasters for Ross' services. Although other broadcasters were unsuccessful in poaching Ross, it is believed that their bids were higher than the BBC during negotiations. ITV, who bid for Ross, poached chat host Michael Parkinson around the same time. Ross became the highest paid television personality in Britain, when a new BBC contract secured his services until 2010, for a reported £18 million (£6 million per year).^[28]

On 25 June 2006, he performed at the Children's Party at the Palace for the Queen's 80th birthday. In August 2006, Ross was enlisted to ask the first question^[29] since the transition from beta for the Yahoo Answers in UK and Ireland. On 16 March 2007, Ross hosted Comic Relief 2007 alongside Fearne Cotton and Lenny Henry. On 7 July 2007 Ross presented at the Live Earth concert.

Starting on 10 September 2007 he presented the BBC Four series Comics Britannia, about the history of the British comic. This forms the core of a Comics Britannia season, which includes another documentary, In Search of Steve Ditko, by Ross.^[30]

In May 2008, Ross won the Sony Gold Award "Music Radio Personality of the Year".^[31]

On 3 August 2008, on BBC1, he hosted Jonathan Ross Salutes Dad's Army.

In 2010, Ross took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.

On 7 April 2010, Ross's first comic book was published. Turf was written by Jonathan himself and drawn by artist Tommy Lee Edwards.^[32] In 2011, Ross wrote an introduction for The Steve Ditko Omnibus Vol. 1,^[33] a collection of work by the American comics artist featured in Ross' 2007 documentary.

In one of his last appearances on the show, Ross was bundled on repeatedly by Gary Lineker, Ross Noble, Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett & Tinie Tempah, after a performance of Gorillaz' iconic song "Clint Eastwood" & "On Melancholy Hill".^{[citation needed]}

Leaving the BBC (2010)[link]

On 7 January 2010, Ross confirmed that he would leave the BBC in July 2010, having decided not to renegotiate his contract. This would see him leave all his regular BBC roles, namely his Friday night chat show, Radio 2 show and a film review programme, although he would be continuing with some specials, such as Comic Relief and the BAFTA Awards.^{[34][35][36][37]}

Explaining the decision, Ross said:

Although I have had a wonderful time working for the BBC, and am very proud of the shows I have made while there, over the last two weeks I have decided not to re-negotiate when my current contract comes to an end. While there, I have worked with some of the nicest and most talented people in the industry and had the opportunity to interview some of the biggest stars in the world, and am grateful to the BBC for such a marvellous experience. I would like to make it perfectly clear that no negotiations ever took place and that my decision is not financially motivated^[34]

The decision came a day after it was announced that Graham Norton had signed a two-year deal with the BBC, and the BBC's media correspondent Torin Douglas speculated Norton would be a ready-made replacement for Ross's chat show role, while Mark Kermode of BBC Radio 5 Live was a potential successor in the film review role, but that "replacing Ross on radio will be harder". ^[34] Ross last appeared on the film programme in Episode 10 of Film 2010 with Jonathan Ross aired on 17 March 2010. After Kermode publicly ruled himself out on 26 March, Claudia Winkleman was announced 30 March 2010 as his replacement as host of the Film programme, who was to host Film 2010 from September 2010.^[38][39]

Ross's final Friday Night chat show episode aired on 16 July 2010, with David Beckham, Jackie Chan, Mickey Rourke, and Roxy Music as guests. Ross ended the show with an affectionate tribute to his guests and to the audience, while mentioning that he had promised his friend Morrissey that he would remain composed and "wouldn't cry". His final Radio 2 show was broadcast the following day. Patrick Kielty initially took over Ross' Radio 2 slot from 24 July 2010 after which Graham Norton took over permanently.

2010 onwards (ITV and Cinemoi)[link]

On 14 December 2010, Jonathan Ross announced his creative partnership with CineMoi, the UK's first and only independent French film channel. His deal with the company gives him a multi-faceted role as presenter, producer, creative director and shareholder in the company. A life long cinephile Ross has a unique perspective on French film and hopes to encourage 'first-timers' to explore a world of film that differs slightly from that of the regular Hollywood fare.

On 19 December 2010, Ross presented a three hour Channel 4 list show, 100 Greatest Toys, with the broadcaster describing Ross as a "huge toy enthusiast with a private collection that would rival any museum's."^[40][41]

In 2011, he presented Penn & Teller: Fool Us on ITV, a collaboration with magicians Penn & Teller.

Ross's new chat show The Jonathan Ross Show began on 3 September 2011 on ITV1,^[42] drawing an audience of 4.3m viewers, compared to the 4.6m for his finale on the BBC show.^[43] The first series will run for thirteen weeks. Speaking about the new show, Ross said: "I am thrilled and excited that after a short break I will be rolling up my sleeves and creating a brand new show for ITV1."^[44] Ross will also host a panel show from 2012 called Trending Topics also for ITV. The show will involve the social-network site Twitter. In Spring 2012, Ross appeared in the ITV panel show Mad Mad World.

Ross is currently planning to film a television piece with Lucha Britania. [45]

Controversies[link]

BBC contract[link]

In April 2006, Ross, along with other BBC personalities, had details of his fees leaked to the tabloid press.^[46] It was claimed at the time, by a then-unidentified BBC mole, that Ross earned £530,000 (equivalent to £10,000 per show) per year for hosting his Radio 2 show.^[47] While refusing to comment specifically on the leak in line with BBC policy on the matter, Ross did hint during his radio show that the figure was exaggerated; in addition to this, any pay highlighted as being "his" would actually be split between himself and his producer/co-presenter on the show, Andy Davies.

David Cameron interview[link]

In June 2006, when Conservative Party leader David Cameron appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Ross began a line of questioning relating to Conservative ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, culminating in the question "Did you or did you not have a wank thinking of Margaret Thatcher?". Ross was defended by the BBC publicly, but repeat showings of the interview have been banned.^[48]

Heather Mills comment[link]

In 2006, Ross was criticised when he made a joke against Heather Mills, soon after she and Paul McCartney announced they were to divorce. He branded Mills, who has only one leg, a "fucking liar" and that he "wouldn't be surprised if we found out she's actually got two legs".^[49]

"1,000 journalists" comment[link]

On 5 December 2007, Ross joked at the British Comedy Awards that his salary meant that he was "apparently worth 1,000 BBC journalists". His quip came shortly after the BBC had announced plans for more than 2,000 jobs cuts, and was condemned as "obscene" by the general secretary of the National Union of Journalists.^[50] Ross has denied this saying that he was commenting on a piece that was written in a newspaper about his salary being that of 1,000 journalists:

"You know where that came from? The newspapers. After the fee was announced, they said, 'The BBC says he's worth 1,000 journalists', so on the Comedy Awards I made a joke that began, 'Apparently I'm worth 1,000 journalists according to the newspapers.' Every time it's quoted, is the word 'apparently' ever used? Which does change the meaning somewhat."^[51]

The Russell Brand Show and Andrew Sachs[link]

Following a guest appearance by Ross on The Russell Brand Show broadcast on 18 October 2008, Ross was suspended for 12 weeks without pay by the BBC on 29 October, after a series of answer phone messages were left for 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs regarding Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie, by Russell Brand and Ross, which were broadcast on the pre-recorded show.^[52] After little initial interest, a media story about the calls generated a high number of complaints. Brand resigned from the BBC, while Ross was suspended without pay. BBC director general Mark Thompson stated that Ross should take the disciplinary action as a "final warning".^[53][54] The BBC was later fined £150,000 by Britain's broadcast regulator for airing the calls.^[55]

On 21 November 2008, the BBC Trust said that the phone calls were a "deplorable intrusion with no editorial justification".^[56] The trust gave its backing to Ross's 12 week suspension but recommended that no further action be taken against him. He returned to work in January, and the first episode of a new series of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross with guests Tom Cruise, Stephen Fry and Lee Evans, and music from Franz Ferdinand, was broadcast on 23 January 2009.

Gwyneth Paltrow interview[link]

The BBC Trust ruled that Ross’s interview with Gwyneth Paltrow, broadcast on 2 May 2008, breached editorial guidelines. They ruled that bad language in an episode of Ross's pre-recorded BBC1 chat show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in which the presenter told Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow he "would fuck her" was "gratuitous and unnecessarily offensive". The trust said it disagreed with the judgement made by BBC management that the episode should be broadcast uncensored, adding that the comment was made in an "overly sexual way" and that it had upheld a number of complaints made about the edition of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.^[57] The trust reminded BBC staff that "the casual gratuitous use of the most offensive language is not acceptable on the BBC in accordance with the BBC's existing guidelines and practices", adding that "this particularly applies in entertainment programmes".^[58]

[edit] Hannah Montana comment

On 13 May 2009, Ross was accused of homophobia after a comment he made on his radio show,^[59] in which he said,

If your son asks for a Hannah Montana MP3 player, then you might want to already think about putting him down for adoption in later life, when they settle down with their partner.^[60]

An incorrect version of this quote was also circulated, in which Ross was accused of saying:

If your son asks for a Hannah Montana MP3 player, you might want to already think about putting him down for adoption before he brings his … erm … partner home.^[61]

Ofcom received 61 complaints following the comment. A representative from the BBC defended Ross, saying the comment was made "purely in jest" and that "Jonathan is not homophobic in any sense and never meant for his comments to be taken seriously."^[62] On 7 July 2009, Ofcom ruled that Ross did not breach the broadcasting code. They wrote in their opinion that "the comment was clearly presented as a joke intended to make light of the reactions that some parents may have if their child chooses a toy that is very widely recognised to be designed and marketed for the opposite sex" and that the nature of the joke and tone and manner in which it was presented "made clear that it was not intended to be hostile or pejorative towards the gay community in general."^[60] Stonewall criticised the ruling; saying "the fact that a comment is light-hearted does not absolve it from perpetuating the stereotypes that lead to homophobic bullying."^[63]

Video games[link]

Honours and awards[link]

• 2006, made a Fellow of University College, London (UCL), into which his alma mater, SSEES, had been absorbed.^[64]

• 2012, Special Recognition award at the National Television Awards.

References[link]