40 Fun Facts About Jack Dee

Before turning to comedy, Jack Dee tried in his twenties to enter which profession?

Priest was the calling Jack Dee explored in his twenties, going to church before he realised the life was not for him. He had wanted drama college until his mother urged him to learn a trade.

The first Celebrity Big Brother, won by Jack Dee in 2001, raised money for which charity?

Comic Relief was the beneficiary, and the final went out live on Red Nose Day itself. Dee disliked how housemates were treated and has refused to let clips of his stay be shown again.

What was Jack Dee's job when he met his future wife in Fulham in 1986, before his comedy career?

Waiter was his trade for years, including a spell at a grand London hotel. His wife-to-be was a receptionist at a hotel nearby, and they married three years later.

Which beer brand's TV adverts starred Jack Dee from 1992 to 1997, making him a household name?

John Smith's replaced Dee with a cardboard cut-out after he left the campaign, then turned to another comedian, Peter Kay, in 2002.

Jack Dee became host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue in 2009, succeeding which late jazz bandleader?

Humphrey Lyttelton chaired the show from 1972 until his death in 2008, and many doubted it could carry on without him. Dee first shared a trial run with two other hosts.

Which twelve-episode 1970s comedy did Jack Dee champion in the BBC's poll Britain's Best Sitcom?

Fawlty Towers got an hour-long film from Dee, who gave viewers twenty reasons to vote for it. Only two series of six episodes were ever made.

On which game show did Jack Dee finish runner-up to Andy Zaltzman over ten episodes in 2024?

Taskmaster pitted Dee against Rosie Jones, Emma Sidi and Babatunde Aléshé as well as Zaltzman in its eighteenth series, with Greg Davies judging their efforts.

At which London club did Jack Dee perform his first stand-up set after finishing work one evening?

The Comedy Store gave Dee his start, and by 1991 he had been named Best Stage Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards. A television series of his own followed within months.

Which BBC panel show, without a permanent host since 2002, has Jack Dee guest-presented many times?

Have I Got News for You turned to a different guest presenter each week after Angus Deayton was sacked, and its audience grew. Dee became one of the regular stand-ins.

As host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Jack Dee oversees which game named after a Tube station?

Mornington Crescent has no real rules: panellists name stations and argue over invented strategy until somebody says the winning name. The earnest debate is the whole joke.

Which presenter hosted the live eviction shows of the first Celebrity Big Brother, won by Jack Dee?

Davina McCall interviewed each evicted housemate live, and the whole contest was over in eight days. Only six celebrities took part, far fewer than in later series.

Which station airs I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the long-running panel game chaired by Jack Dee?

BBC Radio 4 has carried the show since it launched in 1972 as a parody of panel games. Two teams of two comedians are set absurd challenges by the chairman.

When Jack Dee became a Shooting Stars captain in 2008, which original captain led the opposing team?

Ulrika Jonsson had captained a team since the first series in 1995. One recurring sketch in the revived series had the hosts try to cheer Dee up by playing him a song on drain pipes.

Which double act hosted Shooting Stars, the surreal panel show where Jack Dee was a team captain?

Reeves and Mortimer, better known as Vic and Bob, ignore the rules or invent new ones as the mood takes them, so the scoring is largely arbitrary.

Which comedian created the flat-share sitcom in which Jack Dee played eccentric landlord Geoff?

Josh Widdicombe named the sitcom after himself and starred as a struggling stand-up sharing a flat near Holloway Road in north London. It ran for three series.

The BBC stand-up show Jack Dee Live at the Apollo was filmed at a theatre in which London district?

Hammersmith is home to the Apollo, where Dee hosted the first two series before the show dropped his name from its title. It earned him a BAFTA nomination in 2006.

Jack Dee guest-starred in which BBC mystery about a designer of magic tricks who solves crimes?

Jonathan Creek often cast comedians in serious parts, and Dee appeared in 2003 as Dudley Houseman. Rik Mayall and Bob Monkhouse were among the other comics given straight roles.

What is the name of the bitter stand-up comedian Jack Dee plays in his sitcom Lead Balloon?

Rick Spleen was based on the comedians who hated being comedians that Dee met in his early years on the circuit. The character scrapes a living hosting corporate award nights.

Jack Dee's sitcom Lead Balloon was widely called Britain's answer to which HBO comedy?

Curb Your Enthusiasm was the comparison from the day the series was commissioned, though Dee also named Seinfeld and the early films of Woody Allen as influences on its tone.

For charity in 2013, Jack Dee joined five celebrities canoeing rapids on which African river?

Zambezi rapids tested a team that also included Dara Ó Briain and Melanie C. Between them the six paddlers raised more than £1 million.

Jack Dee was born in Bromley but moved as a child to which cathedral city, where he went to school?

Winchester later honoured him: its university gave Dee an honorary degree in 2009 for his contribution to comedy, drama and the performing arts.

Jack Dee, born in Bromley in 1961, was given which first name at birth?

James Andrew Innes Dee is his full name, with Innes taken from his grandmother's side. Both of his mother's parents were repertory actors.

Which fictional scorer is said to sit beside chairman Jack Dee on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue?

Samantha was named after the model Samantha Fox, and early listeners complained about her treatment before realising she was invented. An empty seat with a microphone is kept for her.

Jack Dee shared a 2009 trial hosting I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue with Stephen Fry and which comedian?

Rob Brydon, Fry and Dee each recorded two shows that summer, and Dee was then handed the whole of the next series. The job became his permanently.

Which comedian plays Nicky, the wife of Jack Dee's character, in the countryside sitcom Bad Move?

Kerry Godliman and Dee play a couple who swap Leeds for a rural cottage, only to find it sits in a dip that the internet cannot reach but floodwater can.

Which comedian took over The Apprentice: You're Fired! after Jack Dee's single series as host?

Rhod Gilbert stayed until 2019, whereas Dee left after one run because of commitments to other comedies and a radio show.

Jack Dee made his 1998 stage debut in 'Art', a play about three friends arguing over what purchase?

A white painting, bought by Serge for a small fortune, sets the friends against each other in Yasmina Reza's comedy. Dee played Yvan, then returned as Serge for a 13-week run.

What is the title of Jack Dee's 2009 memoir, which ends with his very first stand-up performance?

Thanks for Nothing stops about 25 years before it was written, because Dee wanted to tell only the story of how he got into comedy. He also narrates the audiobook.

Jack Dee starred in Power Monkeys, a 2016 comedy written hours before broadcast to track which vote?

The EU referendum campaign supplied the plot, and episodes were written and produced within hours of transmission so that characters could react to that week's real events.

Jack Dee co-hosted Comic Aid in 2005, a one-off comedy gala raising money after which disaster?

The Asian tsunami of December 2004 brought comedians together for a single night to raise money for the appeal, with Dee as one of the hosts.

Jack Dee beat which Brookside actress in the final public vote of the first Celebrity Big Brother?

Claire Sweeney finished runner-up and was playing Roxie Hart in Chicago in the West End later that year. In the final, viewers voted for a winner instead of an eviction.

In Jack Dee's sitcom Lead Balloon, what job does the morose Eastern European character Magda do?

Housekeeper Magda, played by Anna Crilly, is baffled by British softness and endures her employer's selfishness in sullen silence.

Lead Balloon, Jack Dee's sitcom, broke which channel's comedy ratings record with its first episode?

BBC Four drew 383,000 viewers for the opener, a record for a comedy on the channel. Repeats on BBC Two then reached more than two million, and later series were made for BBC Two.

Which singer performs the Noel Gallagher song used as the theme tune of Jack Dee's Lead Balloon?

Paul Weller sings a cover of One Way Road over the titles. Scenes in the sitcom are separated by shots of someone jotting ideas for comedy material on a writing pad.

Jack Dee was shortlisted for the 1991 Perrier Award at Edinburgh but lost to which comedian?

Frank Skinner took the prize at the Pleasance, beating a shortlist that also included Eddie Izzard. Dee still ended the year with a British Comedy Award.

What is the name of the production company Jack Dee co-founded in 1991 with agent Addison Cresswell?

Open Mike Productions made Dee's own sitcom Lead Balloon and went on to produce Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Alan Carr: Chatty Man.

Jack Dee set a lap of 1:53.5 on Top Gear in 2005 driving which reasonably priced car?

Suzuki Liana was the test car for the show's first seven series and took plenty of abuse. A wheel once fell off it while Lionel Richie was driving.

Which pianist is the butt of the chairman's jokes on Jack Dee's show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue?

Colin Sell is in reality an accomplished musician, which is the point of the insults about his playing. Guest pianists step in when he cannot attend a recording.

Which novelist did Jack Dee replace as a team captain on Shooting Stars in 2008?

Will Self had taken the seat in 2002 from the original captain Mark Lamarr, who felt he was appearing on too many quiz shows at once.

Which entertainer became PE teacher Doug Digby after Jack Dee played him in The Grimleys pilot?

Brian Conley played the sadistic teacher, who lives in a corner of the school gym, until the character was killed off in a gym accident in the third series.