The Presenters
Jo Brand is – most famously – a stand-up comedian. However, she is also the author of three novels: Sorting Out Billy (2005), It’s Different for Girls (2006) and The More you Ignore Me (2009). She also writes for television.
She began her working life as a psychiatric nurse. This has been put to good use in her TV series for BBC 4, Getting On, that aired in July 2009 and has just been commissioned for a second series. It’s a satirical drama about life on a geriatric ward that Brand co-wrote and starred in. Her list of TV work also includes her own shows – Jo Brand’s Hot Potatoes and the hugely successful Through the Cakehole. She has appeared on QI, Have I got News for You and many more. Jo has also done her bit for Comic Relief; she appeared in Comic Relief does Fame Academy, Comic Relief does the Apprentice and Let’s Dance for Comic Relief.
Jo’s autobiography Look Back in Hunger (October 2009) was an immediate bestseller.
Dave Spikey is a multi-award winning comedian, writer and actor. In 1996, Dave met his long-term comedy partner Peter Kay, who he went on to collaborate with extensively.
They wrote the hugely successful That Peter Kay Thing for Channel 4, which won ‘Best New TV Comedy’ at the British Comedy Awards in 2000. The pair then went on to write, and star in, the massive cult hit TV show Phoenix Nights.
Dave was a team captain alongside Jimmy Carr and Sean Lock on Channel 4’s hugely popular panel show 8 Out of 10 Cats. He also joined Angus Deaton and David Mitchell on BBC 1’s improvised panel show Would I Lie To You?
In 2009 Dave began touring with his ‘The Best Medicine’ Tour. While on tour Dave wrote a book called He Took My Kidney, Then Broke My Heart! which was based on local news stories he had encountered.
Gok Wan is the nation’s favourite fashion guru, best known for his hugely popular TV series How To Look Good Naked and Gok’s Fashion Fix. In the short time that Gok has been on our screens he has hosted five television series, written two books and launched his own range of underwear.
Gok worked as an on-screen fashion consultant for television shows including GMTV, Big Brother’s Little Brother, The Xtra Factor and T4 before being approached in 2006 by Channel 4 to present his very own show - How to Look Good Naked. He has since gone on to make two series of his show Gok’s Fashion Fix.
In January 2009, he presented a Channel 4 documentary entitled Too Fat, Too Young, which examined childhood obesity. Gok grew up with weight issues himself, so this was a particularly personal exploration for him.
Gok has also contributed to Tatler and Marie Claire.
Nathaniel Parker has had a hugely successful TV and film career ranging from Disney to Dickens.
Nathaniel’s film career has seen him star in Hamlet, The Bodyguard (with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston), Wide Sargasso Sea, and Disney’s The Haunted House with Eddie Murphy. Other successful film roles include Stardust with Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro, and Flawless with Michael Caine.
His many television appearances include Joanna Trollope’s A Village Affair, Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd and The Private Life of Samuel Pepys. He played Inspector Lynley in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and, recently, Lord Lawrence Hoxley in BBC’s Land Girls. He also played the role of Harold Skimpole in the critically acclaimed version of Charles Dickens’s Bleak House. At the end of 2009 Nathaniel filmed an episode of Lewis and starred in the Christmas special of My Family
Laila Rouass is a British actress best known for her role as Amber Gates in the TV drama series Footballers Wives.
She has starred in successful TV dramas including Primeval, Casualty, Hollyoaks, Meet the Magoons, Family Affairs and many others. She has also appeared in several films including The Four Feathers (2002) alongside Heath Ledger and Kate Hudson, and Apron Strings, which was an independent New Zealand production selected for the Toronto Film Festival.
Laila appeared in the last series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing, impressing the judges and making it to the quarter-finals.
