RORY MCGRATH

Rory was brought up in Cornwall and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was firmly bitten by the showbiz bug. Like scores of today's top comedy performers, he was a member of the famous Footlights dramatic club, writing and starring in several revues during the late 1970s. His co-conspirators at this prestigious finishing school for comics included Douglas Adams, Griff Rhys Jones, Jimmy Mulville and Clive Anderson.

The contacts and experience Rory gained during his Footlights years stood him in good stead. By the early 1980s, Rory was writing for his old mate Griff Rhys Jones's show, Alas Smith and Jones. It wasn't long before Rory got work in front of the camera, too. In 1983, he starred alongside Jimmy Mulville and Philip Pope in Who Dares, Wins... a satirical sketch show on Britain's new ''alternative'' TV station, Channel 4. The trio stayed together for a critically acclaimed comedy series set in Roman Britain, Chelmsford 123. Rory's trademark scruffy hair and beard made him the obvious choice for the part of Badvoc, a sour-tempered, rabble-rousing Celt.

Rory's best-known for his long-running stint as a regular panellist on They Think It's All Over.

Although he's best known as a comedian, Rory has a serious side too. He has presented the Channel 4 viewers' forum, Right to Reply, and fronted The Holiday Show. He's fascinated by history - the gorier the better - and jumped at the chance to present Bloody Britain, a series examining the darker side of this country's past. More recently, Rory has been entertaining us on Grumpy Old Men, venting his spleen about a world gone mad. Well, mad according to him, anyway.