Rob Brydon

Rob Brydon's best roles

As he gets set to return to his debut stage role as a "one man disaster zone" with a death wish - we look at some other roles we'd love to see Rob Brydon in.

Rob Brydon open to more of The Trip

"It could return in a few years". Rob Brydon is up for making another series of The Trip.

Major comic stars appear for Organ Care Systems gig

A cast including Rowan Atkinson, Clive Anderson, Harry Enfield, Angus Deayton, Rob Brydon and many others will appear in '100 Hearts' at LSO St Luke's, London on February 10 to raise money for pre-transplant Organ Care Systems. John Lloyd of QI and The Museum of Curiosity will then hold a conversation with Andre Simon, Harefield's charismatic Director of Transplants, who will demonstrate the "heart in a box" Organ Care System in situ.

Radio Times review

"I find nothing more relaxing than making scented candles," is the claim Adrian Chiles reads from his card to start the show. It's a splendid image - the football presenter dabbling with hot wax and perfume - and even better, it kicks off a heated dispute about what exactly candlestickmakers sell, which gets Lee Mack, Rob Brydon and David Mitchell barking at each other in a surreal shouting match.

Otherwise it's an episode held together by Mack's artful embroidery - right up to the point where guest June Brown almost collapses the whole format by replying in an exasperated tone, when asked if she thinks a story is true, "I don't see why it's so important!"

Radio Times review

Could such a gimmicky, conceptual comedy survive in a second series overseas? Yes. If anything, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's more expansive return as "Steve Coogan" and "Rob Brydon" was better, with the scenery and restaurants even lusher, and a more solid but still lightly sketched story adding unlikely new pathos to the theme of vain, over-analytical divas suffering a rarified midlife crisis. And those pinging comic riffs over lunch were just as dazzling. A luxury bitter chocolate of a show.

Not every Christmas special needs a change of scene. Would I Lie To You? at Christmas was much like any other episode of the show, save for a few snowflake decorations, yet it still felt festive. It's at Christmas that this cosy parlour game comes into its own. Something else that hadn't changed was the gender imbalance. It's not unusual for a panel show, of course, but the fact that WILTY? can muster only one woman out of seven participants is still a shocker.

Judged by any other standard, however, this was a strong line-up. On Lee Mack's team, the lone woman, Countdown's co-presenter Rachel Riley, got in a good yarn about a cake-baking super-fan and David Mitchell's team, featuring actor Ray Winstone and The Last Leg's Josh Widdicombe, was balanced in other ways. "It looks like Ray's on charge for something, Dave is his flustered barrister and Josh is the child they're fighting for custody over," commented host Rob Brydon.

Winstone proved himself a formidable fibber, but the most spurious story of all came from Lee Mack: "I can write so well with my foot that to save time writing Christmas cards I simultaneously write one card with my hand and one card with my foot." Naturally, a demonstration was in order.

Best TV of 2014: No 5 - The Trip to Italy

Was the Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon vehicle a travelogue, a comedy, a food show, scripted reality, or something else entirely? Or was it simply as good as television gets?

Radio Times review

Occasionally you have to wonder at WILTY?'s booking process. I mean, if you were searching for a quick-witted guest with a sharp sense of humour, would you immediately come up with the name of bushcraft expert Ray Mears? In fact he acquits himself very well, especially considering he's sitting alongside fiercely comic guests such as Jo Brand. She comes up with a ridiculous story about hitch-hiking down to the coast on Christmas Day that could be the basis of a Tarantino film as well as one about squeezing through an ex-boyfriend's dog flap. Both will make you cry with laughter.

Once again the best exchanges are between the peerless Lee Mack and David Mitchell. Carried away with his tale about a fox (illustrated beautifully by Rob Brydon doing an impersonation of Basil Brush), Lee says something that David pounces on with almost Poirot-like powers of deduction. It's very impressive.

Make the most of tonight's edition as WILTY? is taking a break for a few weeks.

The Beeb's decision to run Would I Lie To You? directly before HIGNFY is a particularly cruel piece of scheduling. The former show, thanks to team captains Lee Mack and David Mitchell and host Rob Brydon, is as sharp as a tack and laugh out loud; messrs Hislop and Merton's effort, by contrast, now looks creaking and dated.