Roisin Conaty

Interview: Roisin Conaty (Link expired)

Roisin Conaty thinks TV is behind the curve on funny women, writes Jay Richardson.

Video: 'Dreams made, hearts broken' at Fringe

Edinburgh's annual Festival Fringe begins in August, showcasing hundreds of comedians and other artists for three weeks at venues around the Scottish capital.

Comedians Russell Kane and Roisin Conaty, who both won awards at last year's Fringe, joined BBC Breakfast to talk about the pitfalls of performing at the world's largest arts festival.

Familiar to many as the teacher who towers over the wretches of The Inbetweeners and bears an uncanny resemblance to Rik Mayall, Greg Davies returns to his native Shropshire. He takes an easy but effective pot shot at local newspaper headlines, does an extended routine about nicknames which will strike a chord with anyone who spent their teens at an all-boys school, and triumphs with an extended rant about owl cunnilingus. Guests are Roisin Conaty and Tom Deacon, who is good on the female tendency to clamber into pyjamas the moment they get home from work.

Greg Davies is probably best known to viewers as the fuming, frothing sixth-form teacher in The Inbetweeners, but he proves just as entertaining (and excitable) telling his own gags. This final stand-up session - it's Dave's answer to Live at the Apollo - takes place at the Severn Theatre in Davies' home town of Shrewsbury, and Davies drags a mortified old schoolmate out of the audience to make his point that, for him, puberty was evidently as dull, humiliating and rib-tickling as it is portrayed in the teen sitcom. Davies is even funnier on the woes of reaching middle age as, fortunately for us, he isn't too old to stop making silly faces and creepy voices. Also performing are hotly tipped newcomer Tom Deacon who describes the trials and tribulations of moving in with your girlfriend and her "comfies"; and less lucky in love, if equally witty, Roisin Conaty on living with her nan.

Only something special could nudge Victoria Wood out of stand-up exile, and this gig in aid of the British Heart Foundation is certainly a very good reason indeed. It may be a decade since she's performed as a stand-up, but you'd never guess, and she's as sharp as ever. For the other ladies on the bill, who include Jo Brand, Julia Davis, Katy Brand,
Isy Suttie, and Roisin Conaty, she's still quite an inspiration.

Roisin Conaty Interview

One of the acts in Victoria Wood's Angina Monologues, Roisin Conaty won the Foster's Comedy Award for Best Newcomer this year in Edinburgh. She spoke to us about what it's like to work with Victoria...

Roisin Conaty interview

A chat with Roisin Conaty...