logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2023
36m 57s

Robert Webb, comedian

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Robert Webb first reached a wide audience as the co-star of Channel 4’s longest running sitcom, the BAFTA-award winning Peep Show. With his long-standing comedy partner David Mitchell, he also created That Mitchell and Webb Sound for BBC Radio 4, which transferred to TV as That Mitchell and Webb Look, which also won a BAFTA.

Robert was born in Lincolnshire and first became hooked on comedy when his impressions of teachers made his school friends laugh. After realising that many of his comedy heroes had studied at Cambridge University, and were members of the Cambridge Footlights, he decided to follow in their footsteps. He took his A levels twice in order to win a place to study English there, and went on to become vice-president of the Footlights - where he met David Mitchell. Their comedy partnership has lasted for 30 years, starting out with shows for the Edinburgh fringe and writing for other performers, before enjoying TV success as a double act.

Robert has also written a best-selling memoir, How Not to be a Boy, in which he reflects on masculinity, and a novel. In 2019, a routine medical examination revealed that he had a congenital heart defect. He underwent heart surgery and is now fully recovered.

Robert lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

DISC ONE: Do I Move You? - Nina Simone DISC TWO: The Old Fashioned Way - Charles Aznavour DISC THREE: Fool if you Think It’s Over - Elkie Brooks DISC FOUR: Get A Life - Soul II Soul DISC FIVE: Metal Mickey - Suede DISC SIX: Being Alive, composed by Stephen Sondheim, performed by Adrian Lester and cast of Company and recorded in 1996 at Donmar Warehouse, London DISC SEVEN: How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead DISC EIGHT: It’s Corn - Tariq, The Gregory Brothers & Recess Therapy

BOOK CHOICE: Cultural Amnesia by Clive James LUXURY ITEM: A top hat and tails CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Old Fashioned Way - Charles Aznavour

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Up next
Aug 23
Monica Dolan, actor
Monica Dolan is a BAFTA and Olivier award winning actor. She is equally at home playing a wrongfully accused postmistress in Mr Bates Vs the Post Office as she is playing the serial killer Rosemary West. Alongside her many roles in TV, stage and screen, Monica has also written an ... Show More
50m 58s
Aug 16
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Gustavo Dudamel is a Venezuelan conductor, violinist and composer. He is known for bringing humour and joy to the podium. He is currently director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and in 2026 will take up the post of music director of the N ... Show More
51m 19s
Aug 10
Ash Atalla, producer
Ash Atalla is a television producer whose first hit was the BBC sitcom The Office, starring Ricky Gervais. He followed it up with the IT Crowd, People Just Do Nothing, Big Boys and Stath Lets Flats. His haul of awards from these programmes include six BAFTAs, four Royal Televisio ... Show More
50m 3s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2009
David Mitchell
Kirsty Young's castaway is comedian David Mitchell. Mitchell has won two Bafta awards and, as a sitcom actor, sketch show writer and humorous columnist, has never been in greater demand.But as a child, Mitchell was sure he wasn't funny and it was only when he was at university, h ... Show More
35m 29s
Feb 2019
Can You Ever Forgive Me? You Know You Want This, Cost of Living, A Place That Exists Only in Moonlight, Eating With My Ex
In Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling biographer of celebrities such as Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. In the early 1990s - when she was in her early 50s - Lee found herself unable ... Show More
52m 2s
Aug 2023
Welsh Fleabag, Social media and comedy in Edinburgh; Moon Palace in Leeds
A new Welsh version of the comedy hit Fleabag is about to premiere at the National Eisteddfod in Boduan. Branwen Davies’ adaptation of the one-woman show for Theatr Clywd has been given the thumb’s up by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who wrote and starred in the original version ten year ... Show More
42m 20s
Mar 2020
The Nest, The Truth, The Bass Rock, Cranach at Compton Verney and Home Entertainment Recommendations
The Nest is the new Sunday night drama on BBC1 that raises questions around the ethics of surrogacy as a wealthy couple invite a young woman whose past is not known to them into their lives. The Truth is a French/Japanese production directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda who won the Palme ... Show More
46m 17s
Oct 2019
Alexei Leonov, Sally Soames, Kary Mullis, Reg Watson
Pictured: Alexei Leonov Matthew Bannister on The Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov who was the first person to walk in space. Sally Soames, the photographer who made portraits of many leading politicians and celebrities as well as working in war zones. Her niece Claudia Winkleman an ... Show More
27m 57s
Nov 2021
Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr joins Richard Coles and Nikki Bedi. After deciding to pursue a comedy career in his mid-twenties Jimmy has now toured the world as a stand up and is a household name thanks to programmes such as Channel 4’s 8 out of 10 Cats. Jimmy talks about the power of laughter and ... Show More
1h 23m
Aug 2020
Hannah Gadsby on comedy, free speech, and living with autism
Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby became a global star with her Netflix special Nanette. It’s a remarkable piece of work, and it does what great art is supposed to do: Give you a sense, however fleeting, of what it is like to live inside another human’s experience. Gadsby’s new s ... Show More
1h 33m
Jan 2019
Mary Queen of Scots, Approaching Empty, Leila Slimani, Fausto Melotti, Ride Upon The Storm
A new film telling the story of Mary Queen of Scots and her relationship with Elizabeth I, stars Saiorse Ronan and Margot Robbie as the 2 queens Approaching Empty is a new play by Ishy Din just opened at The Kiln Theatre in London. Set in a run-down minicab office in the north of ... Show More
50m 9s
Oct 2022
21/10/2022
Andrea Catherwood explores True Crime on Radio 4 in discussion with Winifred Robinson, the presenter of The Boy in The Woods, and commissioning editor Dan Clarke. As celebrations continue for the BBC's 100th anniversary, licence fee payers air their views on its future. Also, lis ... Show More
27m 44s