John Bishop to host the Royal Variety Performance

By Patrick McLennan
( What's on TV )
published

(Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

John Bishop will host this year's Royal Variety Performance.

Gary Barlow, the cast of the hit West End musical Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Olly Murs, Dame Edna Everage and Britain's Got Talent winners Attraction are all on this year's bill.

Comic and actor John, 46, said: "As a child, the Royal Variety Show was like the Grand National and the FA cup final - it was something our family always watched (the only difference being that we didn't bet on the winner).

"To host a show with such heritage is something I never imagined I would do and I trust my parents will be proud when they take their seats in the audience, although I have told my dad not to shout 'come on son'... It's not a match or a horse race!"

David Walliams hosted last year's 100th anniversary show in front of the Queen at London's Royal Albert Hall.

This year's performance, staged in aid of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund, takes place on November 25 at the London Palladium and will be screened on ITV in December.

Patrick McLennan
Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.