Hat Trick Productions

He began his life in comedy as a performer and writer, but success in front of the camera clearly wasn't enough.

His production company, Hattrick, has turned out more hits than is, frankly, decent.

Have I Got News For You, Room 101, Drop The Dead Donkey, Father Ted and Outnumbered are just a handful of its brilliant creations.

He says he sees his job as identifying the maniacs behind the next big show and his skill in managing unpredictability has doubtless come in useful away from the studio too.

They want to do things and say something difficult.

If I went to work thinking I need to work with spiritually balanced people all the time, I wouldn't make any television programmes.

And what about not performing yourself, given that you can do it and you've proved you could do it and you had a perfectly successful career before going into production and starting up Hattrick? Do you ever feel, oh, I'll do it myself, I'll be better than you are?

No, I don't.

So those are two separate bids from what I've read.

So you've got Mikiro, Hattrick as one.

Then you've also got Line of Duty's producers, World Productions as another, which is owned by ITV.

The other one, which is also absolutely bonkers, is STV, which is...

Radio Times have done it in their clickbait section a lot, and it's been on various newspapers and stuff.

But the ones that seem to be getting spoke about quite a lot, you've got Hattrick and Jed Mercurio.

Now, Hattrick are the ones who do comedy stuff normally.

They do Have I Got News For You.

Yeah.

It's incredible

... you talking about being a drama, 'cause when I watched it, and I was in the office at Hat Trick and we were discussing it, and I said, "But it's a drama."

It is a drama.

It's actually, it's a hybrid.

Good luck with future commissions you haven't made, uh, preferably from expectation.

Um-

And, and Hat Trick now again.

And Hat Trick.

Mm-hmm

... um, which is an arm of Hat Trick Productions.

Um-

You're gonna have to talk to me as if I don't know any of these.