Winners and finalists

Originally run from 1995 to 2006, the competition for acts who haven’t been on the circuit for more than three years was revived in 2011 for Radio 4 Extra, which broadcast the heats, and Radio 4, which broadcast the final live from the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2021 the competition returned to TV, with the heats streamed on iPlayer and the final given a late-night BBC One slot. The winners and finalists have been:

1995

Winner: Julian Barratt
Finalists: Daniel Kitson, Silky, Lee Mack, Ambrose Martose, Viv Gee, Jeff Mirza

1996

Winner: Marcus Brigstocke
Finalists: Jenny Ross, Chris Addison, Alan Doyle, Addy Van Der Borgh, Neil Bromley, Marian Kilpatrick, Bob May

1997

Winner: Paul Foot
Finalists:   Bennett Arron, Justin Lee Collins, Craig Crookston, Neil Anthony, Gareth Hughes, Peter Kay, Deirdre O'Kane

1998

Winner:   Dan Antopolski
Finalists:  Mary Bourke, Tony Coffey, Rhodri Crooks, Danny Oakes, Dan Tetsell, Helen Pilcher, Caroline Quinlan

1999

Winner: Josie Long
Finalists:   David O'Doherty, Marc Small, Matthew Walters, Scott Pragnall, Colin Ward, Steve Harris

2000

Winner:   Jason John Whitehead
Finalists: Anthony J  Brown, Angie McEvoy, Shappi Khorsandi, Paddy Bramwells, Billy Dufus, Alan Hulcoop, Des McLean

2001

Winner:  Alan Carr
Finalists:  Markus Birdman,  Keith Carter (as "Nige"), Jarred Christmas, Michael Downey, Des Clarke, Rob Deering, Russell Howard, Justin Moorhouse

2002

Winner: Nina Conti
Finalists: Dylan, Bob Kobe, Paul Kerensa, Gary Delaney, Stefano Paolini, Ninia Benjamin, Karl Spain

2003

Winner:  Rhod Gilbert
Finalists:  Michael Anderson, Greg Cook (runner-up), Steve Hall (runner-up), Ava Vidal, Lloydy The Illegal Street Trader

2004

Winner: Andrew Lawrence
Finalists:   Liam Mullone, David Nicholls, Jarlath Regan, James Sherwood (runner-up), Danielle Ward (runner-up)

2005

Winner: Tom Allen
Finalists: Edward Aczel (runner-up), James Branch, Aaron Counter, Sarah Millican (runner-up), Luke Roberts

No competition 2006 to 2010

2011

Winner:  Angela Barnes
Finalists:  Pat Cahill, Tez Ilyas, Joe Lycett, Mark Restuccia, Chris Turner

2012

Winner: Lucy Beaumont
Finalists: Pete Otway, Sunil Patel, Matt Rees, Tommy Rowson (runner-up), Matthew Winning

2013

Winner: Steve Bugeja
Finalists: Ean Luckhurst, Jonny Pelham, Mark Silcox, Peter Brush and Rob Carter

2014

Winner: Lost Voice Guy Lee Ridley
Finalists: Hari Sriskantha, Tom Ward, Tom Little, Brennan Reece, Amir Khoshsokhan

2015

Winner: Yuriko Kotani
Finalists: Russ Peers, Athena Kugblenu, Michael Stranney, Ken Cheng, Andy Storey

2016

Winner: Jethro Bradley
Finalists: Sindhu Vee, George Lewis, Lauren Pattison, Michael Odewale, Catherine Bohart.

2017

Winner: Heidi Regan
Finalists:  Andy Field, Morgan Rees (replacing Yumna Mohamed who withdrew due to a family emergency), Jacob Hawley, Aaron Simmons, Sikisa (Bostwick- Barnes)

2018

Winner: Stephen Buchanan​
Finalists:  Helen Bauer, William Stone, Sarah Mann, Isa Bonachera and Mamoun Elagab

2019

Winner: Janine Harouni​
Finalists:  Donald Alexander, Hannah Platt, Josh Jones and Mo Omar.

2020

No competition because of the Covid pandemic

2021

Winner: Anna Thomas
Finalists:  Lily Phillips, Celya AB, Liam Farrelly, Molly McGuinness and William Thompson

Published: 8 Sep 2013