Dave Gorman

Dave Gorman

Date of birth: 02-03-1971
Dave Gorman started stand-up in 1990, when still a teenager, after dropping out of his mathematics course at Manchester University. But it took five years for him to start gaining recognition, hosting both the Comedy Zone showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe and appearing on Granada's Stand-up Show in 1995. Writing work began to come in, and he worked on Jenny Eclair Squats, The Fast Show and the Mrs Merton Show.

In 1998, he performed his first solo show, Reasons To Be Cheerful, deconstructing the lyrics of the Ian Dury song, which he followed the next year with Better World, in which he asked local newspaper readers how he could improve the world, then acted n their suggestions. This documentary-style show came into its own in 2000's Are You Dave Gorman? in which, egged on by flatmate Danny Wallace, he travelled the world to try to find 52 namesakes.

Are You Dave Gorman? was nominated for the Perrier award, and won the HBO Comedy Jury Award for Best One Person Show at the US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen Colorado. It was subsequently made into a BBC Two series, The Dave Gorman Collection, and a successful book.

His second TV series, also broadcast on BBC Two, was Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment, a cod-scientific test to see if he could improve his love, health, and wealth over six episodes if he followed his horoscopes. His twin brother Nick, completely ignored the astrologers, so acted as a control.

In 2003, he embarked on another bizarre quest; this time tracking down people responsible for Googlewhacks - web pages that contain a unique pairing of words, so they are the only result returned when you type the phrase into the search engine. The show, which virtually drove him to a nervous breakdown, started at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, transferred to Edinburgh and a UK tour, and again spawned a bestselling book as well as a live DVD.

Since 2005, Gorman has also hosted the Radio 4 show Genius, in which members of the public submit their brilliant ideas to be put to the test, which transferred to BBC Two in 2009. He has also starred in Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive, a show showing a behind-the-scenes view of a fictional comedy panel game, as himself.

In 2007, he released his documentary feature film, America Unchained, in which he tried to cross America without using chain restaurants, hotels or gas stations. Again, a book accompanied the film.

In 2009, he announced a return to more traditional stand-up - but cycling between the 32 venues in his UK tour.

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Dave Gorman show dropped over Gregg Wallace material

Modern Life Is Goodish episode revolved around the 'cancelled' MasterChef host

Dave Gorman has been forced to drop an episode of his Modern Life Is Goodish comeback because it revolved around Gregg Wallace.

The comedian dedicated much of his last live tour to his ‘fascinated bewilderment’ about the former MasterChef host’s rise to fame and his role fronting Inside The Factory.

It is understood that a version of the routine formed the bulk of one of the four new episodes Gorman recorded for U&Dave last year, making the show’s return after a seven-year hiatus.

However, Wallace was dropped by the BBC after allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate comments surfaced, giving the routine an unwelcome new context.

When the broadcaster announced earlier this month that the new series will air from February 24, it stated only three episodes would air.

The British Comedy Guide today reveals that was because of the material about Wallace, who has denied any inappropriate behaviour. 

A spokesperson for U&Dave told the site: ‘We felt that footage filmed with Gregg Wallace was no longer tonally appropriate to include in the series.’

Instead, two segments of the lost episode that do not revolve around the presenter will be released as standalone shorts on the U streaming platform: a 14-minute called Kicked In The Balls and one of the comedian’s famed ‘found poems’, compiled from internet comments, entitled Space Race.

In his stand-up, Gorman describes the grocer-turned-television presenter as ‘a six-year-old in man's clothing’ with one fan writing on social media that a lengthy routine in his last tour was less a celebration of the host than ‘fascinated bewilderment’ about him.

When the allegations surfaced before Christmas, another fan wrote on Threads: ‘I just feel bad that Dave Gorman had a perfect comedy show that is pretty much ruined now'

Modern Life Is Goodish originally ran for five series from 2013 to 2017, attracting up to 1.5 million viewers per episode before the surprise comeback was announced last year.

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Published: 16 Feb 2025

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