BBC New Comedy Award winner crowned

Heidi Regan takes the title

Heidi Regan has been crowned this year’s BBC New Comedy Award winner.

She took the title in the final at the Edinburgh Fringe, which was broadcast live on Radio 4.

Regan won with a long routine about travelling back in time to try to stop Hitler, prompting judge Jenny Eclair to praise her ‘commitment to the cause and security in who she was’.

Fellow judge Hugh Dennis added that she delivered ‘a fantastically confident set that took us to a very very weird place. I liked the narrative of it’.

And Sioned William, commissioning editor of comedy for BBC Radio 4, added: ‘It felt so original and unlike anything else we had heard before. We loved the slow-burn premise. You really made us listen and wait, and it was really worth the wait.’

Regan – who also won So You Think You’re Funny last year – said: ’It’s amazing. Very surreal, a dream come true. My parents are over from Australia, so it’s awesome.’

Her prize is £1,000 cash and a 15-minute script commission from BBC Studios.

Originally from Newcastle, New South Wales, Regan has been living in the UK for nine years and currently resides in London. After completing a degree in communications, aspiring writer Heidi took up a number of jobs such as media monitoring and, most recently, as a receptionist at an animation company, which allows her to focus on writing in the evenings.

She previously said that She said getting through to the final of the BBC New Comedy Award ‘means so much because being raised on BBC comedy was a really big part of why I moved over to the UK. It is also wonderful when a competition can show you that a very silly idea you’ve had can actually connect with some audiences. It’s a very nice confidence boost.’

Previous winners of the BBC New Comedy Award include Rhod Gilbert, Alan Carr, Julian Barratt and 2016 champion, Jethro Bradley.

All the 2017 finalists will be mentored by the BBC Studios comedy team across the year and receive advice, guidance and the chance to write for and appear in slots across the BBC.

The other finalists were Aaron Simmonds and Sikisa Bostwick-Barnes, both from London, Jacob Hawley from Stevenage, Andy Field from Crawley and Morgan Rees from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.

Yumna Mohamed from Johannesburg had made it to the final but had to drop out at the last minute because of a family emergency and was replaced by Rees.