Vintage star heads Gold's top 30

Stan Laurel has been named Britain’s greatest comedian in a three-hour TV special.

Victoria Wood came second, followed by Billy Connolly, Peter Sellers and Eric Morecambe.

The Gold channel dedicated tonight’s primetime schedule to showing a jury of experts placing a top 30 of comedy greats into order

And their order held some shocks, such as Tommy Cooper failing to make the top 10.

After the result was declared, Sally Phillips said: 'Obviously there's going to be a huge backlash.'

Laura was the oldest contender on the list, but interest has recently been revived with the release of the Stan & Ollie biopic with Steve Coogan – who came joint sixth with Ricky Gervais – playing the comedy icon.

The order they came up with was.

1. Stan Laurel
2. Victoria Wood
3. Billy Connolly
4. Peter Sellers
5. Eric Morecambe
6=. Steve Coogan
6=. Ricky Gervais
8. Spike Milligan
9. Peter Kay
10. Ken Dodd
11. Caroline Aherne
12. John Cleese
13. Tommy Cooper
14=. Jennifer Suanders
14=. Dawn French
16. Ronnie Barker
17. Lee Mack
18. Sacha Baron Cohen
19. Lenny Henry
20. Rowan Atkinson
21. Dave Allen
22. Jo Brand
23. Lee Evans
24. Eddie Izzard
25. Stewart Lee
26. Bill Bailey
27. Micky Flanagan
28. Michael McIntyre
29. Rik Mayall
30. Kathy Burke

The list was not without controversy as the likes of Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd, Kenneth Williams, Peter Cook and Vic Reeves did not even make the cut.

Alongside Phillips, the panel choosing the order were comedy actors Stephen Mangan, Nina Wadia, John Thomson and Ronni Ancona, stand-up Darren Harriott, comedy writer David Quantick, journalist Boyd Hilton and performer and music hall expert Roy Hudd.

Published: 26 May 2019