Air date for John Kearns’s The Varnishing Days

...as C4 snaps up Jordan Gray's Is It A Bird?

Sky Comedy is to air John Kearns’s acclaimed stand-up show The Varnishing Days on August 31.

His first televised special, the show was recorded in London’s Royal Court Theatre in March.

The former Taskmaster contestant is the only comedian to have won both Edinburgh comedy awards for best show and for best newcomer – taking them in successive years.

In The Varnishing Days – which will also drop on streaming service Now TV on the same day – Kearns considers his relationship with mainstream success, explaining how he dons the tonsure wig and oversized novelty teeth to feel like a old-fashioned variety ‘turn’

Meanwhile, Channel 4 is to broadcast Jordan Gray’s award-winning Is It A Bird? later this year, trade website Broadcast has reported.

After making a splash with the show at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe, trans comic Gray was booked to appear on the one-off revival of Channel 4’s Friday Night Live later that year, when she stripped naked to play the keyboard, sparking 1,500 complaints to television regulator Ofcom.

Gray said: ‘This silly little show has changed my life forever. The fact that it's going on TV makes me so excited, I could cut the glass ceiling with my nipples right now.’

Meanwhile, co-producer Ben Timlett said: ‘We look forward to re-upsetting those 1,500 Ofcom complainers and really getting to know the C4 legal team.

The news was first reported by the British Comedy Guide.

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Published: 9 Aug 2024