Comic 'faces ruin' after judge rules Live At The Moth Club did not rip off his ideas

Harry Deansway has been landed with a £61,000 bill after losing his court case claiming the Dave series Live At the Moth Club ripped off his web series Shambles.

The comic had sued Baby Cow Productions, saying the company and its head of comedy Rupert Majendie had plagiarised his show about the backstage goings-on at a down-at-heel comedy club.

However last month, high court recorder Amanda Michaels ruled that Deansway’s series was not a copyrightable format – and even if it was ‘I would in any event have found that it was not infringed’.

Now she has also ordered Deansway - who took action under his real name Joshua Rinkoff – to foot £61,000 of the fees Baby Cow had to spend on lawyers' bills.

She said an 'enormous amount of money' had been spent on the dispute, but court rules in intellectual property cases limited Deansway's bill.

Even before that decision was made, Deansway admitted: ‘I face almost certain financial ruin’ for losing the case, but he called it ‘a price worth paying for standing up for independent creators and fairness in the creative industry’. It is not known how much his own lawyers charged. 

Deansway also says he has been 'ostracised' by the comedy world for bringing the case against  Baby Cow, which was founded by Steve Coogan.

After the verdict was delivered, the company said:‘We’re pleased that the court has ruled that Live At The Moth Club is a wholly original work that had creative input from a number of people who had never previously heard of Shambles or its creator. 

‘The claim was defended on that basis and the judge has found conclusively in Baby Cow’s favour on all issues.’

Deansway previously ran The Fix comedy magazine, which left him with a £30,000 debt, and was briefly comedy editor of The Guardian Guide. He subsequently ran the video site Raybot – which distributed the Shambles series.

» Read the judge's original ruling in full

Published: 3 Feb 2025