Handed out by the city's comedy festival

Julian Clary has been given this year’s Bath Plug Award for outstanding services to comedy.

The award is handed out by the Bath comedy festival, which also created a new accolade this year, the Order Of The Bath Plug, which it gave to Clary’s co-star, the jazz musician Ian Shaw.

Director Nick Steel has bestowed this year’s Bath Plug Award (for outstanding services to comedy) on Julian Clary, at the end of a hilarious one-off performance at Bath Forum which heralded the end of this year’s hugely successful Bath Comedy Festival.

Comedy historian Jem Roberts, who created the awards with festival director Nick Steel  said: ‘From the first glittering sight of The Joan Collins Fan Club with Fanny the Wonder Dog on Saturday Live, to his place today as the nation’s most beloved dispenser of suggestive barbs, no comedian could more deserve the Bath Plug Award for comedy majesty than Julian Clary.’

Steel added that Shaw was receiving the OBP for ‘all-round brilliance and being a jolly good egg.’

Pictured, from left: Clary, Steel, Shaw and Roberts.

Published: 21 Apr 2023