Comedian exposes Mock The Week secrets with BBC show 'like the army'

Comedian Rhys James has compared BBC’s Mock the Week to being in the Army as he lifts the lid on the show’s secrets.

The 33-year-old appeared as a panellist on the show 31 times between 2016 and 2022. Hosted by Dara Ó Briain, Mock the Week ran for 21 series before it was axed by the BBC in 2022.

It became known for its quick-witted satirical takes on the week’s news headlines.

James has now revealed what comics did when gags didn’t land, how they prepared for the show, and discussed the “bear pit” conditions comedians faced when filming.

Speaking on the Happy Hour podcast, he said: “Mock the Week is like being in the Army - it’s intense. Lots of prep, six people, arguable seven people, are trying to come up with original angles on things.

“So obviously the news is like Brexit has happened, and now six people need to pile in. So the reason you do lots of prep and come up with loads of angles isn’t because you’re trying to say loads of stuff, it’s because the stuff just disappears, because someone else has said it first.

“It’s like ‘I’ve got a joke about that’ and then someone says it. No one knows what each other is saying.”

James explained producers would send the panellists a series of articles ahead of filming with topics they would expect to come up. He admitted it would be “obvious” what the main story would be.

When appearing on the show, James liked to offer a “twisted logic solution” to the day’s news. He also revealed comedians would often see their jokes ruined on the “scenes we’d like to see” round if another comic told a similar gag.

James added: “The one of like, unlikely film trailers or whatever, sometimes it isn’t even the exact same joke it’s just bringing up something that would only be funny if the topic was a surprise.”

He explained comedians would write three jokes for the round with two often being aired on the night. Should a gag not land, James says producers would ask them to write some new ones.

Although, he admits jokes were often improvised during recording as stars would build on what each other said. He continued: “The more comfortable you got on the show, the more you would improvise in that round because someone would say something that would make you think of something.

“You would write jokes in advance for that. But I would improvise like half. All the most fun moments are improvised on that show but you do loads of prep in case no fun moments happen.”

James says comics would occasionally get a “really hard audience” that would leave them looking at each other saying “f****** hell”. He added: “The worst part of that is, the harder the audience, the longer you have to do, because the directors in the gallery are going ‘we’ve got f****** nothing here so keep talking about it until we get something’.

“There were times when Dara would have to be like ‘what the f*** is wrong with everyone’ and it would always make it alright. And there's a time when the news is really heavy.”

The comedian dismissed the idea that Mock the Week was a “bear pit” for comedians. He said everyone on it was “so nice” and “his mate”.

Ahead of his first time on the panel show, James was offered words of wisdom from fellow comedian Rob Beckett. He explained: “He phoned me the day before and said ‘it’s going to be fine, here’s how it works, don’t overthink it.”

After the BBC confirmed it was cancelled, O Briain paid tribute to the show, saying it was his and long-time panellist Hugh Dennis’ starting point for new comics, labelling it "Dara and Hugh's Academy for Baby Comedians".

He added: "That's it folks, the UK has finally run out of news. It couldn't go on.

“The storylines were getting crazier and crazier - global pandemics, divorce from Europe, novelty short-term prime ministers. We just couldn't be more silly than the news was already."