Hugh Dennis

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox comedian Peter Hugh Dennis Template:Postnominals (born 13 February 1962) is an English comedian, presenter, actor, impressionist and writer. He was a panellist in every episode of the comedy show Mock the Week (2005–2022) and is one half of the double act Punt and Dennis alongside Steve Punt.

Dennis has also played Dr Piers Crispin in the sitcom My Hero (2000–2006), Pete Brockman in the sitcom Outnumbered (2007–2014, 2016, 2024), Toby in the sitcom Not Going Out (2014–2023), and the Bank Manager in the first season of the comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016). He presents the community archaeology television show The Great British Dig (since 2020).

Early life

Peter Hugh Dennis was born in Kettering on 13 February 1962,<ref>{England and Wales Birth Index 1916–2005}</ref> the son of schoolteacher Dorothy Mary (née Hinnels)<ref>Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1995, Dod's Parliamentary Companion Ltd, p. 297</ref> and Anglican priest John Dennis.<ref name="Guardian2015">Template:Cite news</ref> His older brother, John Jr., is a diplomat who has served as the British Ambassador to Angola<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the British Representative to Taiwan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He grew up in the Mill Hill suburb of London as his father was appointed vicar of the local John Keble Church soon after his birth.<ref>"Hugh Dennis" Who Do You Think You Are? Episode 5 of 10, Series 9. Broadcast 12 September 2012.</ref> His father later became the Bishop of Knaresborough and then the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.<ref name="record">Template:Cite news</ref>

Dennis was educated at private University College School in London. During his time at UCS, he played rugby with Will Self and was head boy in his final year.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> He went on to read for the Geographical Tripos as an exhibitioner at St John's College, Cambridge. His thesis was titled "The Spatial Distribution of Elementary Education in 19th-century Wakefield".<ref name="radiotimes">Template:Cite news</ref> He also joined the Footlights, where he first met Steve Punt and club president Nick Hancock, and the trio collaborated on a number of projects besides the annual revue.Template:Citation needed In 2016, Dennis said that he was approached by MI5 agents whilst at Cambridge University and attended a preliminary interview to join them; he decided that he did not want to take the option any further, particularly after being told during the interview that the job would require him to "do people over".<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

After graduating with a first class honours degree,<ref name="record" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Dennis worked for Unilever for six years in the marketing department while performing comedy with Punt at venues including The Comedy Store in London at weekends.<ref name="BBC">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Whilst at Unilever, Dennis became a brand manager of Lynx deodorant. His time at Unilever came to an end when he and Punt had their BBC Radio 1 show The Mary Whitehouse Experience, which they had created alongside David Baddiel and Rob Newman, commissioned for BBC Two. Dennis was put on sabbatical by Unilever, as rehearsals for the show were to take place on a weekday, but he never returned to the company and instead chose to pursue comedy full-time as a result of the show's success.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Dennis uses his middle name Hugh as his stage name because the actor Peter Dennis was already a member of the performing arts union Equity.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Career

File:Now Show 2005 Hugh Dennis.jpg

Dennis during a recording of The Now Show, 2005

As an impressionist, Dennis did voices for Spitting Image<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and appeared with Punt as resident support comics on two TV series hosted on the BBC by Jasper Carrott.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has also provided voiceover for several adverts, including Tango's controversial 1991 advertisement Orange Man.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dennis also appeared twice as a contestant on the topical panel show Have I Got News for You, including one opposite former schoolmate Self. Punt and Dennis's radio career includes over a decade of performing Punt and Dennis, It's Been a Bad Week, The Party Line and the satirical radio comedy show, The Now Show. On The Now Show, Dennis was originally in a line-up including Punt, Mitch Benn, Laura Shavin, Jon Holmes and Marcus Brigstocke. He is friends with Chris Morris and has had cameos on Brass Eye as well as doing the narration for the CBBC show Sam and Mark's Guide to Dodging Disaster.Template:Citation needed

In December 2009, Dennis joined Oz Clarke in presenting the 60-minute Christmas special Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas broadcast on BBC Two.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In December 2010 the pair returned for a four-part series called Oz and Hugh Raise the Bar, which puts them in a competition to create a bar featuring only local British food and drinks.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dennis has starred in a number of sitcoms, including My Hero, in which he played obnoxious GP Piers Crispin. From 2007 to 2014, he starred in Outnumbered, a semi-improvised sitcom based around family life<ref name=outnumbered>Template:Cite web</ref> and won a BAFTA nomination in the comedy category for the 2009 Christmas special.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On Radio 4 he also featured in the sitcom Revolting People which, like Outnumbered, was co-written by Andy Hamilton.

Besides his regular television work, Dennis was a panellist on Mock the Week and appeared in every episode since its premiere in 2005, with the exception of a special episode of the programme that was broadcast as part of David Walliams' 24 Hour Panel People.<ref name="Cast">Template:Cite web</ref> He is a regular guest on various BBC-broadcast comedy panel game shows such as They Think It's All Over, Would I Lie To You?, QI and has guest hosted Have I Got News for You. In 2011, Dennis hosted the short-lived improvisational comedy series Fast and Loose.

Beginning on 16 February 2012, Dennis and Julia Bradbury hosted a four-part BBC One documentary series The Great British Countryside.<ref name="radiotimes" /> From October 2014 to December 2023, Dennis played Toby in the long-running sitcom Not Going Out.

In 2016, Dennis appeared as the Bank Manager in the BBC Three series Fleabag, acting alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge in the first, fourth, and final episodes of series 1.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In February 2021, Dennis started presenting The Great British Dig on More 4.<ref>Hugh Dennis to present The Great British Dig: History in Your Back Garden on More4 ; Channel 4</ref>

In the 2021 Bond film No Time to Die, Dennis cameoed as scientist Dr Hardy in an MI6 laboratory.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Dennis lives in London, having previously lived near Chichester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He married Miranda Carroll in 1987 and they divorced in 1993. He married Catherine Abbot-Anderson in 1996, and they had a son and a daughter before divorcing in 2015.<ref name="record" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2018, it was confirmed that he was in a relationship with his Outnumbered co-star Claire Skinner.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2025, it was revealed that the couple had married in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dennis is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 2008 he received an Honorary fellowship from the University of Northampton.<ref>Hugh Dennis welcomed to The University of Northampton Template:Webarchive Northampton.ac.uk</ref> In 2024 he became the Chancellor of the University of Winchester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2007 he took part in the L'Étape du Tour, cycling an open stage of the Tour de France for amateurs, which was held in the mountains two weeks before the main event, and completed it in 11 hours and 7 minutes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2011 he completed the Great South Run in Portsmouth, for the Alzheimer's Society.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is a supporter of Arsenal FC.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1989–1991	Spitting Image	Various characters	Voice only
1991–1992	The Mary Whitehouse Experience	Various characters	Co-creator/writer
1992	Me, You and Him	Harry Dunstan	Co-creator
	A Word in Your Era	Prince John	1 episode
	Springing Lenin	Peter	TV short
1994	The Easter Stories	Gardener	1 episode
1994–1995	The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show	Various characters	12 episodes
1996	The Detectives	Seth	1 episode
1997	Brass Eye	Dr. Balb Kubrox	1 episode
2000	Doctors	Nick Browning	1 episode
	Jack Dee's Happy Hour	Jed Cake	Voice only; 8 episodes
2000–2006	My Hero	Dr. Piers Crispin	51 episodes
2002	TV to Go	Various characters	Series 2
2005–2022	Mock the Week	Himself, regular panellist
2007–2014, 2016, 2024	Outnumbered	Pete Brockman	Series regular
2009	New Tricks	Tony Granville	1 episode
	Hotel Babylon	Jim Doody	1 episode
2009, 2010	QI	Himself, guest panellist	2 episodes
2011	Fast and Loose	Himself	Host
2013	Agatha Christie's Marple	Major Phillpot	"Endless Night"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Since 2014	Over to Bill <ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>	Bill Onion
2014–2023	Not Going Out	Toby	Also voiced Captain Morris in 1 episode
2015	Ballot Monkeys	Martin Frost
2016	Drunk History	Napoleon / Richard III	2 episodes
	Midsomer Murders	Milo Craven	Episode 19.1 "The Village That Rose from the Dead"
	Britain's Classroom Heroes	Presenter
2016, 2017	Insert Name Here	Guest panellist	2 episodes
2016–2019	Fleabag	Bank Manager	4 episodes
2017	The Red Nose African Convoy	Himself	One-off special
	Taskmaster	Contestant	8 episodes
	The Zoo	Narrator	15 episodes<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Possibly... The Best Adverts in the World	Presenter	One-off special
2018	Richard Osman's House of Games	Contestant	5 episodes (won)
	Trollied	Jerome	1 episode
	Nativity Rocks!	Liam Hargreaves
2019	Urban Myths	Richard Asher	1 episode
	Yorkshire Airport	Narrator	6 episodes
2020	McDonald & Dodds	George Holden
Since 2020	The Great British Dig	Presenter
2021	No Time to Die	Dr. Hardy
Since 2021	The Great British Dig: History in Your Back Garden	Presenter	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2022	Huge Homes with Hugh Dennis	Presenter	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Murder, They Hope	Aaron	Episode: "Can't See the Blood for the Trees"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023	The Festive Pottery Throw Down	Contestant	Winner<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023, 2025	The Couple Next Door	Alan Richardson	Series 1 & 2<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2024	Pointless	Guest co-presenter
2025	Two Men on a Bike	Himself	With David Baddiel<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Beyond Paradise	Arthur Donelan	Series 3<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Template:Abbr
1994	Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards	Light Entertainment	Canned Carrott	Template:Won
2010	BAFTA TV Awards	Best Male Comedy Performance	Outnumbered: The Christmas Special	Template:Nom
2011	British Comedy Awards	Best TV Comedy Actor	Outnumbered	Template:Nom	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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