Winners crowned at The National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer

17 February 2023

• Ricky Gervais’ After Life claims triple gongs
• Chris and Rosie Ramsey win Best Comedy Podcast for second year
• Saoirse Monica Jackson wins Best Comedy Actress following Derry Girls’ finale
• Joe Lycett pays tribute to Liz Truss, Hugo Boss and Nadine Dorries in acceptance speech

Event images HERE

The winners of The National Comedy Awards were revealed tonight (Friday 17th February) in a star-studded ceremony hosted by Tom Allen and broadcast live on Channel 4.

Trophies were handed out by stars of comedy and entertainment including Grayson Perry, Smack the Pony stars Fiona Allen and Doon Mackichan, Katherine Ryan and Munya Chawawa, Bill Bailey, Jack Dee and Amelia Dimoldenberg and Self Esteem. 

The awards honoured both emerging and established British comedy talent, with the public having voted on key prizes in a variety of categories that celebrate the world of comedy in all its forms. Recent scripted and unscripted comedies and panel shows, plus the latest podcast jokers were all vying for votes.

After Life took home a hattrick of awards, winning Best Scripted Comedy, Outstanding Comedy Actor for Ricky Gervais and Outstanding Supporting Role for Diane Morgan.

Chris and Rosie Ramsay’s Shagged Married Annoyed won Best Comedy Podcast for the second consecutive year. Also for the second time, Katherine Ryan received the Outstanding Female Comedy Entertainment Performance and Taskmaster won Best Comedy Entertainment Show.

In the wake of the final series of Derry Girls, Saoirse Monica Jackson received the award for Best Comedy Actress and elsewhere Lee Mack was named Outstanding Male Comedy Entertainment Performer.

Following a live fan vote during the ceremony, Joe Lycett won the Best Stand-Up Show Award for his show, Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How Do You Joe Lycett? How Do You Joe Lycett?

Joe Lycett was also awarded the Comedy Game Changer Award, receiving a standing ovation as he took to the stage to accept the gong from Sir Grayson Perry. In his tongue-in-cheek acceptance speech, Joe paid tribute to Liz Truss, Nadine Dorries and Hugo Boss, amongst others.

He said: “I’ve written some names of people I should thank… Liz Truss, couldn’t do it without you, girl. Hugo Boss, I’d like to thank Hugo Boss for designing those lovely Nazi uniforms and then to the company Hugo Boss for their unending appetite to protect their intellectual copyright. To everyone on Twitter with a football logo as their profile picture for keeping me grounded. To Nadine Dorries for everything she’s done for culture. To the BBC chairman Richard Sharp for that loan you gave me, thank you Richard. I was struggling when I started out and he kept me afloat. I’d like to dedicate this award to the Channel 4 lawyers who protected me throughout my career from myself. And with that in mind, I’d like to say Richard Sharp should stand down as the BBC chairman and that’s not my opinion but the opinion of Channel 4 television. Thank you so much.”

The National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer also saw video messages from Sir Eric Idle and Rhod Gilbert, who both spoke about their experiences of cancer.

The National Comedy Awards winners and nominees in full:

Outstanding Female Comedy Entertainment Performer
Fern Brady (Taskmaster)
Sandi Toksvig (QI)
Judi Love (Taskmaster)
Katherine Ryan (Backstage with Katherine Ryan) - WINNER
Sarah Millican (Taskmaster)

Best Comedy Podcast
Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe’s Parenting Hell 
Shagged, Married, Annoyed with Chris and Rosie Ramsey - WINNER
Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster
Have A Word

Outstanding Male Comedy Entertainment Performer
Greg Davies (Taskmaster)
Joe Lycett (Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party)
Munya Chawawa (Taskmaster)
Lee Mack (Would I Lie to You?) - WINNER
Alex Horne (Taskmaster)

Outstanding Comedy Actress
Rose Matafeo (Starstruck)
Saoirse Monica Jackson (Derry Girls) - WINNER
Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters)
Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts)
Daisy May Cooper (Am I Being Unreasonable?)

Best Comedy Entertainment Show
The Graham Norton Show 
Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
Taskmaster - WINNER
The Chris and Rosie Ramsey Show 

Outstanding Comedy Actor
Dylan Llewellyn (Big Boys)
Ricky Gervais (After Life) - WINNER
Joseph Gilgun (Brassic)
Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Ghosts)
Stephen Merchant (Outlaws)

Best Comedy Panel Show 
Mock the Week
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown - WINNER
QI
Would I Lie to You?

Best Stand-Up Show
Sam Campbell: Comedy Show
Tim Key: Mulberry
Amy Gledhill: The Girl Before The Girl You Marry
Joe Lycett: More, More, More! How Do You Joe Lycett? How Do You Joe Lycett? - WINNER
Jordan Gray: Is It A Bird?

Outstanding Supporting Role
Jamie Lee O’Donnell (Derry Girls)
David Earl (After Life)
Lolly Adefope (Ghosts)
Siobhan McSweeney (Derry Girls)
Diane Morgan (After Life) - WINNER

Best Scripted Comedy
Ghosts
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Derry Girls 
After Life - WINNER

Comedy Game Changer Award
Joe Lycett

Impact in Comedy Award
Mo Gilligan

Comedy Breakthrough Star Awards
Susan Wokoma
Jordan Gray
Lenny Rush

The National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer (1x120’) was commissioned for Channel 4 by Tom Beck, Head of Live Events and Commissioning Editor, Entertainment and Phil Harris, Head of Entertainment and Events. It was produced by Dan Baldwin, Suzi Aplin and Susie Hall for Hungry Bear. 

Catch up with The National Comedy Awards for Stand Up To Cancer on All 4

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

About Stand Up To Cancer (UK)  

• Stand Up To Cancer is a joint national fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 that brings the UK together to speed up progress in life-saving cancer research 
• Supported by the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) in the US and launched in the UK in 2012, Stand Up To Cancer funds translational research, turning academic breakthroughs in the labs into new treatments that make a real difference for people with cancer. 
• More than £93 million has been raised in the UK to date, funding 64 clinical trials and projects involving more than 13,000 cancer patients
• Research projects include the development of pioneering technology to detect super low levels of cancerous DNA in blood to improve the way we diagnose ovarian cancer, developing a new immunotherapy drug to boost the power of the immune system against cancer, exploring an entirely new approach to treating bowel cancer, and much more 
• Stars such as Naomi Campbell, Noel Gallagher, Tom Hardy, Gillian Anderson, Idris Elba, Andy Murray, James Corden, Martin Freeman, Jamie Oliver, Richard Ayoade, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Peter Crouch, Abbey Clancy, Danny Dyer, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Lily James, Rosamund Pike, Sophie Turner, Stephen Graham, Toby Jones, Maya Jama, Joe Lycett and Roman Kemp are just some of the talent who have supported Stand Up To Cancer     

To find out more about Stand Up To Cancer and how you can support, visit su2c.org.uk or channel4.com/SU2C or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok