English comedian (born 1967)
Timothy Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967) is an English comedian, actor, writer and presenter best known for his one-liners and his role on the sitcom "Not Going Out" (2006–2012, 2014). He has also released a number of stand-up comedy specials and has written several joke books.
From 2004 to 2014, Vine held the "Guinness World Record" for the most jokes told in an hour; each joke had to get a laugh from the audience to count towards the total, and he set the new record with 499 jokes. In both 2010 and 2014, he won the award for best joke at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was the runner-up for the three years in between.
Early life.
Timothy Mark Vine was born in the Cheam suburb of London on 4 March 1967, the son of Diana (née Tillett), a housewife and occasional doctor's receptionist, and Guy Vine (died 2018), a lecturer in civil engineering at North East Surrey College of Technology. He is the younger brother of broadcaster Jeremy Vine and the older brother of artist Sonya Vine. He was educated in Surrey, attending Lynton Prep in Ewell, Aberdour School in Burgh Heath, and Epsom College in Epsom.
Career.
Stand-up.
Vine's stand-up act consists primarily of a series of quick-fire one-liners and puns, along with silly songs and a bagful of props.
Vine and a security guard from his office job in Croydon started doing open mic nights as a hobby. 
During 1991, Tim Vine regularly honed his routine at the Comedy Café in London, adding other clubs throughout 1992. He came second in the Hackney Empire New Act competition in 1993. Vine quit his job to go on tour as a support act for Boothby Graffoe, who later wrote additional material for "The Sketch Show". Vine became a regular on the London comedy circuit by 1994, trying a variety of comedy styles. He realised one-liners were a good way forward after the audience's positive reaction to his joke: "So I went to the doctors. He said, 'You've got hypochondria'. I said, 'Not that as well!'" Vine built up this repertoire, before making his first TV appearance on BBC1's "Pebble Mill".
In 1996, Vine met Lee Mack at the Comedy Lounge in Kingston-Upon-Hull. Mack was competing in The Gong Show, where up to ten comedians try to last for a full five minute slot, hoping to beat the Gong and not get voted off by the public. Mack inadvertently did a couple of Vine's jokes, to which the audience shouted "Tim Vine". When Mack came off stage, he asked a man who Tim Vine was, and got the reply "He plays here quite a bit." The man he had asked was Tim Vine. The pair later worked together on "The Sketch Show", "Not Going Out" and "Let's Play Darts" for Comic Relief.
The comedian has regularly appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with shows such as "The Tim Vine Shambles" and "The Tim Vine Fiasco" (1995) - which won him the Perrier Newcomer Award - then "Tim Vine Flat Out" (1998), "I'm Vine Thanks" and "Tim Vine and the Minotaur" (1999). In 2006, he had a large advertising hoarding erected featuring his name and image, with a small sub-heading "...is not appearing at this year's Edinburgh Festival." Vine appeared at the Pleasance Courtyard for the first two weeks of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe performing a show entitled "Punslinger".
He appeared at the Christian festival, Spring Harvest, in 2007, 2008 and 2013 alongside John Archer at Skegness and Minehead, and at the Cambridge Theatre in May 2007 for a show entitled "Tim Vine, Live in Concrete".
Vine's UK comedy tours include "Current Puns" (2006) and "Punslinger" (2008). In July 2008, he recorded a performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, which was released as a new DVD entitled "So I Said To This Bloke..." on 27 October 2008. His third tour, "The Joke-amotive", took place during February and March 2010, with a DVD of the show released in November 2011. Vine's "Tim Timinee Tim Timinee Tim Tim to You" tour recording was released in 2016, followed by "Sunset Milk Idiot" (2019). Vine's support act is usually Britain's Got Talent's comedy magician John Archer.
In a BBC Radio Wales interview with Behnaz Akhgar (12 October 2021), Vine revealed that he had intended to perform a new stand-up show at the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe but "Breeeep!" was delayed until 2022 due to the covid pandemic. Vine released a CD entitled Tim Vine Edinburgh Festival Diary, recorded each day at the Fringe. The "Breeeep!" tour (2023) sold out at many venues, despite covid, the financial crisis and rail strikes. However, September 21's show was relocated after the original venue cancelled due to the RAAC concrete crisis. [URL]
Many of Vine's jokes have been falsely attributed to Tommy Cooper, being in Cooper's style; the West End show about Cooper actually features some of Vine's jokes.
Music.
Vine's musical talents, aside from the comedy songs in his act, include playing the guitar, bass, piano and drums.
He occasionally plays the drums at his church. He was in several bands, including alongside his brother Jeremy in The Flared Generation, which "Smash Hits" magazine described as "the most unfashionable punk band in the country.
Vine has released three novelty music albums, "Pretend Popstar - Fake Hits", "Dance Floor Gridlock" and "Angus Crunch and the Nepali Flautist".
Vine is a huge Elvis Presley fan and has been since his death in 1977; he has a picture of the rock and roll legend in every room at home. The megastar was Vine’s Specialist Subject on "Celebrity Mastermind" and his inspiration for performing to "Viva Las Vegas" on "Comic Relief Does Fame Academy". In August 2019, Vine’s "Plastic Elvis" tribute act was a sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe. On 6 January 2020, Plastic Elvis was the Dictionary Corner Guest on Countdown, plugging the 2020 UK tour, which was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rescheduled for autumn 2021 through spring 2022. Although promotional material states "This is NOT a stand up comedy show", Vine's regular support act comic/magician John Archer plays Big Buddy Holly. David Martin, who wrote four of the show's Elvis numbers, sings a duet with Plastic. Music is performed by The High Noon Band (UK) with backing vocals by Josie Quinn Abraham.
In May 2020, when the Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vine competed in the "Isolation Song Contest" representing Romania with his home-filmed, self-composed entry "Room Mania". John Archer also made several appearances in shots from his own house. The event raised around £40,000 for the homeless charity Crisis, Refuge (which supports female domestic abuse survivors) and The Trussell Trust food banks.
Podcasts and YouTube.
In December 2007, Vine launched his first podcast, 'Tim Vine Celebrates'. The first episode "Tim Vine Celebrates... Christmas" was released for free on 19 December and includes many previously unheard jokes and humorous songs, as well as an array of comedy characters, mostly voiced by himself.
In autumn 2019, Vine premiered his YouTube channel "Tim Vine TeleVisual (TVTV)", releasing a short video of sketches every Monday evening for over a year. Additional videos include "Recreating Columbo", predominantly filmed in Vine's home during the pandemic. Vine reprised his Columbo on Countdown, dressing as and impersonating the dishevelled detective in his guest spot (3 February 2022). Further instalments, based on season one, form part of Vine's YouTube channel content for 2022.
Similarly, Vine also contributed scenes to the 2020 international project "Jaws We Make", along with over 100 other superfans of "Jaws". The entire movie was recreated using a variety of amateur/professional production methods and released on YouTube to celebrate the blockbuster's 45th anniversary. The previous year, "Jaws" was Vine's Specialist Subject on his second "Celebrity Mastermind" appearance.
Television.
Tim Vine's first TV appearance was on BBC One's "Pebble Mill" in 1994.
In autumn 1995, Vine hosted the BBC One morning quiz "Housemates", featuring an endgame called "Up The Garden Path". The show ran for one season of 25 episodes.
Vine was the first man to appear on Channel 5, alongside Julia Bradbury and the Spice Girls, when the network launched on 30 March 1997. The following day, game show "Whittle" premiered with Vine as host for two seasons March–June and September–December.
From May to August 1997, Vine presented the Channel 4 game show "Fluke" which he devised. The warm-up comedian was Lee Mack.
Tim hosted "Fort Boyard Takes on the World" in 2004.
From 2001 to 2004, Vine co-wrote/starred in both series of ITV's "The Sketch Show" with Lee Mack. Additional material was written by Vine's good friend and tour support act, John Archer and, on occasion, Boothby Graffoe and Tim's sister Sonya Vine.
From 2006 to 2012, Vine played Timothy Gladstone Adams in Mack's BBC One sitcom "Not Going Out". He returned for a cameo in the 2014 Christmas episode and the series 7 finale as Lee's best man.
Since 2009, Vine has made appearances on the Channel 4 game show "Countdown" as a guest in Dictionary Corner.
In 2012, Vine hosted one series of teatime game show "Don't Blow the Inheritance" for ITV.
Vine faced "The Beast" Mark Labbett on "The Chase" in 2012 and 2021.
Replacing Mark Williams, Vine portrayed Sebastian Beach in the second and final season of BBC One's comedy "Blandings" (2013-2014), based on the books by P. G. Wodehouse.
In 2014 and 2015, Vine appeared in the revival of "Celebrity Squares" as resident comedian alongside Joe Wilkinson.
In 2017, he appeared in two episodes of "Tim Vine Travels Through Time" on BBC One. Regular cast members included Sally Phillips, Mandeep Dhillon, Marek Larwood and John Archer. Special guests included Emma Bunton and Ore Oduba; the latter later starred with Vine in the 2019/2020 "Cinderella" panto at Fairfield Halls, Croydon.
In mid-2018, Vine was a celebrity contestant in 10 episodes of "Taskmaster" series 6, on Dave. His improvisations included measuring a piece of string with a plastic lobster.
In autumn 2018, Vine hosted ITV quiz show "Football Genius".
Vine has participated in several Comic Relief / Sport Relief charity competitions. In "Comic Relief Does Fame Academy" Vine performed Presley's hit "Viva Las Vegas" (2007) and on "Let's Dance for Comic Relief" (2013), Vine was talked out of Presley and given Justin Timberlake;s "Rock Your Body", making it to the final. In 2015, he was runner-up in "Let's Play Darts", losing out to Mack. Vine returned in 2016 to win it, beating Mike Tindall in the final. For the 2021 telethon, Vine's contribution was "Joke In A Box", entertaining military personnel who had assisted medical centres during the COVID-19 pandemic. For 2022, Vine competed against Kiri Pritchard-McLean in "One Red Nose and Their Dog" with training shown on "Countryfile" (6 March) and the finale broadcast on Comic Relief night (18 March). Filmed at Penrhyn Castle, Wales, this is a variation on the long-running televised competition "One Man and His Dog".
Radio and audiobooks.
BBC Radio 4 airs "The Tim Vine Chat Show", where members of the audience are interviewed, having filled in a form before the show if they wish to be considered for selection. Vine presented one series of four episodes in July 2016, and a Christmas edition on 26 December 2016. A second series of six episodes was broadcast in September and October 2017. Additional Festive and Summer specials aired in 2018 and 2019. The series and specials are available on BBC Sounds and via audiobook (released April 2020). "The Tim Vine Christmas Chat Show" 2021 was recorded on 30 November at The CryerArts Centre, airing 23 December.
In 2017, "Tim Vine Travels Through Time" was broadcast on BBC Radio 2, before moving to BBC One for two televised episodes.
Vine's "Punslinger" audiobook is slightly shorter than the DVD version, as some of the visual jokes are omitted.
Books.
In 2003, Vine contributed to the "Sit-Down Comedy" book, but his first book was released in 2010 entitled "The Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book" containing over 1,000 jokes and puns. Then, in 2011, Vine released a second joke book entitled "The Not Quite Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book", specifically for children.
Awards.
BAFTA.
Vine's ensemble series "The Sketch Show" won the BAFTA for Best Comedy Programme in 2002.
Fringe awards.
In August 2010, Vine won the prize for the funniest joke of that year's Edinburgh Fringe, following a public vote from a judged shortlist. His winning joke was "I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again."
On 25 August