James Hamilton Bachman (born 24 February 1972) is an English comedian, actor and writer. He has written for and acted in many British television and radio programmes, including ''
That Mitchell and Webb Look
''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' is a British sketch comedy television show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb that ran from 2006 to 2010. Many of its characters and sketches were first featured in the duo's radio show ''That Mitchell and W ...
'', ''
Saxondale
''Saxondale'' is an English television situation comedy programme, starring Steve Coogan and co-written by Coogan and Neil Maclennan. The series is directed by Matt Lipsey and produced by Ted Dowd. Coogan and Henry Normal served as executive pr ...
'', ''
Bleak Expectations
''Bleak Expectations'' is a BBC Radio 4 comedy series that premiered in August 2007. It is a pastiche of the works of Charles Dickens – such as ''Bleak House'' and '' Great Expectations'', from which it derives its name – as well as adventu ...
'' and ''
Sorry, I've Got No Head
''Sorry, I've Got No Head'' was a CBBC children's sketch comedy television series. The programme's cast originally consisted of William Andrews, David Armand, James Bachman, Marcus Brigstocke, Anna Crilly, Justin Edwards, Mark Evans, Mel G ...
''. In 2014, he co-starred in the film ''
Transformers: Age of Extinction''.
Early life
Bachman was born in
Cuckfield,
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
to American father Thomas Edwin Bachman, of Meadow House,
Battle, East Sussex
Battle is a small town and civil parish in the local government district of Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south-east of London, east of Brighton and east of Lewes. Hastings is to the south-east and Bexhill-on-Sea to the south. ...
, and English mother Carolyn, daughter of Major-General Godfrey John Hamilton,
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
,
DSO, of The Old House, Hailsham, Sussex, who was married to the writer
Mary Margaret Kaye, daughter of Lt-Col Sir
Cecil Kaye, an officer in the
British Indian Army and minister of
Tonk State
Tonk was a Princely State of India at the time of the British Raj. The town of Tonk, which was the capital of the state, had a population of 273,201 in 1901. The town was surrounded by a wall and boasted a mud fort. It had a high school, the ...
, India.
Bachman attended
Radley College
Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley, is a public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, an ...
and studied Natural Sciences at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, focusing on Physics and Mathematics. He joined
Footlights
Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University.
History
Footlights' inaugural ...
, having been a
Monty Python and
Fry and Laurie
Fry and Laurie are English comedy double act, mostly active in the 1980s and 1990s. The duo consisted of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, who met in 1980 through mutual friend Emma Thompson while all three attended the University of Cambridge. They ...
fan as a youngster.
It was while in Footlights that he first met
David Mitchell and
Robert Webb
Robert Patrick Webb (born 29 September 1972) is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is one half of the double act Mitchell and Webb, alongside David Mitchell. Webb and Mitchell both starred in the Channel 4 sitco ...
, whom he would collaborate with for their shows, and also future writing partner
Mark Evans. His other student comedy contemporaries included the writer and director
Dan Mazer
Daniel Gideon Mazer (born 4 October 1971) is a British screenwriter, producer, and comedian. Mazer is best known as the long-time writing and production partner of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and worked with him on his three unorthodox characters ...
and the TV scriptwriter
Robert Thorogood.
He became co-vice-president of Footlights in 1993 and appeared in and wrote for the 1994 Footlights revue ''The Barracuda Jazz Option''. He returned after graduation to direct the subsequent revue ''Fall From Grace'', which included amongst its cast Mitchell, Webb, and
Matthew Holness
Matthew James Holness (born 1975) is an English comedian, writer, director, and actor. He is best known for creating and playing the fictional horror author Garth Marenghi.
Early life and education
Born in Whitstable, Kent, Holness became a f ...
.
That same year he also directed a production of the
Keith Waterhouse
Keith Spencer Waterhouse (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series.
Biography
Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. H ...
play
''Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell 2'', starring Mitchell as
Jeffrey Bernard
Jeffrey Joseph Bernard (; 27 May 1932 – 4 September 1997) was an English journalist, best known for his weekly column "Low Life" in ''The Spectator'' magazine, and also notorious for a feckless and chaotic career and life of alcohol abus ...
and Webb in multiple roles.
By the time Bachman finished university he had lost interest in his area of study and chose to go into comedy instead.
Career
Shortly after graduating, Bachman began a short-lived sketch double-act with fellow Cambridge comedian Matthew Holness. Bachman & Holness performed their first sketch show ''Rummage'' in the
Pleasance Attic at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1996. Their second show ''Shoes ''debuted at the
ADC Theatre
The ADC Theatre is a theatre in Cambridge, England, and also a department of the University of Cambridge. It is located in Park Street, Cambridge, Park Street, north off Jesus Lane. The theatre is owned by the Cambridge University Amateur Dramati ...
in Cambridge the following year and is notable for including one of the first ever performances of Holness' character
Garth Marenghi.
Bachman then went on to spend the early part of his career earning a living mainly as a comedy writer, starting as a solo writer for radio shows such as
Week Ending
''Week Ending'' was a satirical radio current affairs sketch show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1970 and 1998. It was devised by writer-producers Simon Brett and David Hatch and was originally hosted by '' Nationwide'' presenter Michael B ...
, and then forming a writing partnership with Mark Evans. As a pair they contributed material to a huge number of sketch and entertainment shows for radio and television including ''
The Very World of Milton Jones'', ''
The Jack Docherty Show
''The Jack Docherty Show'' was a weeknightly comedy chat show which first aired on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom between 30 March 1997 and 23 June 1999. Presented by comedian Jack Docherty, the programme was one of the first to air on the chan ...
'', ''
The 11 O'Clock Show
''The 11 O'Clock Show'' is a satirical late-night British television comedy series on Channel 4 which featured topical sketches and commentary on news items. It ran between 30 September 1998 and 8 December 2000, most notably hosted by Iain Lee a ...
'', ''The Priory'', ''
The Richard Blackwood Show
''The Richard Blackwood Show'' was a UK television series starring comedian Richard Blackwood. The show was broadcast from 1999 to 2001 on Channel 4. It included features such as interviews, pranks and stand-up comedy routines. There were notic ...
'', ''
Rhona'', ''
Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' (referred to simply as ''Saturday Night Takeaway'' or ''SNT'') is a British television variety show, created and presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (colloquially known as Ant & Dec), an ...
'', ''
Popetown
''Popetown'' is a French-British adult animated sitcom, billed by its producers as "''Father Ted'' meets ''South Park''". The series was internationally controversial, and was not screened by BBC Three, the channel which commissioned it.
Outli ...
'', ''
Ed Stone Is Dead'', ''
That Mitchell and Webb Sound
''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'' is a comedy sketch show on BBC Radio 4 which started on 28 August 2003. A second series was broadcast in 2005 with a third starting on 24 May 2007. The series became adapted for television as '' That Mitchell and ...
'', and ''
That Mitchell and Webb Look
''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' is a British sketch comedy television show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb that ran from 2006 to 2010. Many of its characters and sketches were first featured in the duo's radio show ''That Mitchell and W ...
''. As writers on ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'', Bachman and Evans created several of their much-loved sketches including 'Numberwang', 'David's Chiropractor', 'Glucozade Port' and 'Bed & Booze'.
During this period he made a few appearances on TV in shows he was writing on as well as occasional roles in shows such as ''
15 Storeys High'', ''
The Robinsons
''The Robinsons'' is a British comedy television series that debuted on BBC Two on 5 May 2005. The show's central character is a divorced reinsurance actuary, Ed Robinson (played by Martin Freeman), who realises that reinsurance is not his passio ...
'' and ''
Comedy Nation
''Comedy Nation'' was a British sketch comedy television programme that premiered at midnight 9 January 1998 on BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide ra ...
''.
Frustrated at the lack of outlets for sketch and character performers on the London comedy circuit, Bachman, along with Evans and Robert Thorogood, set up the sketch comedy club TBA-2 at the Latchmere Theatre (now
Theatre503
Theatre503, formerly the Latchmere Theatre, is a theatre located at 503 Battersea Park Road in Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth, above the Latchmere pub. The venue is known for promoting the work of new writers.
History
The the ...
). (The name was a reference to London's 'first ever sketch comedy club' TBA set up by
Henry Naylor
Henry James Naylor (born 19 January 1966) is a British comedy writer, director and performer. He is also a playwright.
Early life
Naylor read history and history of art at Downing College, Cambridge.
Career
Naylor was head writer for '' Spi ...
and
Andy Parsons
Andrew John Parsons (born 30 November 1966) is an English comedian and writer. He regularly appeared on ''Mock the Week'' from Series 3 to Series 14. With comedy partner Henry Naylor, he has written and presented nine series of ''Parsons and Na ...
in the mid-Nineties.) Regular performers included their university contemporaries Mitchell, Webb, Holness and Jonathan Dryden Taylor as well as The Four Horseman, The Trap, Stuart & Quigley, John Reed,
Ben & Arn,
Nick Doody
Nick Doody (born 1972 in Shipley, West Yorkshire) is a British stand-up comedian.
Doody featured as a guest on vox-pop television shows and radio broadcasts such as '' Political Animal''. He wrote for the television series ''FAQ U'', featured o ...
, Andy Bodle, Spencer Brown and Georgie Morgan.
In early 2001 Bachman and Evans began a weekly live residency at the
Etcetera Theatre
The Etcetera Theatre is a fringe venue for theatre and comedy. It was founded in 1986 and is situated above The Oxford Arms pub in Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden.
The Theatre won the ''1996 Guinness Ingenuity Award for Pub Theatr ...
in London, developing a free-form live sketch-sitcom under the title ''Work In Progress''. Material from this residency became their first Edinburgh Fringe show ''Hmm...'' which ran at the
Assembly Rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th century Britain, 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done ...
. Bachman and Evans returned to Edinburgh in 2002 with their second show ''The Bachman and Evans Special Edition'', which attempted to add DVD-style commentary and 'extra scenes' to their normal live-sitcom-adventure format. In 2001 and 2002 and 2002 Bachman also directed Edinburgh Fringe shows for Mitchell and Webb: ''The Mitchell and Webb Story'' and ''The Mitchell and Webb Clones''.
At the end of 2001 Bachman joined
Lucy Montgomery and
Barunka O'Shaughnessy to form the clown comedy trio Population: 3. Their first show ''Gladiatrix ''was devised with director
Cal McCrystal
Cal McCrystal is an Irish theatre director and actor. He is the brother of the journalist Damien McCrystal and the son of the journalist and writer Cal McCrystal. Following an early career acting in theatre, television, radio plays and commercia ...
and performed at
the Soho Theatre in London and subsequently at the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it achieved some success. Continuing the theme of taking Hollywood films and reversing the sex of the main character, Population: 3 returned to the Fringe in 2003 with their most successful show ''The Wicker Woman ''(which was seen by
Robin Hardy the director of the original
The Wicker Man
''The Wicker Man'' is a 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, and Christopher Lee. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, inspired by David Pinner's 1967 ...
), and its 2004 follow-up ''The Elephant Woman,'' both devised with director
David Sant
David Sant (born 1968) is a Spanish mime artist, acrobat, puppeteer, stuntman, director, actor and writer.
Early life and career
Sant was born in Spain in 1968. He discovered the theatre at the age of seventeen thanks to his literature teach ...
.
Bachman was then invited to become part of the regular team behind ''
Ealing Live!'', a weekly live comedy show at
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...
inspired by the format of the American show ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
'' and the 1980s British comedy shows
Saturday Live and ''
Friday Night Live Friday Night Live may refer to:
* ''Friday Night Live'' (''Big Brother Australia''), a television series aired on Network Ten as a part of ''Big Brother Australia''
* ''Friday Night Live'' (UK TV show), successor to ''Saturday Live''
* ''Friday L ...
''. He also became a regular fixture on the live character and sketch circuit in London, performing as Oscar Wilde, The James Bachman International Orchestra and Papa Christmas at comedy nights including Oram and Meeten's Club Fantastico,
The Book Club
''The Book Club'' (formerly ''First Tuesday Book Club'') was an Australian television show that discussed books, ostensibly in the style of a domestic book club. Hosted by journalist Jennifer Byrne, it used a panel format with two regular mem ...
, and The Pros From Dover.
In 2008 he and Evans recorded a pilot for Radio 4 based on the style of their Edinburgh shows comedy. The show, called ''Zoom'', was written by and starred Bachman and Evans, and co-starred
David Soul
David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943) is an American-British actor and singer. He is known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television series ''Starsky & Hutch'' from 1975 to 1979; Joshua Bolt on ' ...
and
Carla Mendonça
Carla Mendonça (born 1961) in Coventry, Warwickshire is a British actress. She is known for playing Orla Crawshaw in ''Coronation Street'', Sophie Johnson in the CITV children's sitcom ''My Parents Are Aliens'' (2001–2006) and Mrs. Fitzgeral ...
with
Jon Glover
Jonathan Philip Glover (born 26 December 1952) is an English actor. He has appeared in various television programmes including '' Play School'', '' Survivors'', the Management consultant in '' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', '' Casual ...
as
Melvyn Bragg. It also featured a special guest appearance by
Nicholas Parsons
Christopher Nicholas Parsons (10 October 1923 – 28 January 2020) was an English actor, straight man and radio and television presenter. He was the long-running presenter of the comedy radio show '' Just a Minute'' and hosted the game show '' ...
as himself. The show had originally been developed as a TV series with
Absolutely Productions
Absolutely Productions is a television production company formed in 1988 by Morwenna Banks, Jack Docherty, Moray Hunter, Pete Baikie, John Sparkes, and Gordon Kennedy, all of whom were the cast of British television comedy sketch show '' Absol ...
and was not picked up for a series by Radio 4.
Bachman has since appeared in regular and cameo roles in ''
Saxondale
''Saxondale'' is an English television situation comedy programme, starring Steve Coogan and co-written by Coogan and Neil Maclennan. The series is directed by Matt Lipsey and produced by Ted Dowd. Coogan and Henry Normal served as executive pr ...
'', ''
The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired ...
'', ''
The IT Crowd'', "
Jonathan Creek
''Jonathan Creek'' is a long-running British mystery crime drama series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. It stars Alan Davies as the titular character, who works as a creative consultant to a stage magician while also solvi ...
", ''
Hyperdrive,
Miranda,
Peep Show
A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.
Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the c ...
,
Rev.'' and ''
Mount Pleasant ''as well as a number of other television and radio programmes. From 2008 to 2010 he co-wrote and starred in three series of the
CBBC
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
sketch show ''
Sorry, I've Got No Head
''Sorry, I've Got No Head'' was a CBBC children's sketch comedy television series. The programme's cast originally consisted of William Andrews, David Armand, James Bachman, Marcus Brigstocke, Anna Crilly, Justin Edwards, Mark Evans, Mel G ...
, ''appearing as some of the shows most popular characters including Ross, the only student at the North Barrasay school, Mark, the record breaker, Prudith, who with her friend Jasmine thinks everything costs a thousand pounds, and the beekeeper who thinks maybe his bees can help.
He was a regular member of the cast of both ''That Mitchell and Webb Look'' and ''That Mitchell and Webb Sound'' and in the winter of 2006 he toured with David Mitchell and Robert Webb as part of their live show ''
The Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb''.
Bachman is also well known to BBC Radio 4 listeners as jolly idiot Harry Biscuit in all five series of the BBC radio comedy ''
Bleak Expectations
''Bleak Expectations'' is a BBC Radio 4 comedy series that premiered in August 2007. It is a pastiche of the works of Charles Dickens – such as ''Bleak House'' and '' Great Expectations'', from which it derives its name – as well as adventu ...
'', which ran from 2007 to 2012.
His film credits include the shorts ''
Stiffy'' and ''Monsters and Rabbits'' as well as a cameo appearance in the
Bain and
Armstrong Armstrong may refer to:
Places
* Armstrong Creek (disambiguation), various places
Antarctica
* Armstrong Reef, Biscoe Islands
Argentina
* Armstrong, Santa Fe
Australia
* Armstrong, Victoria
Canada
* Armstrong, British Columbia
* Armstrong ...
film
''Magicians''. In 2013 he was cast in Michael Bay's ''
Transformers: Age of Extinction'' as Gill Wembley, head scientist to the character of Joshua Joyce played by
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...
. The film was released in 2014 and became the first film that year to take one billion dollars at the worldwide box office.
Although Evans now generally works as a solo writer, he and Bachman still occasionally collaborate. Bachman also writes in partnership with a variety of other comedy writers including
Tom Meeten
Tom or TOM may refer to:
* Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name)
Characters
* Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head''
* Tom Beck, a character ...
,
Tony Way
Tony Paul Way (born 7 October 1978) is an English actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for playing characters in a number of British comedy TV series including '' Extras'', '' After Life'', ''Black Books'' and '' Bang, Bang, It's Reev ...
, Gareth Tunley, Arnold Widdowson and Toby Davies.
From October to December 2014, he played Tony McDonald in
Millie Inbetween
''Millie Inbetween'' is a British children's sitcom series broadcast on CBBC and starring Millie Innes. The first episode premiered on 1 October 2014, with the final episode airing on 12 December 2018. It focuses on 12-year-old Millie and her 1 ...
for series one, however, the role was recast to
Richard Lumsden
Richard James Lumsden (born 24 June 1965) is an English actor, writer, composer and musician. He has made regular appearances on TV and film throughout his career. Notable series include Channel 4's Emmy-award winning ''Sugar Rush'', '' Is it ...
in series 2, due to Bachman focusing on his music career.
Internet
Bachman and Tunley make their own improvised web series ''Peeder Jigson's Video Diary'' published on
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a re ...
and on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
in which Bachman appears as the film director Peeder Jigson (a version of New Zealand film director
Peter Jackson, director of ''
The Lord of The Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...
'' and ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ''N ...
'' film trilogies). The show is a spoof behind-the-scenes video diary purporting to show the making of the Jackson's three ''Hobbit'' films (here referred to as The Hubbard''
'). In the videos Tunley often blessed the role of Peeder's friend Daryl who is operating the camera and therefore unseen, but sometimes heard. Some of the videos also purport to be shot by Peeder himself, and in one instance, due to illness, Peeder claims to have let
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...
make one. The first video in the series was posted to Funny or Die in January 2011, almost a year and a half before Peter Jackson began uploading his own official production diaries of the making of the Hobbit. In July 2012
Empire Magazine published a full-page interview with Jigson about the shooting of the movies. Bachman and Tunley also tweet as Peeder Jigson.
In collaboration with Tom Meeten, Bachman has also shot a number sketches for the BBC's online comedy presence under the umbrella of a fake BBC Internet channel called ''BBC Nought''. The videos are presented as trailers for upcoming shows on BBC Nought, and include clips from parodies of real BBC shows as well as invented shows such as ''Shower Chat'', ''The Farming Programme'' and ''Celebrity Driving School''. BBC shows parodied include
''MasterChef: The Professionals'',
''Question Time'', ''
Later... with Jools Holland'', ''
Final Score
''Final Score'' is a BBC Television football news and results programme produced by BBC Sport. The programme is broadcast on late Saturday afternoons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually on BBC One. BBC Northern Ireland opts away dur ...
'' and, most successfully,
''The Apprentice'', in which Bachman and Meeten portray the selection process for the famous reality show.
Filmography
Film
Video games
References
External links
Official website*
Peeder Jigsonon
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a re ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachman, James
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
English male comedians
English male stage actors
English television writers
Living people
1972 births
People from Cuckfield
People educated at Radley College
English people of American descent
English male writers
20th-century English comedians
21st-century English comedians
British male television writers