The Nimmo Twins are a
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
duo from
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
,
UK comprising Owen Evans and Karl Minns. First working together in 1996 in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, they came to national attention after their show ''Posh Spice Nude'' was a sell-out success at the 1997
Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__
This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...
, and
they became regulars on
Radio 4's ''Loose Ends'' programme with
Ned Sherrin
Edward George Sherrin (18 February 1931 – 1 October 2007) was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He qualified as a barrister and then worked in independent television before joining the BBC. He appeared in a variety of ra ...
. The duo returned to Edinburgh in 1998 and 1999, and have performed internationally.
Career
Owen Evans was raised in Cromer and attended the
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. It is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools.
LAMDA's Principal is ...
(LAMDA) where he studied with the Moscow Arts Theatre school. As an actor, he has appeared in innumerable plays and theatre productions. He has also appeared in television adverts for
Daewoo
Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...
Cars,
NatWest
National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it ...
,
Ikea
IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...
and Flora.
As a stand-up comedian, Karl Minns won the
Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
Open Mic Award in 2001 and played the Montreal and Melbourne Comedy Festivals before returning to Edinburgh in 2002 in ''Comedy Clone'' with
Nina Conti
Nina Margarita Conti (born 25 August 1973) is a British actress, comedian, and ventriloquist.
Early life
Conti was born and raised in Hampstead, London, the daughter of actors Tom Conti and Kara Wilson. She attended King Alfred School, Londo ...
and Patrick Monaghan. The Nimmo Twins then became the face of
Adnams Beer
Adnams is a regional brewery founded in 1872 in Southwold, Suffolk, England, by George and Ernest Adnams. It produces cask ale and bottled beers. Annual production is around 85,000 barrels.
In 2010, the company established the Copper House di ...
in Norfolk in TV radio and billboard adverts for two years.
The Twins got their start with the Crude Apache Theatre Company. After their 1997 Edinburgh Festival show they made appearances on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
's ''
Stand Up Show''.
Minns has written plays, comedies and musicals for both stage and radio. As a television writer he has written for
Karen Taylor,
Laura Solon
Laura Madalene Solon (born April 1979) is an English screenwriter, comedian, actress, and winner of the 2005 Perrier Comedy Award. She was the second woman to win as a solo performer, after Jenny Eclair in 1995.
Background
Solon was raised in G ...
and
Phil Nichol
Phil Nichol is a Canadian comedian, singer-songwriter and actor.
Early life and career
Comedy
Nichol was born in Scotland to a Scottish mother, but raised in Canada. He first found fame as a member of the musical comedy trio Corky and the Juice ...
. He wrote the TV sitcom pilot ''Moonmonkeys'' starring
Karl Theobald
Karl Julian Theobald (born 5 August 1969) is an English actor and comedian. He has played 'Landlord' in '' Plebs'' and Martin Dear in Channel 4 sitcom ''Green Wing''.
Early life
Theobald was born in Great Yarmouth, to Wendy Theobald. He gr ...
and
Dan Antopoloski. He also wrote a weekly column for the
Norwich Evening News
The ''Norwich Evening News'' is a daily local newspaper published in Norwich, Norfolk, England. It covers the city and the surrounding suburbs, and is published by Archant. It is the best-selling newspaper in Norwich. As of 28 February 2011 the ...
from 2002 to 2007. He was awarded the EDF Regional Columnist of The Year in January 2007. He was also nominated for the
Press Gazette
''Press Gazette'', formerly known as ''UK Press Gazette'' (UKPG), is a British media trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press. First published in 1965, it had a circulation of about 2,500, before becoming online-only in 2013. Publis ...
Media Awards Regional Columnist of the year in the same year.
The Nimmo Twins briefly expanded to a trio in 1999 with the introduction of
Andrew McGibbon
Andrew McGibbon (a.k.a. Andrew Paresi; born 1961 in Chiswick), is an English comedian, actor, writer, musician and composer. He has also produced and directed extensively, chiefly for radio.
Education
The son of James, a prominent educationali ...
, who performed with them during the spring and summer of that year.
The first Radio 4 comedy series ''The Nimmo Twins in...'' was broadcast in 2000 on
BBC 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British Digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio broadcasting, radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a ...
. Episodes included: ''A Stiff Upper Lip'' - a tale of a
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
gentleman without a beard; and ''Lord of the Onion Rings'' - the tale of a
Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
-obsessed man who works in a
petrol
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
station. Their second series, ''The Rapid Eye Movement'', about the troupe of actors performing a man's nightly dreams, starred
Martin Freeman
Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Freeman's most no ...
,
Chris Langham
Christopher Langham (born 14 April 1949) is an English writer, actor, and comedian. He is known for playing the cabinet minister Hugh Abbot in the BBC sitcom '' The Thick of It'', and as presenter Roy Mallard in '' People Like Us'', first on B ...
and
Kevin Eldon
Kevin Eldon (born 2 October 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including ''Fist of Fun'', '' This Morning with Richard Not Judy'', '' Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge' ...
. The show ran for three series until 2005. The second series was nominated for the Douglas Adams Award for Radio Comedy in 2003.
Minns wrote the show ''Mouth to Mouth'', for BBC3, a series of six interlinking monologues, whose stories intersected until the whole overall story was told. The Stage described it as an "intricately-plotted love hexagon... superb and understated".
As a writer and performer, Minns has also contributed to two series of ''
Russell Howard's Good News
''Russell Howard's Good News'' was a British comedy and topical news television show which was broadcast on BBC Three between 2009 and 2014, and on BBC Two between 2014 and 2015. Hosted by comedian Russell Howard, it offered his commentary on ...
'' on BBC3, credited as Programme Associate alongside Dan Atkinson and Steve Williams. The first series aired in winter 2009, the second series ran from March to May 2010. The programme is now in its seventh series with Minns now credited as writer. Minns is also credited as a writer on
Spitting Image (2020).
Live shows
In their native Norfolk, Evans and Minns are best known for their yearly sketch show, ''
Normal for Norfolk'', which in ten years grew from a pub show to a performance at the Norwich Playhouse, playing to over 4500 people over Christmas 2005.
In the early hours of 14 December 2007, Karl Minns was attacked while walking home after a performance at the city's Playhouse. He was badly injured, suffering a broken arm and fractured skull. The duo were forced to cancel the remainder of their shows for the year.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nimmo Twins, The
People from Norwich
English male comedians
BBC Radio comedy programmes
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)