Robert Webb, comedian

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robert Webb first reached a wide audience as the co-star of Channel 4’s longest running sitcom, the BAFTA-award winning Peep Show. With his long-standing comedy partner David Mitchell, he also created That Mitchell and Webb Sound for BBC Radio 4, which transferred to TV as That Mitchell and Webb Look, which also won a BAFTA. Robert was born in Lincolnshire and first became hooked on comedy when his impressions of teachers made his school friends laugh. After realising that many of his comedy heroes had studied at Cambridge University, and were members of the Cambridge Footlights, he decided to follow in their footsteps. He took his A levels twice in order to win a place to study English there, and went on to become vice-president of the Footlights - where he met David Mitchell. Their comedy partnership has lasted for 30 years, starting out with shows for the Edinburgh fringe and writing for other performers, before enjoying TV success as a double act. Robert has also written a best-selling memoir, How Not to be a Boy, in which he reflects on masculinity, and a novel. In 2019, a routine medical examination revealed that he had a congenital heart defect. He underwent heart surgery and is now fully recovered. Robert lives in London with his wife and two daughters. DISC ONE: Do I Move You? - Nina Simone DISC TWO: The Old Fashioned Way - Charles Aznavour DISC THREE: Fool if you Think It’s Over - Elkie Brooks DISC FOUR: Get A Life - Soul II Soul DISC FIVE: Metal Mickey - Suede DISC SIX: Being Alive, composed by Stephen Sondheim, performed by Adrian Lester and cast of Company and recorded in 1996 at Donmar Warehouse, London DISC SEVEN: How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead DISC EIGHT: It’s Corn - Tariq, The Gregory Brothers & Recess Therapy BOOK CHOICE: Cultural Amnesia by Clive James LUXURY ITEM: A top hat and tails CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Old Fashioned Way - Charles Aznavour Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.4	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.7	Music Radio Music
0:45.2	My cast away this week is the writer, actor and comedian Robert Webb.
0:49.2	He's the co-star of Channel 4's longest running sitcom,
0:52.6	The BAFTA Award-winning Peep Show, along with his on-screen other half, David Mitchell.
0:57.3	They also created that Mitchell and Webb sound here on Radio 4,
1:00.8	which transferred to TV as what else that Mitchell and Webb look.
1:05.0	It won a BAFTA too.
1:06.4	He first met David Mitchell in the Cambridge Footlights and together they trod the path
1:10.9	from student comedy to TV fame.
1:13.5	But success also brought with it a brush with mortality, a certain amount of dancing
1:18.6	and an examination of modern masculinity.
1:21.2	In his hit memoir How Not to Be a Boy,
1:23.7	he aimed to prompt others to interrogate their upbringing and attitudes by sharing his own.
1:28.5	He says,
1:29.3	all comedians secretly want to make themselves useful,
1:32.2	because we don't really believe that making people laugh is any kind of noble calling.
	...

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