Product Code Database
Timothy Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967) is an English comedian, actor, writer and presenter best known for his puns and other One-liner joke and his role on the TV sitcom Not Going Out (2006–2012, 2014). He has also released a number of stand-up comedy specials and 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 Fringe, and he was the runner-up for each of the three years between.
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. 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 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 The Pleasance for the first two weeks of the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe performing a show entitled Punslinger.
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-19 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. However, September 21's show was relocated after the original venue cancelled due to the 2023 United Kingdom reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete crisis.
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.
He occasionally plays the drums at his church. He was in several bands, including alongside his brother Jeremy Vine 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 Presley in every room at his 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.
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.
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.
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.
Vine 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.
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.
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 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.
In mid-2018, Vine was a celebrity contestant in 10 episodes of Taskmaster series 6, on Dave.
In autumn 2018, Vine hosted the 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, defeating Mike Tindall in the final. For 2022, Vine competed against Kiri Pritchard-McLean in One Red Nose and Their Dog.
In 2017, Tim Vine Travels Through Time was broadcast on BBC Radio 2, before moving to BBC One for two televised episodes.
On 25 August 2011, Vine won the prize for the second funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe festival. His joke was "Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels." He was beaten by Nick Helm. In 2012 Vine again came second with the joke "Last night me and my girlfriend watched three DVDs back to back. Luckily I was the one facing the telly." He was beaten by Stewart Francis. In 2013 Vine came fourth with the joke "My friend told me he was going to a fancy dress party as an Italian island. I said to him 'Don't be Sicily'." The winner was Rob Auton.
Vine won the award for the second time in 2014 with the joke "I decided to sell my Hoover... well it was just collecting dust."
Vine is a supporter of Sutton United, stating that the first of the team's games he attended was an FA Cup match against Middlesbrough during the 1987–88 season. He is also a keen darts fan, having attended several Professional Darts Corporation tournaments along with Lee Mack. Some of these were televised, such as the 2011 World Championships when both Vine and Mack appeared in the crowd. He also plays darts in his spare time.
| 1 series BBC One |
| 1 series |
| 2 series |
| 2 series |
| 1 series |
| 5 series, 1 special |
| 1 series |
| 1 series |
| 2 series |
| 1 September 2017 & Christmas Special |
| 1 series |
| 1994 |
| 1996 |
| 1996 |
| 17 January 1997 |
| 2003 |
| 14 July 2005 |
| 11 September 2007 – Jeremy Vine, 9 December 2012 – Cheryl Fergison |
| 3 March 2007 – 15 March 2007 |
| 15 October 2008 |
| 1 January 2009 (Elvis Presley), 27 December 2019 ( Jaws) |
| Various dates 2009–2012, 2014–2016, 2019–2020, 1–7 February 2022 |
| 28 July 2009 – Episode 5742 |
| 18 December 2009 |
| 26 December 2009 |
| 8 September 2010 |
| 7 February 2011 (S40E11), 21 September 2016 (S46E05), 25 March 2022 (S51E25) |
| 24 November 2011 |
| 15 December 2011 |
| 7 October 2012, 12 December 2021 (S11E10) |
| 1 December 2012 – Karen Taylor, 3 Sep 2016 – Terry Alderton, 3 March 2019 – Esther Rantzen, 30 October 2021 – Nina Conti. |
| 11 January 2013 |
| 16 February, 9 March 2013 |
| 26 February 2013 |
| 4 March 2013 |
| 26–30 May 2014 |
| 20 June 2014 |
| 22 June 2014, 10 October 2020 |
| 25 August 2014 |
| 11 October 2014 |
| 25 December 2014 |
| 3, 6 & 8 March 2015 / 28 February, 6 & 13 March 2016 |
| 29 October 2016 & 26 August 2023 |
| (Series 2) 8 & 17 April & 2 May 2017 |
| 12 December 2017 |
| (Series 6) 2 May 2018 – 4 July 2018 |
| (Series 3, Week 16) 10–14 February 2020 |
| 7 October 2021 (as Plastic Elvis), 25 December 2021 |
| 6 & 18 March 2022 |
| 3 November 2023 |
In quiz show celebrity specials, Vine often plays for Cure Parkinson's, because of his father, Guy Vine, who died with the illness in August 2018.
|
|
