HMS Comedy

HMS Comedy is a UK-based collaborative team of writers and performers with credits on TV, radio, and the stage, and are most notable for the personnel involved. Geoff Aymer is a West End performer ("Big Life", Apollo Theatre) and film actor ("Rag Tag", 2006), James Harris and Marc Blakewill are TV and radio comedy writers, Alex Woodhall is a West End performer ("Snoopy", New Players Theatre) and TV comedy actor ("Star Stories", C4), Simon Ounsworth is a TV and radio writer ("Revolver", BBC), Emma Thornett is a TV comedy actress ("Extras", BBC) and West End performer ("Blood Brothers", Lyric Theatre), and Samantha Sanns and Bea Holland are a successful touring double-act ("Ladies Monthly", Phil McIntyre).

Early days

HMS Comedy was created in 1998 by James Harris, Jason Mardell, and Paul Sawyer (the surname initials spelling HMS), initially as a collective name under which to submit material to NewsRevue. HMS had fair success, contributing to the 1999 Edinburgh Festival show and having a song performed on BBC Radio 4. HMS Comedy also had a sketch performed on commercial radio by Marc Wootton and Barry Castagnola as part of a Britvic advertising campaign featuring the Tango Tea Ladies. During 1999 and 2000, Rupert Wainwright and Peter Brent also occasionally wrote for NewsRevue under the HMS Comedy banner. However, gradually the name HMS Comedy was used less and less when submitting to the show.

Evolution

In 2001, James Harris resurrected the name of HMS Comedy and put together a team to write a sketch show based around the subject of evolution. Joining Harris as writers were Marc Blakewill, Rupert Wainwright, Geoff Aymer, and Caroline Laitner. With James Harris taking on the role of producer, stand-up comedian Michael Urwin was brought in as director and Nic Watson as technical director.

With a cast of Geoff Aymer, Liv Edmunds and Alex Woodhall, HMS Comedy's Evolution ran at the 2001 Edinburgh Festival at a 200-seater venue at C Venues.

Revolution

The follow-up to Evolution was HMS Comedy's Revolution, which ran at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival. This time both Blakewill & Harris were producers and lead writers, with further material from Geoff Aymer, Samantha Sanns, Simon Ounsworth, Caroline Laitner, Andrea Sadler, and James Woroniecki. The director was Keith Myers with technical direction from Nic Watson and musical direction from Laurence Hobbs.

The cast was Geoff Aymer, Samantha Sanns, Emma Thornett, and Laurie Crowter and HMS Comedy's Revolution ran at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival at a 160-seater venue at C Venues.

Absolute Comedy

In the spring of 2002, HMS Comedy (specifically Michael Urwin and James Harris, along with Rohan Acharya) produced a season of high quality stand-up and sketch cabaret shows called Absolute Comedy at Soho's Madame JoJo's nightclub. The ten fortnightly shows featured many excellent acts from the London comedy circuit, including headliners such as Sean Lock, Dan Antopolski, Dara Ó Briain, Neil Mullarkey, Noel Fielding, and Lee Mack. Nic Watson was the technical director. The show gained a Time Out recommendation and was Critics' Choice in Metro.

Olde Revue

HMS Comedy's last performance (to date) was in February 2004, when Blakewill & Harris produced a song and sketch show at the Canal Café Theatre. Whilst most of the material was from Blakewill & Harris, there were also sketches by Geoff Aymer and Simon Ounsworth. Direction was from James Harris, musical direction from Pete Smith and technical direction from Ross McGivern.

The cast for HMS Comedy's Olde Revue was Geoff Aymer, Samantha Sanns, Dan Fox and Bea Holland.