Dara O'Briain

As well as his live work, O'Briain is popularly known in the UK for hosting BBC 2's Mock the Week, and in Ireland for hosting RTE 2's The Panel. He is one the few performers to host successful comedy shows in both the UK and his native Ireland at the same time. This was the third series of the topical comedy show Mock the Week on BBC television, and the show's ratings went from 1.7 million for the first episode to three million viewers by the last show. The show returns on BBC2 in January. Other notable televison work in 2006 includes two documentaries re-creating the legendary British comedy novel "Three Men in a Boat", where he rowed down the Thames with Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath and the interview programme "Turn Back Time" in which he quizzed various comedy legends including Barry Humphries, Vic Reeves and Terry Jones.