After Dinner Speakers: Phil Cool, Sacha Baron Cohen, Steven Redgrave

Born Phil Martin in Chorley, Lancashire, Phil Cool shot to prominence in the late eighties when, after many hard years on the cabaret circuit, a producer from the BBC spotted him working as an audience 'warm up' for the satirical television programme Spitting Image. This led to an appearance on daytime television's Pebble Mill, which was so successful that he was immediately snapped up to record a series for the BBC. Such was the response from public and press that the series - Cool It - was repeated on BBC1 within a matter of months - unheard of for a new television artist. His second series won the Royal Television Society Award for 'Most Original Television Achievement', and a third series was screened the following year. At the height of a career which included three hit series for the BBC; two for ITV; five top selling videos; four TV specials, plus a book, an album and countless national tours - Phil suffered a headline-hitting and very public divorce. After his remarriage and the birth of his son - Joe Cool (!) - he decided to stop, take some time out and retreat to his home in the tranquillity of Lancashire's beautiful Forest of Bowland. The year stretched into four but in the summer of '98 he catapulted back into the public eye. He wowed the comedy circuit in Los Angeles, sharing the bill with some of America's hottest stand ups - who were knocked out with his unique weirdness - and attracting talent scouts from such major movers as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros, who hailed him as the UK's answer to Jim Carrey. Since then he has over a whole new generation of fans when he sold out at the Edinburgh Festival and headlined at the Improv Comedy Club in London's West End - where he was such a hit that he was immediately snapped up to appear on The Royal Variety Show. In 1999 he played the Comedy Store to massive acclaim, after which he performed in top theatres on his first major solo UK tour since 1990.