Dara Ó Briain: ‘Mock the Week had the perfect end on the BBC – it went insane’

For more than 17 years, Dara Ó Briain and a host of the hottest comedians in Britain delighted TV audiences by poking fun at the week’s news and events. 

Sadly, after more than 21 series, Mock the Week came to an end in 2022 when BBC bosses stopped the presses.  

Now, after a few years off the box, Dara and the topical panel show are back with a new series set to air on TLC.  

So ahead of Mock the Week’s imminent return on February 1, Metro sat down with Dara to talk about what we can expect from this resurrected TV titan. 

And where better to begin than at the end? 

‘By the end of [Mock the Week], it had gone so insane,’ Dara laughed when we asked about the show’s final run on the BBC. 

‘The fact that the last eight episodes that we did on the BBC included both the beginning and the end of Liz Truss’s Premiership.  

‘It was a perfect way to go out, really, seeing six prime ministers, and then have another one just thrown in for free? It was a bonus for us.’ 

And if Dara thinks the BBC’s decision to axe the show was a disgrace (to borrow an expression from Ms Truss), then he’s very, very good at hiding it. 

In fact, during our interview, it was clear that the 53-year-old comedian was very enthusiastic about the show’s return, and he told me he had almost no hesitation in deciding to return.  

‘I felt that I should give it a moment’s thought, but it was grand,’ he explained. ‘I wasn’t going, “Oh God, please. When can I come back?” I’ve been on the road, doing stuff.’ 

Ultimately, though, it’s clear during our chat that what got Dara to sign up for the show was the opportunity to work with other comedians.  

‘I’m excited to be in the room with other comics,’ he admitted. ‘It’s a thing I don’t get to do that often because when you tour, you’re on your own. 

‘I’m a year on the current tour, and I haven’t seen a soul in that time. 

‘It’ll be nice to be in a room with Ed or Reese or whoever and get to hang out afterwards and have them carry the burden of a joke going badly as much as I do.  

‘I’m looking forward to that more than anything else.’ 

Of course, since the show has gone off the air, Trump has returned, Labour has moved into Number 10, and the world seems a more interesting place (to downplay my existential terror) than it was in 2022. 

Yet despite the frankly bonkers and often deadly serious news agenda these days, Dara doesn’t think it’ll change the show’s dynamic at all.  

While he admits that the speed of news has sped up in the US and UK, ultimately, he knows that at the end of the day, they’ll be making jokes about Labour, just like they used to make fun of the Conservatives. 

As for Trump? Well, despite some comedians claiming the US president’s recent actions strangled satire to death in its sleep, Dara is less sure.  

‘I think the first time he was in government, it felt like, “This is so insane, and he’s so ridiculous”. This time, [Trump’s behaviour is] really serious and grim, so he’s brought himself back into the world of parody and satire again.  

‘I mean, in his first premiership, there were things like feeding a basketball team hamburgers at the White House. Remember that?Now he’s kidnapping the president of Venezuela.’  

‘We’ve done it in wartime. We’ve done it in peacetime. We’ve done it through all of the events of the world. So, can things get any weirder? 

‘I mean, the fact that our first episode might well be the ‘Greenland we hardly knew you special’ where we reflect on Greenland’s 80 years on the world stage before it became a state of America. Yeah, it can’t get any weirder than that.’ 

So, can we expect any changes from the show? 

Well, the episodes are going to be longer – the run time has increased from 30 minutes to an hour – and there will be a few new segments alongside old favourites, but Dara was clear (even freed from the BBC’s strict editorial guidelines) that it will be the show we know and love. 

Well, almost.  

In its earlier years, Mock the Week had a reputation for controversy and pushing boundaries (Frankie Boyle joking about the Queen’s haunted vagina springs to mind), and Dara thinks that we might see less of that. 

‘We’re also not all 25 anymore, or whatever age we were when we started,’ he explains.   

‘We’re not all young men, six men out of the clubs. It’s a whole different thing. Even comedy is very different. Comedy is much more collaborative and messing around, so the whole thing feels a lot less elbows out.’ 

Don’t worry, though, the jokes aren’t going to be toothless, and Dara is sure one grand Mock the Week tradition will continue – namely, mocking him.  

‘I would presume that inherent in the job of handing out the points is the responsibility to be the brunt of gags. 

‘I’m not sure which direction they’re going to come from, although generally, you know, appearance, interested in nerdy subjects, mistakes, older man struggling with young culture. 

‘I’d forgotten that that happened as much as it did. And that, in fact, there are YouTube compilations of them just being mean to me and my big head.’ 

Sounds to us like there could be new compilations about Dara’s big head very soon. 

Mock the Week returns on TLC on February 1.  

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