John Lloyd (writer)
Encyclopedia
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 30 September 1951) is a British comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd
John Hardress Lloyd
Brigadier-General John Hardress Lloyd was an Anglo-Irish soldier and polo player. He was awarded a DSO and made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur for his service in the British Army during the First World War...
.
Early life and career
Lloyd was born in Dover and educated at West Hill Park School in TitchfieldTitchfield
Titchfield is a village in southern Hampshire, by the River Meon. The village has a history stretching back to the 6th century. During the medieval period, the village operated a small port and market...
, Hants
Hants
Hants may refer to:*Hampshire, a county in England** Mid Hants Watercress Railway, in Hampshire*Hants County, Nova Scotia, a Canadian county named for the English one**East Hants, Nova Scotia, a municipal district...
; The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School, Canterbury
The King's School is a British co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in the historic English cathedral city of Canterbury in Kent. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Eton Group....
; and Trinity College
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. There he befriended, and later shared a flat with Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
. He worked as a radio producer at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
1974–1978 and created The News Quiz
The News Quiz
The News Quiz is a topical panel game broadcast on British radio BBC Radio 4.-History:It was first broadcast in 1977 with Barry Norman as chairman. Subsequently it was chaired by Simon Hoggart, Barry Took , and then again by Simon Hoggart until March 2006. Hoggart was replaced by Sandi Toksvig in...
, The News Huddlines
The News Huddlines
The News Huddlines was a long-running BBC Radio 2 topical comedy sketch show starring Roy Hudd that ran for fifty one series from 1975 until 2001. Each episode lasted for half an hour and consisted of topical sketches, songs and one-liners.-Performers:...
, To The Manor Born
To the Manor Born
To the Manor Born is a British sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special edition appeared in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by Peter Spence, the creator, while the 1981 finale was written by Christopher...
(with Peter Spence) and Quote... Unquote
Quote... Unquote
Quote... Unquote is a long-running panel game broadcast on BBC Radio 4 based on quotations. Every episode since the beginning of the series in 1976 has been chaired by its deviser, Nigel Rees. In July 2011, the programme began a new series, being broadcast at 1.30pm on Mondays, repeated on...
(with Nigel Rees). He wrote Hordes of the Things
Hordes of the Things (radio series)
Hordes of the Things is a 1980 BBC radio comedy series parodying J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the fantasy genre in general, in a style similar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was written by "A. P. R. Marshall and J. H. W. Lloyd" and produced by Geoffrey Perkins...
(as J. H. W. Lloyd) with Andrew ("A. P. R.") Marshall
Andrew Marshall (writer)
Andrew Marshall is an English comedy screenwriter, most noted for the domestic sitcom 2point4 children. He was also the inspiration for Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
, co-authored two episodes of Doctor Snuggles
Doctor Snuggles
Doctor Snuggles is an animated television series created by Jeffrey O'Kelly about a friendly and optimistic inventor named Doctor Snuggles who has unusual adventures with his friends in a slightly psychedelic world...
with Douglas Adams and then went on to co-write the fifth and sixth episodes of the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
with him. (Douglas Adams wrote all the other previous and subsequent episodes solo, as well as the television adaptation – though Lloyd was involved in the TV series as Associate Producer.) Lloyd then worked as a TV producer at both the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
1979–1989 where he created Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
(with Sean Hardie) and Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
(with Peter Fluck and Roger Law). He also produced all four Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...
series. Lloyd was originally to have been the host of BBC topical news quiz Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
, with the programme initially intended to be called John Lloyd's Newsround. A pilot episode of the show was recorded under this name in mid-1990, with Lloyd hosting alongside team captains Ian Hislop
Ian Hislop
Ian David Hislop is a British journalist, satirist, comedian, writer, broadcaster and editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye...
and Paul Merton
Paul Merton
Paul Merton is a British comedian, writer, actor and television presenter. Known for his improvisation skill, his humour is rooted in deadpan, surreal and sometimes dark comedy...
. Lloyd subsequently decided to pull out of hosting the programme full-time and as a consequence the pilot episode was never broadcast. Lloyd was replaced by Angus Deayton
Angus Deayton
Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...
as host and the show was renamed Have I Got News for You in time for its debut on BBC2 later that year.
Recent work
Lloyd has worked as a TV commercials director on and off since 1987. He is married with three children and lives in the UK. His first new TV series for 14 years, QIQI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...
(short for Quite Interesting, and a deliberate reversal of IQ), starring Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
and Alan Davies
Alan Davies
Alan Davies is an English comedian, writer and actor best known for starring in the TV mystery series Jonathan Creek and as the permanent panellist on the TV panel show QI.- Early life :...
, began on 11 September 2003 at 10pm on BBC2 for a run of 12 episodes. In its eighth series, which started on BBC One in September 2010, Lloyd appeared as a panelist in one of the episodes. All the episodes of QI (including the pilot) have been directed by Ian Lorimer. Lloyd currently presents the radio series, The Museum of Curiosity
The Museum of Curiosity
The Museum of Curiosity, formerly titled The Professor of Curiosity, is a comedy panel game on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It stars John Lloyd as "The Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham" and owner of the fictional "Museum of Curiosity"...
(2011), which he co-created with producers Richard Turner & Dan Schreiber and former co-host Bill Bailey.
Lloyd was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting.
Books
He co-authored the books:- Not! The Nine O'Clock News
- Not 1982
- Not 1983
- Not the Royal Wedding
- Not the General Election
- The Meaning of LiffThe Meaning of LiffThe Meaning of Liff is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983, and the USA in 1984....
(1983, with Douglas AdamsDouglas AdamsDouglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
) - The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990, with Douglas Adams)
- The Appallingly Disrespectful Spitting Image Book
- Spitting Image
- Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty 1485-1917 (2000, with Richard CurtisRichard CurtisRichard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
and Rowan AtkinsonRowan AtkinsonRowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
) - The Book of General IgnoranceThe Book of General IgnoranceThe Book of General Ignorance is the first in a series of books based on the final round in the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson, to help spread the QI philosophy of curiosity to the reading public...
(2006, with John Mitchinson and the QI Elves) - The Book of Animal IgnoranceThe Book of Animal IgnoranceThe Book of Animal Ignorance is the second title in a series of books based on the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson...
(2007, with John Mitchinson and the QI Elves) - Advanced BanterAdvanced BanterAdvanced Banter: The QI Book of Quotations, known as If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? in the United States, is the third title in a series of books based on the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson...
(2008, with John Mitchinson and the QI Elves) - The QI Book of the DeadThe QI Book of the DeadThe QI Book of the Dead is the fourth title in a series of books based on the intellectual British panel game QI, written by series-creator John Lloyd and head-researcher John Mitchinson...
(2009, with John Mitchinson and the QI Elves) - The QI Annual E [editor] (2007, with various authors)
- The QI Annual F [co-editor] (2008, with John Mitchinson [co-editor] and various authors)
- The QI Annual G [editor] (2009, with various authors)
External links
- Guide to Comedy entry from the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
- The People Behind QI
- The Idler Archives — Conversations: John Lloyd
- John Lloyd (with John Mitchinson) discussing The Book of General Ignorance