Alex Horne

Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born 10 September 1978 in Petworth, West Sussex) is a British comedian.[2] Horne is the creator of Taskmaster, a comedy panel show in which he is the assistant to "Taskmaster" Greg Davies, who judges comedians on various absurd tasks they are asked to perform. He is also the host of "The Horne Section", a live music variety show which has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Dave.

For those of a similar name, see Alexander Horn (disambiguation).
Alex Horne
Alex Horne, Waterstones, Piccadilly, London, December 2018
Born
Alexander James Jeffery Horne

(1978-09-10) 10 September 1978
Petworth, West Sussex, England
OccupationComedian, writer
Years active2000–present
Height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) [1]
Spouse(s)
Rachel Horne (m. 2005)
Children3

He was a contestant on the numbers and letters show Countdown in 2008 for Channel 4, and has been a dictionary corner guest many times on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown with his band.

Early life

Horne was educated at Lancing College (Fields House, 1991–1996) and at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied classics,[3] graduating in 2001.[4] While at Cambridge he was a member of the Footlights.[5]

Career

He made his first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000 with his show, "How To Avoid Huge Ships".[6] His 2003 Edinburgh show, "Making Fish Laugh" was nominated for a Perrier newcomer award.[7] In 2004 he won a Chortle Award for Best Breakthrough Act. His shows with Tim Key have been "Every Body Talks" and "When in Rome", both of which featured unusually extensive use of Microsoft PowerPoint for a comic act. Horne toured Roman towns of the UK with the "When in Rome" show in early 2006.

As a solo performer, Horne wrote and performed "Birdwatching" at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival and "Wordwatching" at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival. He signed a two-book deal with Virgin Publishing to write up both of these stories as books. The first, entitled Birdwatchingwatching, came out early in 2009. The second came out in early 2010.

On 18 January 2007, Horne became the first ever comedian to perform in Second Life for a feature on Sky News. Between 24 October 2006 and 24 October 2007 he worked alongside fellow comedian Owen Powell, in an attempt to find a person from every nationality living in London. After a year's search, they finally managed to meet people from 189 of the UN's 192 countries, and hence suggested there is nobody in the city from Tuvalu, Palau, or the Marshall Islands.[8]

Since 2010, Horne has also been performing with his band The Horne Section as the compere of comedy variety shows.[9] "Alex Horne Presents The Horne Section" (2012-14) ran for three series on BBC Radio 4, and "The Horne Section Podcast" is currently streaming its fourth series since 2018.

Television work

Horne appeared as a contestant on Countdown in August 2008, winning three matches before being defeated.[10] He also won the inaugural Comedians' Countdown Competition held at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the same month, beating Mark Watson and Stephen Grant to lift the trophy.

Horne acted as the on-stage expert responsible for graphics and sound-effects on the quiz show We Need Answers on BBC Four.

In 2011, Horne appeared on BBC One's Celebrity Mastermind. His specialist subject was the comedian Ken Dodd. He finished in 2nd place with a score of 25.

During Comic Relief 2011's 24 Hour Panel People marathon, Horne appeared on the Call My Bluff segment, on a team with Tim Key and Roisin Conaty.

Alex Horne also appeared in the TV show on BBC Three called Britain in Bed in 2011.

On 26 November 2012, Horne chaired Never Mind the Buzzcocks on BBC Two. His 'Horne Section' band performed behind him at various points during the quiz and performed songs about guests Louis Smith, Josh Widdicombe and Paloma Faith.

He appeared as a guest on The Matt Lucas Awards on 16 April 2013 where he won "The Bravest Guest" Award.

He has appeared eight times on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, seven as a Dictionary Corner guest, and once as a replacement for Joe Wilkinson.

Since 2015, Horne has served as co-host alongside Greg Davies in the Dave series Taskmaster, which he created. In 2018, Horne served as co-host in the US remake of the show – which carried a shorter, but similar format to the UK series. Versions of the programme have also been made in Belgium, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

In April 2018, Horne voiced a talking Button in the BBC One's game show The Button.[11]

In May 2018, Horne presented The Horne Section Television Programme, which was a musical comedy stage show based on his BBC Radio 4 show, The Horne Section. The show was recorded for UKTV in front of a live audience at the London Palladium and aired on Dave on 24 May. The show featured The Horne Section band as well as performances from comedians Sue Perkins, Sara Pascoe and Joe Wilkinson, drag act and opera singer Le Gateau Chocolat, and Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle.[12]

He has appeared twice as a contestant on The Chase on ITV.[13]

Personal life


Horne married his wife Rachel Horne, a BBC business journalist, on 1 January 2005.[5] The couple have three sons.[14][5]

He is a birdwatcher [15] and plays golf on his YouTube channel, Bad Golf, with John Robins.[16]

References
  1. Horne, Alex. "Alex Horne on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 23 October 2018. Current Height - 6'2"
  2. His middle name Jeffery is in honour of his father's birdwatching tutor Jeffery Harrison, as explained in Horne's book Birdwatchingwatching (p. 120-1), and hence is correctly spelt in this way.
  3. classics careers at Willamette.edu. Retrieved 25 April 2013
  4. "Reporter 11/7/01: Congregations of the Regent House on 28, 29, and 30 June 2001". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  5. "Tim Key and Alex Horne: How we met". The Independent. 12 July 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  6. Solutions, Powder Blue Internet Business. "How To Avoid Huge Ships : Reviews 2000 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk.
  7. Armstrong, Stephen (28 September 2003). "Comedy: The Critical List" – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  8. Alex Horne (24 October 2007). "The End of the World (in One City)". The World in One City. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  9. Brian Logan. "The Horne Section – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  10. Mike Brown. "Series 59". The Countdown Page. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  11. "The Button review: A simple, silly yet surprisingly good new game show on BBC1". Radio Times. 20 April 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  12. "The Horne Section website". Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  13. "The Chase Celebrity Special - S6 - Episode 1". Radio Times. Retrieved 3 August 2019.. "The Chase Celebrity Special - S8 - Episode 4". Radio Times. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  14. "My Secret Life: Alex Horne, 33, comedian". The Independent. 17 March 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  15. Kellaway, Kate (22 November 2009). "'To a birdwatcher, one glimpse, one moment is happiness enough'". The Observer. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  16. "Bad Golf". YouTube. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
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