Key Facts

• Joe Wilkinson and David Earl star in U&Gold's three-part series 'Joe and David's Magical Sitcom Journey', exploring classic British sitcoms.
• Wilkinson says his Celebrity Traitors fame was 'very intense for a month' before the public lost interest.
• The show is an emotional journey, with Wilkinson remembering watching Porridge with his parents and Earl recalling his late father's laughter at Fawlty Towers.
• Wilkinson's own sitcoms, Rovers and The Cockfields, were critically well-received but short-lived.
• He advises new Traitors contestants to simply enjoy the experience, calling it 'a big game of Cluedo in a castle in Scotland'.
• Wilkinson has a small role in Steven Moffat's upcoming political comedy Number 10.

It is unusual to see Joe Wilkinson in tears. The affable comedian, panel-show oddball, and celebrity Traitor is more commonly associated with deadpan one-liners and self-deprecating humour. Yet at the end of the first episode of his latest television venture, he is hugging his friend and fellow comic David Earl, struggling to compose himself. He is thinking about his mum and dad, his brother, his childhood – but most of all he is thinking about the lighthearted 1970s Ronnie Barker sitcom Porridge.

The opening episode of Joe and David's Magical Sitcom Journey proves one thing beyond doubt: sitcoms are deeply ingrained in the British psyche. The three-part U&Gold series is an entertaining and unashamedly nerdy delve into three classic British sitcoms – Fawlty Towers, The Office and Porridge – with the pair speaking to those involved and visiting filming locations. It is a project born from a casual conversation on their podcast Chatabix, when Earl mentioned he had visited the cul-de-sac used for exteriors in Ever Decreasing Circles. A week later, a friend took them to the Brighton allotment where the 1992 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses was filmed.

“We spent an hour and a half going, ‘This is where Albert walked down!’” says Wilkinson. The pair wondered if anyone would let them make this decidedly blokey, middle-aged hobby into a TV show. “And, weirdly, they did,” he adds with a chuckle. What Wilkinson didn't expect was the emotional impact. The opening episode, in which Earl lays on a series of encounters for Porridge superfan Wilkinson, is as heartstring-tugging as an average showing of Long Lost Families. In one scene, Wilkinson lies down in a bunkbed in a replica set of Norman Stanley Fletcher's prison cell and is suddenly struck by the urge to call his dad. Throughout the episode, Wilkinson's thoughts keep returning to his parents, with whom he would curl up in the living room to watch Porridge each week.

“That wasn't planned,” says Wilkinson, speaking from his home in Brighton. “We thought we'd have some fun and find some locations, but we gradually began to realise that these shows that we loved had stayed with us, 30, 40 years later. My parents and I connected over Porridge, we bonded over it.” The second episode, in which Wilkinson repays the favour with Earl's favourite sitcom, Fawlty Towers, has a similar outcome. “Fawlty Towers for David was all about hearing his dad laugh,” says Wilkinson. Earl's father died four years ago.

While panel shows, stand-up and podcasts have made Wilkinson's name – he has two other successful podcasts with Earl, as well as BBC's My Mate's a Footballer – there is a palpable sense that his heart lies in sitcoms. “I can't remember them not being part of my life,” he says. “When I was younger, growing up in the south-east with parents from London, I thought Only Fools and Horses was just for me. I didn't realise everyone else loved it. I just wanted to hang out with these people. Porridge made me want to go to prison and hang out with funny people. I don't really know why we love sitcoms so much in this country, it's just something we have. Like we'll always have a Sunday roast.”

Wilkinson and Earl have also written two sitcoms of their own: Sky One's Rovers (2016), about an amateur football club, and family comedy The Cockfields (Gold, 2019-21). Despite being warmly received, Rovers was cancelled after one series, while The Cockfields managed only ten episodes. The sitcom world, as Wilkinson puts it, is cruel. “It's really hard to make an average sitcom,” he says, “and I think it's almost impossible to make a brilliant one.” The secret, he believes, is chemistry, alchemy, luck, brilliant writers and a brilliant cast. Even then, nothing is guaranteed. “No one knows the formula, everyone is guessing to a degree, rolling the dice.”

Wilkinson, now 51 and instantly recognisable thanks to his unruly beard and mop of hair, has been a familiar face on British television for over a decade. He started in stand-up at the relatively late age of 30, then moved into television with the 2010 sitcom Him & Her – something he calls “luck,” despite Stefan Golaszewski writing the role of Dan specifically for him after seeing Wilkinson at the Edinburgh Fringe. A plethora of TV work followed, including becoming one of Britain's most familiar panel-show faces thanks to 8 Out of 10 Cats and a memorable stint on Taskmaster. A recurring role in Netflix's hit Sex Education further boosted his profile, though for years Wilkinson remained something of the comedy connoisseur's favourite.

Then came 2025, a year that transformed his level of fame. Wilkinson found himself central to two of the biggest breakout TV hits of the year – Amazon Prime's Last One Laughing and BBC One's The Celebrity Traitors. A year in which Grazia wrote about the nation's “Joe Wilkinson crush” ended with him starring as the romantic lead opposite Keira Knightley in the Waitrose Christmas adverts. Asked how his life has changed since that seismic year, the comedian seems genuinely baffled. “I really don't know,” he says apologetically.

What he does know is that the fame from The Celebrity Traitors was a short-lived phenomenon. “For about three or four weeks I couldn't go anywhere,” he recalls. “I couldn't get the train. I couldn't get through Paddington station.” But then, a week or so after the show ended, he found himself in the station again. “And nobody batted an eyelid. It was a relief, to be honest. You don't want to be Jennifer Lopez. Basically, it was very very intense for a month and then no one gave a shit.” Would he offer any advice to the celebrities taking part in series two, including Richard E Grant, Myha'la, Jerry Hall and Michael Sheen? “That's a bit like giving someone advice before they go into a funfair,” he laughs. “It's just so much fun. You don't need advice. It's basically a big game of Cluedo in a castle in Scotland.”

Wilkinson's experience on The Celebrity Traitors and Last One Laughing was uncomplicated pleasure, but that hasn't always been the case with other TV appearances. He cut his teeth during the notoriously sharp-elbowed, unforgiving and laddish panel-show boom of the 2010s. Have panel shows changed since those days? “Well, there's less of them now,” says Wilkinson. “People are sniffy about panel shows, but they were a real opportunity. These shows have launched a lot of careers.” Panel shows in the 2000s and 2010s gathered a reputation for being macho, gladiatorial places, with comedians adopting an every-man-for-himself attitude to get their jokes heard. Wilkinson says things have changed. “People like me who didn't enjoy [the earlier years], and who are still doing panel shows, we don't want people to go through some of the stuff that we went through. There's no benefit. No good comes from someone feeling like a piece of shit.”

He doesn't expand on the specifics, but it's hard to imagine such a laid-back character thriving in an atmosphere of peacocking and one-upmanship. Instead, panel shows evolved around him. “They matured,” he says. “They became less combative and more about being a shop window for being funny. I still do 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and they're still bringing people through.”

The launch of SNL UK was a different kind of challenge, attracting a tide of negativity before it even aired. Wilkinson puts this down to the public assuming it would be too hard to pull off, but he was surprised by the sheer amount of hostility. “If I was a young person trying to get on that show, the amount of pressure would have put me off. Never in my memory have I seen a show written off before even one word has been written. It's so impressive that they pulled it off. Hats off to them for sticking to their guns and for having the guts to do it. What's great is that everyone ate humble pie.”

Looking to the future, Wilkinson says he doesn't have too much planned. He has some small roles coming up, the first of which is in Steven Moffat's upcoming political comedy Number 10. “The scripts are brilliant. I'm honoured to say nine lines,” he jokes. Beyond that, he is trying to take it easy and enjoy the rest of the summer. He hasn't retired from stand-up comedy, but “in all honesty I can't call myself a stand-up at the moment.”

Famously, Wilkinson describes his home life as “boring,” citing sitcoms, gardening and football as his chief interests. He remains a season ticket holder at League Two's Gillingham FC and attends all home games with his brother. He lives with his wife, Petra Exton, who is also his manager, and the couple share an adult step-son and a step-granddaughter. His main concern at the moment is weeding his driveway, now that the local council has banned chemical weedkiller. “If there's any inventors reading this, can you please invent something that helps me weed my driveway without bending over? It's insane that I have to go on my knees and pull them out. It all has to be done by hand, it's so bleak. And that vinegar stuff doesn't work. Does not work. Absolute bullshit.”

Joe and David's Magical Sitcom Journey continues tomorrow at 9pm on U&Gold. The series celebrates the enduring legacy of British sitcoms, from the farcical genius of John Cleese to the cringe comedy of Ricky Gervais and the warm-hearted humour of Ronnie Barker. For Wilkinson and Earl, it's a deeply personal tribute to a genre that shaped their lives and careers.

Source: The i Paper News