Jimmy Mulville
Biography
Biography
Jimmy Mulville, who once served as the president of the famed theater club Cambridge Footlights, has collaborated with some of England's biggest actors and comedians in everything from BBC sitcoms to radio serials. After graduating from Cambridge University in the late '70s, Mulville spent several years writing for BBC Radio before joining the cast of the sketch-comedy TV series "Who Dares Wins." He next served as producer and writer on the critically acclaimed comedy serial "Alias Smith & Jones," and helped cofound Hat Trick Productions, an independent TV production company that produced such landmark British TV series as "Father Ted," a sitcom about three exiled Roman Catholic priests, among others. Mulville teamed up with Hat Trick co-founder Rory McGrath, a friend from his days at university, to co-write and costar in "Chelmsford 123," a historical comedy set in Roman Britain; Mulville portrayed Aulus Paulinus, the slow-witted Roman governor of a sleepy rural town who is constantly outwitted by the wily Badvoc (McGrath). The '90s saw Mulville earn some of his biggest successes; he produced numerous episodes of both the massively popular improv comedy series "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and the long-running political quiz show "Have I Got News for You," both of which were originally conceived of by Hat Trick. Mulville has since produced numerous episodes of the critically acclaimed sitcom "Outnumbered," about two overwhelmed parents and their three rowdy children, and written the 2006 TV special "The Smith and Jones Sketchbook."