Britain's Favourite Comedians

At the end of May, Objective Productions asked MORI to conduct a reputable survey among the British public in order to identify which current comedians are the Nation's favourites -- for a series of TV programmes on Five commencing 3rd October.

A representative sample of over 2,000 people was interviewed on the MORI Omnibus -- all ages and from all walks of life between 21-26 May 2004.

They were invited to look at four comprehensive lists (divided roughly into the past four decades) containing nearly 100 names (plus their pseudonymns) of living comedians. The lists were compiled following a desk research exercise.

The public were then asked to choose one or more as their favourites -- and to add any other comedian's name they felt should be included as a favourite.

The results are conclusive -- the top three favourite comedians are each chosen as favourites by as many as one in three of the population (29%). A further nine names each attracted at least 20% of the vote.

As relatively few votes separate the top names, Five is inviting its viewers choose between the top five -- Dawn French, Victoria Wood, Billy Connolly, Ronnie Barker and Frank Skinner.

During w/c 3rd October, Five will devote a programme to each of the top five and invite viewers to phone in and cast their vote -- a bonus is that, for every call, 25p will go to charity