Dom Joly

Dom Joly has been an eclectic columnist for The Independent on Sunday since 2004. Joly shot to fame in 2000 with his anarchic Channel 4 hidden-camera comedy programme Trigger Happy TV. He has since made television series for BBC and Sky One including, This Is Dom Joly and Dom Joly’s Happy Hour. His spoof autobiography, Look At Me, was published in 2004, and in 2007 he brought out Letters to my Golf Club, featuring his correspondences with golf clubs around the world.

Dom Joly: I'm making Hay while it rains. My wife, at home, is not happy

I can barely remember my previous life before Hay-on-Wye. I distantly recall that I have children and a wife – is she Canadian or Japanese, definitely foreign, but from where?

Recently by Dom Joly

Dom Joly: Hay, a middle-class Valhalla, complete with saucy vicar

Sunday, 25 May 2008

I'm down in Wales, working at the Hay-on-Wye literature festival for 10 days. I've tended to avoid festivals in the past, as I have an aversion to hippies and chemical loos.

Dom Joly: Give parents their happy hour on the bouncy castle

Sunday, 18 May 2008

It's my son Jackson's fourth birthday today, and we're having a big party for him. Stacey has booked a huge bouncy castle for the south lawn, and boxes of going-away presents, dinosaur-related plates and other bric-a-brac has been overloading our poor postman. Should it rain, the village hall has also been rented as a fallback – nothing has been left to chance. Jackson is blissfully unaware of all Stacey's hard work. He is more concerned with the guest list. One moment he wants "no girls", then he wants "no boys". Invites change by the second, as someone becomes uninvited because they threw sand in his face or were "mean". In my experience it's best never to invite boys, as they are a total nightmare compared to girls at that age. I remember the first time my daughter Parker invited boys to her party – a little feral gang rampaged through our house hitting dogs with swords and shouting ... so much shouting.

Dom Joly: School quiz night? I'd rather climb a volcano

Sunday, 11 May 2008

I have rashly agreed to go to yet another of my kids' school functions. This time it's a quiz night, and Stacey asked me so long ago that I said yes, and then forgot to make an excuse for not being able to go.

Dom Joly: I took no prisoners when I fought the parking Nazis

Sunday, 4 May 2008

It must be the effect of making my new TV series 'The Complainers', but lately I've become much more vocal in expressing my disapproval of things.

Dom Joly: I've got a great idea for a play... No actors

Sunday, 27 April 2008

I took Stacey out on the town this week – brought her up from country exile for a big night out. I felt a little pressure to do something special, as my normal routine of getting totally smashed in a bar talking TV bollocks was probably not what she was after.

Dom Joly: It's 50p a swear word... and the pot stands at £75

Sunday, 20 April 2008

Idon't know where she got the idea, but Parker, my daughter, suddenly produced a fully decorated swear box and announced that there were new rules for us all to follow. It was going to be 50p per swear word, and she and Jackson would split the proceeds at the end of each month. It was all very entrepreneurial and there was no way we could refuse without setting a pretty bad example.

Dom Joly: If you think I'm childish, you should see my daughter

Sunday, 13 April 2008

I have to admit that we were a little suspicious at first. Parker, our seven-year-old daughter, rushed back home announcing she had got the lead role in the school play. We were suspicious because, three years ago, she told us she was playing Mary in the Nativity play. We'd got very excited until we found out she was actually playing a shepherd but had simply refused to accept the fact. I put it down to her having my "performing" streak in the blood.

Dom Joly: Don't be fooled: Huxley is planning his great escape

Sunday, 6 April 2008

My gorgeous dog Huxley has started disappearing again. He used to do it a lot until we built a Colditz-standard fence around the property. This, coupled with a surprise castration (Huxley, not me), seemed to do the trick.

Dom Joly: It couldn't be man flu, I wanted to see a doctor

Sunday, 30 March 2008

"I told you I was ill." I stared as triumphantly as I could at Stacey through my oxygen mask.

Dom Joly: Hi diddly dee, a miner's life for me. And a sandwich

Sunday, 16 March 2008

From one extreme to another – back from California I went straight off to Wales to film. We were at a coal mine that had been closed but has now reopened as a co-operative and is doing extremely well. With the ability of power stations to clean coal much more successfully now, coal is having a little comeback.

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