Dom Joly

Dom Joly has been an eclectic columnist for The Independent on Sunday and The Independent since 2001. 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, Five, and Sky One including, This Is Dom Joly and Dom Joly’s Happy Hour. His spoof autobiography, Look At Me, 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. In his latest book, The Dark Tourist, he holidays in some of the world’s most unlikely destinations such as Chernobyl and North Korea.

Marketing headache cures might make a smart career move for Andrew Flintoff in retirement

Dom Joly: Cider with Freddie? Careers advice for a cricketer who has finally left the crease

Weird World of Sport: "There's a cider company in the South-west who are very keen to put you on their label"

Recently by Dom Joly

Dom Joly: My scariest place? Any provincial British town after 9pm

Sunday, 19 September 2010

A couple of years ago I made a television series called Happy Hour in which I travelled the globe, supposedly to "investigate cultural attitudes to alcohol". The show was for Sky One so basically it was an excuse for a lot of drinking and drink-related exploits. Despite visiting countries like Russia where they seem genetically disposed to drink, I didn't find anywhere that remotely compared to the very British disposition of mixing drinking and fighting. The Russians love to drink so much that beer is considered a soft drink. There aren't many bars either – they do not have time for sitting down and socialising while drinking. They simply get the bottle, neck it and pass out in the nearest corridor. Almost everywhere I visited had happy rather than violent drunks. So I often wonder what it is about our island that makes us so eager to get in a ruck with strangers? Sometimes I think it might be part of our social insecurity. As a reserved nation, the only way we can "touch skin", whether that be sex or fighting, is with the help of a little alcohol.

Dom Joly: I'll moida da bum! Haye and Harrison take boxing bravado to idiotic new heights

Monday, 13 September 2010

Weird World Of Sport: This guy could not win a fight with a goldfish. His career is rubbish and I am giving him a chance he doesn't deserve

Dom Joly: I could play for England, now I hang around hotels

Sunday, 12 September 2010

I've been on a tour of the North this week promoting my book (The Dark Tourist ... thanks for asking). Having never done stand-up, I've not really toured before and wasn't prepared for the mind-numbing nature of it. Obviously I am not remotely trying to compare it to a day down the mines or spent trudging the streets as a traffic warden – I love giving the talk and showing my dark holiday snaps, but that takes up one hour of the day. The rest is empty.

Dom Joly: Spot-fixing had the cricket world stumped but not me and my scanner

Monday, 6 September 2010

Weird World of Sport: 'Listen, we need to come to an agreement about what might be occurring in your big game...'

Dom Joly: Always look on the bright side of Lund

Sunday, 5 September 2010

When I was invited to a Swedish comedy festival to appear at a question-and-answer session on my "life's work", I assumed that it was a joke. I checked and double-checked but the invite seemed to be serious, and the town of Lund did indeed have a comedy festival.