Greg Davies is a familiar face on television as the host of Taskmaster, the BAFTA-winning game show, and he has achieved sell out national arena tours as a stand-up. His on-screen breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in the highly successful teenage comedy series the Inbetweeners. He wrote and starred in the black comedy the Cleaner and co-wrote the sitcom Man Down in which he played a man in the grip of a midlife crisis. Greg was born in St Asaph in north Wales and grew up in Shropshire. At school he gravitated towards what he calls the silly boys who created characters and devised comedy sketches in the playground. When he was 18 he discovered Eddie Murphy whose stand-up routines about his relatives spurred Greg to look to his own family as comedic source material. Greg spent 13 years as an English and Drama teacher – a time he looks back on with mixed emotions and which he has mined for his stage act. When he was 33 he left teaching and started performing stand-up gigs and performed his first solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010. Greg lives in south London. DISC ONE: Baggy Trousers - Madness DISC TWO: Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell DISC THREE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act DISC FOUR: Circlesquare - The Wonder Stuff DISC FIVE: Cemetry Gates - The Smiths DISC SIX: Consider Yourself - Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger) and The Orchestra, conducted by John Green. From Oliver! [An Original Soundtrack Recording] DISC SEVEN: She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult DISC EIGHT: The Next Episode - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg BOOK CHOICE: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck LUXURY ITEM: Sausages CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley
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Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is the comedian, writer and actor Greg Davis.
He's one of the best loved comics in the country, host of the internationally popular taskmaster, and star and writer of the sitcoms Man down and the Cleaner.
His television breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the 6th form Mister Gilbert in the teenage sitcom the In Betweeners.
On stage, though, hes a man for whom its all gone wrong, his stand up shows are stuffed with self deprecating stories and he positively delights in sharing his private failures and frustrations, whether hes bemoaning a malfunctioning prostate, revealing an x rated relationship with his childhood Teddy bear, or drawing on the years he spent as a depressed drama teacher.
Ah, yes, the teaching.
Thanks to an extended sojourn in education, he found his calling in comedy later than he might have.
So hes making the most of it.
He says theres a compulsion that comes from leaving it so long.
If youve spent a long time staring at a cake and then you suddenly get the cake, you really want to ram the cake into your face.
Greg Davis, welcome to Desert island discs.
Thank you.
So, Greg, that sense of catching up, is that something that still drives you today?
Youve got some catching up to do, I think.
I feel I've probably caught up now.
Yeah.