Strangest bit part by a UK comedian

[Twilkes]

In an episode of women's wrestling show GLOW, James Bachman popped up as a cameraman filming the wrestling match for the pilot show - he had a couple of lines, nothing particularly memorable or significant, but it's the kind of role that anyone with a decent face and able to remember a few words could have done. How did he end up with that, does he live in America? Was he trying to break into Hollywood?

Any odd shows/films you've seen British comedians appear?

IIRC James Acaster only got the role in Cinderella because someone dropped out and the director had watched Acaster's Netflix specials earlier this day and literally said 'Hey, how about this guy?'.

[dead-ced-dead]

IIRC James Acaster only got the role in Cinderella because someone dropped out and the director had watched Acaster's Netflix specials earlier this day and literally said 'Hey, how about this guy?'.

It was supposed to be John Mulaney. That's why James is called John, and James Corden and Romesh Ranganathan get to keep their names. It may have been when John was going through rehab.

[mrapollo]

In an episode of women's wrestling show GLOW, James Bachman popped up as a cameraman filming the wrestling match for the pilot show - he had a couple of lines, nothing particularly memorable or significant, but it's the kind of role that anyone with a decent face and able to remember a few words could have done. How did he end up with that, does he live in America? Was he trying to break into Hollywood?

Yes James Bachman has lived in the US for quite a few years (although he is now moving back to the UK). He also turned up in Transformers: Age Of Extinction and a few other things.

[madhair60]

jim davidson in Color Me Kubrick

[Matthew Dawkins Jub Jub]

Michael Palin in Home & Away.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I haven't seen the film, but Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss both turn up briefly in Woody Allen's Match Point. I believe Gatiss doesn't even have any lines.

[Stinky Lomax]

Oh yeah, all three onscreen LoG guys also appear in Birthday Girl, that Nicole Kidman/Ben Chaplin movie, except one of them (I think Gatiss again?) is barely identifiable and you'd only know it was him if you'd recognised the other two and you were scouring the screen for him. I think they're all playing airport hotel employees or something...

[dead-ced-dead]

Reece Shearsmith pops up towards the end of Venom 2 as a priest being threatened into performing a wedding for Carnage and his missus.

[DrGreggles]

Didn't Bachman land a writer's room gig in LA?
Probably got a few bit parts through that.

[Mr Trumpet]

David Schneider in 28 Days Later

Hugh Dennis in No Time to Die (presumably a Phoebe Waller-Bridge connection there)

Mark Heap and Kevin Eldon in the Johnny Depp Wonka film

[ros vulgaris]

Shearsmith was in Saltburn too, as the Oxford professor.

[Bad Ambassador]

David Schneider in 28 Days Later

Also in Mission: Impossible and the film of The Saint.

[Utter Shit]

Didn't Bachman land a writer's room gig in LA?
Probably got a few bit parts through that.

Been a while since I've seen him post, but you can ask him yourself! @James Bachman

[Twilkes]

Also in Mission: Impossible and the film of The Saint.

Haha yeah, his Eurostar driver really took me out of the Hollywood feel of the first MI movie:



It would be like remaking The Dark Crystal and casting Pob.

[Shaxberd]

Not that odd as it's a fairly whimsical film, but always catches me out when a youngish Bruce Forsyth pops up in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Rob Brydon turning up for about 30 seconds in Barbie. That was bizarre.

[Magnum Valentino]

Reece Shearsmith pops up towards the end of Venom 2 as a priest being threatened into performing a wedding for Carnage and his missus.

Laughed so hard at this post. I've even seen the fucking film and can't remember that.

[Minami Minegishi]

jim davidson in Color Me Kubrick

Lock thread.

I forgot about this.

[AnOrdinaryBoy]

John Sessions in Gangs of New York playing someone playing Lincoln. It was quite strange to see Kevin Eldon pop up in Hugo. Guess Marty has a secret thing for British comedians.

[Underturd]

In the 1980s, Tim McInnerny in a drama about the murder of the Romanovs, playing a taciturn Russian guard. We only knew him from Blackadder.

[George White]

Brucie in the 1983 Soviet Scorsese/Michael Powell produced miniseries Pavlova

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Brucie in an episode of Magnum P.I.

[Norton Canes]

Rik Mayall in American Werewolf? 

[Glebe]

It's a Kenneth Branagh film so maybe not that strange but there's Doddy as Yorick in Branagh's Hamlet alongside a big starry cast that includes the likes of Robin Williams, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal and Charlton Heston.



Branagh regular and sitcom king Richard Briers is in there too... also appears alongside De Niro in Branagh's Frankenstein, I recall Ignatius making the fair point that Briers was a serious thesp who just happened to have a bit of a comedy career though.

[Twilkes]

That's a good point, I'm guessing there was a lot of bemusement when Frank Spencer got the lead role in Phantom If The Opera.

[Icehaven]

Not a comedian as such but pre-OFAH Roger Lloyd-Pack was in an episode of The Professionals as an Eastern European terrorist. Not that strange as such as a jobbing actor but more the juxtaposition between being an Eastern European terrorist and Trigger.

[Pete23]

jim davidson in Color Me Kubrick

Also played a zoo keeper in Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts

[Glebe]

Not a comedian as such but pre-OFAH Roger Lloyd-Pack was in an episode of The Professionals as an Eastern European terrorist. Not that strange as such as a jobbing actor but more the juxtaposition between being an Eastern European terrorist and Trigger.

Also had a small part in 1984. In Harry Potter as well of course and the movie version of Tinker Tailior Soldier Spy.

[Armin Meiwes]

Mel Smith popping up as a racist garage owner in Babylon (not that one) was a surprise.

[curiousoranges]

Mel Smith was also in National Lampoon's European Vacation as a grumpy hotel worker.