BBC Doctor Who: How John Bishop’s comedy career was born out of a ‘miserable’ separation from his wife

Doctor Who fans are now just moments away from getting a gander at the latest addition to the show’s cast.

Grumpy Liverpudlian character Dan Lewis will be debuting in the first episode of series 13, which is scheduled to be aired on Sunday evening.

The role will be played by British comedian John Bishop, who viewers may recognise as Steve Livesy from the 2017 ITV mini series Fearless.

But off-screen Bishop is better known for his stand-up performances, a comedy career that really kicked off in 2000 and has been flourishing ever since.

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Yet what’s often overlooked is the fact that Bishop’s career of over two decades started in somewhat of a dark period in his life.

In comments he made to The Big Interview in 2004, the former semi-professional footballer said that he first appeared on stage at the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester in 2000 while he was in the midst of an 18-month separation from his wife.

“I was as miserable as sin at the time because I was going through a rocky period in my marriage, so it was either a lap dancing bar or a comedy club so I went to the Frog and Bucket,” Bishop told The Big Interview.

“We all put our names forward and my name was called second, so there was no way out of it,” he said.

“I clambered up on stage, picked up the microphone and thought ‘what on earth am I doing here?’ I had no jokes, and absolutely no material”.

According to Bishop, the country was grappling with a petrol crisis at the time, so he started talking about that before going on to discuss some other observations he had to share.

“I just talked about life. I should have done a few minutes and I was up there for nearly an hour,” he continued.

“The funniest people I know are my mates in the pub, so I just tried to recreate that intimate atmosphere and somehow it worked.

“I really enjoyed myself and was asked to come back the following week.

“Then they started giving me money for it and I thought ‘This is all right’ and within a couple of months I’d got my first headline booking. I honestly did not know anything about comedy. It was all about instinct and life”.

Bishop added that he was later booked to support comedian Johnny Vegas at a show in Warrington, but he had no idea who he was at the time.

“I thought the guy was a cabaret singer. I knew absolutely nothing about him,” he said.

“It changed my life in a way I didn’t think possible.”

Bishop and his wife Melanie had been married for seven years before they briefly separated in 2000. Their youngest of three sons, Daniel, was only two at the time and their eldest, Joe, was six.

But after 18 months apart, the couple reconciled and have been going strong since, now approaching almost 30 years together.

A vegetarian since 1985, the Liverpudlian stand-up artist was declared to be one of the “sexiest vegetarians” of the year by PETA in 2013.

In 2016, Forbes named him the 10th highest paid comedian in the world, making him the UK’s highest paid comedian, having earned £5.4m that year.

Before getting into comedy, Bishop enjoyed a short football career, playing for Hyde United and Southport FC.

He was in the starting line-up for Hyde in the semi-finals of the FA Trophy in 1989, where they were thumped 3-0 by Telford United, losing 4-0 on aggregate.

Bishop was known for his “aggressive” style of play at the time, and described his time in the beautiful game as “smashing”.

“Brian Kettle was the manager (at Southport) and it was hard training and good football at Haig Avenue,” Bishop said, “but I probably knew then that I wasn’t going to play for England”.

Bishop hung up his boots for the last time in 1991, after a total of just 72 senior appearances in three seasons.