British celebrities who aren't so well known west of the Irish Sea

Dr Who

Always strikes me as one of those purely British phenomena (which is fine) , never had even the slightest interest in watching it looks like childish crap.

There was another thread the other day and it was said that only 12% of households rely solely on Saorview.

Norris McWhirter

There's a category of English comedian who wouldn't tend to be as big over here. The late Jethro was one. He was one of those regional British comics who benefited from the late 80s/90s boom in comedy videos. Dont ever recall seeing him on TV, British or Irish

Roy Chubby Brown as well to a lesser extent. When I first became aware of him in the 90s the only people who ever seemed to be into him were UK expats. I saw his film UFO when a Welsh housemate stuck it on the video (its ****, does have one laugh out loud joke involving the C word). The League Of Gentlemen probably helped expose him to a wider audience. Brendan O Carroll must be a big fan as he ripped offloads of his material.

See also Charley Chuck.

The Macc Lads (comedy band)

"I want a doughnut...a cream bun...and a slice of that cake......over there!". (Points)

The Wurzels. Semi Ironic long running Somerset comedy/music act.

Shag Connors & The Carrot Crunchers. Similar kind of thing.

Harry Hill. Not sure how popular he'd be in Ireland. A lot of his act is very niche British stuff.

My mistake. Rectified.

Rugby League players although thats only popular 'up North' so bit like Channel 5 viewers not sure if that counts.

I think that's a rather vague claim... "best loved food writer".

He wouldn't be as famous in the UK as Delia Smith or Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay or Nigella Lawson, just to name a few.

He has or had a Guardian column, so I expect his profile is higher in the UK because of that.

But he would be known of here, by the standards of TV chefs \ food writers. He has had series on BBC which people here would have come across.

His books are in the public library system to borrow and for sale in Irish bookshops.

Hadn't realised that, that C4 show might be gone to TV Heaven now.

The ones I remember are more recent, from the BBC - Simple Suppers & Simple Cooking.

The BBC programmes run on repeat on Food Network also sometimes.

But the comment above got me thinking that some of the columnists from the major UK papers who don't have TV shows wouldn't be so well known here.

Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, eccentric vicar who used to present a show on Channel 4 called Fortean TV, about the supernatural and weird phenomena, ufos and whatnot. Has written a lot of books on the subjects as well. A lot of the stuff he focuses on os that peculiarly English/British weirdness/folklore. The closest Irish parallel i can think of would be Eddie Linehan.