An Evening with Rory Bremner hosted by Fred MacAulay

Edinburgh-born Rory has been one of Britain’s top impressionists for over 40 years, starring in his own satire series, Bremner, Bird & Fortune, as well as Whose Line Is It Anyway, Mock the Week, The Imitation Game and Breaking the News. He also translates operas and last year played Chris Tarrant in James Graham's Quiz.

In this informal show he’ll perform stand-up and look back at his long & varied career in conversation with Fred MacAulay and the audience.

Rory Bremner 

Rory Bremner is widely regarded as Britain’s top satirical impressionist (‘a one-man opposition party’ Daily Telegraph).

As a mimic, he’s provided definitive impersonations of PMs and Presidents from Major to Mandela, Blair to Brown, Clinton to Cameron and Bush to Trump. As himself, he’s been presenter, writer, quiz-show host, actor, translator and even (briefly) ballroom dancer. (Strictly, 2011. WTF?)

Born in Edinburgh on 6 April 1961, Rory was educated at Wellington College and Kings College London, where he gained a BA in French, German and imitating lecturers. He speaks French adequately, German inadequately, and enough Russian to impress you for 90 seconds (unless you’re Russian). By the time he’d graduated in 1984, he was already performing on the London stand-up circuit and at his native Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and got his first TV series with the BBC in 1986. In a TV career of over 30 years, he’s won numerous awards, including 3 BAFTAs for his long-running Channel 4 satire series Bremner Bird & Fortune, featuring Rory and the two Johns.

In addition, he’s written and starred in satirical specials covering four elections, the Blair Government, (From Blair to Here, My Government and I) the Iraq War (Between Iraq and a Hard Place, Beyond Iraq and a Hard Place), the financial crisis of 2008 (Silly Money) and -back at the BBC- the Scottish Referendum (Rory Goes to Hollyrood, (2014)) and the Coalition government (Rory Bremner’s Coalition Report, Rory Bremner’s Election Report (2015)). He retraced his family history for Who Do You Think You Are, and travelled all over Britain for the ITV daytime series Rory Bremner’s Great British Views (2012).

Meanwhile, he’s guested on many other comedy shows (Whose Line is it Anyway, Spitting Image, Have I Got News for You, and Mock the Week, where he was team captain for two series) He was a regular guest on both Wogan and Parkinson and has frequently appeared on Radio 4’s Newsquiz, The Now Show, Radio Scotland’s Breaking The News and his own shows, Tonight and Bremner’s One Question Quiz. He’s also written diaries & columns for the FT, New Statesman, & Daily Telegraph. In 2013 he made his acting debut alongside Patricia Hodge and Caroline Quentin in Noel Coward’s Relative Values, directed by Trevor Nunn. (Theatre Royal Bath and subsequently West End). In 2018 Rory exhibited his impressionist skills on a weekly basis as regular team captain on ITV’s the Imitation Game. In the same year he re-joined fellow mimic Jan Ravens for a live show at the Edinburgh festival, which went on to do a sell out UK tour.

In his spare time (as if) he translates operas and plays from French (Carmen, (Spier Festival) and Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera)) and German (Kurt Weill’s The Silver Lake, (Broomhill Opera) & The Seven Deadly Sins) and Bertolt Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding (Young Vic)- the latter directed by Joe Hill Gibbons and starring James Corden.

Fred MacAulay

Fred has successfully featured in and presented many programmes on TV: Still fondly remembered for co-hosting the BBC talk show McCoist and MacAualay and hosting a number of other shows over the years.

He has been a panelist numerous times on shows including: They Think It's All Over, Mock the Week, QI and Have I Got News For You. 

Fred was a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson twice on US television and his performance at The Montreal Comedy Festival was shown coast to coast in North America.

Over the past two decades Fred has featured on many BBC radio 4 comedy panel shows like: I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Just a Minute, The Unbelievable Truth and The News Quiz and he had 4 series of his own Radio 4 Series "Fred At The Stand". 

He lasted 7 out of 11 nights when he sang on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. Further charity challenges saw him kayak the Caledonian Canal for Sport Relief and he has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro to raise funds for Diabetes Research. His 6 day West Highland Way walk was broadcast on STV. 

In December 2021 Fred was one of the team of four who won one of the highest amounts ever (£116,000) for their chosen charities on ITV's THE CHASE. 

In May 2021 Fred joined Bauer media's Scottish network and presents his show every Sunday from 10am to 1pm in association with TUNNOCKS on Greatest Hits Radio.

Fred regularly tours his stand-up shows around Scotland and has been a regular at The Edinburgh Fringe since 1989. 

A popular event host, Fred has worked for many national and international Companies which, along with his stand-up shows, has taken him to Canada, USA, Iceland, Spain, Sweden, France, Hong Kong and Australia.