Rory McGrath - Career

Career

McGrath became a member of the Footlights while at Cambridge and met Jimmy Mulville, with whom he wrote and performed. After university, they wrote BBC radio scripts for Frankie Howerd and Windsor Davies. McGrath also co-wrote Black Cinderella Two Goes East with Clive Anderson for BBC Radio 2 in 1978. McGrath and Mulville went on to write for shows such as Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones, and they were part of the team of writer/performers behind the Channel 4 comedy sketch series Who Dares Wins.

In 1986, McGrath was co-founder, with Jimmy Mulville and Denise O'Donoghue, of the independent British TV production company Hat Trick Productions. An early production was Chelmsford 123 (1988 and 1990), which McGrath and Mulville wrote and performed. In 1990, McGrath hosted the game show Trivial Pursuit on BBC1.

In 1992, McGrath was dismissed from Hat Trick, for allegedly not pulling his weight. The confrontation came days after McGrath had left his wife and two young children.

McGrath was a panel member on the BBC comedy sports quiz They Think It's All Over (1995–2006). He was presenter of the series Rory's Commercial Breakdown (1997), where humorous adverts were shown from different countries.

McGrath has made two football DVDs titled: Own Goals and Gaffs - The Premiership in 2002 and More Own Goals and Gaffs in 2003.

Since 2006, McGrath has starred in the BBC's Three Men in a Boat series, alongside Dara Ó Briain and Griff Rhys Jones. The series has included the trio rowing up the River Thames (similar to the 1889 novel also named Three Men in a Boat), sailing from London to the Isle of Wight for a sailing yacht race, borrowing numerous vessels to make their way from Plymouth to the Isles of Scilly, taking to the Irish Canals and Rivers and along with Dara's dog (Snip Nua), an escapade travelling throughout the Mediterranean to Venice and most recently attempting to find a boat to take to the anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, where in response to an ongoing challenge between Griff and Dara (who had each secured a boat each and who refusing to give it up to use the others) he secured the Nantucket Lightship to use. He also hosted Industrial Revelations: Best of British Engineering, series 5, first broadcast in 2008.

His first book, Bearded Tit - Confessions of a Birdwatcher, was published by Ebury Press on 1 May 2008 and was serialised by BBC Radio 4.

First airing in August 2008, McGrath co-starred in a new television series along with British comedian Paddy McGuinness, broadcast on Channel 5, Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure. This is a four-part series in which McGuinness and McGrath embarked on a nationwide road-trip, “on a mission to explore Britain’s sporting heritage by probing the hidden life of its towns and villages”. The series focused on arcane sports such as cheese rolling, toe wrestling and swamp soccer.

In 2011, McGrath presented Pub Dig for History. He has also presented documentary series The Lakes for ITV1