Richard Vranch

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Richard Leslie Vranch (born June 29, 1959 in Frome, England) is a British comedian, actor, musician and TV panel show participant.

Vranch improvises comedy on stage with the Comedy Store Players every Wednesday and Sunday at The Comedy Store in London. He has voiced British Airways TV and radio commercials since 2003, and he narrates TV documentaries. He has performed since 1979, and formed a comedy double-act with Tony Slattery in 1981. The duo hosted the Channel 4 quiz The Music Game and over 100 episodes of Cue The Music on ITV. He was the improvising pianist and guitarist on the original British television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1988, but only a small proportion of his overall work is musical.

Acting work includes Dogman, The Dead Set, and sketch shows touring the world from Mexico to Israel. He has improvised comedy in the Middle and Far East and India - 27 countries in all. He has written for stage, radio and TV, and made several animated films with artist Lucy Allen. They have had their cartoons published in Maxim, Punch, and The Spectator.

He presented kids' shows Let's Pretend on ITV and Jackanory on BBC One, and was a contestant on a charity special of The Weakest Link in 2005. He guested on BBC Radio 4's long-running panel game Just a Minute in 1999. In 2002 he was commissioned by Tamasha Theatre (East is East) as a writer for their show Ryman and the Sheik.

Vranch had a previous career as a research physicist, and he appears on lateral-thinking panel shows like Puzzle Panel on Radio 4 and Mind Games on BBC TV. He hosted his own science series Beat That Einstein on Channel 4 in 1994, and co-wrote and performed in The Paul Merton Show at the London Palladium.

In 2006 Vranch appeared at the Ars Nova theatre, New York. He is currently appearing in his improvised storytelling group The YarnBards and developing a new show for the Edinburgh Fringe.