‘I remember going: oh hello!’ Dara Ó Briain on comedy, coolness, cruelty and finding his parents

Dara Ó Briain is still having photos taken when I arrive at the studio in west London. A comedian requires comedy pictures, so Pål, the photographer, has him sitting on the floor holding up a scroll of the rust-coloured paper that he’s using as a backdrop. It looks as if the roof is falling in on Ó Briain. He calls over to me. “We can tailor the interview to match the pictures,” he says. “Starting with: do you ever feel like you’re trapped in a box?” Shoot over, he ditches his jacket and we walk up the road to find a quiet corner in a pub. There’s a new season of Mock the Week, the topical satirical panel show that ran for 17 years on BBC Two until 2022 and has now been reborn on the free-to-air channel TLC. A roster of comedians make up two teams and compete in a faux gameshow, ostensibly to answer questions about the previous week’s news, but really just to be funny. Ó Briain, 54, has hosted it since the start. In the first iteration, regular guests included Hugh Dennis, Frankie Boyle and Ed Byrne, but up-and-coming comics were often included too. “It became a kind of debutante’s ball for people who’ve gotten to the top at Edinburgh and are ready to go on screen,” Ó Briain explains, not without pride. When Mock the Week was on the BBC, there were accusations that the mockery was directed to the right from the left. Ó Briain, who describes himself as “centre left”, says that had a lot to do with what was going on in Westminster: “For the vast majority of that time, there was a Tory government – Conservative PM after Conservative PM – so obviously we were looking at them.” But he also admits there was probably something to those accusations. “I don’t think anyone put an argument in favour of Brexit during the whole thing; nobody on Mock the Week was going: ‘Well, maybe sovereignty or whatever …’” The show featured the right-leaning comedians Geoff Norcott and Simon Evans, but the right isn’t as well represented in British comedy. Ó Briain isn’t s…