January 2005 and the UK’s Radio Times published its 3^rd (and final) summary of the Most Powerful People in TV Comedy list.

Summarising the prior 12 months it apparently looked at things like viewing figures, critical reception, financial success and industry expert opinion.

It now produces an annual Top 100 in TV and, as it uses similar measures as the above, is slightly nonsensical (to someone like me, who likes tangible data). Mixing things that can be measured in with “opinions” means you get names appearing because the person (or their work) was trending. Not necessarily because they are a TV heavyweight, that can pull in audience regardless of what they are in, which is what “most powerful” means to me.

An example, from the below, would be Tamsin Greig who starred in Green Wing from 2004-7. I adored that show – but why would only one of the stars stand out? Why not Stephen Mangan? (and apologies to Tamsin if she had another big hit that year).

The methodology of this list bemuses me as people such as the “controllers” hold a lot more “power” than people who were just popular and bankable. Feels like they are using slightly fluid definitions of power.

But this list is of historical interest partly because of the changing fortunes of some of the names

Jimmy appeared, for the first time, at #20 and we need to bear in mind that this listing was based on output from 2004.

To me his chart appearance means “on the telly a lot” and “gets big audiences for C4”. I’m not sure, back then, he had the power or influence that he has now, for example, as someone that has fronted numerous hit shows on just about every channel / streaming platform.

And yet, he has no place in the 2025 list (here).

Anyhoo.

Twenty years is a long time in showbiz – but nice to see how many of these comedians are still successful.

Note: In the list printed by the BBC (and other press) the numbering goes 28 (Phil McIntyre), then 29 is missing and moves on to 30 (Reeves and Mortimer). As I’m using a numbered bullet list, I can’t really replicate this and so my list of 50 became 49. I don’t know who is missing…2005 was too long ago to get clarity.

1. Matt Lucas & David Walliams
2. Peter Kay
3. Ricky Gervais
4. Jonathan Ross
5. Ant and Dec
6. Craig Cash
7. Julia Davis
8. Rob Brydon
9. Kevin Lygo
10. Richard Curtis
11. Baby Cow (Steve Coogan)
12. David Mitchell and Robert Webb
13. Lorraine Heggessey (BBC1 controller)
14. Martin Clunes
15. Stephen Fry
16. Graham Norton
17. Fred Barron
18. Stuart Murphy (BBC3 controller)
19. Tamsin Greig
20. Jimmy Carr
21. Roly Keating (BBC2 controller)
22. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
23. Avid Merrion (Leigh Francis)
24. Bremner, Bird and Fortune
25. Harry Thompson
26. Harry Hill
27. Alan Davies
28. Phil McIntyre
29. Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer
30. Dead Ringers
31. Hat Trick (production company)
32. Caroline Quentin
33. Frank Skinner
34. Peter Fincham (Talkback Thames chief executive)
35. Catherine Tate
36. Paul Merton
37. Bill Bailey
38. Alistair McGowan and Ronni Ancona
39. Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar
40. Tiger Aspect (production company)
41. Addison Cresswell (impresario)
42. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
43. Jessica Stevenson
44. Jack Dee
45. Kenton Allen (BBC comedy editor)
46. The Mighty Boosh
47. 3 Non Blondes
48. Jo Brand
49. Angus Deayton