DID YOU KNOW? Jo Brand

With Jo, 63, back presenting The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice (8pm, Ch4),

we take a look at some things you might not know about the veteran comedian…

● Born in London on July 23, ● Her experience as a nurse 1957, Jo left school at 16, and informed Getting On, a 2009 returned only half-heartedly to BBC sitcom set on a geriatric do her A levels. ‘I kind of knew ward. Co-creator Jo won a that I wanted to do comedy, Bafta for her performance in it. but I didn’t know how to do it.’

● In 2016, Jo completed a

Her social worker mother

gruelling 135-mile walk across insisted she have a back-up

England for Sport Relief. Jo was plan, so Jo qualified as a nurse. She then

keen to get middle-aged women like her ‘off worked in psychiatric care for ten years until her

their bums’ and inspire them to do more exercise. stand-up and TV careers took off in the 1980s.

● Jo has been married to Bernie Bourke,

● She got her big TV break on Friday Night a psychiatric nurse, since 1997. They have

Live, a late-1980s entertainment show that also made stars of Paul Merton and Harry two daughters, Maisie and Eliza.

Enfield. In 1993, she landed her first solo ● Her fourth novel, The More You Ignore Me, series, Jo Brand Through The Cakehole, was adapted for the screen in 2018. It’s a unique blend of stand-up and sketches. available to rent on Amazon Prime.