Julian Barratt

Julian Barratt
Barratt in 2006
Born	Julian Barratt Pettifer (1968-05-04) 4 May 1968 (age 56) Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Alma mater	University of Reading
Occupations	Comedian actor musician
Years active	1995–present
Partner	Julia Davis
Children	2

Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe alongside comedy partner Noel Fielding.

Born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, Barratt attended the University of Reading^[1] and first performed stand up comedy whilst at the University of Reading.^[1][2] In 1997 he first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Noel Fielding when they both appeared on the same comedy bill at a pub in north London.^[3] Sometime in around 1998^[4] they then performed their first comedy show together in London^[4] which was a mix of both stand up and sketch comedy and then in 1998 they took the show, The Mighty Boosh, to the Edinburgh fringe festival and returned again in 1999 with Arctic Boosh and in 2000 with Autoboosh.^[4] In 2001 The Mighty Boosh became a six-part^[5] radio show on BBC London Live, called The Boosh later transferring to BBC radio 4.^[5] This was followed by the television show The Mighty Boosh, which ran for three series on BBC Three from 2004 to 2007.^[6][5][4] The show generated a cult following and won a variety of awards. From February to April 2006 they went on tour around the UK with the stage show The Mighty Boosh Live^[5] and then toured the UK for a second time from September 2008 to January 2009 with The Mighty Boosh Live: Future Sailors Tour.

Alongside Fielding, he has starred in Unnatural Acts, Nathan Barley and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Barratt also co-wrote and starred in the 2017 film Mindhorn. He starred in the Channel 4 black comedy-drama sitcom Flowers.

Barratt was born Julian Barratt Pettifer on 4 May 1968 in Leeds, West Yorkshire.^[7] He grew up in Leeds^[6] and his father was a science teacher^[8][6] and it has also been commented that one of his parents was a "market researcher".^[6] His father was a fan of jazz music^[9][3] and it was further commented that "...both [Noel Fielding and Barratt] had fathers who loved Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, and who encouraged their sons to avoid getting proper jobs."^[3]

When he was younger Barratt played in a band^[1] and has described how when he was seventeen he wanted to begin playing in a jazz band in London, saying "We went to stay with a friend of a friend’s uncle in London but we came back after three days. We thought we’d make inroads into the jazz scene in London – we’d read biographies about guys who got gigs at Ronnie Scott’s and got spotted and immediately taken into someone’s band. So we told our parents we were leaving home. They gave us two days and we lasted three...".^[2] It was further commented that "He initially thought he’d be a musician and set off as a teenager... [with Barratt saying] ...'You know the well-known saying: leave home at 17 and make your fortune in London as a jazz drummer...'".^[6]

He later began studying a course in American studies at Reading University, from which he left before graduating.^[3][10] Barratt adopted his middle name as his surname to distinguish himself from reporter Julian Pettifer.^[11] Barratt's father made an appearance in the first series of the Mighty Boosh TV show and both his parents appeared in the second series,^[12] whilst Noel Fieldings father and stepmother also appeared in the Mighty Boosh TV show with Fielding's father Ray Fielding having several cameos as Chris de Burgh.^[12]

On his beginnings in stand up Barratt has commented that "I was never like Noel [Fielding] or Lee Mack, who are just funny all the time. No one ever said to me, you should be a comedian mate. But I watched a lot of stand-up at uni – people like Mark Lamarr, Sean Hughes, Eddie Izzard, just standing on a stage doing these phenomenal routines. And I could see how you could do it. So I started doing it myself, and I was so shocked when it worked. I remember one time I completely forgot what I was about to say, and I just ran out of the venue."^[2] It has also been commented that this occurred "...during his first standup sketch at Reading University..." and that he "...ran through the back door mid-act and through fields to a lake."^[1] Barratt has further commented that after he left the venue "...the manager came out after me and said: 'Get back in there, it’s going well.' So I went back. I suppose that was a big turning point for me."^[2]

Barratt has further commented on his beginnings in theatre that "I’m looking at a big poster of myself now and I know my 16-year-old self would see that and think, what is going on there? He would be amazed that people actually like what I do. When Noel and I started gigging together and found people were really enjoying it, it was such a thrill. It was a validation of what felt like a long process of growing up, coming up against all these difficulties if you’re shy and you have all these dreams and thoughts you can’t communicate. It was very exciting to finally find a way to express myself, and seeing people enjoying that. I suppose I’m interested in communicating a pretentious, pompous person a lot of the time, and I have to recognise there is that in me. I did a few serious things before I got into comedy, which make me shudder now. I remember having my mate film me, all shadowy, doing performance poetry. My goodness."^[2]

In 1997 Barratt first met Mighty Boosh collaborator Noel Fielding when they both appeared on the same comedy bill at a pub in north London.^[3] In 2006 Fielding commented that "We were doing stand-up and were on the same bill together. I was on first and usually you can only have about one weird comedian on a line-up. He’d been doing it a bit longer than me... [Barratt was like]'...Let’s write together'. I’ve been stuck with him ever since and that was about eight years ago or something."^[13] Whilst Barratt and Fielding were on The Jonathan Ross Show, Ross asked them "And did you perform as solo acts ever, did you do like stand up..." with Barratt responding "yeah, yeah, that's how we sort of met really on the circuit, doing stand up, yeah.", with Ross responding "But, but was it similar to the Boosh stuff, 'cos the Boosh stuff it seems to be so much of a partnership I can't imagine it being taken apart and being served up separately.", with Barratt responding that "We were both doing quite surreal stuff, eh...", with Fielding adding "It was quite weird wasn't it, alot weirder than the show in a way...", with Barratt continuing "...but we sort of, when we first met we kind of liked each others comedy but we didn't know that it would work, we didn't know whether it was gonna cancel each other out and make....", with Fielding responding "Yeah, too weird to make sort of, straight...", with Barratt continuing "...might just become geography or something else or... this sort of thing, but it worked for some reason...", with Fielding adding "We had quite a good chemistry straight away."^[14]

On the day they met they both went back to Julian's place that night where Barratt played music on his Akai sampler whilst Fielding used a ping-pong ball to make an eye patch.^[3] Fielding has commented on their shared interest in music that "I was sort of a bit more rock n roll and pop and he [Barratt] was a bit more jazz but then we sort of met in the middle with electro... but Julian was... I think he left univeristy to join a band, we were both in bands before we were in the Boosh, so we sort of came from that background. Lot of our friends were in bands."^[9] They also found they both shared common interests in comedy including Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.^[6][3]

Barratt and Fielding have commented on the beginning of The Mighty Boosh, with Barratt commenting that "We performed together for the first time in ... was it in that show by Stuart Lee?", with Fielding replying "yeah, Stuart Lee's show, Moby Dick and King Dong (At the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 1997) ... Julian played King Dong's penis...", with Barratt replying "...an enormous penis...", and then with Fielding replying "perfect King Dong... then we thought let's do a show together."^[4]

Sometime around 1998^[4] they then put on their first comedy show and it was commented by Nigel Coan with whom they collaborated with on Mighty Boosh that "They did their first gig at Oranje Boom Boom which is sort of in Chinatown in London, and ah, which was ridiculous, I mean it was really, like, ridiculous costumes and um, they didn't know what... they really [didn't] know what they were doing... ...It was very raw, but it was, it was hilarious... ...They thought lets do a show, an Edinburgh show. I think they started to think about doing that. So they got a gig at Hen and Chickens...".^[4] Dave Brown who also collaborated on the Mighty Boosh with them commented further on their time at the Hen and chickens which is a theatre bar in Islington, London, "They would use the Hen and Chickens as this kind of... place to, a platform to just try stuff out and it was just a great little place they could do a regular spot... ...where they would probably write and have ideas in the week, try stuff out for half of that and then for the rest of it, it would just be improv and mucking about. Then they took the, um, took the The Mighty Boosh up to Edinburgh and then two more shows Arctic Boosh (1999), Autoboosh (2000)...".^[4] Both Michael Fielding and Richard Ayoade appeared in a performance of the Mighty Boosh at the Hen and Chickens in 2002^[4] during a live run through of a Mighty Boosh pilot.^[4]

Fielding and Barratt commented on their time at the Hen and Chickens, with Fielding commenting that "...cos it'd be stand up and people would come on and do straight stand up. And then we used to put potted plants all around the gig and music on... ...to try and make it into a sort of play... people couldn't believe the audacity. It got some sort of reputation as being sort of enigmatic but we're just really unprofessional. We didn't know anything about theatre or what you did."^[4] with Barratt responding to Fielding "Speak for yourself, I was in a Sartre play at university I'll have you know. Huis Clos."^[4] Fielding has commented further on their first live show, The Mighty Boosh, “Julian had a song about a mammoth that he wanted to sing to a girl in the audience, and I had a few ideas for some weird sketches... ...We started working on our ideas together... ...We were zookeepers and we got sucked through our bosses’ eyes and into a magic forest..."^[15]

In 2001 The Mighty Boosh became a six-part^[5] radio show on BBC London Live, later transferring to BBC Radio 4^[5] and Barratt has humorously commented that "...so we did a radio show, we did, we sort of recorded it in a sort of old railway sort of arch...", with Fielding adding "in Shoreditch"... with Julian continuing "...built our studio out of weird... little children's toys...".^[4] Barratt and fielding have also commented on the process of moving the show from the stage to TV, with Barratt commenting "...we wanted to get on TV but it'd been a lot of trouble because they thought it was eh, the scripts we sort of gave them were sort of like massive epic adventures that sounded like it would cost them a million pounds to make so they said this isn't, I don't know how this is going to work on stage, well actually what happened is..." with Fielding adding "We wrote it for Channel 4 originally", and with Julian continuing "...[we spoke to them] before we'd done a stage show and they said how is this going to work on TV cos it is ridiculous. So we wrote, we did a stage show and then they said hows that going to work on TV because its really good live, so, perhaps we should've done it inside a television set."^[4]

In 2004 it became an 8 part TV show which aired on BBC Three with a second series airing in 2005 and a third airing in 2007 with there being 20 episodes created over three series. In each series the setting changes, with the first series set in a zoo operated by Bob Fossil, the second in a flat and the third in a secondhand shop in Dalston called Nabootique.^[16][17] In 2006 Fielding and Barratt went on tour with a new theatre show The Mighty Boosh Live. Fielding has commented in relation to touring that "The touring lifestyle is quite hard... ...In The Boosh tour we did a 100 day tour and we had one day off a week to travel and we were playing arenas and we partied every single night and we got up for sound check at six o'clock. So we were like Dracula. I was like Dracula. So I'd wake up at six, do a sound check, wake up, do the show, go to a party, stay up till five in the morning, sleep all day, every day for a hundred... ."^[9] Fielding has further commented about the Mighty Boosh that "It was crazy cos we were just going.... ...it was never meant to be, we were never meant to be playing the O2 and Wembley and being on the cover of Time Out and... ...being on Jonathan Ross I don't think we ever thought that would happen... ...We always sort of just made it in our bedroom and then brought it out and stuff happened. We were as surprised as anyone when we won the Perrier and we were surprised when it got put on telly. We were like 'Wow this is great' we weren't ever sort of planning it. Like... ..we didn't even know if we could make a living from it."^[8] Fielding has commented further that “We always thought we’d make one show and that’d be the end of it. But after we won the Perrier, everyone was telling us that we had to do another, which we did and brought it to Melbourne and won the Barry, and then we made a radio show that won the Douglas Adams Award. We won loads. It was manic. We always thought we’d do a couple of years together and go our separate ways. We went from stages to the radio show to television to live shows. It went on and on.”^[15] Barratt has also commented that “Me and Noel went to HBO once and pitched this really ludicrous idea about us driving around in a haunted car and they just stared at us. Literally stared at us!... ...Luckily, we were together so we could laugh about it..."^[6]

In the Mighty Boosh, Barratt plays the character Howard Moon opposite Noel Fielding's Vince Noir. Howard labels himself a "jazz maverick" and claims to be a multi-talented intellectual, calling himself a "man of action", but he is actually unsuccessful in his literary and romantic ventures. He is unpopular with many of the characters, including Mrs. Gideon (who always forgets his name), Bob Fossil (who often uses Howard as a puppet for his bizarre schemes), and Bollo (who often says his name wrongly or ignores him completely).

Fielding commented in 2015 that a film was something he talked about writing with Barratt^[18] and he also commented in 2013 that "I would love to do a Boosh film I really would. I hope we do cos I feel like that's what we started out wanting to do. We really wanted to do a film, really,... ...we wanted to do a film, and then we thought alright we'll do a live show. We didn't really know how to do a live show we thought we'd just learn, and then we sort of... ...we did a radio show, we did a TV show, we never quite got around to doing a film..."^[8] In 2008 it was also commented that "A film is the first thing we ever wanted to do, so we've always come up with ideas and stuck them in a drawer."^[19] and in 2014 it was commented that "The pair have written two film scripts in the past, though neither made it to production. One was a "Rocky Horror Picture Show type thing," according to Fielding, in which Barratt played a character who has woken up believing himself to be the last man on earth. The other was an Arctic adventure – 'because we always liked the Arctic'."^[19]

Fielding commented in 2015 that whilst creating Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy that "Originally I used to do all the paintings for the animations. This meant that I was filming in the day and staying up until 5 am painting. After three weeks of this I started to feel unusual so Ivana Zorn, who is Nigel Coan's partner, now does a majority of the painting and I just design the main characters. Nigel animates everything like a futuristic goose."^[20] Fielding formed "Secret Peter Productions"^[21] with Nigel Coan who, along with Fielding and Zorn, helped to animate series 1 and 2 of the Mighty Boosh TV show, An evening with Noel Fielding and Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy.^[22][23] Coan also directed Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy as well as helping to write it along with Fielding.^[23] Dave Brown also contributed to graphics for the Mighty Boosh^[24] including the DVD cover art for the Mighty Boosh Live 2006 stage show.^[25][24] Brown also "...designed and compiled The Mighty Book of Boosh..."^[24] as well as all the publishing output for the Mighty Boosh.^[24] It has been commented that Barratt "...composed all the music for The Mighty Boosh."^[1][3] with Barratt also commenting that "I write the music, eh, but we both sort of write, we both write the lyrics, and we, I do the music mostly..." with Fielding replying to Barratt that "I have a go at the melodies then he goes away and makes it..." and then with Barratt replying "...tweaks, tweaks it a bit".^[12] Fielding also made drawings that formed a basis for the characters costumes and make-up in the Mighty boosh TV show.^[26][12] Regular Boosh collaborators include Michael Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown,^[23] Nigel Coan,^[23] Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry^[4] and Ivanna Zorn.^[23][20] In 2002^[4] during a live run through of a Mighty Boosh pilot^[4] Richard Ayoade played adventurer Dixon Bainbridge, but Matt Berry replaced him in the first television series, since Ayoade was under contract with Channel 4.^[27]

It was also commented that the Mighty Boosh "... almost didn't make it to television. Around 2000, Barratt and Fielding disappeared into development hell. They had done a sketch show for Radio 4, but no one was sure how to translate their act on to TV. That's until Steve Coogan, who had seen them in Edinburgh in 1999 when they were performing as Arctic Boosh, moved things along. His production company... ...sold the concept to the BBC simply by saying: 'If we were young, we'd want to be them.'"^[3] The style of humour in the Mighty Boosh is often described as being surreal,^{[28][29][3][30][14]} as well as being escapist^[28] and new wave comedy.^[29] Fielding has further commented that "I think our show is magical and fantastical. We tell very intricate, weird stories. Vince Noir is quite modern, a bit of an indie kid; Howard Moon is... ...eccentric... ...and we rely heavily on Julian's music and my animation... ...It's such a weird shambles of stuff."^[3]

The name "Mighty Boosh" was originally a phrase used by a friend of Michael Fielding's to describe the hair that Michael had as a child.^[16][31] From August 2008 to January 2009 they went on tour for a second time with a new stage show of the Mighty Boosh.^[19]

Barratt has had parts in other dramas, often alongside his Mighty Boosh partner Noel Fielding. He starred as Dan Ashcroft, a frustrated magazine writer, in the Channel 4 media satire Nathan Barley, and appeared in the surrealistic black comedy series Asylum alongside Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (who wrote and starred in Spaced). The character of Brian Topp in Spaced was written for Barratt, but eventually went to Mark Heap. Barratt played Jackson, a musician, in How Not to Live Your Life. He starred in the "Freelance Scientist" commercial for Metz alcopop.^[32] He appeared as The Padre in the spoof horror series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. He also starred in (and was a writer for) the 1998 sketch show Unnatural Acts, alongside Fielding. Before this, Barratt was one half of an experimental comedy duo called "The Pod" with friend Tim Hope, in which they billed themselves as a "Cyberdance Collective".^[33] During this time he also appeared in the 2001 film Lucky Break.

Barratt made his directing début for Warp Films with theatre director Dan Jemmett. Curtains is set in a Norfolk seaside town. It is a dark comedy about a Punch and Judy man. In 2012, Barratt directed his first music video, for the song "All of Me" by Tanlines.^[34] He can be heard as the voiceover on many adverts, such as More Th>n Car, House and Pet insurance, and the Directgov advert. He appeared in the music video for Mint Royale's "Blue Song", alongside Noel Fielding, Nick Frost, and Michael Smiley. In 2010, Barratt took part in Sky Comedy's Little Crackers. He wrote and directed a 15-minute film based on his teen band, Satan's Hoof. On 12 March 2011, he made a brief appearance as Heathcliff in Noel Fielding's "Wuthering Heights" dance on the Let's Dance for Comic Relief finale. He also narrated the 2011 documentary Seven Dwarves.

In 2012, Barratt appeared in the miniseries Treasure Island on Sky1, as well as narrating the BBC Two documentary The Tube. He also had a part as an art teacher in the BBC drama White Heat. In 2013, he appeared in the fifth series of Being Human, playing a werewolf named Larry Chrysler. He also narrated the BBC Two documentaries The Route Masters: Running London's Roads and The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway. In April 2014, he collaborated with Julia Davis and Joe Frank on Frank's radio show "Isolation," which was broadcast as part of KCRW's UnFictional series.

In April 2016, he starred as Maurice Flowers, a children's author battling depression, in the Channel 4 series, Flowers, a 6 part dark comedy mini series which follows the eccentric and dysfunctional members of the Flowers family.^[35] He reprised the role for the second series in 2018.

He plays the title character in the film Mindhorn, which he co-wrote with Simon Farnaby. It was released through Netflix on 12 May 2017.

In 2024, Barratt appeared in series 2 of Extraordinary as a special powers counsellor. The lead character had a crush on him and they shared a kiss after having described him as a DILF to her friend Carrie. He also appeared in the miniseries Knuckles as Jack Sinclair.

From 3 June to 9 July 2011, Barratt played the Mayor in a production of Nikolai Gogol's classic comedy The Government Inspector at the Young Vic Theatre. In October 2012, he returned to the stage in Lucy Kirkwood's play NSFW at the Royal Court.^[36]

Barratt has commented that "At 16 I was into jazz fusion. Not even jazz, just jazz fusion. Rock instruments played like jazz. Really not fashionable in any way. People like Weather Report, Jack Pastorius. My dad was bang into it, so I thought it was normal. Until I played some to my mates. Then when I saw their reaction, it became my dirty secret. I could play guitar pretty well. Or pretty fast anyway. Me and my mate had duels, trying to outspeed each other to become the fastest guitarist in Yorkshire. That was all that mattered to me... ...I got into heavy metal because you could legitimately play solos. Van Halen was a big influence... ..And I played a lot of long, fast guitar solos."^[2]

Barratt and Fielding have commented on the end of one of the episodes of the Mighty Boosh with Barratt commenting that "There's a scene at the end of one of the episodes where I get to do a really long guitar solo for about five minutes. So fulfilling one of my childhood dreams..." with Fielding adding "...Roger Daltrey was there... ...He got to watch Julian's solo..." with Barratt replying "...Noel was playing bongos..." and with Fielding replying "Really badly" and Barratt replied "You can't play bongos " with Fielding adding "I was playing a bongo player... ...you did it really well and I did it really badly... We'd been hanging out with Keith Moon someone who can really play the drums and I couldn't play at all..."^[37]

In the early 1990s Barratt was in a band called Groove Solution with Dave Westlake.^[38] In 2012 he played jazz guitar live on stage with Tenacious D.^[39] He has also played bass with Chris Corner in IAMX,^[40] and played guitar for Little Chief during their European tour.^[38]

As of November 2022^[update] Barratt is in a relationship with comedian Julia Davis.^[41] The couple have twin sons.^[42] In 2010, they performed together in a production of Chekhov's The Bear for Sky Arts 2 and in Sally4Ever, which Davis also wrote and directed. Barratt is known to be shy, quiet, and self-deprecating.^[43] Unlike his comedy partner Noel Fielding, he prefers not to appear on comedy quiz shows or make similar public appearances, stating that he would rather "stay at home with a good book".^[44]

• 2022 The Great nominated Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Comedy Series 28th Screen Actors Guild Awards.
• 2019 Killing Eve nominated Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series Online Film and Television Awards, Killing Eve 2018.
• 2016 Mindhorn nominated Best Debut Screenwriter British Independent Film Awards 2016.
• 2014 ABCs of Death 2 nominated Audience Choice Award Chicago International Film Festival.
• 2010 The Mighty Boosh won Best Live Show with Future Sailors at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2010.
• 2009 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2009
• 2008 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008.
• 2007 The Mighty Boosh won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007.
• 2001 The Boosh, first on London Live, then on Radio 4.
• 2000 Arctic Boosh won the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival
• 1999 Perrier nominee with Noel Fielding as Arctic Boosh
• 1998 Perrier Best Newcomer winner with Noel Fielding as the double act The Mighty Boosh
• 1995 Won BBC New Comedy Award
• 1995 Won Open Mic Award, Edinburgh

Listen to this article (5 minutes)

This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 29 November 2007 (2007-11-29), and does not reflect subsequent edits.

(Audio help · More spoken articles)

• Julian Barratt at IMDb
• PBJ Artist Page
• The Guardian interviews Julian Barratt