logo
Favourite British comedian forced to cancel shows after saying he's quitting sta

Favourite British comedian forced to cancel shows after saying he's quitting sta

Metro26-06-2025
Rob Beckett has been forced to axe a string of shows after previously announcing he was quitting stand-up.
The comedian began performing stand-up in 2009, making his debut at Edinburgh Fringe three years later.
He is now best known for appearing on shows including Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster and Lol: Last One Laughing UK.
However, in March, the 39-year-old detailed his plans to take a step back from the stage.
A month after Rob had announced he was stepping down from his BBC Radio 2 show, he explained he was planning on pausing stand-up shows to prioritise time with his children.
Although he'd had shows planned in Scotland next week, Rob's now had to pull the plug after falling ill.
Posting a message on Instagram, he wrote: 'Hello everyone, I'm so sorry but I'm not well and can't do the shows in Scotland this week.
'Aberdeen has been rescheduled to Wednesday 14th Jan 20206 and Edinburgh has been rescheduled to Thursday 15th Jan 2026.
'The venue will be in touch, but tickets remain valid for both shows. I hate doing this, but I'm not well enough to give you the best show possible, but I look forward to seeing you all at the new shows.'
Despite his plans to take a break from stand-up, Rob has shows throughout the UK up until April next year.
While most of Rob's upcoming stand-up shows have sold out, these ones still have tickets available:
Southend- Cliffs Pavilion (September 10)
Derry- Millennium Forum (September 25)
Dublin- 3Olympia Theatre (September 27)
However, after the cancellation of his Scotland shows, he won't be back on stage again until September, where he will perform in Liverpool, Sheffield, Southend, Buxton, Oxford, Belfast, Derry and Dublin, before he embarks on a tour of Australia.
When previously explaining his decision to spend more time with his family, Rob told The Sun: 'I'll still do stand up and local clubs and charity gigs but I'm going to take a break from touring until the kids are 16/17.
'Then I'll do a big tour when they're sixth form and when they go to Uni, me and Lou are going to spend Feb and March in Australia bumming around.'
The comedian also revealed that when he is 50, he wanted 'to do a psychology degree'.
When revealing he was quitting his radio show, Rob said in a statement: 'I've had such a laugh each Sunday getting to know the listeners, but as my tour schedule hots up and my family forget what I look like, I've decided to step away from a weekly show.' More Trending
However, the comedian also promised fans that he would return.
He added: 'But you won't get away from me that easily as I'll be back presenting shows on Radio 2 later in the year when normal service is resumed!'
Rob has been married to teacher Louise Watts since 2015. They share two daughters.
Got a story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
MORE: All episodes of the 'funniest show on TV' are finally free to stream
MORE: Amazon confirms beloved 98-year-old star will return in 2027 sequel to iconic 80s comedy
MORE: Netflix fans rush to binge 'must-see' series after huge Rotten Tomatoes boost
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Actress to share personal tragedy of Lockerbie bombing in Fringe play
Actress to share personal tragedy of Lockerbie bombing in Fringe play

The National

timean hour ago

  • The National

Actress to share personal tragedy of Lockerbie bombing in Fringe play

Annie Lareau was studying theatre at Syracuse University in 1988 when she came over to London with her fellow students for a semester abroad. Her classmates were booked onto Pan Am 103 to travel home for Christmas. Lareau – who was booked onto a plane the following day – desperately tried to book herself onto the same flight, having wanted the comfort and company of her friends following a series of panic attacks and nightmares about flying. Having had an expensive weekend in Paris, she was unable to afford the flight change and so instead waved off her friends – of which there were eight including her best friend Theodora Cohen – for what turned out to be the last time. Thirty-five students from Syracuse University were on the flight in total. READ MORE: Edinburgh Fringe 2025 programme launches with 3350 shows across 265 venues More than 30 years on from the tragedy which saw Pan Am 103 explode over Lockerbie following a terrorist attack, Lareau is now bringing her play called Fuselage to the Edinburgh Fringe stage to tell her story. She said it meant a great deal to be able to debut the play in Scotland where she said she feels 'safe and understood'. 'The reason I was drawn to doing it in Edinburgh first is because Scotland is very embedded in this story,' she told the Sunday National. 'It is part of your history. It's in your bones as it is in mine. 'In my country [Pan Am 103] has been usurped by 9/11. People don't remember it. 'I feel like it's a great gift to do this show in Scotland first because I feel safe and understood. Annie Lareau and Theodora Cohen (Image: Supplied) 'I also think it's very important we don't forget because this remains the biggest terrorist attack on UK soil. It was the first time American civilians were targeted in the US. Many things were changed in how we deal with terrorism because of it in both countries.' The Lockerbie bombing – more commonly referred to in the US as Pan Am 103 – has come into sharp focus this year with two docudramas on Sky and the BBC telling the story of the ongoing search for the bomber. But since Lareau, now 57, began writing a memoir in 2019 following the 30th anniversary of the disaster, she has been keen to share her more personal story of losing people she loved so suddenly. It was in 2019 that she also visited Lockerbie for the first time, a place she says she now feels 'intricately connected to' after striking up friendships with people involved in the aftermath. 'It took 30 years to happen, but my story and their story are the same, even though we are across the pond. Our grief is similar in the fact that we are forever connected,' she said. While both the Sky docudrama Lockerbie: A Search for Truth and the BBC series The Bombing of Pan Am 103 both focused on the who bombed the plane and the geopolitics of the time, Lareau said she wanted to focus on the humans who were lost and the opportunities that were taken from them. READ MORE: Palestinian artists to take to the stage at Edinburgh Fringe Lareau said: 'For me it's such a personal story. I lost eight friends, I've lived through the aftermath, and I have to live it every time I see one of those documentaries. 'I was really motivated to write the memoir to tell the story of the people, the human lives we sometimes forget. We get desensitised in our world by the news, we just see a roll call of names. 'What I want people to remember is them [her friends] and our story and how it's all so relatable because we all lose people throughout our lives and mine just happened to be in the lens of an international tragedy. 'It's about trying to remind people of the vibrancy of the people we come into contact with in our lives and how precious and how fragile they are and how we should cherish them while we have them because you never know when they are going to disappear.' (Image: GIAO NGUYEN) It was a 'flicker of fate', as Lareau calls it, that had led to her not being on the flight herself. Incredibly, she had had premonitions of planes exploding prior to her own flight home and her best friend Theodora encouraged her to try and change her flight to be with them. In the aftermath she said she took a 'deep, dark dive' mentally as she battled with a huge sense of guilt. She had to face the agony of packing up her best friend and roommate Theo's belongings back at Syracuse, with the media banging on her door. She said while she will likely never find complete closure, she has healed gradually over the years and part of that has been making the most of the 'gift' she was given. 'When we got back to university and graduated, we wasted no time in trying to do what we wanted to do because we knew the gift we had been given,' she said. READ MORE: I'm a performer at the Fringe - here's why I'm having to CAMP in Edinburgh 'There was no being afraid of going to auditions or becoming Broadway producers – which two of them have become. They were just willing to take the risk because there was an understanding we were lucky and we had to do it not only for us but for them, who lost that opportunity to do what they wanted with their lives.' The show Fuselage brings Lareau's story together with the story of those in Lockerbie who watched as the plane wreckage crashed down on their town, killing 11 people on the ground alongside the 259 people on board. 'I take you back to 1986 and the start of university where you meet my friends,' she said. 'I take you through the process of meeting them and that becomes intertwined with the story of 2019 when I go to Lockerbie for the first time in 30 years and I meet Colin Dorrance and Josephine Donaldson who were both involved in the situation. 'It switches back and forth and how those stories meet. 'Then I take you through the aftermath, what happened in Lockerbie, what happened for me, and how my time in Lockerbie in the following years sort of healed us all.' Lareau added: 'I absolutely hope it will tour, and I can show it to other people across the UK and Europe and the US, and I hope someone will publish by memoir, but if none of those things happen, I will be okay with just performing in Scotland, because that is the most important thing to me.' Fuselage will be performed throughout August at Pleasance Courtyard. For tickets click here.

We can't believe these 26 incredible old photos of Edinburgh in 1996 were taken nearly 30 years ago
We can't believe these 26 incredible old photos of Edinburgh in 1996 were taken nearly 30 years ago

Scotsman

timean hour ago

  • Scotsman

We can't believe these 26 incredible old photos of Edinburgh in 1996 were taken nearly 30 years ago

The Scottish capital was a very different place when Danny Boyle's big screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Edinburgh-set novel Trainspotting hit cinemas in February 1996. For one thing, our world-famous Hogmanay street party was free, while Fibber Magees, winner of the Evening News 'Pub of the Year' award in '96, was still pouring pints. Scroll through our photo gallery for a nostalgic trip back to 1996 – and let us know your own memories in the comments section before you go. 1 . Fibber Magees pub Fibber Magees won the Evening News Pub of the year in 1996. Bar person Katherline Guthrie is pictured pulling a pint. Photo: JULIE BULL Photo Sales 2 . Traffic chaos in Edinburgh Heavy traffic and diversions were not a new thing in Edinburgh in 1996. Photo: UNKNOWN Photo Sales 3 . Bus smash at Russell Street Bus smash at Russell Street, Edinburgh.A SMT double decker with Hearts fans on board crashed into the low railway bridge. Photo taken on 16/3/96. Photo: BILL HENRY Photo Sales 4 . Festival Cavalcade Big crowds turned out to see the 1996 Festival Cavalcade. Photo: DENIS STRAUGHAN Photo Sales

Would you eat this? Meet the café owner who sells nothing but food made from insects!
Would you eat this? Meet the café owner who sells nothing but food made from insects!

Daily Mail​

time10 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Would you eat this? Meet the café owner who sells nothing but food made from insects!

Every home baker has a favourite recipe for muffins, cookies and brownies. Yet the cakes produced by Nahla Mahmoud are all made with a special ingredient that is definitely not found in most kitchen cupboards. For the 38-year-old has set up the first business of its kind in Scotland, baking sweet treats from ground-up insects. And while she acknowledges not everyone will find crickets and mealworms appetising, she hopes to convince people of the benefits and pleasures of putting insects on the menu. At the moment, her business, the Insect Cafe, sells its products online and at food festivals and farmers' markets. However, she is now finalising plans for a bricks-and-mortar café in Edinburgh where diners can tuck in to cricket and almond brownies and orange and mealworm muffins. Other succulent treats available include banana and coconut larva balls and mixed insect ginger cookies. Savoury items include garlic and herb roasted crickets and spicy peri-peri mealworms. Ms Mahmoud said: 'There are some people who just love to cook with, and experiment with, new ingredients – and they're usually very excited to try our goods. 'And, of course, there are also people who are simply very uncomfortable with eating insects. It's just not for them. After thinking about it a bit, though, they warm to the idea and are open to trying them.' The Insect Café buys specially reared insects from farms in England, then processes them in a commercial kitchen in Edinburgh. Ms Mahmoud, a qualified zoologist and ecologist, said the insects are ground up to make flour. She added: 'So essentially, although you're eating a cake made out of crickets or mealworms or whatever the insect is, the taste is exactly the same – it just tastes like a cake!'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store