Jason Cook

Darlington Comedy Festival 2013 - the line-up revealed

Performers include Sarah Millican, Jason Cook and Lost Voice Guy Lee Ridley.

Sunderland Comedy Festival: full programme revealed

Hebburn duo Jason Cook and Steffen Peddie, Paul Foot, Patrick Monahan, Sara Pascoe and Carl Donnelly are some of the names touching down on Wearside next month, with 33 shows scheduled over ten venues.

Jason Cook wins Journal Culture award

Hebburn creator Jason Cook has won Writer of the Year at this year's Journal Culture Awards.

Jason Cook interview

You may have seen that Hebburn, BBC Two's hit Geordie sitcom, has been recommissioned for a second series. We coincidentally had a chat with creator and plays-Ramsey-actor Jason Cook a couple of weeks ago, which we've just dug out to give a feel of where the show might go next, as well as an update on his plans for a local festival...

Jason Cook: Fresh Meat has an excellent gag rate

Jason Cook, who wrote and stars in Hebburn, tells Metro why he thinks Fresh Meat - and particularly Kimberley Nixon - is the best thing on TV.

The sitcom wedding is a signature event that can often be mishandled, but the final instalment in Jason Cook's series brings both light and shade to Jack and Sarah's nuptials, only occasionally teetering on the tightrope between heartwarming and sappy. And, as it's second time around for the happy couple, the pressure is on: Pauline is baking a 'fruity skyscraper' and Sarah's mum brandishes her snobbery like a crucifix as she enters the Geordie heartland. The emotional sucker-punch at which the show has sometimes hinted does come, albeit from an unexpected source - another example of Hebburn threatening comforting predictability, only to give it a gentle swerve. Even so, over the course of the series, a few tricks have been recycled a few too many times (especially the camera pan to reveal an unexpected eavesdropper), but we'd still welcome a second series of this sleepiest of sleeper hits.

Jason Cook's Geordie sitcom is hardly at the cutting edge of comedy, tending to loiter somewhere around the periphery of The Royle Family/Gavin & Stacey section of the genre. But its heart is in the right place, and Gina McKee and Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) give well-judged performances that are a delight. This week the clueless Jack demonstrates how not to behave at a job interview, while mum Pauline explains why it's important Jack and Sarah move out of the cramped family home. "They need their own space or they'll end up like apes in the zoo wandering round in circles flinging their poo about," she says. Nice.

Video: Interview with Steffen Peddie (Big Keith)

Speaking exclusively to Giggle Beats, Steffen Peddie talks openly about playing Big Keith in the BBC2 sitcom Hebburn, working on the show with mates Jason Cook and Chris Ramsey, going out on the lash with Vic Reeves and the future of North East comedy.

Hebburn is that rare thing, a good, warm, funny new sitcom. This is tempting fate, but it may remind you of another romcom about a young couple and their families. Yes, the sacred memory that is Gavin & Stacey. It has the same director for a start, and writer Jason Cook knows how to make characters big but believable.

This week, Pauline (Gina McKee) is still angry at Jack for getting married without telling her, while Joe (Jim Moir) has a plan to win her round. Look out for a lovely, understated sight gag involving a fist bump, and some vicious comedy in Dot's old people's home.

Profile: Hebburn creator Jason Cook

When Jason Cook was in the Merchant Navy, he used to write sketches for a friend back home in Newcastle. He'd pop them in a big brown envelope and ship them back to Tyneside, where his mate would perform them at The Hyena Comedy Club.