It’s show-time as actor, author, ex-MP, and broadcaster, Gyles Brandreth, returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 1st to 26th August with his brand-new one-man show, Break A Leg! at the Pleasance Courtyard.
As a riotous celebration of all things theatrical, this is Brandreth unleashed on the stars he’s known and the theatre stories that have made him laugh – and occasionally cry. Without hesitation or repetition (but just a touch of deviation), joyful Just A Minute regular Gyles delivers a dazzling hour of wit, wisdom, high drama, low comedy and hilarious name dropping.
They say that all political careers end in tears, but in the case of Gyles Brandreth, it’s tears of laughter as his glittering career simply goes from strength to strength.
He’s won the Most Popular Show At The Fringe Award and received a record amount of five star reviews every time he’s appeared at the Pleasance, so book now before he sells out!
A former Oxford Scholar, President of the Oxford Union and MP for the City of Chester, Gyles Brandreth’s career has ranged from being a Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in John Major’s government to starring in his own award-winning musical revue in London’s West End.
A prolific broadcaster, Gyles has appeared on QI (BBC 2), Have I Got News For You (BBC 1), Just A Minute (BBC Radio 4), and is a regular contributor to The One Show (BBC 1). He is an acclaimed interviewer (principally for the Sunday Telegraph), a novelist, children’s author and biographer, he has published two volumes of diaries; Breaking The Code: Westminster Diaries and Something Sensational To Read On The Train: The Diary Of A Lifetime.
He is the author of two acclaimed royal biographies: Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait Of A Marriage and Charles & Camilla: Portrait Of A Love Affair, as well as a series of Victorian detective stories, The Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries, what are now published in twenty-two countries around the world. His recent Sunday Times best-sellers include Word Play: A Celebration Of The English Language and The 7 Secrets Of Happiness, which was Number One on Amazon. His on-line course on Happiness is available from Gravy For The Brain.
As a performer, Gyles Brandreth has been seen in the West End in Zipp! One Hundred Musicals For Less Than The Price Of One at the Duchess Theatre and on tour throughout the UK, and as Malvolio and the Sea Captain in Twelfth Night: The Musical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2011/12 he played Lady Bracknell in a new musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest and in 2016 appeared in Hamlet at the Park Theatre in London.
Gyles Brandreth has been London correspondent for Up to the Minute on CBS News, featured on This Is Your Life and Desert Island Discs and is a former chairman and now vice-president of the National Playing Fields Association. At the end of 2016, he succeeded the late Duke of Westminster as Chancellor of the University of Chester.
