Dom Joly, the comedian best known for Trigger Happy TV, has admitted he worries he will "die in savage poverty" after making poor financial decisions throughout his career. Despite his success, he has prioritised treating his family to lavish experiences rather than saving into a pension.
Career and financial regrets
Joly graduated from the University of London and spent a year working as a diplomat with the European Commission in Prague, and was a political producer at ITN before turning to comedy. From 2000 to 2003, he fronted the Channel 4 hidden camera series Trigger Happy TV, and has appeared on shows including Made In Britain, Fool Britannia and Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls. In 2010, he competed in I'm A Celebrity alongside Alison Hammond, Gillian McKeith and eventual winner Stacey Solomon.
Joly, who has been married to graphic designer Stacey MacDougall for over 25 years and has two children, said: "The people I mocked for commuting to sensible jobs are now retiring with pensions, while I spent my mornings dressed as a squirrel shouting: 'F*** you.' Accessing the strange part of your brain that produces comedy may also open the door to something darker. One day, everything is exciting; the next, the diary is empty."
He added: "I should have married an accountant or lawyer who could do the finances. I panic about money but I have had the best 30 years imaginable. Whenever I made money, I spent it and took my children to extraordinary places. I have no pension - just a financial spiral."
Spending and public encounters
Speaking to the i newspaper, he said: "I have travelled, made things I am proud of, embarrassed my family and spent almost all the money. I just hope I don't die in savage poverty."
The success of his Channel 4 show relied on members of the public being willing to appear on camera. He recently revealed that one of the main reasons many refused was because they were being unfaithful to their partners and didn't want to be caught out in front of the nation. Speaking on the Remember Me? podcast, he told host Maisie Adam: "We got away with quite a lot but the main reason people didn't sign consent forms - it's not that they didn't want to be on telly, it's because they were having affairs."
He added: "I can not tell you the amount of people we did, and when the second series went out, the guy would go 'Oh my god, it's Dom Joly! Am I being filmed? Oh! That's not my wife.' That was just the people we talked to!"
The famous phone and a royal encounter
Joly's most famous bit is, ironically, his least favourite - that enormous phone. Just days after the first episode aired in January 2000, he was on a train when he heard that now-familiar Nokia ring tone. He said: "Three people stood up and shouted, 'HELLO?! YEAH I'M ON THE TRAIN - IT'S RUBBISH!' I was like, 'f***. What is happening?'" It is a catchphrase that has haunted him for 25 years.
He said: "I swear there's not a day where it doesn't happen. Even on the way here, a bloke spotted me and shouted, 'HELLO?!' And 25 years later I still don't have a good response to it! Like, 'Yes, hello!'"
He also recalled a prank involving Sarah Ferguson: "So many scenes went wrong, but the worst we did was with Sarah Ferguson. We were walking past the Duke of York barracks on King's Road and there's a party going on, so we go in and blag some free drinks. Suddenly we spot Fergie sitting in the corner on her own, so we say, 'let's do it'."
"We go right up to her, she looks panicky and I stick my microphone in her face and say, 'Good morning Your Majesty, you are live on Good Morning Mexico - do you have anything to say to the people of Mexico?' She starts blabbering on into this tiny camera, and after a while I ask her to pause because we've gone to a commercial break, and could she absolutely freeze? And for three minutes, me, Sam and the Duchess of York are frozen in the middle of this drinks party. And then we leg it. By the time we get back to our office there's a fax from her lawyers and sadly we could never show the footage."
