Chris Cantrill has won the Audible Best Comedy Show award at the Edinburgh Fringe. Having previously been nominated in 2024, and twice more as half of The Delightful Sausage double act, he has now won the top gong in British comedy.

His show, Rewilding, was described by The Standard as a ‘shaggy-dog story... part Tim Robinson’s Friendship, part Chris the sheep in Father Ted’.

There was no rest for the SNL UK writer, who had to rush from the awards gala to perform his last show of this year’s Fringe. He told the assembled guests he’s been granted just one day off before returning to the writing room, as the Sky One show returns with season two in a week’s time.

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards, now in its 46th year, were presented by SNL UK star and last year’s best newcomer, Ayoade Bamgboye, and Baby Reindeer’s Richard Gadd.

London-based Irish comedian Marty Gleeson won best newcomer for her show Dog Ear, rated five stars in The Standard’s review.

“I was thinking about doing my debut last year - I’m glad I waited,” she told The Standard.

“I wanted a show I loved performing and find new things in it every day. It’s changed a lot, even yesterday I was changing bits and pieces. I still think I want to change things on it. It’s a constant curiosity - it’s alive and telling me where to go. I think it’s important that it does.”

Gleeson got into comedy five years ago, having already moved from Limerick to London. She made her first appearance on stage at the now defunct TNT in Kentish Town: “I remember doing that and thinking you had to pitch yourself, like ‘give me a shot!’ and they’d say ‘Yeah you can go on next week’. Then it was like, ‘Okay this is it, this is what I’m doing.’”

She says she’s the comedy scene has developed over that time. “There’s more alternative voices which is really good and it’s more inclusive generally.

“When you travel around you get a raw taste of the club scenes which is really interesting. But you are spoiled in London for people who have seen different types of comedy and they go because they love comedy and not necessarily because they’re going for a night out.

“London is great but sometimes they’re like, ‘Okay, you show me what you’ve got.’ Mostly it’s fantastic. If you give something to them they give it right back.

“You know within the first two or three seconds the vibe, and then it’s an interesting kind of thing where you are showing yourself to them and they’re showing themselves to you. It’s like dating. And then you become more real as it goes on.

“You just have to be very real. Audiences can smell it a mile away.”

The panel prize went to One Joke, a show where 60 comedians tell a single joke each in the space of an hour, all in aid of charity. They announced the show’s return next year at the 750-capacity Pleasance Grand.

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