In the media obsessed world of 2024, it seems impossible for members of the public to have the opportunity to muscle in on a press screening of the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Yet living close to Leicester Square in the 1980’s, future comedy heavyweight Joe Cornish was able to obtain a window into the film industry from an early age. As a film reviewer for LBC and Capital Radio, Joe would attend all the latest movies and was on the cutting edge of new film production. Attending the Westminster Independent School, he met a fourteen year old Adam Buxton and the pair bonded over a mutual appreciation of Not The Nine O’Clock News. The ability to recite entire sketches from the series promptly set them apart from their peers and it wasn’t long before this evolved into creating film and television pastiches in their bedrooms. Unbeknownst to either of them, Joe and Adam were promptly laying the foundations for the genre they would go on to become part of in the coming years.
The early nineties brought some radical changes for independent television and Channel Four’s growing popularity offered the landscape to extend. Under the broadcaster’s objective to promote and create a quota of public access shows, Takeover TV first aired on the 6th May 1995. Answering an advert in the NME, Adam sent a video tape into Channel Four in the hope of being successful. These consisted of a selection of recorded skits which he and Joe regularly constructed in their spare time. Inspired by Monty Python and Not The Nine O’Clock News, there were always elements of surrealism and silliness to their work and this gave him the inspiration to submit it for approval to this interactive forum. This, together with Cornish’s film critic background offered their work a cinematic approach.
In television terms, Takeover TV was the first show to offer a platform to talented members of the public to drive their own content which was totally revolutionary for the time. In the era before social media and YouTube, this offered the opportunity for the audience to create and produce content and in turn gave birth to a new generation of comedians including Graham Norton. Adam and Joe quickly became promoted to the hosts of the show and presided over the array of content which Takeover TV boasted.
Just a year later, Adam and Joe’s double act status was assured when they secured their own late night self titled Channel Four sketch show. Influenced by their mutual admiration for film, The Adam and Joe Show paid homage to iconic cinematic moments in the form of satirical surrealism. This was the perfect amalgamation of both their entertainment passions and with Cornish’s skills as a director, the show took on an extra dimension. Combining all the elements of a quintessential TV double act with reverential nods to seminal pop culture, this was a twenty first century take on adult Light Entertainment which appealed to the Britpop generation. The term cult viewing has sadly been adopted to represent bureaucratic viewing habits but The Adam and Joe Show developed a cult following for its satirical and surreal moments of thinking mans comedy which defined a generation.
When faced with Channel Four being unable to recommission The Adam and Joe Show, the pair gradually edged towards radio, first as holiday cover for Ricky Gervais on Xfm before inheriting the show in 2003. For three years Adam and Joe brought their irreverent, natural chemistry to Saturday mornings and helped to set the benchmark for radio entertainment hereafter. They soon realised that their rapport and professional chemistry was perfect for the medium of radio as no longer was their comedy curtailed by TV budgets because, to use an overused cliche, pictures are always better on radio! In the era when radio comedy was arguably reserved for overtly political middle aged intellectuals, Adam and Joe were on the forefront of a movement which made comedy cool again.
A move to BBC6Music in 2007 would offer the pair a new outlet for their unique relationship with the public. By this time, Joe was already enjoying a blossoming film career in Hollywood and therefore the acclaimed writer and broadcaster Edith Bowman was drafted in as Cornish’s replacement. This seemed a significant milestone in Adam and Joe’s entertainment journey and signified a parting of the waves. However, believing that chemistry is more than the sum of the parts, they both understood that while they worked on separate projects, when they inevitably reunited, it would always have the same magic. Despite no longer working on regular joint projects, Joe remains the annual guest on the Christmas special of The Adam Buxton Podcast where their natural chemistry continues to evolve.
His passion for film had always surrounded his career in comedy but now Joe had the opportunity to further develop such an art. Working alongside the future comedy heavyweight Edgar Wright offered Joe an insight into the next chapter of his comedy journey. Making his directing debut on the science fiction comedy horror Attack The Block in 2011, Cornish was now able to realise his movie ambitions alongside a great friend whose work he had admired for a long time. It was here that he learned the amount of confidence needed to bring a film to fruition as everything is scaled up and filmmakers have an innate ability to think big.
Having trodden so many paths, it’s impossible to sum up Cornish’s wide ranging career in just one interview. A master of film and television both behind and in front of the camera, his irreverent, creative mind makes him one of the most exciting auteurs of his generation. It was one of the highlights of Beyond The Title to welcome the great Joe Cornish to the podcast and with a formidable career behind him, it’s exciting what it will deliver next.