Stand-up and radio After graduating from
Warwick University with a degree in English, Roche became a
stand-up comedian using material from a magazine he had produced in his final year. He was spotted at one of his stand-up comedy shows and asked to write jokes and topical sketches for radio. Roche's first radio assignment was writing for
The Alan Davies Show radio programme and for John Shuttleworth on
BBC Radio 4. He created the series
World of Pub for BBC Radio, and later adapted it for television. He also worked on the radio series
The Sunday Format,
Film and television Working with the creator of
The Sunday Format,
John Morton, Roche co-created its television equivalent
Broken News. After making his move to television, Roche joined the writing team for
Armando Iannucci's
Gash, a satirical TV comedy for
Channel 4. He later contributed to
The Thick of It, Iannucci's political satire set in the fictional government Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship. The first series debuted on the
BBC in 2005, and became a critical success. Roche wrote for all four series of the programme, as well as its spin-off film
In the Loop, which was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and
BAFTA Award in the same category. His other writing credits include
The All New Harry Hill Show (
ITV1), ''
Alistair McGowan's Big Impression (BBC Two), Smith & Jones (BBC One), Dead Ringers (BBC Radio 4), Miranda (BBC Two) and Cast Offs, Fresh Meat and Back'' for Channel 4. In 2011 Roche wrote
Holy Flying Circus, a fictionalised account of the controversy surrounding the 1979 release of ''
Monty Python's Life of Brian broadcast on BBC Four. Roche defended his reasons for writing the film as he did in an article in The Daily Telegraph'', stating: "The film isn’t an accurate re-telling of what happened. It doesn’t pay much attention to the facts. (Sorry.) Instead, it uses the story to discuss the nature of offence. Why did so many people get so offended?" Roche was a writer and
co-executive producer on Armando Iannucci's comedy series
Veep for
HBO. For his work on
Veep, he won two
Primetime Emmy Awards from six nominations: one for
Outstanding Comedy Series and one for
Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. Roche worked as an executive producer and staff writer for HBO's
Succession. ==See also==