impatient productions

our story

We are passionate about our projects and will go to all possible lengths to make other people passionate about them.

We do not call comedians ‘talent’, we try to avoid referring to artistic works as ‘content’, and we do not claim to have ‘a great relationship’ with people we’ve never met.

We produce live and scripted comedy and have ongoing projects in drama (live and broadcast), documentary, and light entertainment. Our future areas of activity may include – but are not limited to – film, digital-only, and one of those shows where someone trains difficult dogs etc.

We’re also one of the first performer-led independents to venture into live promotion. We have produced five live shows for Mark Watson at the Edinburgh Festival between 2014 and 2020, and the main ones, Flaws, I'm Not Here, MW and The Infinite Show toured nationally and internationally with impatient.

We do all this because we have a combined twenty three years’ experience in TV, radio and live touring – much of it as hands-on as you can get, i.e. making shows and doing tours; we’ve learned a lot about the good and bad ways things are done, and we are (if you will) impatient to put those lessons into action. Also because we enjoy it. 

Thanks!

us

Mark Watson is routinely described as ‘comedy’s busiest man’.  He is one of the country’s best-regarded comedians, the recipient of half-a-dozen major awards, among the biggest-selling acts at the Edinburgh and Melbourne festivals, and routinely tours the UK performing at hundreds of venues every year (produced by Impatient).  He's appeared on literally dozens of TV shows, but is perhaps best known for QI (BBC1); Taskmaster (Dave); The Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls (C4); Live At The Apollo (BBC1). He’s guested regularly on Mock The Week (BBC1) and all the usual panel shows, and hosted cult quiz We Need Answers (BBC4) which has recently seen related spin-off No More Jockeys hit hundreds of thousands of views on its own YouTube channel.  He has also written and performed numerous series of his own critically acclaimed Radio 4 show, and for numerous TV projects including A Child’s Christmases In Wales for BBC4 (which won a Celtic Media Award).  

He is also the author of seven books, published in twelve languages, with an eighth - Contacts - to be released October 2020, and one of which – Dan And Sam – has been optioned for a motion picture by Universal.  His extensive writing CV most recently includes The Best Of, an adapted screenplay with Toni Colette, and a musical adaptation of Anna Karenina in collaboration with legendary composer Howard Goodall CBE.  He also wrote and co-produced the 13-part series Mark Watson's Comedy Marathon for Audible and, in February 2019, performed a 26-hour comedy show to promote it.  To cement the 'busiest man in comedy' thing, he has since performed another of these legendary marathon shows during lockdown, with another planned for Halloween 2020, again raising money for various charities. He plans to have a nice sit down in 2023.    

Lianne Coop has also been pretty busy. She was an in-house comedy producer for BBC Radio Comedy for many years.  Since forming Impatient with Mark, Lianne has developed and produced numerous Radio 4 series, including multiple series of Mark’s own long-running show Mark Watson Talks A Bit About Life; Elephant In The Room with Sarah Millican; Passport Paddy with Zoe Lyons, recorded on location in Ireland; Angela Barnes’ You Can’t Take It With You; How To Love Your Fat with Sofie Hagen; The Price of Happiness with Kate Fox and Coaches, a sitcom pilot starring Sara Pascoe and Paapa Esseidu.  This is in addition to The Andy Field Experience (a Radio 1 podcast); Mark Watson’s Comedy Marathon, a 13-part original podcast series for Audible; and the newly independently launched WTB with Jen Brister, with further podcasts currently in development and production. 

While producing as an in-house BBC producer, Lianne produced many well-loved scripted comedy shows with a large range of household-name comedians, including: Mark Watson's Live Address to the Nation, (the first completely live comedy series of its time on Radio 4 in many years); Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better; Sarah Millican's Support Group, (Sony Award nominated); Isy Suttie's Love Letters, (Sony Award winner); Thom Tuck Goes Straight to DVD; Chain Reaction; 4 Stands Up and Single Files for Radio 4.  She also single handedly resurrected and produced the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2011 and 2012, a nationwide search for new comedians with production which spanned live events, online film, radio and Red Button broadcast with live voting, and has helped launch the broadcast careers of the wonderful Angela Barnes and Lucy Beaumont. Her other credits include Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs, (Sony Award nominated); Tim Minchin's Strings; Alan Carr and Friends at the Fringe and The Wilson Dixon Line for Radio 2. 

With the occasional witty one-liner and that northern sing-songy thing that Victoria Wood made famous, Siren Turner is quickly building up her comedy credentials. Combining her love for live performance and a tendency towards OCD in the organisation stakes, she has worked happily at Impatient since April 2016 and continues to be inspired by funny bones and comedic brains. She has assisted Mark and Lianne in producing several shows for Radio 4 -  Mark Watson Talks A Bit About Life,  Angela Barnes: You Can’t Take It With You, Ria Lina: School of Riason and Kate Fox: The Price of Happiness - and alongside Mark’s UK tours has coordinated UK-wide tours for Sofie Hagen, Yianni Agisilaou, Justin Moorhouse, Shappi Khorsandi, Gary Delaney, John-Luke Roberts and Laura Lexx.

What a lovely bunch.