Dom Joly now from Trigger Happy breakdown to BBC regrets and rarely-seen wife

03 February 2024 , 08:00

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The comedian is appearing on BBC One's Saturday Kitchen (Image: UK Parliament/Maria Unger)

Dom Joly is joining chef and presenter James Martin on Saturday Kitchen this week. The 56-year-old first shot to fame with Channel 4 show Trigger Happy TV, which began in 2000 and featured hidden camera pranks. It was so popular it went onto be shown in 60 countries around the world.

Dom, 56, had achieved fame and fortune virtually overnight but says: "The actual thing you’re supposed to want – the success, being number one – was terrifying". The star went onto suffer from panic attacks four weeks into filming the show, something he had previously experienced growing up in Beirut, moving to the UK as a young child in 1975 when civil war broke out.

"I loved making Trigger Happy but I had a breakdown four weeks into filming," he said. "I had a series of panic attacks – they were terrible but I had always experienced them, I suspect because I grew up in a war."

Dom is married to graphic designer Stacey (Getty Images Europe)

The star suffered from anxiety and depression after achieving fame (domjoly/Twitter)

The writer had achieved huge success thanks to Trigger Happy TV but for the next few years he battling crippling anxiety and depression. Dom moved to the BBC with a parody show This Is Dom Joly but says he totally "f****d up". "Unfortunately, the verdict was: 'This is the real Dom Joly – and he’s a w****r'," he said of the programme.

The comedian, who is married to graphic designer Stacey MacDougall with two grown-up children, daughter Parker and son Jackson, stepped away from the limelight to write travel books - he's now authored four. The move has been the making of him. "My wife says I’ve become slightly nicer as I’ve gotten into my 50s," said Dom in a recent interview with the Guardian. "I have relaxed a bit and I’m a lot less stressed than I was."

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The star has even come to terms with more than two decades of people shouting his famous Trigger Happy TV catchphrase at him. "I get someone shouting “HELLO!!” at me three times a day," he said, referring to the hilarious sketches where he answers the phone in a booming voice, startling people around him. "I still don’t have an answer. I just smile and say hello back."

Watch Saturday Kitchen on BBC One at 10am today or on BBC iPlayer

Vikki White