Colin Gilbert is a Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

-born television producer

Television producer

The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

 and outgoing senior creative director of The Comedy Unit

The Comedy Unit

The Comedy Unit or known sometimes as just Comedy Unit is a Scottish company that produces sitcoms, comedy sketches, live shows and other comedy productions...

.

Career

Gilbert began his career in comedy writing jokes for the radio shows Weekending and The News Huddlines

The News Huddlines

The News Huddlines was a long-running BBC Radio 2 topical comedy sketch show starring Roy Hudd that ran for fifty one series from 1975 until 2001. Each episode lasted for half an hour and consisted of topical sketches, songs and one-liners.-Performers:...

. He joined BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...

 as an Assistant Floor Manager in 1975 and continued writing comedy in his spare time. He was then asked to script edit the Rikki Fulton

Rikki Fulton

Robert Kerr Fulton, OBE , more commonly known as Rikki Fulton, was a Scottish comedian and actor best remembered for writing and performing in the long-running BBC Scotland sketch show, Scotch and Wry. He was also known for his appearances as one half of the double act, Francie and Josie, alongside...

 sketch show Scotch and Wry

Scotch and Wry

Scotch and Wry was a Scottish comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC One Scotland and starred Rikki Fulton. After two series, in 1978 and 1979, the programme continued as a regular part of the channel's Hogmanay celebrations between 1980 and 1992...

. This led to a move to London to script edit Not the Nine O'Clock News

Not the Nine O'Clock News

Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...

On his return to BBC Scotland in 1983 he set up the Comedy Unit where he began working as a producer and director. His credits during this period include A Kick Up the Eighties

A Kick Up the Eighties

A Kick Up the Eighties was a 1981-1984 BBC Scotland sketch show starring Robbie Coltrane, Tracey Ullman, Richard Stilgoe, Miriam Margolyes, Rik Mayall, Ron Bain and Roger Sloman....

 with Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author ....

, Miriam Margolyes

Miriam Margolyes

Miriam Margolyes, OBE is an English actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence .-Early life:...

 Roger Sloman

Roger Sloman

Roger Sloman is an English actor. Born in the Harlesden district of London, he has performed in dozens of television and film appearances since the late 1970s...

, Ron Bain

Ron Bain

Ron Bain is a Scottish television actor, director, producer, comedian and former stage actor who now focuses primarily on directing. He is known for his work with comedian Rikki Fulton, with whom he first worked while performing Molliere's The Miser at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in 1971,...

 and Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr...

 Naked Radio, Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee with Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane, OBE is a Scottish actor, comedian and author. He is known both for his role as Dr...

 and John Sessions

John Sessions

John Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...

, Naked Video

Naked Video

Naked Video was a BBC Scotland comedy series, broadcast between 1986 and 1991 on BBC2, the series was created by Colin Gilbert who also created A Kick Up the Eighties and Naked Radio.-Naked Radio:...

 with Gregor Fisher

Gregor Fisher

Gregor Fisher is a Scottish comedian and actor.-Early life:Fisher was born in Glasgow and following the death of his parents was brought up in Edinburgh, Langholm and Neilston and attended Barrhead High School...

, Jonathan Watson

Jonathan Watson

Jonathan Watson is a Scottish comedian and impressionist best known for his comedy sketch show Only an Excuse?, which parodies people and events from the world of Scottish football. Watson also regularly appeared on Tam Cowan's Offside television programme on BBC One Scotland where he performed a...

, Helen Lederer

Helen Lederer

Helen Lederer is a Welsh comedienne, writer and actress who emerged as part of the alternative comedy boom at the beginning of the 1980s.-Career:...

, John Sparks

John Sparks

John T. Sparks was an American politician. He was the 10th Governor of Nevada, and was nicknamed Honest John. Like his predecessor, Reinhold Sadler, Sparks was a cattleman and his rise to political power was evidence of the decline of the mining industry and the rise of the ranching industry in...

, Andy Gray

Andy Gray

Andrew Mullen Gray is a Scottish retired footballer who played for several clubs in Scotland and England. He also represented his country...

, Tony Roper

Tony Roper

Anthony Dean "Tony" Roper was a NASCAR driver. He was born in Springfield, Missouri, to Dean Roper and Shirley Medley. Growing up his family was heavily involved in auto racing. Roper started racing in 1986. For the next six years Tony raced in IMCA Modifieds and late models on Midwest dirt and...

 and Elaine C Smith, I Lovett with Norman Lovett

Norman Lovett

Norman Lovett is an English stand-up comedian and actor, best known for the role of Holly in Red Dwarf during the first, second, seventh and eighth series. His comedy has a quiet, dead-pan surrealism, and in 2000 he made a successful stand up tour, co-headlining with Chris Barrie, who played...

 Kevin Turvey the Man Behind the Green Door which he co-wrote with Rik Mayall

Rik Mayall

Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall is an English comedian, writer, and actor. He is known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, his over-the-top, energetic portrayal of characters, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s...

, City Lights

City Lights

City Lights is a 1931 American silent film and romantic comedy-drama written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. It also has the leads Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Although "talking" pictures were on the rise since 1928, City Lights was immediately popular. Today, it is thought of...

 with Gerard Kelly

Gerard Kelly

Paul "Gerard" Kelly was a Scottish actor who appeared in many comedies, most notably in City Lights, Rab C Nesbitt, and Scotch and Wry. He had more serious roles, including PC David Gallagher in Juliet Bravo , villain Jimmy in EastEnders and the villainous Callum Finnegan on Brookside...

 and Rab C Nesbitt with Gregor Fisher

Gregor Fisher

Gregor Fisher is a Scottish comedian and actor.-Early life:Fisher was born in Glasgow and following the death of his parents was brought up in Edinburgh, Langholm and Neilston and attended Barrhead High School...

 created and written by Ian Pattison

Ian Pattison

Ian Pattison is a Scottish writer who lives in Glasgow, most famous for writing the 10 series of the sitcom Rab C Nesbitt. He also wrote the 1995 to 1996 sitcom Atletico Partick; the six-episode series Breeze Block starring Tim Healy which aired on BBC Choice in 2002, and he created and co-wrote...

. Gilbert also worked with Fisher on The Baldy Man and The Tales of Para Handy

The Tales of Para Handy

The Tales of Para Handy was a Scottish television series set in the west of Scotland, based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. It was a sitcom about a puffer boat and its crew.It ran from 1994 to 1995 on BBC One, a total of nine episodes....

.

In 1996 he left BBC Scotland to co-found the The Comedy Unit

The Comedy Unit

The Comedy Unit or known sometimes as just Comedy Unit is a Scottish company that produces sitcoms, comedy sketches, live shows and other comedy productions...

 as an independent production company with April Chamberlain who was at that time the business manager of the BBC Unit. Credits during this period include Rab C Nesbitt, The Karen Dunbar Show

The Karen Dunbar Show

The Karen Dunbar Show was a television comedy sketch show that aired on BBC One Scotland, starring the popular Scottish comedian Karen Dunbar . It is one of the many popular Scottish comedies produced by BBC Scotland....

, Chewin' the Fat

Chewin' the Fat

Chewin' the Fat is a Scottish comedy sketch show, starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. Comedians Paul Riley and Mark Cox also appeared regularly on the show.Chewin' the Fat first started as a radio series on BBC Radio Scotland...

 with Ford Kiernan

Ford Kiernan

Ford John Kiernan is a Scottish actor and comedian. Along with his comedy partner, Greg Hemphill, he is best known in the United Kingdom for his appearances in Still Game and Chewin' The Fat.-Personal life:...

 and Greg Hemphill

Greg Hemphill

Gregory "Greg" Hemphill is a Scottish actor and comedian. He has also presented on television and radio. Along with his comedy partner, Ford Kiernan, he is best known in the United Kingdom for his appearances in Still Game and Chewin' the Fat.-Personal life:Hemphill was born in Glasgow, Scotland,...

 and then Still Game

Still Game

Still Game is a Scottish sitcom, produced by The Comedy Unit with the BBC. It was created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who play the lead characters - two Glaswegian pensioners, named Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade respectively....

.

In 2006 the Comedy Unit to RDF Media Group and Gilbert's most recent credits have been Empty

Empty

Empty is a six-episode BBC Two sitcom first broadcast on 28 February 2008. It stars Gregor Fisher and Billy Boyd as Jacky Allen and Tony MacBryan respectively, two men who work for a property maintenance company 'Greater Glasgow Building Services'....

 with Gregor Fisher and Billy Boyd

Billy Boyd

Billy Boyd is a Scottish actor and musician most widely known for playing the character Peregrin "Pippin" Took in the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and Barret Bonden in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World....

, the revival of Rab C Nesbitt after a 10 year gap and exec producing on Gary Tank Commander written by and starring Greg McHugh

Greg McHugh

Greg McHugh is a Scottish actor and writer. He is the creator, writer and star of the BBC1 comedy series Gary: Tank Commander. He won a BAFTA for the show.He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow....

.

In November 2011 soon after producing and directing the 10th series of Rab C Nesbitt, Gilbert announced that he was leaving the Comedy Unit after nearly 30 years as its senior creative.

Personal Life

Colin Gilbert is the son of Jimmy Gilbert a former BBC Head of Comedy whose production credits include The Frost Report

The Frost Report

The Frost Report was a satirical television show hosted by David Frost. It ran for 29 episodes from 1966 to 1967. It is most notable for introducing John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett to television and also launching the careers of several comedians and performers.The main cast were...

, Last of the Summer Wine

Last of the Summer Wine

Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that was broadcast on BBC One. Last of the Summer Wine premiered as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973 and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. From 1983 to 2010, Alan J. W. Bell produced and...

 and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads. As a commissioner he was responsible for Porridge

Porridge

Porridge is a dish made by boiling oats or other cereal meals in water, milk, or both. It is usually served hot in a bowl or dish...

, Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...

 and The Good Life

The Good Life

The Good Life is a British sitcom produced by the BBC that ran from 1975-1978. It was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. In 2004, it came 9th in Britain's Best Sitcom...

.

Colin is married to Joanna a former make-up artist and they have two children, Nicola and Alistair.

Awards

24 Oct 1992
Colin received The Royal Television Society's Reith Award for outstanding contribution to television in Scotland IN 1992 .