The Penny Dreadfuls

The Penny Dreadfuls
The Dreadfuls From left to right: Humphrey Ker, David Reed, Thom Tuck.
Medium	Theatre, Radio, Television
Years active	2006–
Genres	Sketch Comedy
Subject(s)	Victoriana
Notable works and roles	Aeneas Faversham (Stage show, 2006) Aeneas Faversham Returns (2007) Aeneas Faversham Forever (2008) The Never Man (2009) The Penny Dreadfuls (2010) The Brothers Faversham (Radio series, 2008-present) Guy Fawkes (Radio play, 2009) Revolution (Radio play, 2011) Hereward the Wake (Radio play, 2012)
Members	Humphrey Ker David Reed Thom Tuck
Website	The Penny Dreadfuls

The Penny Dreadfuls are a British sketch-comedy troupe consisting of comedians Humphrey Ker, David Reed and Thom Tuck. The sketch team perform regularly on the London comedy circuit.

Ker, Reed and Tuck first met as students at the University of Edinburgh through the student comedy troupe The Improverts in 2001. They performed together for the next four years before forming, along with founding member Jamie Anderson, the Penny Dreadfuls. In 2006, they made their debut appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with their Victorian-themed sketch show Aeneas Faversham and an improv show entitled Shamwagon, also featuring Edinburgh comics Peter Cameron and Idil Sukan.

Their first appearance on television soon followed with a sketch in BBC Three's Comedy Shuffle before returning to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007 with another sketch show, Aeneas Faversham Returns. From here they made the transfer onto radio with their own show, The Brothers Faversham, broadcast in January 2008 on BBC 7 and guest starred Miles Jupp and Ingrid Oliver. Each episode of the four-part series followed the life and demise of one of the Faversham brothers; Horatius, Theseus, Leonidas and Augustus. A second series, More Brothers Faversham, was broadcast in October 2008 and later transferred onto BBC Radio 4 over Christmas and New Year. Their 2008 Edinburgh Fringe show, entitled Aeneas Faversham Forever, was a departure from their live sketch roots to a full narrative in the vein of their radio shows. The story followed a mild mannered children's author as he tried to foil a mysterious plot surrounding the newly constructed Tower Bridge. Following on from this shift to writing narrative comedy, in 2009 they wrote a comic retelling of the story of Guy Fawkes for the afternoon play slot on Radio 4. They returned to the sketch format for their 2010 Edinburgh Fringe show.