--- name: "Hugh Dennis" canonical: "https://film.one/person/hugh-dennis" fi1m_id: "hugh-dennis" imdb_id: "nm0219465" tmdb_id: 151344 wikidata_id: "Q1987035" roles: ["Actor"] born: "13 February 1962" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 80 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-07T17:34:15.717639+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Hugh Dennis ## Identity Hugh Dennis - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/hugh-dennis - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** hugh-dennis - **IMDb ID:** nm0219465 - **TMDB ID:** 151344 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1987035 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Dennis, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1987035, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0219465/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/151344 Actor. Born 13 February 1962 in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 13 February 1962, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, UK - **Active:** 1984–present - **Also known as:** Peter Hugh Dennis - **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 4 acting, 1 other - **Average Fi1m score:** 80, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 86 (1), 2000s 78 (1), 2010s 86 (2), 2020s 67 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 78 to 78 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 2 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Comedy 3, Action 1, Adventure 1, Drama 1, Family 1, Thriller 1 - **Screen time:** 3 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $774m across 1 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Dennis, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1987035, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0219465/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/151344 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Outnumbered*](https://film.one/tv/outnumbered.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Hugh Dennis > Hugh Dennis's trick is to look as if he has lost the argument already. In *Outnumbered* it made a father out of a straight man; in *Brass Eye* it made nonsense sound official. He has rarely been asked for anything else. Watch Hugh Dennis being asked a question. There is a pause before he answers, and in the pause you can see the reply he would like to give, the reply he is going to give, and the knowledge that neither will help him. In *Outnumbered* (2007) we called Pete a man permanently doing sums he will never finish, and that is the whole performance: not the lines, which are often not his, but the small delay in front of them. He gives the children a wall to bounce off. It is a less glamorous job than it looks, and he does it well. The career behind it is a comedian's rather than an actor's. Dennis came up through the Cambridge Footlights, formed a double act with Steve Punt in the mid-1980s, did voices on *Spitting Image* between 1989 and 1991 and on *The Mary Whitehouse Experience*, and left a marketing job at Unilever to do comedy full time. He has said of the puppet years, "On Spitting Image, I did the voices that didn't matter," which is modest and also a fair account of his method: he is happiest slightly to one side of the main event. Six series as Dr Piers Crispin in *My Hero* (2000) and seventeen years on the panel of *Mock the Week* (2005) made him familiar; *Outnumbered* made him a father. His best work is the quiet kind. In *Brass Eye* (1997) he plays a man called Dr Balb Kubrox and declines to make the name any funnier than it already is, which is exactly what Chris Morris's satire needs: people around the presenter who look as though they belong on television. The same instinct holds *Outnumbered* together. Claire Skinner's Sue is tired and never asks for sympathy; Dennis's Pete is beaten and never asks for a laugh. We laughed anyway, more at the pause than at anything the children said, because the pause told us the joke had already landed on him. When the programme grew tamer in its later series, so did he; there is less for a straight man to do once the children have learned where the cameras are. Not all of it works. The double-act material with Punt has been called mild, and we would not argue; the punchlines arrive on schedule and leave the same way. He has never been asked to carry a film, and the parts he has taken elsewhere, a bank manager in *Fleabag* (2016), a doctor in *No Time to Die* (2021), are authority figures, which is where he has always been put. He is the man beside the joke rather than the joke itself, and comedy needs one of those far more often than it admits. If you have not seen *Outnumbered*, start with the first series, when the children were small and Pete still thought he might win. ## Biography Peter Hugh Dennis, known professionally as Hugh Dennis, is an English comedian, actor, impressionist and writer. Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, in 1962, he studied at the University of Cambridge, where he performed with the Footlights dramatic club alongside Steve Punt. He is one half of the double act Punt and Dennis. Dennis played Pete Brockman in the BBC sitcom *Outnumbered* (2007–2014, 2016, 2024) and was a regular panellist on *Mock the Week* from 2005 to 2022. Other television roles include Dr Piers Crispin in *My Hero* (2000–2006) and appearances in *Brass Eye* (1997) as Dr. Balb Kubrox, *Fleabag* (2016) and *Not Going Out*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) ### Performed in (4) — the average rests on these - *No Time to Die* (2021), Fi1m 67, as Dr. Hardy — [page](https://film.one/film/no-time-to-die.md) - *Fleabag* (2016), Fi1m 90, as Bank Manager — [page](https://film.one/tv/fleabag.md) - *Outnumbered* (2007), Fi1m 78, as Pete — [page](https://film.one/tv/outnumbered.md) - *Brass Eye* (1997), Fi1m 86, as Dr. Balb Kubrox — [page](https://film.one/tv/brass-eye.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Taskmaster* (2015), Fi1m 82, as Self — [page](https://film.one/tv/taskmaster.md) ## Complete filmography (49) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Outnumbered Christmas Special* (2024), as Pete Brockman - *Mantle* (2024), as Father - *The Couple Next Door* (2023), series, as Alan Richardson - *Coffee Wars* (2023), as Dad - *Beyond Paradise* (2023), series, as Arthur Donalan - *No Time to Die* (2021), as Dr. Hardy — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/no-time-to-die.md) - *Murder, They Hope* (2021), series, as Aaron - *The Great British Dig: History In Your Garden* (2021), series, Actor - *McDonald & Dodds* (2020), series, as George Holden - *Nativity Rocks!* (2018), as Robert Hargreaves - *Oxide Ghosts: The Brass Eye Tapes* (2017), Actor - *The Zoo* (2017), series, as Narrator - *Nature's Miniature Miracles* (2017), as Narrator - *Urban Myths* (2017), series, as Richard Asher - *Outnumbered - Christmas Special 2016* (2016), as Pete Brockman - *Animal Super Parents* (2016), series, as Narrator - *Fleabag* (2016), series, as Bank Manager — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/tv/fleabag.md) - *Secret Life of the Family* (2016), series, as Narrator - *Churchill and Me* (2015), Actor - *Duck Quacks Don't Echo* (2014), series, Actor - *All Stars* (2013), as Mr Hart - *The Sick Party* (2012), as Pete Brockman - *Gadget Man* (2012), series, Actor - *The Broken Santa* (2011), as Pete Brockman - *Fast and Loose* (2011), series, Actor - *Oz and Hugh Raise the Bar* (2010), series, Actor - *Mock the Week - Too Hot For TV 3* (2010), Actor - *The Robbers* (2009), as Pete Brockman - *Oz And Hugh Drink To Christmas* (2009), Actor - *Outnumbered* (2007), series, as Pete — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/outnumbered.md) - *Not Going Out* (2006), series, as Toby, Captain Morris (voice) - *Buried Alive* (2005), Actor - *Fat Slags* (2004), as Immigration Officer, Immigration Officer 2 - *Jack Dee's Happy Hour* (2000), series, as Jed Cake - *My Hero* (2000), series, as Dr. Piers Crispin - *Midsomer Murders* (1997), series, as Milo Craven — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/tv/midsomer-murders.md) - *Brass Eye* (1997), series, as Dr. Balb Kubrox — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/brass-eye.md) - *The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show* (1994), series, as Creator - *The Easter Stories* (1994), series, as Gardener - *The Detectives* (1993), series, as Seth - *Me, You and Him* (1992), series, as Harry Dunstan · Writer, Creator - *Spitting Image: Election Special '92* (1992), as Various Roles - *GamesMaster* (1992), series, Actor - *Paul Merton: The Series* (1991), series, Actor - *The Mary Whitehouse Experience* (1991), series, Actor - *Canned Carrott* (1990), series, Actor - *Carrott Confidential* (1987), series, Actor - *Spitting Image* (1984), series, Actor - *TV to Go*, series, Actor ## Gallery - ![Hugh Dennis speaking in support of the National Churches Trust. (2017)](https://film.one/media/person/60323/gallery-b7217962e604.jpg) Hugh Dennis speaking in support of the National Churches Trust. (2017) — The National Churches Trust, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Hugh_Dennis_%2838166341085%29.jpg/1280px-Hugh_Dennis_%2838166341085%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Hugh Dennis](https://film.one/media/person/60323/gallery-aae091f3c9da.jpg) Hugh Dennis — The National Churches Trust, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Hugh_Dennis_%2838166341085%29_cropped.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Hugh Dennis (left) and Steve Punt (right) performing The Now Show at the 2005 Radio FestivalThe Now Show at the 2005 Radio Festival](https://film.one/media/person/60323/gallery-3fe24b4b2fdb.jpg) Hugh Dennis (left) and Steve Punt (right) performing The Now Show at the 2005 Radio FestivalThe Now Show at the 2005 Radio Festival — Dan Taylor, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Now_Show_2005.jpg/1280px-Now_Show_2005.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/hugh-dennis