Sara Pascoe: 'Last One Laughing kept a big secret from contestants' (2025)

Last One Laughing is just the latest string in Sara Pascoe’s decades-long comedy bow.

Having performed her first show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010, Sara, 43, established herself as one of the UK’s most beloved comedians through various TV appearances in the years that followed, including Live At The Apollo, QI, and Would I Lie To You?

After Sara’s many tours, gags, chuckles, over-shares, and two kids later (Theodore is three and Albie still a baby), 15 years on the comedian is content – and starring in everyone’s favourite new comedy show.

There’s Taskmaster giggles, then Last One Laughing belly roars. The Amazon Prime hit sees some of the country’s best comedians ever – in what is a truly astonishing line up – attempt to hold in smiles and laughter, while trying to make each other laugh.

It’s the perfect giddy antidote to the current dour news cycle: it’s got Bob Mortimer serenading Daisy May Cooper; Lou Sanders doing interpretive dance; Richard Ayoade being Richard Ayoade; Joe Wilkinson doing an RNLI weather report and Judi Love crumbling into fits of giggles.

The best moment? According to Sara, that came when the real Alison Hammond was found in a fridge. Yes, that happened.

‘I think Alison Hammond is one of the funniest people in the world, and also one of the most glorious human beings, you know, she’s sunshine, so the idea of her surprising you… That big mega watt smile inside a fridge, who’s going to be able to control themselves?’ Sara tells Metro.

The beauty of the show is in its spontaneity. While we’re used to seeing comedians perform well-rehearsed sets, it’s rare TV comedies are so unscripted.

‘It was an amazing group of people,’ Sara says, revealing the big secret Amazon kept from the contestants before they entered.

‘They didn’t want us to know who the others were. So a couple of us knew a couple of people because we’d mentioned it to friends. But no one knew the actual extent of how good the line-up was,’ she says.

Sara explains: ‘What they really wanted was this air of us being unprepared, on the back foot. If we’d known the line-up perhaps itwould have lost some of the magic.’

It was magic to watch. It’s such a relatable feeling, attempting to hush that mischievous delight as it rises in your stomach. It’s also a feeling some of us perhaps haven’t had much since our school days.

Sara, however, still experiences this internal battle well into adulthood…

‘Of course when someone’s telling you terrible news, you know, they’re saying, “Oh, things have been really hard for me lately, my uncle died,” you are from then on fighting a nervous reaction.

‘It’s not because you think it’s funny. It’s because something about the overwhelm of emotions makes you want to giggle, to release it.

‘I’ve laughed through a lot of very serious plays at the National Theatre just sort of chuckling at the back.

‘Oh, and whenever I’ve been invited to a celebrity event – and I don’t often get invited back. Once I went to the GQ Awards and was too drunk and laughing when you’re supposed to be sort of sitting there and clapping.’

Sniggering at awards shows aside, Sara has to be careful about what she says on stage these days – not because of that cancel culture myth (or reality, depending who you talk to), but because her content gets everywhere. Even to the girl from school she just slagged off. Awkward.

‘When I was just playing in small rooms above and below pubs, I could say whatever I wanted,’ she says.

‘Once I started being on the radio, and then, even more when I started to be on TV, then I began getting in trouble because of the content I was doing.

‘Now because of clips, things get absolutely everywhere. So you might think, “Oh, that person is in Timbuktu, they’ll never find out that I’m telling that story.”

‘Yes, they will. They’ll hear it on a podcast or something. Technology means that everything is everywhere now.’

Specifically…?

‘I went on a girls’ holiday with someone in 1999 and that’s such a long time ago that you think you’re completely safe to say it,’ Sara says.

‘But of course, the people who you met in Ibiza still exist, and probably they remember you now because they’ve seen you on something and gone, “That’s that girl from Ibiza.” So I have learnt to try and disguise things a lot more.’

But Sara doesn’t regret anything she has said in the name of comedy.

‘I definitely have moments I think, “Well, that wasn’t my finest moment,” but quite often you take those opportunities and you do your best, and you learn a lot from them,’ she says.

Comedians are a breed of overachievers, Sara thinks. While Beyonce can get up on stage and whap out her 2003 banger Crazy In Love as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, comedians have only their current material.

‘We always have to start from scratch. So no matter how big you get, you’re still saying brand new stuff to an audience, so that the risk of failure is huge,’ she says.

Just look at Bob Mortimer.

‘There are very few egos in comedy,’ Sara observes. ‘He’s the most adorable man. His books are best-sellers. He’s a cult comedian, as well as being a household name.

‘That’s so rare, and yet, he’s just a normal, really nice guy. He doesn’t have a massive ego. He’s not here asking for his special protein smoothie.

‘He is very self-effacing, and it’s almost unbelievable, but that’s what comedy does to people. It keeps telling you you’re not better than anyone else, and actually you’re not very good.’

As for Sara, she’s done reaching for the sky.

‘In 20 years if I was able to do a new show every two years, and some people were coming to it, and I was able to sculpt my job around my family life, that to me would just feel like I was absolutely smashing it,’ she says.

‘Even if you’re like, “Oh, Sarah, you’ll never get an Oscar.” It’s like, I don’t think that was ever really on the cards.’

Last One Laughing is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

SaraPascoewill tour the UK and Ireland with all new show,I Am A Strange Gloopin 2025/26.Tickets:sarapascoe.co.uk.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.

MORE: Bob Mortimer was once Jarvis Cocker’s lawyer after he mooned Michael Jackson

MORE: Watch 7 best moments from Amazon Prime show declared ‘funniest ever seen’