Jordan Brookes has been announced as the winner of Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards for Best Comedy Show and Catherine Cohen is Best Newcomer.

Jessica Brough and their initiative Fringe of Colour has been awarded the Panel Prize which works to make the festival more accessible to performers and audiences of colour.

The winners were announced at a lunchtime ceremony on Saturday 24th August at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh. The presenters this year were 2018 Best Comedy Show winner Rose Matafeo and 1981 winner Stephen Fry, who won in the inaugural year as part of Cambridge Footlights. The assembled crowd sang Happy Birthday to Stephen as he was presented with a giant cake. Stephen Fry said: “When I first came here in 1979 I was overwhelmed by the Fringe. I was in three plays that year and the next year I wrote a play to bring to the Fringe and did six shows a day.The third year I came with the Cambridge Footlights, with Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson, won the first ever Perrier Award in 1981. The Fringe means everything to me. I wouldn’t be here without it”.

The prize money for Best Comedy Show is £10,000, with £5,000 each for the Best Newcomer and the Panel Prize winner.

There will be a season of Dave’s Edinburgh Comedy Award shows at the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End this Autumn. Details to be announced soon.

A full history of the winners and nominees, eligibility rules and all other details about the Awards can be found at www.comedyawards.co.uk