Edinburgh Fringe acts turned hit TV shows, from Baby Reindeer to Fleabag

The performing arts festival has been a launchpad for some of the world's best creators, where one-person sketches can end up conquering Hollywood

Richard Gadd plays Donny in Baby Reindeer. His stage show first appeared at Fringe in 2019. Photo: Netflix

Edinburgh Festival Fringe is one of the largest performance arts festivals in the world.

Since its launch in 1947, it has become a platform from which many notable stand-ups and comedy acts have launched their careers, first capturing an audience with their stories, which then grew to be influential shows and international brands.

This year's edition begins on Friday and runs until August 26, showcasing its usual variety of performances including theatre, comedy, dance, children's shows, musicals and opera.

From one of the most recognisable comedic characters in the world to a musical singing duo and this year's biggest Netflix hit, here are seven of the biggest TV shows that started at Fringe.

Mr Bean

Mr Bean, Rowan Atkinson's popular character that has appeared in both series and films, got its start at the Edinburgh festival. Photo: Working Title

One of the most well-known comedic characters in the world, Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean first started as a sketch at Fringe in the early 1980s.

Atkinson, who had performed at the festival in various skits from 1973 to 1977, developed the character of Mr Bean, a comical, childish and eccentric man, while studying for his master's degree in electrical engineering at The Queen's College, Oxford.

Along with British screenwriter and film producer Richard Curtis, Atkinson created the sketch of Mr Bean performed at the festival and later the sitcom. The 15-episode sitcom first aired in January 1990 and because it relied heavily on physical comedy and slapstick humour with minimal dialogue, the show became a huge international success.

In addition to the series, there was the 1997 film Bean and 2007's Mr Bean's Holiday. An animated TV series began airing in 2002.

The League of Gentlemen

Created by Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who starred in it and wrote it alongside Jeremy Dyson, The League of Gentlemen has a prominent place in British pop culture.

Set in the fictional northern English town of Royston Vasey, the series follows the peculiar lives of its eccentric residents and misfits. The stage show began in 1994 taking its name from the 1960 British heist action-comedy film, The League of Gentlemen. In 1997, it was showcased at Fringe, where it was awarded the Perrier Award for comedy.

From there, the group created a six-episode version for BBC Radio 4, which won a Radio Academy Award (then named Sony Award). An eventual TV series had its premiere on the BBC in 1999 and ran until 2002. The series was a critical and commercial success winning two Baftas and receiving seven nominations overall. It was followed by the comedy horror film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse in 2005.

The Mighty Boosh

The absurdist comedy was a huge hit in the UK running for three seasons from 2004 to 2007.

Comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding produced three stage shows The Mighty Boosh in 1998, Arctic Boosh in 1999 and Autoboosh in 2000 at Fringe. The success of the shows led to a radio series commissioned by the BBC in 2001, followed by a television pilot in 2004.

The story follows Howard Moon, played by Barratt, and Vince Noir, played by Fielding, two struggling musicians with grand aspirations who constantly find themselves in fantastical situations.

Fleabag

The hit show Fleabag began as a one-woman show at Fringe, starring its creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Photo: Amazon Studios

Actress and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge first took her 10-minute one-woman show Fleabag to Fringe in 2013 and won a Fringe First Award – an accolade selected by reviewers for The Scotsman since 1973, which looks out for the best of drama-based theatre performances that aired first at Fringe. Its success spawned the comedy-drama TV series, also written by Waller-Bridge, which aired from 2016 to 2019.

It follows a free-spirited, troubled woman trying to navigate life and love in London while coming to terms with a personal tragedy and complex familial relationships. Waller-Bridge also introduced a unique storytelling troupe in which she continuously breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience, sharing her thoughts and feelings.

Fleabag was a major success winning three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and a Bafta. Critics hailed its writing, acting and the unique personality of the protagonist.

The show also launched Waller-Bridge’s international career. She has since contributed to the screenplay for the James Bond film No Time to Die and starred in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. In 2021, Waller-Bridge was appointed the role of president of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society – a charity that supports hopeful Fringe participants.

Flight of the Conchords

The popular New Zealand musical comedy duo Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, also known as Flight of the Conchords, performed versions of their unique blend of musical comedy at Fringe between 2002 and 2004. Their performances gained a lot of attention, winning the Mervyn Stutter Spirit of the Fringe Award. As its name suggests, this merits the talent, hard work and grit of performers across the festival's remit, as chosen by a team of reviewers and rewarded by Mervyn Stutter, whose Pick of the Fringe show has been ongoing for 31 years.

In 2004, the duo created a six-part radio series for BBC Radio 2, which won a Radio Academy Award for comedy. In 2007, they launched the self-titled HBO sitcom Flight of the Conchords. The Emmy-nominated series follows a fictional version of the pair as they attempt to achieve success as a band in New York City.

Miranda

The popular British sitcom Miranda by comedian Miranda Hart has its origins in the 2005 festival. Hart began writing material for Fringe, bringing a new show every year for five consecutive years from 2000. Her 2005 show Miranda Hart's House Party enjoyed the biggest success and led to the BBC Radio 2 series Miranda Hart's Joke Shop in 2008. They were followed by her hit BBC TV sitcom Miranda, which ran from 2009 to 2015.

The sitcom is a semi-autobiographical story of Miranda, a socially awkward woman who runs a joke shop with her best friend and constantly finds herself in strange situations including being hounded by her overbearing mother and running into her crush Gary.

Baby Reindeer

Jessica Gunning and Richard Gadd, the series creator, in Baby Reindeer. Photo: Netflix

This year’s most talked about Netflix series, the Emmy-nominated Baby Reindeer, was a one-man show by Richard Gadd that had its debut at Fringe in 2019.

The story follows a young man who deals with a female stalker and is forced to face his own trauma. The show was different from the TV series on Netflix, where Gadd played all the characters, including his stalker, Martha, who was represented by a bar stool.

Netflix's comedy-drama miniseries is based on Gadd’s life. The show has been so popular that Fiona Harvey, the Scottish lawyer who claims the character of the stalker Martha was based on her, is taking the streaming company to court and seeking damages of at least $170 million.