See that guy there? His name is Mat Horne. My American readers would be forgiven for not knowing who he is. Those of you in the UK, however, and particularly London, where I was for the last week, may be very familiar with him, because, you see, like commas in this sentence, Mat Horne is fucking everywhere.
He's become famous through the sitcom Gavin and Stacey, which I confess I've never seen, though I've heard good things. All I knew about Mat Horne prior to last week was that he recently shared a "look of despondency" with Martin Freeman on Nevermind the Buzzcocks. But apparently, he's now all over the place. Not that long ago, he co-hosted the Brit Awards with Kylie Minogue (!!!) and his TV co-star James Corden. With Corden, he has a new sketch show that just began and is advertised on many double-decker buses currently doing the rounds in London, so we saw a series of his faces whizzing around at all times. If you believe Mark Kermode, the sheer fact that it's being plugged on buses suggests that it must be rubbish. What's more, Horne and Corden appear in a film that's coming out soon, which you might have heard of, called Lesbian Vampire Killers, the poster for which appears on every single phonebox in central London. Finally, he's currently appearing in Entertaining Mr. Sloane, opposite Dolores Umbridge Imelda Staunton, so there are posters with his face up all over the Underground. So on escalators, buses, phone boxes and train platforms, Mat Horne's face is there to behold.
As if that all wasn't enough, we got to see him in person. Kele Okerele and the Mystery Jets all pulled out last-minute from DJing at Propaganda in Camden - cheeky bastards - and guess who the organizers brought in, on very short notice, to replace them. Not an arbitrary decision: in addition to all aforementioned pies, Mat also runs a club night in London's trendy Shoreditch every Thursday night. So there he was, onstage in front of us, giving it some Strokes, Killers, Cribs, etc.
Like a good episode of 30 Rock, everything seemed to really come together in the end. I would say "Keep an eye out for him", but if you live in London, you don't need to even do that.
On Mat Horne
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I first remember seeing him as one of the regulars on the absolutely terrible Catherine Tate Show (I only watched two episodes and he was on both so I can only assume). Also, he and Cordon did a week's stint as guest hosts of one of the peripheral Big Brother shows last summer (I know, I know, but they were funny!)
Also, Gavin and Stacey ranges from pretty decent to middling, often within the same episode. It's worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do. Rob Brydon is far and away the best part, for whatever that's worth.