Jon Plowman

Welwyn Garden City's most famous comedy export, Jon Plowman is a British comedy institution, personally responsible for producing more comedy shows than even some entire channels.

Joining the corporation in 1980 after being educated at Oxford, Plowman spent his first decade working on shows such as A Bit Of Fry and Laurie, and produced Russell Harty's chat show Harty and Smith & Jones.

By far his most successful early achievement though was to give a female comedy duo named French & Saunders a chance by commissioning their show in 1987.

Since then the shows that Plowman has produced reads like a who's who of TV comedy. Among the shows (we haven't listed them all in here) was Rick Mayall and Adrian Edmondson's Bottom, which hit the screens in 1991, followed by Absolutely Fabulous a year later.

By the time Plowman was made Head of Comedy in 1994 the Vicar of Dibley made its inaugural appearance, then This Morning with Richard Not Judy in 1998, The BBC New Comedy Awards show in 1999 along with Gimme Gimme Gimme and Let Them Eat Cake and The League of Gentlemen (1999).

Plowman marked the turn of the millenium by putting the biggest comedy show of the decade on air when The Office hit the screens in 2000, Dead Ringers came along in 2002 and then Little Britain followed in 2003.

Gervais was back with Plowman in 2005 with Extras, which aired the same year as the explosive new political sitcom The Thick Of It. Oh, and let's not forget The Late Edition in the same year.

In the past few years Plowman has been ploughing ahead, with Psychoville and Twenty Twelve coming along like a well timed celebrity train.

In a way accolades aren't really needed when you're responsible for that list above, but for his efforts Plowman has made it into The Observer's '50 Funniest or Most Influential People in British Comedy', as well as an RTS award for Outstanding Contribution to British Television.