BAFTA Award-winning stand-up comedian, panto performer and TV personality Tim Vine is the latest high-profile supporter – including celebrities, politicians and national church leaders – to endorse this weekend’s Shine Your Light Christmas evangelistic campaign.
Vine, a former Guinness World Record holder for the most jokes told in an hour and celebrated for his rapid-fire one-liners, has recorded a personal message encouraging over 200,000 Christians from more than 10,000 UK churches as they prepare to take to high streets, market squares, and shopping centres nationwide.
Across the country, churches are joining forces to bring carol services and Christmas celebrations out of their buildings and into public spaces – reflecting the biblical name for Jesus, Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”.
Now in its third year, Shine Your Light is a united initiative of more than 60 denominations, prayer networks, and church streams, aiming to “put Christ back into Christmas”. In previous years, it has received public support from the UK Prime Minister, members of the House of Lords, sports figures, and others.
Tim Vine, who won a BAFTA in 2002 for The Sketch Show, now adds his voice.
In his video message released across all the Shine Your Light social media channels today, Vine, a regular parish church worshipper who has performed at major Christian gatherings, including the Spring Harvest festival, said:
“So I saw Father Christmas with a kangaroo. I said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘My Christmas jumper!’
“I’m here to encourage you to get involved with the Shine Your Light campaign. It’s in its third year, and it’s telling everyone about the real message of Christmas.
“Can it be true? Can it be true that God came down to earth and lived as a man amongst us?
“‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’—sing it at a bus stop. ‘Away in a Manger’—sing it in Pret A Manger.
“I got a text from heaven—that was a Godsend! So come on: shine your light. Shine His light this Christmas.”
This year’s campaign (12–14 December) aims to reach 2 million people across the UK with the Christian message, with a particular focus on young people via social media and workplace witness.
For the first time, a special Spring Harvest carol service, sponsored by Shine Your Light will be broadcast in many UK prisons, reaching 56,000 prisoners, and shared with hundreds of homeless shelters. The initiative will also feature on BBC One’s Songs of Praise at 1:15pm on Sunday 4 December.
For more information, visit www.shineyourlight.org.uk .
ENDS
For further information/interview:
Adam May 07736 949869 adam@ndopw.com
Director of Communications and Engagement for NDOPW
Revd Paul Eddy 07923 653781 paul@pauleddy.uk
PR Consultant to Shine Your Light/NDOPW
Editor’s Notes
Timothy Mark Vine (born 4 March 1967) is an English comedian, actor, writer and presenter best known for his puns and other one-liners and his role on the TV sitcom Not Going Out (2006–2012, 2014). He has also released a number of stand-up comedy specials and written several joke books.
From 2004 to 2014, Vine held the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour: each joke had to get a laugh from the audience to count towards the total, and he set the new record with 499 jokes. In both 2010 and 2014, he won the award for best joke at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe , and he was the runner-up for each of the three years between.
He is the younger brother of broadcaster Jeremy Vine and the older brother of artist Sonya Vine.
Vine and a security guard from his office job in Croydon started doing open mic nights as a hobby. During 1991, Vine regularly honed his routine at the Comedy Café in London, adding other clubs throughout 1992. He came second in the Hackney Empire New Act competition in 1993. Vine quit his job to go on tour as a support act for Boothby Graffoe . Vine became a regular on the London comedy circuit by 1994, trying a variety of comedy styles before breaking into TV on the BBC’s Pebble Mill show the same year.
In 1996, Vine met Lee Mack at the Comedy Lounge in Kingston-Upon-Hull. Mack was competing in The Gong Show, where up to ten comedians try to last for a full five-minute slot, hoping to beat the Gong and not get voted off by the public. The pair later worked together on The Sketch Show , Not Going Out and Let’s Play Darts for Comic Relief .
In autumn 1995, Vine hosted the BBC One morning quiz Housemates, featuring an endgame called Up The Garden Path. The show ran for one season of 25 episodes.
From May to August 1997, Vine presented the Channel 4 game show Fluke which he devised. From 2001 to 2004, Vine co-wrote/starred in both series of ITV ‘s The Sketch Show with Lee Mack . From 2006 to 2012, Vine played Timothy Gladstone Adams in Mack’s BBC One sitcom Not Going Out . He returned for a cameo in the 2014 Christmas episode and the series 7 finale.
Since 2009, Vine has made appearances on the Channel 4 game show Countdown as a guest in Dictionary Corner. In 2012, Vine hosted one series of game show Don’t Blow the Inheritance for ITV. Vine faced “The Beast” Mark Labbett on The Chase in 2012 and 2021.
Vine has participated in several Comic Relief / Sport Relief charity competitions. On 7 October 2004, Vine broke the Guinness World Record for the most jokes told in an hour with 499, beating the previous record of 362 by Estonian Erkki Kolu. He held the record until November 2014, when beaten by Australian comedian Taylor Goodwin.
Vine lives in Banstead , Surrey .