Two high-profile Gloucestershire entertainers have received honours from the University of Gloucestershire this November 2025.
The University awarded Tweedy the Clown an honorary fellowship to recognise his contribution to the performing arts and charities; while multi-award-winning comedian and writer, Bridget Christie, received an honorary Doctorate of Arts.
Tweedy, who lives in Stroud, has been bringing laughter to audiences all over the country for more than 20 years, through his long-standing role at Giffords Circus, his solo shows, regular appearances at the Everyman Theatre's annual pantomime, as well as his children's book Tweedy: The Clown Who Lost His Nose.
His vaudeville-style of clowning has received widespread critical acclaim, though he has also taken on more serious acting roles, including starring in a production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
Alongside his entertainment career, Tweedy is also a patron of Gloucestershire charities Home-Start and Allsorts and raises money for cancer charity Maggie's, dedicating his efforts to Giffords Circus founder, Nell Gifford, who passed away from breast cancer in 2019 – and he received a BEM for services to circus and the community in 2023.
Tweedy said: 'I’m delighted and humbled to be recognised in this way, even though I thought it was a prank at first.
'Being a clown means so much to me, it’s such a privilege to be able to do what I love for a living. Hopefully it will inspire other people to follow their hearts and do what they love.'
Alongside Tweedy, Gloucester-born multi-award-winning comedian and writer, Bridget Christie, received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from the university, in recognition of her incredible achievements in entertainment.
Bridget attended St Peter's High School in Gloucester before earning a scholarship to the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London.
During her illustrious career, she has won multiple awards, including the BBC Audio Drama Award for BBC Radio 4 series Mortal; and the Rose d'Or International Broadcasting Award for Bridget Christie's Mind the Gap.
She has become a household name for her stand-up comedy; her weekly column in The Guardian; and for starring in the 13th series of Taskmaster.
Her most recent project, the Royal Television Society and BAFTA-nominated Channel 4 series The Change – which she created, wrote and starred in – is set in the Forest of Dean and is an offbeat but powerful exploration of womanhood, exploring the menopause; community; economic inequality; and environmental destruction.
Bridget said: 'I am so delighted to be honoured by my hometown. It means so much.'
'I didn't deliberately set out to write about issues at all, it just happened very organically. Early in my career I didn't write about anything particularly important, but as I got older, I found that the shows I enjoyed the most were funny and about something – and so I became much more interested in figuring out that balance.
'The ideal scenario is to make people laugh for an hour or two and
then on the way home have them realise it was about something too.'
Addressing attendees at the university's 2025 ceremony, she offered this advice to graduates: 'My advice to any students would be to work hard, to make the type of work that they themselves would like to see, be themselves, and never give up!'
