If the Christmas TV schedules don't float your boat, you could do a lot worse than delve into a 'hidden gem' of videos created by Punchline-Gloucester.com.

Back in 2014, Punchline editor Mark Owen launched Punchline TV and since then he has created over 1,000 videos covering a huge range of subjects right across Gloucestershire.

As you'd expect from Punchline, the main focus is on the local business scene but there's also interviews with a wide range of famous people including politicians, sports stars and musicians... as well as one notorious video showing Mark rolling naked in the snow for charity in which he incidentally raised over £1,000.

Mark said: "It's such an eclectic mix of people - they range from interviews with Boris Johnson, Jonny Wilkinson and Russell Watson to buildings being knocked down to tours of different places in Gloucestershire."

The Punchline TV library also includes all the Big Interviews and the weekly Business Breakfast Briefers show.

Mark added: "What I would suggest to people is that they have a click round and have a view of it over the Christmas period if you're a bit bored of the 24 billion channels you've got, but can still find nothing to watch.

"Log on to Punchline TV YouTube channel where we have over 1,000 videos ranging from the knocking down of the bus station to The Forum going up.

Since its launch, Punchline TV has had over 308,000 views and in the past 28 days alone there have been just under 10,000 views.

These figures relate to people who have gone directly to our YouTube channel and don't include people viewing the videos via the Punchline-Gloucester.com website.

"It's a hidden gem," added Mark. "We don't tend to promote it because we want people to visit our website and stay on our website. But I also want people to visit our YouTube channel directly and subscribe to it for free."

Having produced 1,100 videos using his trusty iPhone, Mark has now revealed his favourite videos from Punchline TV.

Boris Johnson

Mark was one of a select group of journalists invited to interview the then Prime Minister during a visit to Stonehouse during the Covid pandemic in April 2021. Each of the four journalists present were able to ask three questions but Mark recalls how, frustratingly, the BBC journalist present asked all her three questions at once, followed by the Citizen journalist with three questions. Mark said: "They asked the questions that I wanted to ask and I ended up having to think of alternative questions so I asked him whether he was worried about Ukraine and about apprenticeships. But it's not everyone who gets the chance to meet the Prime Minister and spend 20 minutes with him."

Jonny Wilkinson

Rugby-mad Mark was delighted to interview the former England rugby legend while he was in Gloucestershire earlier this year launching his new drinks brand. The ex-international and British Lion, whose golden boot won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, visited the Creed Summer Food Festival promoting his No.1 Living drinks range. Jonny loved Mark's video so much that his PR agency sent Mark a sample of drinks after the event as a thank you.

Terry Waite

Four years ago Mark had the privilege of interviewing one of his heroes, Sir Terry Waite, during a visit to The King's School in Gloucester. Sir Terry became internationally know as the humanitarian who was kidnapped by militant Islamists in Lebanon and held captive for almost five years. Mark, who used to serve as a chef in the Royal Air Force, said: "He was one of my heroes. I was the very first person to feed him when he was freed from captivity when I was serving as a chef in the Air Force in Cyprus. I gave him some sandwiches because that's all he asked for. He was amazing. Then he came to Gloucester for a book signing and I bought his book. When I met him again at The King's School I told him the story of how I'd met him all those years ago."

Russell Watson

Having sold more than seven million albums worldwide, Russell Watson is firmly established as the UK's best-selling classical crossover artist of all time. Just after Covid he was due to appear at Cheltenham Town Hall. Mark recalled: "I got this email from his publicist inviting me to interview him. I thought 'he's an opera singer, it's a bit different, but I didn't really know who he was. I meant to do some pre-prep the day before but I couldn't so around 15 minutes before I did a Big Interview with Russell I quickly had a look to see who he was and then it dawned on me that he was this world famous singer who had sold millions of records around the world and there I was with a little notepad and a pen waiting to do a 25-minute interview with him. I actually got him to sing to me and he turned out to be such a nice guy and I ended up chatting to him for another 20 minutes afterwards."

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Mark interviewed the chef, author, journalist and TV presenter at a special new collaboration of organic beers at the Stroud Brewery in May 2022. Hugh had teamed up with Stroud Brewery to launch a new range of River Cottage beers made with organic ingredients. Hugh, whose River Cottage HQ is in Devon, told Mark that he actually grew up in Gloucestershire and his parents still live in the county. Mark says it was one of his most memorable interviews.

Rolling naked in the snow

Five years ago, Mark carried out a rather chilly charity stunt in memory of his late brother Steve, after being egged on by his friend Mark Cummings, then breakfast show presenter at BBC Radio Gloucestershire. "After Steve died I went on Radio Gloucestershire and we talked about snow. I somewhat foolishly said on air that all the winter snow had disappeared and I said if we could find any snow I would roll naked in it for the Sue Ryder hospice. We eventually found some near a remote farm and I rolled in it naked. We raised over £1,000 in less than 24 hours. I did it all for Steve."

Other famous names to feature on Punchline TV include the broadcaster Anita Rani, Falklands war veteran Simon Weston and the historian Dan Snow. A proud Welshman, Mark also had the pleasure of interviewing his all-time hero Max Boyce.

Mark added: "It's like a Who's Who. I've been terribly blessed to be given the opportunity to talk to such an eclectic mix of people. It's been an absolute privilege.

"The whole point of my videos is that they're raw and uncut - that's why people like them. It is what it is. As a marketing agency we do make professional videos but the whole point of these videos is it's just me and an iPhone and it's just done in one continuous take, although it's well known that there's lots of false starts! And it's great fun."

To see the huge range of videos on offer, visit Punchline TV.