Career

Cash's father worked as a joiner and he grew up in Stockport. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s/early 1990s as a music radio DJ on south Manchester station KFM,^[2] where he worked with Caroline Aherne who had previously developed an Irish nun character, Sister Mary Immaculate.^[1] During this period he was also the manager of the band That Uncertain Feeling. In 1999 Cash performed uncredited duties as script editor on That Peter Kay Thing, a fact only revealed in 2004 when he moderated the DVD commentary.

As an actor Cash is best known for playing slightly dim-witted and affable working class northern men, particularly Dave Best in the BBC sitcom The Royle Family, which he co-wrote with Caroline Aherne.^[3]

He has also written for The Fast Show and for Aherne on The Mrs Merton Show. With Phil Mealey he wrote the BBC sitcom Early Doors. They went on to write the drama Sunshine, filmed in Marple, and first broadcast on BBC One in 2008. They founded the independent production company Jelly Legs, which produced later The Royle Family specials, "The New Sofa" and "The Golden Egg Cup", as well as Sunshine.

In 2011 Cash directed all six episodes of The Café, a show written by and starring his Royle Family co-star Ralf Little. From November 2013, Cash narrated the Channel 4 reality show Gogglebox when regular narrator Caroline Aherne was unavailable, and took on the role permanently when Aherne died in July 2016.^[4] In 2015 he directed and executive produced the Sky 1 comedy-drama After Hours, starring Jaime Winstone and Ardal O'Hanlon and written by John Osborne and Molly Naylor.

From 2013 to 2017, Cash narrated adverts for sofa company Sofaworks (and its successor Sofology) which featured a three-toed sloth named Neal.

Cash won two BAFTA Television Awards for Best Situation Comedy his work on the Royle Family in 2000 and 2007.^[5]