Rowley Birkin QC is a fictional character played by the comedian Paul Whitehouse in the popular BBC sketch show The Fast Show.
Rowley Birkin was an elderly barrister with grey hair and a puffy red nose from drinking too much. His sketches consisted of him seated in an old-fashioned sitting room in front of the fireplace with a drink in his hand, regaling the viewer with stories about his past exploits. His speech was mumbled and slurred, making it almost entirely unintelligible, with just the occasional incongruous-sounding word or phrase audible. He sometimes illustrated his stories with strange noises and hand signals. It turned out that he had carried out his adventures whilst inebriated, as he ended every monologue with the phrase, "I'm afraid that I was very, very drunk," or a variant thereof.
The character also made a cameo appearance in the Fast Show spin-off film, Ted and Ralph, and was also for a time used as part of an advertising campaign for British Gas.
The BBC webpage on Rowley Birkin tells of the character's origins, saying, "Rowley was based on a man, named Andrew Rollo, who Paul Whitehouse met on a fishing trip to Iceland."
The abbreviation "QC" stands for "Queen's Counsel".
