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00:00Squeeze it, Cheesy-P!
00:03Very little telly of any kind reveals as much about Britain and the way we live as the sketch shows.
00:09When I caught Gerald, he was completely wild. Wild. I was absolutely livid.
00:14All life is here.
00:15Can I help you?
00:16Yes, you'll face my arse.
00:18No class, occupation, region or community has escaped parody.
00:23I'm flying, Jack, I'm flying!
00:25Are we the baddies?
00:27They've supplied catchphrases that quickly became the unofficial language of Britain.
00:31That is so unfair, I hate you!
00:34You are awful.
00:37I like you.
00:39Friend.
00:40I'm Paul Whitehouse, and I've spent a huge chunk of my career writing and performing in comedy sketches.
00:46I'm dead.
00:48Dead.
00:49So, who's better than me?
00:51Me.
00:52To look at the history of short-form comedy.
00:54My name is Michael Payne.
00:56Well, you can probably think of loads of people, but tough.
01:00You're stuck with me.
01:01Brilliant!
01:04Yay!
01:22We've already got two laugh-tastic decades of sketchy history under our comedy belts.
01:29Two soups.
01:31And we've seen the split between popular mainstream shows and more challenging stuff like Not The Nine O'Clock News.
01:37Did you get some kind of perverted gratification from going around stirring up trouble?
01:42Yes, sir.
01:43By more challenging, I mean nobody watched it.
01:46When I say nobody, I mean less people.
01:48And when I say less, I mean fewer.
01:50Obvs.
01:51You can't write sketches without being a grammar Nazi.
01:53Lol.
01:55The 90s were more of the same, yet in a very real way, completely different.
01:59Mainly because a god was about to descend from the comedy firmament and walk among you.
02:04I refer, of course, to me, because I am...
02:07Brilliant!
02:08Fantastic!
02:09Brilliant!
02:10I get quite blind here, unless he's too brilliant.
02:12There was a feel-good factor about the 90s.
02:15New labour, Britpop, and cool Britannia, and a conscious nod to the optimism and freedom of the 60s.
02:22Sketch comedy was surging forward into new territory,
02:25and was described by one or more lazy journalists as the new rock'n'roll.
02:30I mean, The Fast Show Live ran for 30 consecutive days at Hammersmith Apollo,
02:34with shooting stars supporting us in a much smaller dressing room.
02:40Genuine.
02:41Yeah, I'm doing air for spec.
02:44The alternative comedians of the previous decade were now mainstream.
02:48And none more so than my old great mates, Diane French and Janet Saunders.
02:53Someone check that, please.
02:55You did swallow your raft, didn't you?
03:00Because, like, any minute now, we're going to be, like, really out of it.
03:06Yeah, but I've got to be back in at about five, because I've got windburn practice.
03:08Yeah, I know, I know.
03:10Theirs was a rich, warm, daft mix of movie spoof, at-home banter, and timeless, freshly-minted characters.
03:18Erm... Liverpool.
03:22They stand entirely alone, except that they're in my series about sketch shows.
03:27Oh, I'm flying, Jack, I'm flying!
03:39Oh, shit, Rose.
03:45I have come to show you go warm, near, far, wherever you are.
03:51I believe that your heart will go warm.
03:56Once more, I open the door, and you're here in my heart.
04:01Go warm.
04:03Now, having spent approximately 38% of my precious life in, or being glued into, comedy prosthetics,
04:10I know what a pain in the arse it is.
04:12So I always have a silent, knowing chuckle when I see performers encased in prosthetics,
04:18like they're old, posh, fat ladies.
04:20Except you ain't allowed to say that no more, except I just did.
04:23Blood and sand!
04:24What's the matter?
04:25Blood and sand! I've cut my finger.
04:27What, completely off?
04:28No, it's still sort of dangling.
04:32And nobody did pop parodies better than Dawn and Jen.
04:41To hats off, or props if I was trying to be young,
04:44to Simon Brint and Roland Rivron, a.k.a. the ladies' backing band Raw Sex.
04:49I once sang Green Green Grass Off Home at a local pub with Raw Sex,
04:54Ade Edmondson and Neil Innes.
04:56They never asked me back.
04:59Yes, they'll all come out to greet me
05:04Oi!
05:07Back in the day, a gang of us lived in Happy Hackney,
05:10and one of our number had seen Vic Reeves' Big Night Out at a venue in New Cross.
05:15Now, in those days, we rarely ventured south of the river,
05:18but a show featuring the Brie Flattner was too enticing to resist.
05:23It was love at first sight for me with Vic and Bob,
05:25and word about the show spread fast.
05:27Soon, Big Night Out was on Channel 4, and I had wangled a way in.
05:32So, Mr. Popkins, you've got some lovey-dovey donuts, have you?
05:37That's right, I've got my donuts in my bag here.
05:39And what do they do?
05:40Well, they sing.
05:41They don't!
05:42It's hard to overstate the impact Big Night Out had.
05:45It seemed so fresh and different.
05:47First and foremost, I was a fan, and I still am.
05:50The Goons, Python, Morecambe & Wise, Pete & Dad's love of wordplay are all in here,
05:55and yet, they seem entirely original.
05:58See the little cauliflower talking to the cucumber
06:02About the olden days when there were peas
06:05A robin perches on a spade
06:07The woodless sunshine to a woodland glade
06:09And in the treetops grows a tiny swede
06:12And I think that I love you
06:15And I think that I care
06:17Inevitably, they went up a gear with a BBC sketcher of their own.
06:21I was in that, too.
06:25That is a great cup of soup.
06:28What incredible new flavour is this, then?
06:31Tell you what, for a bit of holiday fun, see if you can guess.
06:34It's quite countryside-y.
06:36It's almost high-wine-y.
06:38It's not countryside-y.
06:41It's more, er, office block-ish.
06:44What is it, Dad?
06:46It's tea.
06:51Could you? Of course it's not tea.
06:53What do you think this is, Victorian Britain?
06:55But what incredible new flavour is this?
06:58Jim was right. High-wine.
07:01I think I'm still laughing nearly 30 years after filming this.
07:04Anyone fancy a cup of soup?
07:08Under different titles, such as The Smell Of and Bang Bang,
07:12Vic and Bob's sketch series ran for six years
07:14and was never less than totally bonkers.
07:16I remain a big fan of their rubbish folk duo Mulligan & O'Hare,
07:20not least for Vic's magnificent moves.
07:23We've just fell off a Honda.
07:26My legs are in a tear.
07:30I see you're wearing those shoes again.
07:33The ones from Italy, yes.
07:37Harry, too, set the tone for sketch show comedy in the early 90s
07:41with our character-based show, Harry Anfield's television programme.
07:45His great success towards the end of the 80s,
07:48with Stavros and Loads Of Money,
07:50meant that TV awaited his arrival with open legs.
07:53Can I really say that?
07:55I am smoking a fag.
07:57With great casting of the brilliant Cathy Burr,
08:00some excellent writers, including a young Ian Hislop,
08:03if Ian was ever young,
08:05and the wonderful and much-missed Geoff Perkins as our producer,
08:09we roared into the decade with a lot of confidence.
08:12These are some of my personal highlights from four series
08:15that we did change the name to Harry & Chums
08:18to reflect the growing influence Cathy and I had in the show.
08:21Hats off to Harry.
08:23He encouraged me as a writer and performer from the off.
08:26I really owe most of my good fortune to Harry, so thanks, mate.
08:30No, really, great mate and superb chum.
08:33I truly mean that. I really do.
08:36Only 30 seconds to go before I'm 13!
08:3929, 28, 27!
08:42Can I have some more ice cream, Mum?
08:44Kevin, you've eaten all the ice cream in the house, remember?
08:47Oh, yes!
08:49Yeah! I'm 13!
08:51Happy birthday, Kevin!
08:53Happy birthday to me!
08:55Happy birthday to me!
08:57Happy birthday, Dick!
09:01Kevin?
09:04Are you all right, dear?
09:07Darling, he's losing the power of rational thought.
09:11And the use of his arms.
09:13He's become...
09:15a teenager!
09:19I love the contrast in Kevin's first outing
09:21between the perfect child and the instantly stroppy teen.
09:25You're so unfair! I hate you!
09:29A contrast that's perfectly bookmarked by Kevin's final appearance
09:33when he changes back after popping his cherry, as it were.
09:37Go away!
09:46Good morning, Mum!
09:49Morning, Dad!
09:53Lovely morning, isn't it?
09:56On the 22nd of Nov, 93,
09:58an event was to happen of such earth-shattering proportions
10:01that it was to shatter the earth to its very proportions.
10:06Now, we really had to fight to convince the powers that be
10:09that a couple of has-been Radio One-type DJs were actually funny.
10:13I'm so glad we persisted. Not half, mate.
10:16We even got our very own feature mockumentary
10:19to mark the end of our own reign on Radio Fab-type things.
10:23This is Mike Smash, the world's favourite DJ,
10:26saying blubmongously and for the very last time,
10:28although I can't quite believe it...
10:37And this is Dave Nice, saying...
10:53Attention to detail in his pathé news parodies
10:56was something Harry prided himself on,
10:58and this is one of my favourites.
11:02An ordinary dinner party.
11:04The sort of occasion we all enjoy.
11:06The men are exchanging witty stories.
11:08And look at the women. Aren't they pretty?
11:10Look at the way they laugh. They're delightful.
11:13But now the conversation turns to more serious matters.
11:16I wonder if the government should return to the gold standard.
11:19I think it should.
11:21Good. Then we're all agreed.
11:23But, oh, dear, what's this?
11:25One of the women is about to embarrass us all.
11:28I think the government should stay off the gold standard
11:31so that the pound can reach a level that will keep our exports competitive.
11:35The ladies are laughing.
11:37The men are laughing.
11:39The women are laughing.
11:41The men are laughing.
11:43The women are laughing.
11:45The lady has foolishly attempted to join the conversation
11:48with a wild and dangerous opinion of her own.
11:51What a big drivel.
11:53See how the men look at her with utter contempt.
11:57Daphne, we're going home.
12:01Women, know your limits.
12:07Sketch comedy finally woke up to the fact
12:10that Britain was a multicultural society
12:13with superbly crafted and funny shows like The Real McCoy.
12:17What's wrong? What's wrong?
12:19It's terrible. Look, look, calm down, calm down.
12:21Tell me what's happened.
12:23He said there's been some kind of mix-up.
12:25I said, were they sure?
12:27And they said, there is no doubt.
12:29You don't mean... Yes, we brought home the wrong baby.
12:32I don't believe you.
12:35Tell me. Tell me what's all the fuss.
12:39Starring, among others, the brilliant Mira Sayal, of whom more later,
12:43Curtis Walker and my mate Felix Dexter,
12:46The Real McCoy was the first show to look at British attitudes
12:49to race from a black perspective.
12:51That looks nice, what you're eating.
12:53Yeah, I know.
12:55I bet you'd rather be eating rice and peas, though, eh?
13:01Cos I know all about rice and peas.
13:04Chicken and rice.
13:07And rice.
13:11I've got black mates, you know.
13:13Leroy, Delroy, Winston.
13:17Oh, do you know him, do you?
13:20Well, you would.
13:22Here.
13:24Have you got any gear? Cos I've got some whistlers.
13:27I don't believe this. What's your problem?
13:31What did I say?
13:33He's very touchy.
13:35Touchy, touchy.
13:37Right, mate?
13:39Here. I had a brilliant chicken tikka masala last night.
13:44One sketch I loved starred the wonderful Judith Jacob
13:47in a classroom skit that was really on the money.
13:50All right, children. If you can tell me what you got up to today,
13:54then I might let you go home early.
13:57Yes, Sally. I was playing in the sand with Tommy, Miss.
14:01Well, if you can spell sand, then I'll let you go home early.
14:06S...
14:08A...
14:10N... D.
14:12Very good, Sally. Off you go.
14:14Yes, Winifred?
14:16I wanted to play in the sandpit with Tommy and Sally, Miss,
14:19but they wouldn't let me.
14:21Well, if you can spell racial discrimination,
14:25then I'll let you go home early.
14:28R-A-C-I-A-L-D-I-S-C-Y-I-S-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.
14:41I'm really enjoying you here this evening.
14:43But my favourite was Felix Dexter's Nigerian accountant student.
14:47Felix made a couple of appearances on The Fast Show
14:50and was an ever-present in Down The Line and Bellamy's People With Us
14:54until his untimely and tragic death in 2013.
14:58One thing I've noticed, I've been driving a lot at the moment,
15:01and I've noticed that a lot of you young West Indians,
15:04what do you call this driving?
15:06You're driving along like this.
15:12What the hell are you doing?
15:14Lying down in the car driving?
15:17With just the knuckles above the dashboard?
15:20Have you got eyes in your knuckles?
15:24What the hell are you doing?
15:31The 90s was such an exciting, colourful, hedonistic decade,
15:35a bit like the 60s, only with girl rather than flower power
15:39and Oasis instead of The Beatles.
15:41But there was no imitation in the world of the sketch show.
15:45You wait all day for a train and then a weird one comes along.
15:49And it's a big train,
15:51and some really big names.
15:54Compared to other, possibly less funny sketch shows,
15:57it didn't quite connect with the wider public.
15:59Well, I'm going to try and put that right.
16:01I mean, come on, a big hand, please, for Kevin Eldon
16:04in rug-pullingly warm and familiar surroundings
16:07with a brutal punchline every time.
16:10Isn't it great?
16:12It's got a tiny keyboard, and I mean really, really tiny.
16:17Go on and give it a go.
16:21Happy Christmas, you fat-handed twat.
16:28Put his big old hand anywhere and it's just funny.
16:31Like in this spoof of cheap TV dramas,
16:34leaving the punchline suspended in slow-mo like the falling baby.
16:42Oh, my baby!
16:45Oh, thank you so much!
16:47Thank you! You saved my baby!
16:51Fat-handed twat!
16:58Because they prefer the weeds of the plain,
17:01the jockeys spend long periods in the open,
17:04risking attack from hunters,
17:07like the artist formerly known as Prince.
17:11Probably the most memorable sketch from Big Train
17:14was this brilliant and surprising take on Predator and Prey
17:17in a beautifully realised mickey-take
17:19of David Attenborough-style wildlife documentaries.
17:33After feasting greedily on the carcass, the artist will sleep.
17:37It will be two days before he hunts again.
17:41CHEERING
17:46Apart from Victoria Wood,
17:48we'd never really had an all-female ensemble sketch series before,
17:52but Smack the Pony made the long wait worth it.
17:55Not that they made an issue of it, they just got on with being funny.
17:59Ooh!
18:02What?
18:06Lindsay, um, you are actually quite, quite hairy down there, aren't you?
18:10Just... What?
18:12A little bit hairy down there. Where?
18:15Just, just, um...
18:22Um, Lindsay, um...
18:26You had me going there for a minute.
18:28Oh, did I? Yeah.
18:30I don't think anyone's going to notice a few little wisps.
18:36Smack the Pony was quite brilliant,
18:38genuinely one of the defining shows of the decade.
18:41Their spoofs of desperate video dating were just spot-on.
18:47Hello, I'm Margaret, I'm 46, and I've never come.
18:51Um, I think I maybe did come a couple of years ago,
18:54but my friends say that if I'm not sure, I probably didn't.
18:57I was just wondering, um, is this it?
19:03Or is this it?
19:06Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
19:12Or is this it?
19:21Oh, I was nearly Miss Ireland, but I lost out because my left hand is massive.
19:25My parents didn't seem to like it,
19:27and I keep it behind my back most of the time.
19:31And they had a knack of pulling counterintuitive gags out of the bag.
19:36Nobody saw this coming.
19:56LAUGHTER
20:06Mmm, nice kitten.
20:08Goodness gracious me!
20:10While we're talking decade-defining,
20:12we'd better get on to Goodness Gracious Me.
20:15Great title and smart reference to a dodgy old Peter Sellers song,
20:19which I'm going to sing for you now.
20:21Only joking, you ain't learnt to sing that no more.
20:24You'd be a bird of paradise.
20:26Oh, why's that?
20:28Cos you've got a hooky nose like a beak.
20:30And your voice is all squeaky.
20:34Feathery stuff all over your lip.
20:36Goodness gracious me was a very clever show,
20:38inverting and dispelling stereotypes
20:40with a raft of deathless catchphrases.
20:43Check, please.
20:45I've accepted Jesus as my saviour.
20:48Well, of course you have, beta, because he was a nice Indian boy.
20:52Not Jesus.
20:53Ha, beta. He was as Indian as they come.
20:56He worked for his father. Indian.
20:59Parents had children without having sex. Indian.
21:02Hey, moviegoers, after tonight's feature,
21:05why not take your taste buds on a culinary journey?
21:08But the finest example of table-turning satire
21:11has got to be going for an English.
21:13Everything about it is witheringly bang-on.
21:16You go out, you get tanked up on lussies and you go for an English.
21:21I mean, it wouldn't be a Friday night if we didn't go for an English, innit?
21:25Okay, jams.
21:26All right, first up, we'll have ten...
21:28No, twelve.
21:29Twelve bread rolls.
21:32And bring some of that fancy stuff.
21:34What is this?
21:35Butter.
21:36Ah, butter, yeah.
21:41Okay, main course, what's everyone having, yeah?
21:43What's the blandest thing on the menu?
21:47The scampi is particularly bland, sir.
21:50I'll have that. And bring a fork and knife.
21:54Right, we'll have two scampis,
21:56two gammon steaks, one with the crap on the side,
21:59one cod mornay, steak and kidney pea,
22:02and, uh, chips.
22:03Chaal.
22:05Twenty-four plates of chips.
22:07I think you might have ordered too much, sir.
22:10What?
22:11Hey, Clive of India, who bloody asked you, eh?
22:13Just bring us the bloody food or I'll do a mooney.
22:19The idea for the Fast Show came from a 20-minute highlights package
22:23the late, great Jeff Perkins edited as a showreel for our series with Harry.
22:30Sausage factory.
22:32Charlie Hickson and I thought,
22:34hmm, what about a horror sketch show like this?
22:37So we took the idea to the BBC
22:39and they commissioned it on the spot-ish.
22:42We were lucky enough to put together
22:44a brilliant group of writers and performers,
22:46most fairly unknown at the time.
22:48Yet we were left to our own devices
22:50with minimal interference from the Beeb.
22:52Which was nice.
22:54And here's the brilliant and much-missed
22:56Carolina Hearn to kick us off.
22:59We went to see Ken Dodd the year before that.
23:01Oh, we're big fans of Doddy, myself and Roy.
23:04Four and a half hours he did.
23:06How long did he do, Roy?
23:07Four and a half hours.
23:08Oh, you know, we had chicken in a basket the lot.
23:11I said we've had a smashing night.
23:13What did I say, Roy?
23:14We've had a smashing night and thoroughly enjoyed it.
23:17I didn't say thoroughly enjoyed it, Roy.
23:20One of my favourite sketches from the far show
23:22was Jazz Club with John at the helm.
23:25Which was nice.
23:27Hello, and welcome to Jazz Club.
23:29Cool.
23:41LAUGHTER
23:51Good morning, Miss Schumacher.
23:53Thank you very much for stopping.
23:55Do you realise why I pulled you over?
23:58It's the jacket, isn't it?
24:00Doesn't work with this top.
24:02Instead of dressing up as women,
24:04the far show actually featured real ones.
24:07We've seen one.
24:08Here's another one.
24:10Now, listen, should I have worn my hair up?
24:12A bit more grown up?
24:13Might have made me look a bit severe, though.
24:15I know what you're thinking.
24:16Make my face look all puffy and bloated, wouldn't it?
24:18No, listen, come back.
24:19I want to know.
24:20I need to know the truth.
24:21Does my bum look big in this car?
24:24And here's Harry again, playing a straight role
24:26to Simon Day's brilliant competitive dad character.
24:30Here, just get my side.
24:32Thank you.
24:34Roll up.
24:36LAUGHTER
24:40Three.
24:43Four.
24:46Twenty-six.
24:48Twenty-six of the Queen's runs.
24:51LAUGHTER
24:54I met this next character, or someone very like him,
24:57in real life while I was fishing in Iceland.
25:00I couldn't understand him at all.
25:02He was so posh and indistinct.
25:04Drunk.
25:05He could have been talking about anything.
25:07I remember thinking he'd be great as a character in the show.
25:10He turned out to be very popular,
25:12and I didn't have to learn any lines.
25:15Cairo.
25:16WHISTLE BLOWS
25:18HE MUMBLES
25:21HE MUMBLES
25:39Good morning, sir, and how are we today, sir?
25:41Fine, I'm fine, thank you.
25:42Radiant.
25:43Mark Williams and I reckoned
25:45we could make anything smutty with these characters.
25:48I hated them, but she was in a minority.
25:51Here they are in full flow.
25:53Mark went on to have a glittering career,
25:55but I don't know what happened to the other bloke.
25:57Been here long, sir?
25:59Couple of days.
26:00Banged anyone yet, sir?
26:02Please, I just...
26:04Because you don't usually hang around, do you, sir?
26:06I remember in the war, you yanks were in like a shot.
26:09Single or double-breasted?
26:11Ooh!
26:12I do apologise, sir.
26:13That sounded like a smutty innuendo, didn't it?
26:16A little bit of smut, sir.
26:18Suit you.
26:19Suit you, sir.
26:20Suit you.
26:21Suit you.
26:22Suit you, sir.
26:23Suit you.
26:24Suit you.
26:25Suit you.
26:26Suit you.
26:27Fuck!
26:28Will you just build me a fucking suit?
26:29Right, Wilson?
26:30I'll measure you up.
26:31One glaring omission about to be remedied
26:33is my old mate and writing partner, Charlie Higson.
26:36He's a brilliant performer
26:37and doesn't get as much recognition as he should.
26:40I love the dark V that Hill's making on the horizon.
26:45Yes, it's very dark, isn't it? It's almost black.
26:50Johnny?
26:51Yes, I shall need to get the black out.
26:54Johnny?
26:56It's black, black, black, like the clouds of death
27:01that follow me into the forest of doom and hide in the wardrobe of darkness.
27:07Black! Black! Black! Black! Black!
27:15Slapstick, but not without a measure of poignancy.
27:18And poignancy was a defining characteristic of the farce show.
27:22We ladled it on with such characters as Unlucky Elf and, of course, Rowley Birkin,
27:27when booze made him sad.
27:29I held her in my arms.
27:45I feel I was very drunk.
27:49And Pythos was never more evident than with Ted and Ralph.
27:53Asparagus, broccoli, vegetables.
27:56Porto or aubergine, it's potato, a turnip forfeit.
28:02Ted, I really do not...
28:04Argh!
28:08I'm very sorry. Under normal circumstances, believe you me,
28:11I would like nothing more than to join you in your game, but not tonight, please.
28:15Go on, sir, go on. It'll be a bit of fun, sir.
28:18Is Ted really...
28:20Tomato, ears, aubergine, your, potato, drinks.
28:25It's all right, we've got a new nominee.
28:27Wahey!
28:28This is a private matter.
28:30BONG!
28:31LAUGHTER
28:38Tomato, Ted, aubergine, your, potato, wife's, turnip, dead.
28:49LAUGHTER
28:52Sorry, I mean, tomato, sorry.
29:02Ta-da, Ralph. Bye-bye, far show.
29:06And good night, Mrs Bromby.
29:08Well, that was the 1990s in all its daft sketch show glory.
29:13But the new millennium had some fresh and daring characters up its comedy sleeve.
29:18Ooh, yes, no, ooh!
29:21I'm a puppy.
29:22LAUGHTER
29:31It's unbelievable.