Show Notes
Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Benny Hill Show or Morecambe & Wise — what is Britain’s greatest sketch show? TV Insiders Jimmy Mulville and Peter Fincham rank the best British sketch shows, from That Mitchell and Webb Look and The Two Ronnies to The Fast Show, Spitting Image, French & Saunders, Goodness Gracious Me! and more…
In this episode: Morecambe & Wise’s incredible castings The Two Ronnies, Four Candles and the “dull in Hull” weather forecast How Not the Nine O’Clock News made Rowan Atkinson a star The Fast Show, Caroline Aherne and sketches made for the YouTube age A Bit of Fry & Laurie and the privatised police sketch That Mitchell and Webb Look’s “Are we the baddies?” Why Benny Hill was left off the list Spitting Image, David Owen, David Steel and the puppets that punctured political careers French & Saunders and their brilliant Bananarama parody Goodness Gracious Me!’s “Going for an English” Armstrong and Miller and whether sketch shows should ever be revived How Monty Python’s Flying Circus changed sketch shows PLUS: The League of Gentlemen, Little Britain, Smack the Pony and more
Chapters: 00:00 Intro and the rules 03:50 A Bit of Fry & Laurie 05:40 The Two Ronnies 07:55 Not the Nine O’Clock News 11:05 The Fast Show 13:25 That Mitchell and Webb Look 14:45 The Benny Hill Show 17:05 Spitting Image 20:15 French & Saunders 21:35 The Morecambe and Wise Show 23:45 Goodness Gracious Me! 26:40 Monty Python’s Flying Circus
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Jimmy Mulville is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Hat Trick Productions. His list of hit shows includes Have I Got News for You, Father Ted, Derry Girls, Outnumbered and Episodes. In the US, Hat Trick launched Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1997, which ran on ABC for seven years and was the first British series to be recreated for American network television by a British producer.
Peter Fincham ran TalkBack, where he executive produced many of their biggest shows, including I’m Alan Partridge, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Da Ali G Show. He went on to be Controller of BBC1, then Director of Television at ITV, before returning to the independent sector as co-CEO of Expectation, the company behind Clarkson’s Farm and Alma’s Not Normal.
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