Category: The Fast Show

  • Alf’s Oven
    Alf’s Oven

    I like this sketch a lot. Whitehouse’s performance elevates it, and the timing of the changes are spot on. What’s more, the design of Alf’s home is marvellous. That oven looks like many of the ovens we’ve explored in previous posts, but it’s not seen in any of those. I wonder how many ovens the…

  • Tommy Cockles To Powergen
    Tommy Cockles To Powergen

    My first experience of Simon Day, I think, was as Tommy Cockles, appearing as a regular on Paramount City, right at the start of the 1990s. It was a good few years before The Fast Show. Here he is, as Cockles, on Wogan in 1992. The applause at the end seems a little sudden. Was…

  • The Genesis Of Swiss Toni
    The Genesis Of Swiss Toni

    Swiss Toni made his first appearance on screen in an episode of The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer. The character is a creation of Bob Mortimer and Charlie Higson, and this is how he arrived on the show. He later moved to The Fast Show, but Mortimer receives no writing credits on that, so he…

  • Smashie and Nicey: End Of An Era
    Smashie and Nicey: End Of An Era

    It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, but it’s always worth a watch. And here’s a great article on Dirty Feed about the differences between the broadcast version and the VHS release.

  • Down The Line: Behind The Microphone
    Down The Line: Behind The Microphone

    I really like Down The Line, the fake Radio 4 phone-in show with Gary Bellamy, created by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, and starring a whole host of familiar and brilliant voices. I also really like the TV show it inspired, Bellamy’s People of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which should…

Buy My Books
  • Proctology: A Bottom Examination
    Proctology: A Bottom Examination

    For a long time now I’ve been wanting to write an old-fashioned programme guide. One you can hold in your hand and thumb through, make notes on, spill coffee on. So I did. Proctology: A Bottom Examination is my deep dive into Bottom, the hit BBC Two sitcom starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson. That’s…

Follow
Most Read
  • Re-Casting Keanu
    Re-Casting Keanu

    Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him eight years older than Clive Dunn was when he was first cast in Dad’s Army. But don’t panic, Clive Dunn was always playing much older characters than his own age. Keanu Reeves is 56. That makes him seven years older than Stephanie Cole was when she was first…

Sign up for my FREE newsletter