Tonight's episode of Little Britain could be the last ever.
According to the Daily Star, many of the show's characters reach
turning points in their lives in tonight's instalment of the popular
sketch show.
As "only gay in the village" Daffyd prepares to leave Llanddewi
Brefi and head for London, dietician Marjorie Dawes is left alone at
Fat Fighters when the slimmers walk out. Meanwhile, Sebastian is
heartbroken when the Prime Minister resigns from Number 10, and
travel agent Carole is in for a shock when her computer finally says
"yes".
One show source told the newspaper, "The sketches will certainly set
tongues wagging that David and Matt are bringing the curtain down on
the show. At the end of some of the clips, it would be difficult to
see how they could bring people like Carole and Sebastian back.
"In others there are a few twists which mean these much-loved
figures like Daffyd and Marjorie could make a return if they wanted.
But the general tone of the Christmas special is that it's like a
farewell to the fans."
A BBC spokeswoman explained, "Things have been left open-ended.
There won't be a Little Britain series next year because Matt Lucas
and David Walliams are on tour and cannot write and record a new
show at the same time. We know fans want to know about a fourth
series, but all we can say is, it's too early to say at the moment."
23/12/2005 - Britain, Britain, Britain
"Why would you ever want to leave? Anyone who goes on holiday abroad
is a traitor! God, I love it here... The Sistine Chapel? British!
The Pyramids of Egypt? British! The first moon walk? British! Yet
none of those wonders would be possible without the people of
Britain, and it is they that we do look upon now... Boom-Boom, shake
the room!!"
That phase, and many more, are beautifully bellowed each week, by
the famed British actor Tom Baker, (known in the late 1970's as
Doctor Who), who narrates the BBC's hilarious runaway hit, "Little
Britain", my choice for the best comedy of 2005. The creation of
comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Little Britain is based on
their award winning radio show. Beginning Christmas morning, BBC
America will be broadcasting the first and second seasons of the
show. Tape it, TiVo it, download it or buy it online, but don't miss
one of the funniest shows you will ever see.
An off-kilter look at modern life, Little Britain was a high-quality
sketch show more consistent than most entries in the genre. Anthony
Head (billed as Anthony Stewart Head when he appeared as Professor
Giles in "Buffy The Vampire Slayer") appears here as Michael, the
Tony Blair-like Prime Minster, and Baker provides a God-like voice
as the story linking narrator. Baker's wit and comments throughout
the show are simply unbelievable. "...England is full of
Transvestites... I'm wearing a bra and panties right now, but I draw
the line there."
In "Little Britain", viewers are met with an assortment of memorable
characters: Andy, the annoying wheelchair-bound twit who, secretly,
can walk without any problem but enjoys being waited on by his
caring and endlessly patient friend Lou (these characters grew out
of the Lou Reed and Andy Warhol characters the pair had created in
"Rock Profiles" and on England's "The Ralf Little Show"); Sebastian
Love, the effete personal secretary to Prime Minister Michael, who
has a huge crush on his boss; Vicky Pollard, the teenage ex-Borstal
single-mom from the town of "Darkly Noone", whose
stream-of-consciousness speed-talking renders her virtually
unintelligible; Daffyd, the Welsh gay who is convinced - despite
overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that in Llandewi Breffi he
is "the only gay in the village", Marjorie Dawes, the merciless
leader of the Fat Fighters diet club; Dennis Waterman, the actor
(portrayed as "tiny") who wants to compose and sing the theme song
for every TV program he is offered, much to the frustration of his
agent Jeremy Rent, Jason, a teenager sexually obsessed with his mate
Gary's grandmother and Emily Howard, the particularly unladylike
transvestite; and the teachers and pupils of "Kelsey Grammar School"
in Flange.
The success of Little Britain has been enormous, and news of a live
road show in 2006 created a rush for tickets. Lovers, of "Monty
Python's Flying Circus", "The Office", "The League of Gentlemen",
"Absolutely Fabulous", "Chef" and the classic MTV imported "The
Young Ones" will die laughing at "Little Britain".
20/12/2005 - Simpsons Creator Eyes Little Britain Stars
The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has announced plans to recruit
Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams for a guest
appearance in his hit cartoon.
British sketch show Little Britain has proved to be a hit both in
the UK and the US, and Groening is hoping to have its stars follow
in the footsteps of The Office's Ricky Gervais by making a cameo
alongside the Simpson family.
Groening says, "Matt Lucas and David Walliams are like living
cartoons anyway."
Little Britain was voted best comedy for the second consecutive year
at Wednesday's (14th, DEC 05) British Comedy Awards, where Groening
was one of the guest presenters.
19/12/2005 - Headmistress calls for Little Britain ban
The head of a primary school has got so fed up with pupils
pretending to be "the only gay in the village" that she has asked
parents to stop them watching Little Britain.
Apart from young boys parading about pretending to be the Matt Lucas
character Daffyd, Hildenborough Primary School, near Tonbridge,
Kent, has had its fill of girls muttering: "No but, yeah but no but,
yeah…" the catchphrase of the character Vicky Pollard.
Lyn Hargreaves, the headmistress, wrote to parents saying: "Please
can I ask for your help in respecting the 9pm watershed as the
discussions heard are not ones we feel should enter our school
culture."
The show is broadcast on BBC1 at 9pm on Thursdays and its DVD
releases have a 15-rating because of "moderate language and comic
sex references".
Some parents, however, have not taken kindly to being advised over
their children's viewing habits.
Mark Richardson, whose eight-year-old daughter goes to the school,
said: "I thought this was over-stepping the mark. This is something
parents should decide.
"The show is so funny and over-the-top about slapstick elements
which appeals to children. The more risque comments go over their
heads.
"I watch it with them with the remote in my hand and censor the
really saucy bits."
Mrs Hargreaves said yesterday: "Our pupils are as young as four. The
programme contains adult humour and some of the words are
inappropriate for a primary school."
Radio Times estimated that more than 360,000 children aged between
four and 15 watched the last series.
15/12/2005 - Little Britain are still the big comedy act
Little Britain last night (14/12/05) proved that gags based around
incontinence and projectile vomiting are no barrier to popular
acclaim as it was named Britain's best comedy for the second year
running.
Some critics have complained that the latest series, now showing to
audiences of up to 9.5 million on BBC1, pushed the boundaries of
taste too far. But the off-kilter creations of Matt Lucas and David
Walliams beat Extras, written by and starring Ricky Gervais and
Stephen Merchant, to the top prize at last night's British Comedy
Awards.
Gervais was also upstaged by his co-star Ashley Jensen, who appeared
alongside him with a host of celebrity cameos in Extras, and won two
prizes for her role in the follow-up to The Office. As Maggie
Jacobs, she plays the best friend of jobbing actor Andy Millman,
played by Gervais. She was rewarded with the best television comedy
actress and best comedy newcomer gongs.
Lucas, Walliams and Gervais were all beaten to the best comedy actor
prize by Chris Langham, who was nominated for his roles opposite
Paul Whitehouse in the BBC2 therapy comedy Help! and as the hapless
minister Hugh Abbott in Armando Iannucci's BBC4 comedy The Thick of
It.
The political satire also won the prize for best new TV comedy of
the year at last night's ceremony, hosted by Jonathan Ross. It now
promises to do for BBC4 what Little Britain did for BBC3 in becoming
a break-out hit and attracting a wider audience to the digital
channel, having gained a cult following through the course of two
short runs this year. The full series is due to be repeated on BBC2
early next year.
A Yes, Minister for the New Labour era, it has been rapturously
received by critics, with the Daily Telegraph calling it "inspired,
seemingly effortless and far too close for comfort". Others have
hailed it as Iannucci's best show yet, topping his previous work
with the likes of Chris Morris and Steve Coogan on The Day Today and
I'm Alan Partridge.
The best comedy award capped a stellar year for Walliams and Lucas,
who have taken Little Britain from cult appeal on Radio 4 to the
mainstream on BBC1. Their live tour will take in 140 sold-out dates
and they have announced another series of arena performances in
venues more used to rock groups than comedians.
The rivalry between today's most successful British comedy writing
double acts has acquired extra edge after Gervais told the Guardian
he disapproved of tacky dolls and live spin-off tours. Dolls of
Little Britain's characters are expected to be Christmas
bestsellers.
The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, has singled out comedy as
one of the genres that will benefit from reinvestment released by
his costcutting campaign, and the increased focus would appear to be
reaping rewards. The corporation's shows were nominated in 18 of the
31 categories for which they were eligible, with BBC2 alone
garnering 11.
The X Factor, ITV's Saturday night ratings winner that reaches its
climax this weekend, won the prize for best comedy entertainment
programme. And Paul O'Grady picked up the prize for best comedy
entertainment personality, leaving Ant and Dec empty handed.
5/12/2005 - Little Britain Christmas Schedule
- Mon 19th Dec, BBC One, 10.35 - Comic Relief Highlights 2005,
introduced by Lou & Andy.
- Sat 24th Dec, BBC 1, 9.10pm, Episode 6 of Little Britain (Last
episode)
- Christmas Day, ITV 1, 11.05pm, South Bank show special. Series 3
will be shown back-to-back on BBC 3 from 9pm onwards.
- Boxing day - BBC Three, 9pm, Little Britain Christmas Crackers -
"Matt & David join Rob Brydon to introduce favourite episodes,
discuss characters and take questions from an audience". (During the
episodes digital viewers can access commentary from the stars).
4/12/2005 - Little Britain stars want more complaints
Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams are surprised
that they don't receive more complaints.
Despite including politically incorrect sketches in their popular
BBC One show, the pair have joked that they need to try harder to
offend viewers.
"We have never had complaints," David told The People. "As hard as
we try, we can't seem to offend anyone."
Matt explained, "All I'd say is that you should see what we cut out.
We realise it's a show for a 9pm BBC One audience so we don't want
to overdose on gross-out comedy. If it's just gross, that stops it
being funny.
"The only thing people seem to complain about is jokes about
religion or cruelty to animals. I remember Hale and Pace got loads
of complaints when they did a sketch about putting a cat in the
microwave. But our viewers are clever enough to realise our sketches
are not meant to be taken literally. It's not real life. It's
comedy."
David added, "I would hate people to get the idea me and Matt have
one-track minds. You see shows which are depressing because every
single joke is about toilet functions. Those sketches may be funny
in isolation, but if you put them all together it becomes too
vulgar. We never want to go too far."
November 2005
26/11/05 - What a turn-off! 1.6m viewers desert Little Britain
Little Britain has lost more than a sixth of its audience in a week.
A still-impressive audience of 7.9 million tuned into the second
episode of the third series on BBC One on Thursday night.
But the figure is well down on the record 9.5 million viewers who
saw the opening episode.
The first week’s audience was boosted by scheduling the show an
episode of EastEnders and a heavy promotional campaign, including
Tom Baker’s voiceovers on the evening schedules.
The week, 32 per cent of everyone watching TV between 9pm and 9.30pm
were seeing the show.
But it wasn’t enough to beat ITV1’s Doc Martin, which attracted 8.7
millions, or 36 per cent of the audience.
The return of Little Britain was greeted with a cool reaction from
critics, many of whom suggested it had substituted gross-out humour
for wit.
25/11/05 - Latest Tour News
Could a television sketch show really be transferred to the stage?
There must have been some doubts about Little Britain which has a
very particular style.
Amazingly, not only the characters and sketches but the feel of the
show made the transformation quite happily.
Using a video back projection, scene changes were achieved with
speed and some fun, familiar scenes arriving on the back wall while
props were pushed in from the wings.
Above all, Matt Lucas and David Walliams were able by some secret
formula to change almost instantly into all the fans' favourite
characters.
They opened with Lou and Andy, the simple-minded carer Lou with his
wheelchair-bound friend Andy, Andy, as usual, proving that he had
more mobility than he was letting on by descending from the rafters
on a wire.
There was the Prime Minister's gay assistant Sebastian (although the
TV PM was not played by Tony Head - "too expensive" the voice-over
suggested - and Lucas substituted), the transvestite "laydee" Emily
Howard, rude teen Vicky Pollard, fat Bubbles de Vere and a host of
others.
The script was pretty simple, relying to a large extent on a
previous knowledge of the characters, which the audience proved to
have.
Liverpool's Tom Baker supplied the important-sounding but
essentially daft narration while the script veered from over-the
-top to well-over-the-top.
Some characters are of the love-or-hate-them variety, particularly
those played by Walliams - the incontinent woman and the violently
sick church fete woman being cases in point.
Little Britain fans would love it, those unconvinced, however, would
remain so.
24/11/05 - Christmas Comedy: Little Britain (BBC THREE)
For one night only Matt Lucas and David Walliams invite viewers to
join them for back-to-back repeats of three personal favourite
episodes of Little Britain. Talking in front of a live studio
audience, with Rob Brydon as host, they introduce each episode and
discuss their favourite characters and moments. By pressing the red
button, digital viewers can also access a running commentary
specially recorded by the comic duo.
23/11/05 - Little Britain sketch criticised
A sketch in BBC One comedy Little Britain which showed a woman
urinating uncontrollably in a shop has been criticised by an
incontinence charity.
Lesley Woolnough, executive director of Incontact, said the sketch
was offensive and in poor taste.
"This kind of media exposure pushed beyond the bounds of decency and
did no-one any favours," she said.
However, a BBC spokesman said the sketch was not offensive as it was
not grounded in reality.
Ms Woolnough said continence problems were very common and
debilitating.
"They lead to social and emotional isolation for both men and women
of all ages," she said.
"People with incontinence are often ridiculed, but it is not a joke,
and the condition can be life-destroying for many older people.
"The comedy sketch by Little Britain shown this week depicting an
older lady wetting herself openly in a supermarket was in poor
taste, and for many of our 15,000 members particularly offensive."
BBC spokesperson said: "Comedy is a subjective medium, and the
Little Britain characters have been deliberately magnified to
cartoonish proportions.
"This particular sketch is exaggerated to such an extreme level,
it's clear that it has no grounding in reality."
The first episode in the third series of BBC One comedy show was
watched by 9.5m viewers and introduced the incontinent lady as one
of a number of new regular comic characters played by David Walliams
and co-star Matt Lucas.
19/11/05 - 'Little Britain' Christmas single on the way?
Little Britain's Daffyd could hit the number one spot this
Christmas.
The popular character, famous for being "the only gay in the
village", performs a pop opera song as part of the nationwide Little
Britain tour.
Fans are now hoping that creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams will
release it as a novelty record in time for the holidays.
