A |
is for Acorn Antiques, the genius Crossroads spoof created by Victoria Wood, complete with Julie Walters as Mrs. Overall and that gently swinging backcloth... The cast regularly stayed in the same Birmingham hotel as the real Crossroads cast - who spent a splendidly sozzled night in the bar telling Victoria how much they loved Acorn Antiques... Click here for more info on Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV |
B |
is for Bubbles & Desiree, the monstrous ladies of Little Britain. Matt (Lucas) and David (Walliams) had to be embedded in the specially-made fat suits for 12 hours at a time - they both lost pounds in weight, and the suits needed three men to pump water round them to keep the boys cool. Click here for more info on Little Britain |
C |
is for the Cyberman costume, which was used for the "Truly Open Golf Tournament" sketch from Channel 4's beloved comedy Absolutely - and which was so tatty and bashed up when it was delivered from the BBC Costume Store, we had to spray it down with silver paint to make it look good on camera. Click here for more info on Absolutely |
D |
is for The Dangerous Brothers, aka Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson - who accidentally set themselves on fire whilst filming Channel 4's live variety show Saturday Live. "I'm on fire" shrieked Ade - which everyone on set thought was a hilarious joke. "No, I really am on fire..." was pretty much the next sentence. What he said after that is unrecorded. Click here for more info on Saturday Live |
E |
is for Harry Enfield, who managed to get his "undercarriage" stuck in his costume seconds before coming on stage in front of the audience and had to have the Costume Lady untangle him. For reasons that now escape us, he was naked and playing Napoleon at the time. Click here for more info on Music Hall Meltdown |
F |
is for Vanessa Feltz who joined the Little Britain team and bravely volunteered to be spat at by Fatfighter's very own Marjorie Dawes. And the secret of the spit - flour and water. Yum. Click here for more info on Little Britain |
G |
is for Ali G, who can be seen in the celebrity crowd "lining up" to shake hands with Tony Ferrino (Steve Coogan) in our World AIDS Day charity spectacular "Live From The Lighthouse" - the only time Coogan & Sacha Baron-Cohen have appeared on screen together. Click here for more info on Stephen Fry's "Live From The Lighthouse" |
H |
is for Hugh Dennis (Outnumbered) who was filming a sketch for "The Imaginatively-Titled Punt & Dennis Show" on BBC1 which was set on location on the roof of County Hall - playing an assassin. As Hugh took out his sniper rifle and aimed, a police helicopter suddenly starting hovering overhead... "Have we cleared this with the police?" we gently enquired... Click here for more info on The Imaginatively-Titled Punt & Dennis Show |
I |
is for Armando Iannucci, director of The Thick Of It and In The Loop - who once recreated "rolling news" on his Radio 4 show "Charm Offensive" by having BBC newsreader Vaughan Savidge pulled across stage on a porters trolley while reading out the news headlines. Click here for more info on Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive |
J |
is for Julian Clary - who hosted spoof panel game "A Question Of Spurt" for Channel 4 World AIDS Day fundraiser "The Big Snog". Click here for more info on The Big Snog |
K |
is for King Stupid, the original title of the spoof panel game "The 99p Challenge" starring Simon Pegg, Sue Perkins and Nick Frost - and which had a joke so rude in its first show that the then Controller of Radio 4 tried to cancel it. It went to on to run for five years and won a Sony Award. So nahhh. Click here for more info on King Stupid |
L |
is for Little Britain and not least, Marjorie Blackamore, the projectile-vomiting bigot. The Special Effect boys tried to use pea soup for realistic vomit - then minestrone - then mulligatawny, but when they added diced carrots, they got stuck in the tube and caused a nasty blowback... Click here for more info on Little Britain |
M |
is for Paul Merton who accidentally pelted his co-star and co-writer John Irwin with 40 large haddock filming a sketch about the SAS for his Channel 4 sketch show "Paul Merton - The Series" Click here for more info on Paul Merton - The Series |
N |
is for Noel Gallagher, who had to wait to perform his sketch with Steve Coogan on Stephen Fry's "Live From The Lighthouse" - mainly because Coogan was still on a taxi bike in full Alan Partridge costume, dashing across London from his stage show "The Man Who Thinks He's It"... Click here for more info on Stephen Fry's "Live From the Lighthouse" |
O |
is for the Orgy scene at the end of the Paul Calf episode of Coogan's Run. As Steve Coogan stepped onto the set for the nude scene, he joked with the crew - "Well, it's cold this time of year..." Click here for more info on Coogan's Run |
P |
is for pissed - pretty much the state of the extra in Paul Merton's Channel 4 series who had to wear a fake Dolphin's Head - and had been at the gin all day so much that she was nearly sick inside it on camera. The smell of latex, dolphin and gin sick is probably not a good one. Click here for more info on Paul Merton - The Series |
Q |
is for the Queen, the best-loved of all the Spitting Image puppets. On the day of the recording, the lorry with all the Royal puppets on failed to turn up to the Birmingham studios, so we had to quickly film a sketch performed by hands crammed into plastic shopping bags with eyes and noses drawn on them... Click here for more info on Spitting Image |
R |
is for Robbie Coltrane who's TV special featured him dressed up as a headmistress of a glamorous St Trinians-style school - St Botolphs. |
S |
is for Stephen Fry who had to make a heroic impromptu two-minute live on-air speech about HIV/AIDS when the cameras got stuck backstage on their way to film All Saints singing live. On balance, better this way round than All Saints making a speech on the way to hear Stephen Fry sing "Under The Bridge". Just a guess. Click here for more info on Stephen Fry's "Live From The Lighthouse" |
T |
is for Tony Ferrino, the Portuguese singing sensation created by Steve Coogan who won a Silver Rose of Montreux - not least because the Italian judge thought he was for real and loved the show! True story. Click here for more info on The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon |
U |
is for Up on the rooftops of our offices where we did a photoshoot with Sir David Frost and Jimmy Carr. "Turn into Sir David" the photographer asked Jimmy. "Blimey - give me about 40 years" said Jimmy, quick as a flash. Sir David smiled gamely. Click here for more info on Strategic Humour Initiative |
V |
is for Victoria Wood's "As Seen On TV". In one scene, Celia Imrie had to rush up to a front door and announce to Victoria playing the houseowner - "Congratulations! You've won a weekend for two in London, courtesy of Handbag Magazine!". All went swimmingly, except on "Action!", Celia rushed up the path of the wrong house and announced this to a genuine - but pleased - householder... Click here for more info on Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV |
W |
is for Giles Wemmbley Hogg, the travelling twit played by comedian Marcus Brigstocke, who had to bare his backside at Glastonbury for the final climactic scene - and managed it with no retakes. Click here for more info on Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off To Glastonbury |
X |
is for X-Ray & AleXander Armstrong - who started every episode of the BBC 2 hospital sitcom "tlc" standing in front of an X-Ray of a man with something stuck where the sun don't shine - including a fish, a lightbulb and a harmonica. Click here for more info on tlc |
Y |
is for The Young Ones, the fabulously innovate student sitcom that launched the careers of Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson & Ben Elton. Click here for more info on The Young Ones |
and |
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Z |
is for Eddie Izzard, who made a heroic attempt to bring his visionary sitcom Cows to the screen. On the first day of filming in a shopping centre, a little boy looked at one of the cast in full cow prosthetic make-up and said "Mummy, look - there's a pig". Click here for more info on Cows |
