The Fast Show

From Freepedia

(Redirected from Arthur Atkins)

The Fast Show is a BBC comedy Sketch show programme which ran from 1994 to 2000. It also produced two national tours, the first in 1998 with the cast of the BBC spoof quiz show Shooting Stars, and the second being their 'Farewell Tour' in 2002. It was very loosely structured and relied heavily on character comedy, long-running gags, and endless catchphrases.

Many catchphrases from the programme have entered the vernacular in Britain, and many of the comedians have now become household names there: Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Arabella Weir and Caroline Aherne.

The show has been released on video, DVD, audio CD and laserdisc.

Contents

Characters

The show featured many memorable characters, they are listed here by performer.

Charlie Higson

  • (with Arabella Weir:) Friendly but naked newlyweds.
  • Colin Hunt, unfunny office practical joker.
Colin Hunt's office trolley, geddit? *whack*
Note: The writers claim Colin is based on those fans of comedy sketch shows who constantly repeat the catchphrases the next day. The name C. Hunt is also one character away from a common insult applied to such people.
  • Johnny Nice Painter, who goes insane at the mention of the colour black.
  • Geoffrey Norman MP, the Tory politician who denies everything.
  • Swiss Toni, a car salesman who compares everything to making love to a beautiful woman.
Fitting a carpet is much like making love to a beautiful woman. You lay her out, pin her down and walk all over her.
Note: Went on to star in a show of his own.

Paul Whitehouse

... I'm afraid I was very, very drunk.
  • Brilliant Kid, who walks through a series of peculiar backgrounds describing various things that he feels are 'brilliant' (which are often completely innocuous, everyday things).
  • The irritating rambler.
  • The 13th Duke of Wybourne, posh, rumpled dinner jacketed, cigar smoker, finds himself in unsuitable places
Me, the 13th Duke of Wybourne, here? In a student nurses' halls of residence? With my reputation? What do they take me for?
  • Archie the pub bore.
Hardest job in the world that.... thirty years man and boy....
It's a far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Isn't it? Mmmmm. Marvellous.
  • Unlucky Alf, the lonely old pensioner for whom nothing ever goes right. Often heard to utter the phrase "Awww bugger!"
  • The 'monster' who terrorizes a young woman in her bed in the middle of the night with betting tips. His physical appearance is based on Nosferatu, his voice and catchphrase is taken from football agent Eric Hall.
Monster, monster!
  • Chris the Crafty Cockney, claims to be an incurable kleptomaniac ("I'll nick anything me"). He is left alone with something valuable, and invariably steals it. Often says that he's "a little bit woah, a little bit wayyy, a little bit whooosh!"

Charlie Higson & Paul Whitehouse

  • Bob Fleming (Higson), the host of Country Matters, who has an extremely bad cough, along with his friends; sneezing Clive Tucker; hiccupping Murtagh Blethyn; and, of course, Jed Thomas (Whitehouse), the man who can't stop saying "ARSE!".
  • Ted & Ralph - country squire Lord Ralph Mayhew (Higson) attempts to strike up an intimate relationship with his estate worker Ted (Whitehouse).
Note: These two characters starred in their own made-for-TV movie Ted and Ralph in 1998, which starred Whitehouse, Higson and other Fast Show regulars. Whitehouse also put in a cameo appearance as Rowley Birkin QC.
  • The Offroaders, Simon Bush (Higson) and Lyndsay Mottram (Whitehouse), filmed by their friend Baz while they try impressive extreme sports, but fail to hide the fact that they are disastrously hopeless at such pursuits.
Gripped, Sorted, Let's off-road, and after one less than successful venture into bushcraft, I am the mushroom god!

Mark Williams

  • Jesse and his strange diets, fashion tastes and experiments.
This week, I have been mostly eating ... TARAMASALATA!
This week, I aren't been 'ungry.
This season, I shall be mostly wearing ... A THONG!
  • 'You Ain't Seen Me, Right?' is scruffily dressed, and always appears in passing, pausing only to dispense his eponymous warning.
  • 'I'll Get Me Coat' always says, wears or otherwise does something inappropriate for the social situation in which he finds himself. Shocked, other characters stare at him before he delivers his line and ends the sketch.
  • Patrick Nice, a pathological liar who claims to have had amazing luck, but remains very calm. Wins lottery twice in a row, and sees R.E.M. perform an impromptu concert at the ceremony where his son is awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry.
...and I was rummaging around in the attic and I found the original copy of the Bible. Which was nice.
...and unfortunately I left my fingerprints all over the handle, so it looks like I'll be going down for the next 15 years. Which is a shame.

Simon Day

  • Competitive Dad, who criticises his children for not being as good at something as he is.
  • Dave Angel, Eco-Warrior, who's into saving the planet (with a somewhat dubious methodology), Mike Oldfield records, and swinging.
  • Carl Hooper, Australian presenter of That's Amazing, a spoof on pop-science shows.
  • Billy Bleach, pub know-it-all who gets it all wrong. (This character starred in his own series, 'Grass' which was shown on BBC Three.)
  • John Actor, who plays Inspector Monkfish, the tough uncompromising cop.

Arabella Weir

  • No Offence, a rude South African department store cosmetics sales woman.
  • Insecure Woman, Does my bum look big in this?.

John Thompson

  • Brilliant Kid's Father, who walks around moaning about everyday things that are 'rubbish', which seems to include everything and everybody except Des Lynam.
  • Chip Cobb, the Deaf Stuntman, who mishears normal things as instructions to perform some dangerous stunt.
  • Louis Balfour, presenter of Jazz Club (a very obvious parody of The Old Grey Whistle Test).
mmmmm, Nice!

Caroline Aherne

  • Checkout Girl, who comments on every purchase.
  • Janine Carr, teenage mum with a unique world outlook.
  • Paola Fisch, weather presenter on "Chanel 9" (see Mixed performances below).

Jeff Harding

  • Ed Winchester, an American TV presenter, presumably of travelogues, who only gets to introduce himself.
Hi, I'm Ed Winchester., except for the one episode in which he said "Hi! I'm Ed Winchester. And I'd like to take a moment of your time to talk to you about the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ..."
In one episode, someone else (Felix Dexter) actually introduced himself as Ed Winchester. He then followed with "No I'm not. I don't know why I just said that."
Another episode saw several other (presumably) American presenters follow Ed with similar introductions ("I'm Ramone Valentino..." ) before Ed squeezes in with "...and I'm Ed Winchester"

Mixed performances

Bono Estente, Hethethethethethe hethethethethethetheth, Sminki-pinki, Chris Waddle. Boutros Boutros Gali. Bono Estente is the standard greeting; Boutros Boutros Ghali is used as the goodbye.
Also on Chanel 9:
  • Meterologicos (the weather forecast) presented by Paula Fisch (perhaps a reference to former weather presenter Michael Fish), played by Aherne; the weather is (almost) always the same everywhere: hot ("Scorchio!"). The one occasion when the weather was "Cumulio" resulted in mourning from the whole channel.
  • Advertisements for the 'Gizmo', an orange pump-action device (which is actually a plastic plumbing trap attached to the end of a squeeze mop). A number of these are advertised by bikini-clad women for a multitude of different purposes, in spite of the fact that the device is always exactly the same. Its features are described in terms of evocative phrases like "Novello proboscis - molto molto kinagrophos".
  • Advertisements for cheesy peas.
  • Disco Baby, Sexy Baby song performed by Higson dressed as a hairy overweight '70s disco star.
  • Arthur Atkinson, parody of 1940s music hall entertainers such as Max Miller and Arthur Askey, played by Paul Whitehouse, introduced by Tommy Cockles (Simon Day), himself a parody of presenters of TV history.
How queer! Where's me washboard?
  • Roy & Renée (Thompson & Aherne), endless chattering from Renée and her verbally challenged husband Roy.
What did I say Roy?
  • Ken and Kenneth, the "Suit you!" tailors who bombard potential customers with innuendo-laden suggestions about their private life, (Whitehouse and Williams).
  • The Patagonians, a group of South American musicians who seem to never be able to get further than a few seconds into a song before stopping. They play in bizarre locations, and notable instruments they use are pan pipes, an acoustic guitar and maracas.

Trivia

  • A great favourite of Johnny Depp who appeared in a sketch with the "Suit You" tailors ("An American Gentleman") in The Last Fast Show Ever, screened in three parts over Christmas 2000 to end the show. Also, in a deleted scene on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVD, Depp uses the "I'll get me coat" catchphrase.
  • Aherne starred in all three series, but did not appear in the final show The Last Fast Show Ever, presumably because of her commitment to the BBC sitcom The Royle Family.
  • When the programme was shown on BBC America it was renamed 'Brilliant' to avoid confusion with an American programme of the same name.

Filming Locations

For a sketch show a significant proportion of The Fast Show was external shots. During the early series much of this filming was done around the Tees Valley & Yorkshire Dales area in the North-East of England. Some recognisable locations include:

  • Darlington - 'The Running Family' were shown around various locations in town centre, including The Cornmill Centre. Incidentally Darlington was the childhood home of Jim Moir (Vic Reeves) whose longterm comedy partner Bob Mortimer was one of the writers on The Fast Show.
  • Richmond - The market place in Ted & Ralph's trip to the shops.
  • Aske Hall - Background in early Ted & Ralph scenes
  • Scotch Corner - Garage used in Swiss Toni's early scenes
  • Middlesbrough - dock area used in 'hard of hearing stuntman' scenes, scene on Transporter Bridge.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:
Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/The_Fast_Show.html"


Views
Personal tools
Similar Links