During it’s run it became one of the most popular sketch shows of the 1990′s and produced two national tours the first in 1998 with the cast of the BBC surrealist comedy quiz show Shooting Stars and the second being their ‘Farewell Tour’ in 2002.
Summary
Fast by name fast by nature, The Fast show would typically comprise twenty-seven sketches in thirty minutes, with some items lasting less than ten seconds and none running longer than three minutes. This was opposed to the tradition at the time of nine or ten items in the same time period of thirty minutes. Many more recent shows such as Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show were influenced by the format.
The show itself was loosely structured and relied on character comedy, recurring running gags, and many catchphrases.
Clips
Cast
Paul Whitehouse
Charlie Higson
Arabella Weir
John Thomson
Caroline Aherne (1994–97, 2011-)
Simon Day
Mark Williams (1994-2000)
Details
Channel: BBC1
Created By: Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson
Original Transmission Dates: 1994 – 1997, 2000 (Reunion Special)
Will there be more ?
On 5th September 2011 Charlie Higson announced The Fast Show would return for a new online only series. Details followed that it would be a full cast, proper budget production courtesy of Fosters Funny at http://fosters.co.uk
The first episode aired on 10th November 2011 at 13.00 with subsequent episodes broadcast each week at the same time.
Could There Be Even More ?
Well in a Media interview promoting the new online series Charlie Higson hinted that there was enough material written to warrant a possible further series, stating that they had had a full budget production with Foster’s Funny, if the new series was well received they may come back for another.
Whilst not committing he said that they may talk again to the BBC about transmission of a new series or they had noticed Sky had put a lot of money into commissioning new comedy. Will they or won’t they? we’ll have to wait and see, but in the meantime bookmark the link and enjoy the new series.
Merchandising
