Hale And Pace, The London Weekend Television Series, 1988
Gareth Hale and Norman Pace found fame towards the end of the 1980’s, after a single one-off special for London Weekend Television shown Christmas 1986 was a success. This lead to to a relationship with LWT that would last ten years and comprised sixty six shows over ten years between 1988 and 1998. They generally went out on a Sunday night.
They are probably best remembered for their Two Rons characters aka “The Management” and their other famous characters: the ever smiling and colourfully dressed children’s TV presenters Billy (Hale) and Johnny (Pace).
Summary
The show was a sketch based show, with a number of characters recurring over the ten series run. Despite it’s popularity, the series was not without it’s controversial moments. Particularly a sketch in the first series featuring them pretending to microwave a cat, this sketch got them into the top 50 on “50 most shocking comedy moments”
In series two they went a step further in a sketch where Norman holds a baby and they both move aside to show the microwave behind them. Gareth flips a coin, then the baby upstages them by vomiting over Norman’s arm. Other sketches were heavily criticised for being perverted or almost pornographic.
Clips
[AdSense-A]
[AdSense-A]
[AdSense-A]
Starring
Gareth Hale and Norman Pace
Details
Channel: ITV
Written By: Adrian Baldwin and Lenny Barker
Produced By: London Weekend Television
Original Transmission Dates: 2nd October 1988 – 20th December 1998