Matt Lucas and David Walliams in Little Britain Photo: Stephen Gill
Little Britain director Matt Lipsey remembers when he met Matt Lucas and David Walliams' sketch show took off. He was on the set of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's quirky sitcom Catherick, which also starred Matt Lucas. “We go outside and a white van pulls up,” Lipsey says. «The window rolls down and the guy leans out and says, 'Hey, Lucas!' Great!» I didn't realize how much traction it was getting, but I thought, «Okay, if the white van guy likes Little Britain, Matt and David have made it.»
Little Britain's catchphrases immediately entered the cultural lexicon: Dafydd Thomas declares, «I'm the only gay in the village,» Emily Howard coos, «I'm a lady,» and Vicky Pollard protests, «Yes, but no, but.» British newspapers and the most scathing critics raved about it (at least at first), and its characters became tabloid shorthand for British stereotypes. The Sun published cartoons featuring Lucas as Pollard, a cheerful and rude teenager from Bristol. (As a Bristol native, I can attest that Pollard was seen as an omnipresent folk hero. The Victoria pub around the corner from where I lived changed its sign to a portrait of the character.) David Walliams, writing in his autobiography, recalls meeting Robbie Williams at a wedding in Los Angeles after the Little Britain pilot aired. Robbie has already quoted the characters.
Twenty years after the first series aired, Little Britain is often described as problematic — a show that critics say has «not aged well». Crossing the line between taste and sensibility, he highlights how attitudes about what is acceptable in comedy have changed. Some of the sketches were heavily criticized — particularly those showing Lucas and Walliams in blackface and yellowface — and were removed from iPlayer.
However, Little Britain has become a cultural phenomenon for good reason. Amid this elaborate gibberish and parade of grotesqueries, truths can be discerned — a heightened British eccentricity from either end of the class spectrum. And despite its most generic traits and most famous catchphrases, Little Britain was, most importantly, very funny.
Matt Lucas as Vicki Pollard. Photo: BBC
The series was created over several years. Lucas and Walliams became two of the country's biggest comedy stars for a time. Previously, they had been frustrated by attempts to launch a BBC show. Lucas was then best known for his role on Vic and Bob's game show Shooting Stars, where he played child counter George Dawes. As a double act, Lucas and Walliams produced Mash and Peas, directed by Edgar Wright, for Paramount Comedy and a pop star parody of Rock Profile for UK Play. BBC Two's series of 10-minute episodes, Sir Bernard's Magnificent Houses, was a flop, as were a pair of aimless Radio 4 pilots.
Lucas and Walliams were trying to come up with a unifying theme for a new sketch show — not unlike their pals in The League of Gentlemen, whose sketches were set in the same hellish town of Royston Vasey. Walliams proposed making a documentary about modern Britons. As future series narrator Tom Baker says in a brilliantly crazy introduction: “Have you ever wondered about the people of Britain… Who are they? Who are they? And why?»
Initially rejected by BBC Two, Little Britain became a well-received show on Radio 4, running for two series between 2000 and 2002. The television pilot aired in February 2003, the night of the launch of the Beeb's brand new digital channel, BBC Three. . Graham Linehan, co-creator of Father Ted — and now a controversial figure in the transgender debate — helped develop and direct the pilot. A few months later, the Evening Standard reported (based only on the pilot episode) that Little Britain «is now generally regarded as one of the best British comedy shows of recent years.»
However, some BBC staff were not convinced. Lucas and Walliams attended a meeting with BBC Two controller Jane Root about commissioning a full series. Ruth disparaged their sketches: “The Scottish hotel is terrible!” — and she left the office in a hurry, muttering something like “yes.” So muttered, in fact, that Lucas and Walliams didn't even know whether they'd been hired or not. They did, however, have support from the BBC's head of comedy John Plowman and their producer Myfanwy Moore (who lent her name to the show's barmaid, played by Ruth Jones, in their «the only gay in the village» sketches).
Little Britain debuted on BBC Three on 9 February 2003. It was repeated on BBC Two a few months later to considerable fanfare. BBC Two debuted to an impressive 3.2 million viewers. The reviews were positive. The Observer called it «a beautifully observed sketch show whose characters perfectly capture the absurdity of suburbia.» The Daily Telegraph called it «the show we'll all be watching soon.» The Independent correctly predicted that the following morning «playgrounds and pubs across the country will echo with catchphrases.» Even Victor Lewis-Smith, who had previously devastated the duo's work, called it «a comic masterpiece, innovative, funny and very, very British.» » />David Walliams and Matt Lucas performing in Little Britain's Big Night in support of Comic Relief, 2006. Photo: Dave Hogan
The first series was directed by Steve Bendelak. Matt Lipsey took over the helm for the second series, which began on BBC Channel 3 in October 2004. Lipsey, who also directed «The Armstrong and Miller Show,» was hesitant. “It’s really difficult to draw comedy,” he says. “This is one of the most difficult genres.”
The second series was quickly repeated on BBC One. A third series, which went straight to the flagship channel, followed in 2005. By the end of its run, Little Britain peaked with over 10 million viewers. The concert tour sold out a year in advance and attracted nearly 800,000 people. It was a success in Australia, and in 2007 it had an American spin-off, Little Britain USA. The show also became a hot commodity. The shop I worked in in Bristol was full of Vicky Pollard dolls. I remember it well—I bought one for my sister.
“If you want my opinion, the show became popular because it was a response to the first wave of political correctness,” Lipsey says. “Now we have a revival that is different but comes from the same place. Back then it was “political correctness gone crazy.” And it was going crazy. Little Britain pointed two fingers at him and said: “This is nonsense, we need to be able to laugh at it.”
Little Britain continues to be renowned for its larger-than-life characters. Besides Vicky, there's Dafydd Thomas, who laments being the only gay man in the Welsh village of Llanddewi Brefi, but is disgusted when he discovers that almost everyone else there is also gay, bisexual, or extremely open-minded (the character was based on a young actor , whom they knew, who insisted that he was the only gay in their theater troupe (even though he was not), and he liked to be special).
And then there's Marjorie Dawes, the belligerently fatphobic leader of the Fat Fighters, and Sebastian, a Downing Street aide who is passionately in love with the Blair-like Prime Minister, played by Anthony Head (any resemblance to Peter Mandelson «may or may not not to be»). were random,» according to Lucas). And then there's Emily Howard, «not a very good drag queen» (in the words of Tom Baker), who insists that «I'm a lady» to anyone who will listen — even denying to a doctor that she has testicles.
Emily's character is absolutely absurd — it's not a joke about transvestism (a term that has itself fallen out of fashion), but the idea of a huge six-footer a woman trying to maintain Victorian standards of femininity. However, in recent years Emily has been criticized as transphobic. “I think there are a lot of characters and themes that we would approach differently if we were doing the show now,” Lucas wrote in his autobiography Little Me, “and I’m sure Emily would be one of them.” .
Little Britain is so often repeated and quoted that it's easy to forget how poignant some of the ideas are: hypnotist Kenny Craig using his powers for pointless gain, like beating up his mum in Scrabble or selling an incomplete set of Blackadder videos in sale of luggage racks for cars; difficult customer Mr. Mann, whose requests to the local store owner become more and more specific (“I’d like to buy a record of James Lust playing Nelly Furtado’s hits”); and Lou and Andy, a mild-mannered caregiver and wheelchair-bound goofball. Unbeknownst to Lou, Andy is more than capable of walking.
The same goes for Lucas's verbal dexterity, as does Vicky Pollard — a stunningly accurate weapon of «I didn't do anything» excuses in almost impenetrable Bristolian. , filled with obscenities and scandal behind the bike shed.
Guardian columnist Owen Jones, in his book Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, called the character a destructive character — a perpetually pregnant, thick-headed, profit-seeking slap. But believe me: those of us who were working class in mid-2000s Bristol were not deeply offended.
If the first series has glimpses of the darkness within the absurdity — Sir Bernard Chumley locking up his disabled sister so he can mock her Meals on Wheels, and council estate teenager Jason lusting after his pal's nanny — it becomes more grotesque from the second series. : Lucas in a nude fat suit as Bubbles, a spa fare evader; Walliams as posh boy Harvey, who still nurses his mother's «baby»; and enough vomiting to make you feel really sick.
Matt Lucas and David Walliams as Andy and Lou Photo: Mike Marsland
Was this a deliberate attempt to make Little Britain tasteless? “One hundred percent,” Lipsey says. “It wasn’t necessarily considered bad taste. This was seen as pushing the boundaries. They were on top of it, essentially understanding how the audience was reacting. It was a signal: “How far can we go?”
Lipsey recalls that in the second series, produced on BBC One, a whole string of sketches was dropped. “It was a big step,” he says of BBC One, “but in that move it was felt that some of the things the boys were doing were going too far — at least for BBC One. This particular thread never saw the light of day. It's probably on a shelf somewhere. Lipsey explains that the action took place in a roadside cafe, where the mother tried in various ways to get her daughter married. “All I can tell you is that her methodology was very primitive,” Lipsey laughs. “Each of them ended in wretched events taking place in the depths of the cafe.”
Viewed now, Lou and Andy stand out as Little Britain's finest creations. The characters originate from Lou Reed and Andy Warhol in the Profile of Rock skit. In the most famous sketch, Lou takes Andy for a swim. While Lou tells the lifeguard about the fuss of getting him into the pool, Andy races to the top diving board. For Lipsey, the sketch, directed by his predecessor Steve Bendelak, «set the standard.» This presented a problem. “It was, ‘Can I get closer to this?’” Lipsey says. “This challenge was in my head. I really liked it.”
In the following parts, Andy climbs a fire escape, rides off on a horse and flips a car over, Incredible Hulk style — all while time as Lou turns his back. This is truly a perfect sketch. “When you know the mechanics, you're in business,” Lipsey says. “You know what will happen, but you don’t know how it will happen.”
Twenty years later, Little Britain seems like a simpler approach to comedy. At the time, Walliams commented on how they responded to the real-life comedy The Office and Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights. «We really thought, 'We'll go a different way.' Let's make this absurd. Let's awaken the spirit of the Two Ronnies,” Walliams said. At first glance, nothing—no person, thing, or stereotype—can be ridiculed: ugly, overweight, mentally retarded, gender fluid, sexually unusual.
But if you dig deeper than wigs and prosthetics, it also targets prejudice and conservatism. Look at Marjorie Dawes, the obese woman who mocks dieters; or a jam taster at a church festival who gets very sick at the mention of any minority. Posh classicism is ridiculed—“Posh people are much better and smarter than ordinary people,” says Tom Baker, “and therefore live in nicer houses”—as well as morbidly computer left-handed people.
“It challenges you,” Lipsey says. “Who are we laughing at? I understand perfectly well that some people don't like it. But good comedy will make some people uncomfortable. We must accept this. And yes, it is very problematic to view this through a modern lens. Many children watching this would be offended. I understand. But I'm not going to apologize for it. And I don't think Matt and David should do that.»
David Walliams and Matt Lucas as Mr Mann and Roy
Of course, Lucas and Walliams got it wrong with series three characters Desiree (Walliams in a fat suit and blackface) and Ting Tong (Lucas playing a Thai bride). At its best, it's stunning post-PC naivety — a couple of white comedians who think they're so liberal that they think they can disguise themselves without offending. The characters are unforgivable.
Critics really turned on Little Britain towards the end, as the show reveled in some lowest-common-denominator joke. «That's funny?» asked the Daily Telegraph. «The computer says no.» The Guardian later called it «one of the most tongue-in-cheek, heartless and disgusting little shows ever seen on British television.» The huge popularity no doubt irritated comedy snobs Lucas and Walliams, while other, less popular comedians have largely escaped the history of wearing blackface unscathed.
Yes, Little Britain could have been broad — that's why it attracted 9.5 million viewers. – and his most famous characters were sometimes the least interesting. But it both reflected and spoke to Britain, echoing a cultural moment in a way few comedies do.
“If you wanted to undo everything in history, there would be very little left in our old catalogs,” Lipsey says. “You can’t judge everything by today’s standards. It should never work this way. Everyone and everything should potentially become a target for comedy.»
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