.. and he was hung like a Kling On! (Little Britain)

Member Name: Jess-L

Product:	Little Britain
Date:	22/07/04 (1189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastically funny, Original, David Walliams is quite easy on the eye!

Disadvantages: Not to everybody's taste

LITTLE BRITAIN - WHAT IS IT?

Little Britain is my favourite TV show at the moment - possibly ever! It is a sketch show based around a variety of quirky, sometimes rather sinister, characters dotted up and down the UK. Based on a Radio 4 radio programme, it was originally shown on BBC3. It has since started airing on BBC2, on Monday nights at 10pm. It is moderately successful for the time-slot and channel, receiving around 3 million viewers each week.

The creators are Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who play most of the characters. Matt Lucas is better known as George Dawes from Shooting Stars (the bald, fat baby!). He began his career doing stand-up at eighteen as the character Sir Bernard Chumley, who also appears in Little Britain (the creepy old man with the disabled sister!). He's certainly had lots of experience, and has written for Da Ali G Show, as well as The Guardian newspaper and Attitude (a gay magazine).

David Walliams has had less success, but has recently won an award at The British Comedy Awards, receiving the gong of Best Newcomer. Rock Profile, Eastenders (as Alfie's fake registrar), Casualty and even Randall and Hopkirk Deceased all feature on his CV. He's very dishy (http://www.davidwalliams.com/full/jakebw.jpg), not that you would ever notice under the wig he wears for the role of Lou, or the fake breasts needed for when he plays Anne!

If you're the kind of person who loves My Hero and My Family, I don't think this is for you. It isn't what you'd call politically correct, and I'm sure a few people will be offended,
but you'd have to be extremely sensitive to find it insulting. The BBC have in fact received a few complaints over the sketch where Jason, a strange teenager, who has a crush on his friend's gran, seizes the opportunity and sucks her toes while giving her a foot massage. I found that particular scene embarrassingly funny, but there you go - it won't appeal to everyone!

The humour is a bit skewed to say the least, and quite difficult to describe. The jokes are both verbal and visual, and most of the sketches don't even need any sort of punchline because it's the characters that are funny! It has been compared to The League Of Gentleman and The Fast Show but I can't say I've watched either of those shows, so I can't comment! It is hilarious though - witty, original and very, very funny. The show follows the lives of these characters and the situations they put themselves into. It would take me all day to describe each and every one, but I will pick out a few that stand out!

CHARACTER& #83;

Marjorie Dawes is definitely my favourite. She is the fat Fatfighters (the local slimming club) leader who comes out with invaluable tips such as, 'Cut everything you eat in half! Half the calories, so you can eat twice as much!' and 'Dust! Dust has no calories so you can eat as much dust as you like'. She has experimented with terrifying collagen implants in her lips (think Leslie Ash x 10) and tries in vain to have her 50 year-old mother put in a nursing home, so she can sell her flat. Selfish, stupid and very entertaining!

Daffyd Thomas is the only gay in his village of Llandewi Breffi, much to his sorrow. When confronted with gay Trekkies in his local pub, he shooes them away in horror, shouting, '
;We don't want your kind around here!' In an argument with a camp newcomer, he insists, 'No, you are not a gay. I am the gay. You?re probably just a little bit poofy.' Despite his terror of fellow 'gayers', he is a 'committed homosexualist', counts being a 'gayer' as an occupation and attends sexual health clinics despite never having had any sexual partners. Ever.

Emily Howard is the rubbish transvestite of the show, and gets very angry when she is not treated like a 'lady'. One of my favourite scenes including Emily is when unable to convince an old workmate that she is indeed Emily Howard and not Eddie, he stomps off, ripping off his wig, shouting 'For f*ck's sake!' in his normal deep voice, and walking in a very man-like fashion with his legs wide apart!

Lou is the carer of apparently wheelchair-bound, monosyllablic Andy, who is uncapable of making any decisions. Caring for Andy, who actually has full use of his legs, is an ardous task and can be a 'kerfuffle' at times, but he wouldn't have it any other way. Vicky Pollard is a nonsensical teenager (who really exists - just look outside your local shopping centre and you'll see dozens of Vickys!) who steals cans of Red Bull by sticking them down her leggings. She can be found saying 'Yeah but no but yeah but no shut up! Anyway I can't be pregnant cos I only had sex once.. eight months ago. As...a...joke!'



There are many more characters, all equally as laughter-inducing - there is only one character who I can't be doing with. The very small Dennis Waterman, who after being on Minder, an eighties TV show, insists on writing the theme tune to every programme he appears in, which is why he is permanently jobless. He just seems so random
- I don't understand why he's so small, and I have to press the mute button when he bursts into song!

MY THOUGHTS

The more you watch Little Britain, the better it gets. You are sat in front of your telly with a big grin on your face, waiting for your favourite lines to pop up (or maybe I'm just too easily pleased!)! I have heard countless people say, 'I want that one. Yeah. That one!' copying indecisive Andy, or shout 'Eh eh eh!' in the style of mad Anne.

This will definitely become a cult hit. I've had a quick search for Little Britain on Google and have come across sites, all heaping praise on this little-known show. It's satisfied everyone from Daily Sport readers to the Daily Mail brigade, which shows it's wide appeal. Word of mouth will hopefully spread and LB has the potential to be as successful as The Office - fingers crossed it will!

I think part of the appeal is that we all know some of these LB characters. Have you ever met an gay person who is over-protective of their sexuality, a babbling, defensive teenager or a hypocritical slimming club leader? Have a dig through your memory and I'm sure you've met someone similar!

My dad loves it as does my little sister, who's eight (!), but my 17 year-old sister just doesn't find it funny at all. I love it, though, and even if I've seen the episode ten times before, I am guaranteed to laugh and turn off the TV once it's finished with a smile on my face! I like stuff like Peter Kay, The Office, Monkey Dust, etc, so if you like those shows there's a good chance you'll enjoy Little Britain.

It isn't really that rude though, and I don't mind
my eight year-old sister watching it. There is some nudity, swearing, scenes of a sexual nature (no actual sex scenes though) and other perhaps inappropiate scenes for younger people, but it's nothing she hasn't seen before, and isn't too bad. Not quite family viewing but you won't feel embarrassed watching it with your mum! Overall it's fairly clean.

In fact, one of my favourite scenes from the series has absolutely none of the above mentioned things, but has to be one of the funniest sketches! Liz is a minor character, and I can only recall a couple of scenes she has been in, but she definitely deserves more screen time.

Her only claim to fame is being Mollie Sugden's bridesmaid, and in a Chinese restaurant she is telling a bemused couple about the time she was Mollie Sugden's bridesmaid. Her irate husband Clive asks that she comes back to their own table, but he gets friendly with the husband, and they get chatting about the Beatles, who the man went to school with, and Clive is a fan of. Bitter that her thunder has been stolen, Liz rudely drags her husband back to their own table.

Annoyed, she hisses, 'Well I was Mollie Sugden's bridesmaid but I don't go on about it, do I?! (to the other couple across the room) GET OVER IT! BORING!' It sounds stupid but is a lot funnier than it sounds, and is just the sort of humour used in Little Britain, and definitely ranks as one of my favourite moments so far!

LB is the sort of show which will have you quoting it, much to the annoyance of others, for days to come! If you hear people saying, 'Eh eh eh', 'Mebbe I do, and mebbe I don't', and 'I want that one', and don't understand why, they've obviously discov
ered the wonders of Little Britain!

The narrator is Tom Baker, and manages to say things like, In Britain if you want to buy a pet, you go to a pet shop. If you want to buy a pet shop, you go to a pet shop shop. If you want to buy a pet shop shop, you can't go to a pet shop shop shop, because that would be silly" in a deadly serious tone which just adds to the quirky, am-I-really-watching-this feel of the show!

What surprised me was that Matt Lucas, who plays Daffyd (among others) is actually gay himself! Not sure that I would like to send myself up like that if I were a gay male, but he pulls it off perfectly. Despite David Walliams being more than a bit camp at times and playing a lot of the female characters (Emily, Sandra Patterson, Anne, Liz), apparently he just likes 'playing at being gay'! Underneath all the wigs and smeared make-up, he is a rather sexy man! Yes, I fancy Emily Howard, I admit it...

VERDICT

You'll either love it or hate it. And if you don't watch it, you're seriously missing out! It's one of the best things that have been on TV for ages.

Series 1 is being repeated on BBC2 on Thursday nights at the moment, in preparation for the new series coming out soon, and runs for eight episodes. It's repeated all the time on BBC3, so you can also catch it there. The DVD for Series 1 should be out later this year.

If there is someone you know who you think will like Little Britain, the CD is also available. The CD is based on the Radio 4 show, and is slightly different to the TV programme but I think it's pretty much the same thing. Oh, and Laurence Llewlyn-Bowen (he of the fr
illy shirts, long hair and leather pants) is, according to Ray McCoonie of Ye Olde Hotel, the devil. Enough said?

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