Little Britain

Little Britain is a BBC radio and television sketch show written by and starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. The original series debuted on BBC Radio 4 in 2001, running for two short series of five and four half-hour episodes respectively. In 2003, the show began as a television series on the BBC's digital-only channel BBC 3, running to 8 episodes. Most of the TV material was adapted from the original radio sketches, but there were also some original sketches featuring new recurring characters. Due to the success of the series, the first series was repeated on the mainstream channel BBC 2. Although reactions to the series were mixed, many critics were enthusiastic, and the show was recommissioned for another series. Interestingly, unlike many radio-based successes which have crossed over to television, it is understood that a new radio series of the programme is also planned. A second TV series featuring several new characters began on BBC 3 on October 19, 2004, and due to the show's popularity the scheduled repeat run was "promoted" to BBC 1, starting on December 3, 2004, guaranteeing higher ratings. However, the repeat showing did not feature material from the original run deemed too offensive for the BBC 1 audience.

Main characters - series 1

A number of characters that have recurred throughout the series include:

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Marjorie Dawes (Lucas) runs a branch of diet group Fat Fighters. The group includes Paul, Meera (a British-Indian whom Marjorie calls either Mary or Moira or My Lovely Asian Lady or Friend. Marjorie often appears to not be able to hear her well, and frequently needs things repeating to her. This is supposedly due to Meera's accent, even though she is actually perfectly easy to understand), Pat, Tanya, Jenny, Sue, and Dave (whom Marjorie mistakenly calls Johansen). One diet used by Fat Fighters is the Half the Calories diet. This involves cutting food in half. Because it is in half, it has half the calories, and because it's half the calories, you can have twice as much. Marjorie is also a great believer in diets which involve eating dust (because it has no fat in it so you can have as much dust as you like). Unfortunately, the diets don't seem to work for anyone, least of all Marjorie, although she does claim to be at her target weight, despite being over 15 stone (95 kg). She often bullies the members of the club. Marjorie originally appeared in the BBC 2 comedy panel game Shooting Stars in the late-1990s as the mother of baby percussionist and score-keeper George Dawes. She was suspended at the end of the first series, but is again seen in charge of Fat Fighters at the start of the second, as some viewers may have been confused by her absence. She has been compared to the character Pauline in the comedy series The League of Gentlemen, who plays a vindictive "restart officer".

Related Topics:
Diet - India - Calories - Dust - Weight - Stone - Panel game - Shooting Stars - 1990s - Percussionist - George Dawes - Pauline - The League of Gentlemen

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Ray McCooney (Walliams) is the Mediaeval-esque owner at Ye Olde Hotele somewhere in Scotland. He likes speaking in riddle and rhyme and also plays his flute whenever possible, infuriating customers and staff for instance by answering questions, "Yeeeeees....I mean, Nooooo". He did not appear in the show's second series, as the character's set was proving to be too expensive, but after various fans (including Jonathan Ross and Richard and Judy) asked why he had suddenly disappeared, Matt Lucas said that he would return for the third series, although there has been conflicting reports, and it is unclear whether he will now appear. Some people have accused Ray McCooney of being a musical-hall racist stereotype, but he is certainly less controversial than some other characters.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Riddle - Rhyme

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Daffyd Thomas (Lucas) claims to be the only gay man living in the small Welsh mining village of Llanddewi Brefi, despite plentiful evidence otherwise. He himself, however, often displays homophobic, or least stereotyping tendencies, much to the chagrin of barmaid Myfanwy, who is later revealed to be a lesbian. He can often be found in his local, The Scarecrow and Mrs King, sipping Bacardi and Coke and reading his copy of Gay Times. The character has caused some controversy, both over his portrayal of homosexuals and of Welsh people (a frequent target in British comedy such as Blackadder and Men Behaving Badly, especially their language).

Related Topics:
Gay - Welsh - Llanddewi Brefi - Homophobic - Lesbian - Bacardi - Coke - Gay Times - Blackadder - Men Behaving Badly

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Dame Sally Markham (Lucas) is a famous romantic novelist who likes nothing better than lounging on her couch eating truffles while her aide, Miss Grace, types up what she is dictating. Unfortunately, Dame Sally's novels often fall short of the required length, so normally end with 'blah blah blah', the entire Bible being read aloud by one character, or with whatever is on the radio at the time. The character is quite clearly based on Dame Barbara Cartland.

Related Topics:
Novelist - Couch - Truffle - Bible - Radio - Dame Barbara Cartland

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Emily/Eddie Howard (Walliams) is an unconvincing transvestite who demands to be treated as "a lady" and dresses in Victorian clothes. However she often slips back into his/her normal voice or displays masculine mannerisms. (S)he runs a guest house in the coastal town of Old Haven and claims to have a husband who is away at sea.

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Lou Todd (Walliams) and Andy Pipkin (Lucas) are best friends. Lou is kind, generous and incredibly patient and helps his disabled (apparently wheelchair-bound) friend Andy, who can actually walk. Andy is moody, contrary and just plain lazy and will often point at something and demand "I want that one!". Lou will often say that Andy doesn't like the item in a way that makes Andy seem like an eloquent and logical person (eg. "I thought you said that, Torvill and Dean's record breaking performance aside, ice-skating is aesthetically bankrupt"), but will end up complying with Andy and getting him what he wants. Soon after the decision has been made, or up to a point at which the decision cannot be changed, Andy will say "I don't like it" or something else that makes his original decision void, much to Lou's annoyance. The characters of Lou and Andy are derived from a Rock Profile episode featuring fictitious versions of Lou Reed and Andy Warhol. In the second series, Andy's antisocial behaviour is somewhat magnified with some of his actions displaying a complete disregard for others, for instance, wiping the contents of his nose on the trousers of a passer-by, or stating that he does not like a woman he is blind-dating because 'she's in a wheelchair'. Lou also uses the term "kerfuffle" to refer to many of Andy's past actions.

Related Topics:
Wheelchair - Torvill and Dean - Ice-skating - Rock Profile - Lou Reed - Andy Warhol

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Kenny Craig (Lucas) is a stage hypnotist who uses his powers for silly and trivial reasons, like beating his mother at Scrabble (in one instance, by playing the non-existent word "Cupboardy"). His powers improve as the show progresses though, in the beginning his powers would sometimes wear off or not work at all but later he could hypnotise a whole audience to believe they have witnessed an incredible hypnotic show.

Related Topics:
Hypnotist - Scrabble

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Vicky Pollard (Lucas) is a moody, obnoxious teenage girl incapable of doing anything except gossiping (in a strong Bristol accent): "she's some girl who dun this fing wot you don't even know about, so shut up. Anyway, Candice reckons she saw Kelly gettin off wiv Tony Tozer in Paperchase and she giv up smokin wen she was 12." When confronted with a question, she will usually reply: "Yeah but no but yeah but wot 'appened was..." She is seen as the ultimate television chav.

Related Topics:
Bristol - Accent - Chav

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Sebastian Love (Walliams) is an aide to the Prime Minister (played by Anthony Stewart Head) on whom he has a huge crush. He is amazingly bitchy to anyone else who the Prime Minister shows attention to, even his wife.

Related Topics:
Prime Minister - Anthony Stewart Head

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Dennis Waterman (Walliams) is a minute actor who, unfortunately, never gets a part because he insists he should "write the feem toon, sing the feem toon" in every part he gets, much to the dismay of his theatrical agent Jeremy Rent (Lucas). He bears little resemblance to the real Waterman, except that his 'feem toons' are usually based on the Minder theme tune.

Related Topics:
Dennis Waterman - Actor - Part - Feem toon - Minder

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Anne (Walliams) is a mental patient with a violent temperament who can only seem to say "eh eh ehhh!" but can speak normally while on the telephone. She is a patient at the Steven Spielberg hospital (a reference to the director) under the care of Dr Lawrence.

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Mr Mann (Walliams) is a man who frequently enters a shop, looking for something in particular. The shop, although it sells different items each episode, is always run by the same man, named Roy (Lucas). The sketches' trademarks are Mr Mann's absurdly specific or general requests and Roy's unseen wife Margaret, who gives help from upstairs. She apparently doesn't have any arms or legs. Mr Mann only appeared once in the first series, but was a regular character in the second series.

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Mr Cleeves (Lucas) is a traditional looking yet bizarre teacher at Kelsey Grammar School (a reference to the actor Kelsey Grammer), an old-style British grammar school. Mr Cleeves sets the pupils strange tasks such as finding the square root of Popeye.

Related Topics:
Kelsey Grammer - Grammar school

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The Record Breakers At the end of each show, two men, both called Ian, with bushy beards and thick jumpers, are trying to set a world record but end up not meeting the requirements. Example: "Most People in a Mini" attempt, where five people just squeeze in.

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