<*dv_1*>Amongst the usual mediocre garbage which passes for comedy, every year we get something new which ostensibly wipes the floor with the rest. Alan Partridge, Ali G, The Office and Bo Selecta are a few that spring to mind. You know the kind of show that twat in the office will be quoting ad nauseaum by the drinks machine as soon it reaches the popular consciousness.
<*dv_3*> This years must quote is Little Britain, the brainchild of Matt Lucas (the big baby in Shooting Stars) and David Walliams (he changed his name form Williams for Equity) who have been knocking about for over a decade and have worked together on the hilarious Rock Profiles spoofing the likes of Elton John and Geri Haliwell.
Little Britain started life on Radio 4 and mutated first to BBC3 then, after the twelve people watched and enjoyed it, BBC2. It is a sketch show with the weirdness of the League of Gentleman, the catchphrases of the Fast Show and the classic format of The Two Ronnies.
<*dv_0*> It showcases a lurid slice of British life which although exaggerated is recognisable: from unconvincing transvestites to eccentric Scottish hoteliers there is a seedy familiarity about it all. You get Daffyd the sexually repressed homosexual who despairs at being "the only Gay in the village" whilst doing everything possible to avoid any sort of "cock" at all. Whilst in Brighton heads may be scratched the character is set perfectly in rural Wales.
<*dv_2*> There is a recurring camp theme that runs through the programme with both of the creators reveling in a spot of cross-dressing. Lucas may be openly gay but Walliams is the camper of the two. His female characters are only let down by their abundance of body hair.
Lucas does a superb Kappa-clad Vicky Pollard, a pikey teenage mum from the West Country whose phobia of authority leads to "No, but yeah, but no" non-sensical gibbering which you will recognise around the town centres of the land. The pairing of Andy (a frustrated carer with a penchant for rolling the sleeves up on his leather jacket a-la-Miami Vice) and Lou (the wheel-chair bound scouse simpleton with a penchant for monster trucks) is hilarious even when you know its going to be the same punch line every time.
That's the beauty of this programme. Even though cynics would suggest that its just a bunch of characters repeating vaguely amusing catchphrases in a number of different settings the visuals are hilarious on their own. The dialogue can at times be superfluous. For the broadsheets it's humour lies squarely in the clever socio-awareness that underpins the sketches. It's creators would disagree and have said that the format was an accident. The "theme" created in the wake of the League of Gentleman so they could get their characters comedy on the telly because that's what the execs wanted.
If ever proof were needed that there is more to Little Britain then social comment its the sight of a miniature Dennis Waterman being handed a giant slice of cake whilst singing 'I Could Be So Good For You'. This is funny in so many ways. Ways that will bypass your average Guardian reader.
Lucas and Walliams create a skewered delight that right now is one of the funniest things on the box and which should keep the office joker going until you permanently scald his mouth with hot burning coffee.
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