The Fast Show shouldn't ever come back says Charlie Higson
Writer and performer says that the classic BBC comedy is now part of TV history and calls on fans to "just watch your DVDs"
The Fast Show, the classic BBC comedy that brought the world the “Suits You” tailors and the Ted and Ralph love story, should not be resurrected according to Charlie Higson.
Higson, who played the landowner Ralph to Paul Whitehouse's Ted in one of its most celebrated sketches, told a discussion event to mark its 21st anniversary that the show would not be following in the footsteps of comedy classics like Open All Hours and have a full-scale revival.
He said: “It is a tricky one. It was 21 years ago and we’ve all got a lot older. People have cherished memories of it. So just watch your DVDs. All we’re going to do is come along and make people think it’s not quite as good as it used to be. Like Ted and Ralph it was reasonably amusing when he was 35. Now that Ralph himself is older than even Ted was then, it changes the nature of it.”
The Fast Show ran from 1994 until 1997. Since then, there have been two specials as well as a reunion in 2014 to mark 50 years of BBC2.
In the platform interview, Higson also offered an insight into the working habits of Paul Whitehouse who also collaborates with Harry Enfield.
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According to Higson, Whitehouse is able to work with him and Enfield. But Higson, whose drama Jekyll and Hyde is currently airing on ITV, says that he and Enfield are incompatible as writing partners.
“It’s the same for a writing partnership and a marriage is that you both have to be quite different. You both bring different things to it. If you both bring the same it doesn’t work.
“It’s quite interesting because Paul has managed to be one half of a comedy writing partnership with two different people both with me and with Harry Enfield. Because Paul is a certain type of person and Harry and I are the same kind of person. So actually Harry and I, we stopped working together. It didn’t work out. We’re both control freaks. We like to be in that controlling structuring position and Paul just likes to come in and be funny basically. So Harry and I worry away over things and Paul just comes in and says well why don’t we just do this. That would be funny.”
Higson and Whitehouse were speaking at an event called The Fast Show at 21: In conversation with Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson (see pic).
A recording of their discussion is available on on the BBC Store this Sunday November 15 between 12 midday and 12 midnight.
The show is free for anyone who goes on the site to watch on Sunday.
