A bit of torrent
This week on “a bit of torrent” …
Aren’t british comedies brilliant? Bittorrent – isn’t that brilliant? I mean, downloading TV over the internet – what will they think of next? It’s fantastic. The Fast Show, isn’t it great? It’s a bunch of sketches but before they wear out, they start the next one. And all the sketches are brilliant. Well, not all of them, the one with the thief wasn’t so good, but then they get him off the set and on to the next one. Brilliant!
Meanwhile…. nothing will ever touch the true genius of “A bit of Fry and Laurie” – seriously, don’t even go there – but The Fast Show gets pretty close at times. It’s called the fast show because (a revolution in comedy at the time) the sketches are short and sweet. No lengthy build-ups here. Good ones come back in the next episodes, and they have a series of really hilarious steadies like the “brilliant” guy, who thinks everything is great, even the Nazis; Ted and Ralph, who aren’t really funny, and a soccer newscaster who always goes off on a tangent about “boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts, eh?”
Most of the best characters are played by Paul Whitehouse so it’s weird that I’ve never heard of him before. He’s a bit of a chameleon. He appears in two of the attached pictures but every time, it’s a different voice, a completely different look, different body language. He hasn’t been in a lot of movies but even so I’d not be sure that I’d spot him.
Anyway, definitely a top pick. Here are some links. There are 3 seasons. There’s also some specials out there somewhere.
UPDATE: … but don’t bother with season three. It’s a dog.