Little Me by Matt Lucas

Author:Matt Lucas [Lucas, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd

Following on from our first Edinburgh show in 1995, we were asked to put together a series of sketches for the Paramount Channel – all TV parodies, directed by twenty-one-year-old prodigy Edgar Wright – which had gained us a cult following. We filmed a few more, for Channel 4, and then we made a six-part series of ten-minute films for BBC Two starring Sir Bernard and Tony Rodgers (again directed by Edgar).

I’d had a rude awakening before Sir Bernard’s Stately Homes was even broadcast, when Reece Shearsmith came over to my house one night. We’d become firm friends with the League of Gentlemen team at the Edinburgh Festival a few years before.

I was going to show him some of our series, but first he was going to screen a couple of episodes of The League of Gentleman. As soon as it began I realised that we were occupying different universes. We had made a mildly-amusing-if-you-like-that-sort-of-thing bunch of short films. They had made something groundbreaking, a masterpiece, perhaps the greatest comedy series of its time. I was blown away by its originality, its confidence, its command. It looked and sounded like no other comedy show. Two episodes turned into six – I didn’t want it to end.

Then it was time to show Reece our offering. He was very polite and positive about it, but the ground had shifted. Not long afterwards both series were screened. The League of Gentlemen rightly received every plaudit – and award – going. Our first episode was greeted with a muted response – and that’s putting a gloss on it. The critics labelled the show juvenile and flat. Victor Lewis-Smith, whose radio show I had been an avid fan of as a teenager, suggested, in his London Evening Standard review, that, instead of broadcasting the second ten-minute episode, the BBC would be better off having ten minutes’ silence, in memory of our careers.

I remember Bob Mortimer telling me how you must always launch with your strongest episode, because that was the one the critics were going to see. Because our series told a story, we were locked into an episode order. I thought that it started to get a lot better by episode four, but by then it was too late. David and I had an idea for a second series but there was no hunger from anyone for that.

After the disappointment of Sir Bernard’s Stately Homes, TV execs’ interest in us seemed to wane. The considered opinion was that we were great onstage but weren’t really ready for TV.

We were rescued by Myfanwy Moore, who had been at university with David and who had commissioned us a few years earlier to make the Paramount sketches. She was now running a new cable channel – UK Play – which would feature pop videos introduced by comedians.

Myfanwy asked us and a few comedians to record some links. We decided that, rather than doing Sir Bernard and Tony again, it would make sense to spoof pop stars just as we’d spoofed TV shows.

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