Little Britain – Nostalgia Central

2 0 0 3 – 2 0 0 6 (UK)
23 x 30 minute episodes

“Don’t give me no evils!”

Little Britain started on BBC Radio 4 before a successful transfer to television.

David Walliams and Matt Lucas played all the major parts, most of which were extreme grotesques whose power came as much from uncomfortable invasions of space as from genuine laughs.

PVC and rubber-clad Welsh lad Daffydd Thomas (pictured at left) insisted that he was “the only gay in the village” despite mountains of evidence to the contrary; effeminate government aide Sebastian maintained an obsessive infatuation with his boss, the prime minister (Anthony Head); Marjorie Dawes was the bullying organiser of a “Fat Fighters” group; unhelpful computer operator Carol justified her bad service with a blunt “Computer says ‘no’”; argumentative delinquent council estate teen Vicky Pollard (pictured above) began each exchange with “Yeah, but no, but yeah, but . . . “, Victorian-era cross-dresser Emily Howard insisted she was “a lady” and liked “doing ladies things”; and Bubbles was a chronically obese heiress with an unwelcome habit of stripping naked.

The series was narrated by former Doctor Who Tom Baker, whose authoritative voice clashed beautifully with an outrageous script that denounced fat people as “vermin” and accused the audience of being “either a woman, a gay, or a mental.”

The most popular creations were Lou Todd, well-meaning but patronising care assistant to Andy Pipkin, a wheelchair user with limited vocabulary (usually “Yeah, I know,” “l want that one” and “l don’t like it”) who always manages to get his own way and is much more mobile than Lou ever realises (pictured at right).

Guests who appeared in blink-and-you ‘d-miss-them bit parts included Caroline Quentin, Dawn French, Mollie Sugden, Mark Gatiss, Rob Brydon, Imelda Staunton, Cat Deeley, Ronnie Corbett, Les McKeown, David Soul, Nigel Havers, David Baddiel, Vanessa Feltz, Morwenna Banks, Richard Madeley, Jamie Theakston, Geraldine James, Steve Coogan, and James Corden.

The show’s final series, Little Britain in the USA, took the cast farther afield.

A spin-off series, Come Fly with Me (2010), was a mockumentary about air travel.

Vicky Pollard/Daffydd Thomas/Andy Pipkin/Marjorie Dawes/Bubbles/Various
Matt Lucas
Lou Todd/Sebastian/Carol/Dennis Waterman/Emily Howard/Various
David Walliams
Narrator 
Tom Baker
Prime Minister
Anthony Head