Where are the comedy stars of iconic sketch collection The Fast Show now?
Beloved Nineties comedy sketch collection The Fast Show, which spawned dozens of catchphrases, is making a comeback with a thirtieth anniversary dwell tour.
Cast members from the collection created by Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson can be setting off on a 14-night run – reviving a few of their most well-known characters.
Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson and Arabella Weir will be a part of the creators in bringing the present to the stage.
All can boast loads extra on their CVs from each earlier than and for the reason that first episode of The Fast Show was broadcast on BBC Two again on September 27, 1994.
Their many years of success have concerned West End musicals, iconic TV dramas and Hollywood dramas – whereas there have additionally been tragic deaths.
Here MailOnline takes a have a look at what has turn into of The Fast Show’s stars…
A 1997 The Fast Show photocall, with Simon Day, John Thomson and Mark Williams left to proper on the again, Paul Whitehouse, Arabella Weir, Caroline Aherne and Charlie Higson on the entrance
Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, seen right here as their Fast Show characters Ted and Ralph, co-created the collection 30 years in the past and are marking the anniversary with a brand new dwell tour
Paul Whitehouse
Paul Whitehouse, now 65, was already an skilled TV determine earlier than The Fast Show, having been an everyday comedy accomplice to Harry Enfield – teaming up as outdated DJs Smashie and Nicey, the Old Gits and dim-witted Lee and Lance.
After co-creating The Fast Show with Charlie Higson in 1994, a few of his most memorable creations included completely drunk Rowley Birkin QC, caddish thirteenth Duke of Wybourne, rambling soccer pundit Ron Manager and Irish groundsman Ted – the article of Higson’s besotted toff Ralph’s affections.
He later reunited with Enfield for his or her comedy collection Harry & Paul however has additionally taken on extra dramatic roles in movies equivalent to Finding Neverland and The Death Of Stalin and the BBC’s 1999 TV adaptation of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.
He supplied voices for Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland films in addition to the identical director’s Corpse Bride.
Since 2018 Whitehouse has made six collection of Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, filmed angling at totally different places throughout the nation alongside fellow comedian Bob Mortimer – with each reflecting on current coronary heart issues.
He additionally co-wrote and starred in a profitable stage musical model of basic sitcom Only Fools And Horses which opened within the West End in February 2019 – with Whitehouse as Grandad, the half performed on TV by the late Lennard Pearce.
Now after which: Paul Whitehouse, one of many co-creators of The Fast Show, usually appeared as one of many ‘Suits you, sir’ tailors within the Ken and Kenneth sketches
Paul Whitehouse’s different Fast Show creations included drunken Rowley Birkin KC
Paul Whitehouse’s different Fast Show creations included the caddish thirteenth Duke of Wybourne, left, and rambling soccer pundit Ron Manager, proper
Paul Whitehouse, left, and fellow comic Bob Mortimer – seen right here by the River Irfon in Wales – have made six collection collectively of their Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing present
Paul Whitehouse co-wrote and starred in a stage musical model of sitcom Only Fools And Horses and is seen right here enjoying Grandad at London’s Theatre Royal in September 2021
Charlie Higson
Charlie Higson, who grew to become associates with Paul Whitehouse as college students on the University of East Anglia, labored as a decorator after graduating whereas enjoying in a punk band the Higsons.
After he and Whitehouse met Harry Enfield in a pub, they started writing comedy for Enfield after he received a starring spot on Channel 4’s comedy present Saturday Live which started in 1985 – earlier than branching out on their very own with The Fast Show.
Higson’s memorable characters embrace automobile seller Swiss Toni, who would evaluate any state of affairs to ‘making like to a fantastic lady’, depressive Johnny Nice Painter and cough-stricken Country Matters host Bob Fleming.
Higson, like Whitehouse additionally now 65, has additionally labored prolifically as not solely a author but additionally producer and director – together with on the BBC’s Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) remake in 2000 and varied Agatha Christie variations for ITV.
In 2015 he wrote the Nineteen Thirties-set Jekyll And Hyde for the ITV, a ten-part collection based mostly on Robert Louis Stevenson’s basic Victorian novel, and final month voiced the Jolly Uncle in new Channel 4 animation Mog’s Christmas.
Higson can be a bestselling creator himself, writing books together with the primary 5 novels of the Young Bond collection, and he marked the King’s coronation final 12 months by penning his first grownup James Bond novel, On His Majesty’s Secret Service.
The Fast Show’s co-creator Charlie Higson, now a profitable novelist pictured right here on the 2022 Oxford Literary Festival, performed characters equivalent to {smooth} automobile salesman Swiss Toni
Charlie Higson, pictured left as infatuated aristocrat, had been associates since college with fellow comedy author and Fast present co-creator Paul Whitehouse, right here enjoying Ted
He additionally got here up with Country Matters presenter Bob Fleming, at all times coughing
Higson has since turn into a bestselling creator, with books together with Young Bond novels – one in all which he’s seen signing right here at London’s Science Museum in August 2007
Charlie Higson voiced the Jolly Uncle in final month’s Channel 4 animation Mog’s Christmas
Mark Williams
Before becoming a member of The Fast Show’s solid, Mark Williams was a well-recognized face on TV for a 1991 advert for Prudential by which, sitting alongside his unimpressed-looking accomplice, he insisted: ‘He wanna be collectively.’
Among probably the most enduring of The Fast Show’s characters are Williams and Whitehouse as Ken and Kenneth, tailors in a males’s formal put on store who bombard embarrassed clients with innuendo-laden feedback and their catchphrase: ‘Ooh! Suits you, sir.’
Williams’ different creations embrace nation bumpkin Jesse, who supplies updates on current consuming or clothes with the phrases ‘This week I’ve been principally…’, and ‘I’ll get me coat’, a person who can not help saying the fallacious factor in firm.
He has described The Fast Show as ‘a double-edged sword’, fearing it will prohibit him to comedy, but he has gone on to blockbuster film success.
He appeared in seven of the Harry Potter films as Arthur Weasley, father of Harry’s buddy Ron, and in addition featured within the 1996 live-action movie model of 101 Dalmations.
Williams, 64, has performed crime-solving priest Father Brown since 2013 within the BBC drama collection based mostly on G Okay Chesterton’s quick tales and in addition offered BBC One recreation present The Link in 2014 and 2015.
Among his Fast Show characters was nation bumpkin Jesse, giving viewers terse updates on what he is been principally consuming or sporting this week
After enjoying Ron Weasley’s father Arthur in seven of the Harry Potter films, he helped unveil a brand new Platform 9 3/4 extension on the Warner Bros Studio Tour in Watford in March 2015
Mark Williams has starred since 2013 within the BBC drama collection Father Brown, loosely based mostly on the quick tales a couple of crime-solving priest by G Okay Chesterton
John Thomson
John Thomson was an early collaborator with college buddy Steve Coogan, writing for Spitting Image earlier than showing as characters alongside Coogan’s creations Paul and Pauline Calf after which Alan Partridge.
He was one of many common solid members of The Fast Show from the beginning and, regardless of worrying at instances he was not arising with sufficient new concepts, a few of his characters stay probably the most quoted.
He performed Roger Nouveau: Football Fan, a middle-class Arsenal supporter struggling to persuade, Chip Cobb the deaf stuntman, and smooth-talking Jazz Club host Louis Balfour – who would invariably describe visitor acts as ‘Nice’.
Thomson was additionally one of many six most important solid members of much-watched ITV comedy drama Cold Feet between 1997 and 2003, then returning as Pete Gifford for its revival from 2016 to 2020.
His different roles have are available comedies equivalent to Men Behaving Badly, drama collection equivalent to Soldier Soldier, Waterloo Road and Casualty and between 2008 and 2010 he performed youngsters’s entertainer Jesse, Eileen Grimshaw’s love curiosity, in flagship ITV cleaning soap Coronation Street.
Thomson, 54, has been narrator of Channel 5 actuality present Bargain Loving Brits In The Sun since 2016, appeared as Bush Baby on The Masked Singer in 2021 and final month offered a four-part Absolute Radio collection about drumming.
John Thomson, pictured left on the Manchester Film Festival in March 2023, had an array of Fast Show characters together with mellow Jazz Club host Louis Balfour – catchphrase: ‘Nice!’
John Thomson spent two years on Coronation Street as struggling youngsters’s entertainer Jesse, pictured right here together with his character’s love curiosity Eileen Grimshaw performed by Sue Cleaver
Thomson returned with 4 extra most important solid members when ITV drama Cold Feet returned in 2016 – left to proper: Robert Bathurst, James Nesbitt, Hermione Norris, Thomson and Fay Ripley
John Thomson appeared as Bush Baby on ITV’s second collection of The Masked Singer in 2021, ending the present in eighth place
Caroline Aherne
Caroline Aherne started engaged on the Manchester comedy circuit within the Eighties performing as characters equivalent to Irish nun Sister Mary Immaculate earlier than creating the agony aunt Mrs Merton on the town’s Piccadilly Radio, the place she labored as a receptionist.
Her mock chat present The Mrs Merton Show started on BBC Two in 1994, the identical 12 months she began as one of many common performers on The Fast Show – with characters such because the Chanel 9 weathergirl exclaiming ‘Scorchio!’ and henpecking spouse Renée alongside John Thomson’s Roy.
Her well-known moments as Mrs Merton included difficult Bernard Manning’s racism on-air and asking Debbie McGee: ‘So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?’
Aherne and comedy writing accomplice Craig Cash penned and co-starred in The Royle Family which first ran on BBC Two in 1998 earlier than switching the BBC One the next 12 months.
She performed Denise Royle to Cash as Dave Best, her fiancé and later husband, alongside Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston as her dad and mom Jim and Barbara and Ralf Little as brother Antony.
Aherne later supplied the narration for Channel 4’s Gogglebox, from its launch in 2013, earlier than her tragic loss of life from lung most cancers in July 2016 on the age of simply 52.
Another Fast Show common, comic and The Real McCoy star Felix Dexter, was additionally solely 52 when he died after affected by a number of myeloma in October 2013.
Caroline Aherne, pictured left on the South Bank Show Awards at London’s Savoy Hotel in January 2007 and, proper, as her Fast Show ‘Scorchio!’ character, died aged 52 in July 2016
Caroline Aherne’s The Mrs Merton Show was first broadcast in 1994, as was The Fast Show i
Caroline Aherne co-wrote The Royle Family with Craig Cash, additionally pictured right here, whereas she performed Denise Royle and he performed her fiancé and later husband Dave Best
