Remember when Richard & Judy did This Morning? Every weekday they'd sit there, talking about a woman who married her own brother one minute and Coronation Street the next, in true One Show style. I hated that. Partly because it was the sort of TV that eats your spare time without your consent, partly because I was in school when it was on, so always missed it! It was awful. Both the fact that I couldn't see it and the show itself!
Sunday, though, offered something even better. Infinitely better, in fact! Something that would never be shown in today's modern, cuddly, sheltered, censored, artistically-muted BBC schedule. Something more "near-the-knuckle" than The Friday Night Project (and , again, infinitely better). Something wonderful. Anyone remember This Morning With Richard Not Judy? I hope so, for that is the show of which I speak!
Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's hilarious alternative Sunday Lunch was about as anarchic and shocking as the BBC could get on a Sunday Lunchtime.
What sticks in my mind most is Lee's side-splitting diatribe to "...the stupid, fat, drunken idiots..." who would be watching the Friday late-night repeat from the first show. Also, from that same show, the "aim" they vowed to achieve of assassinating BBC Director General (at the time) John Birt, to take over the BBC and ensure that The Simpsons, Seinfeld and Larry Sanders is broadcast at a reasonable time of day, when people would actually be watching - "even if there is snooker on!". How the hell they got away with it is beyond me, on a Sunday lunchtime. I've just watched The Five Types Of Woman - The Spice Girls, where Herring describes "an ugly sporty spice jumping into a home" and raping a man, as this would be her only means of reproduction! ON A SUNDAY LUNCHTIME!!
When I was young - 12 years old when this show began - I didn't quite understand much of the double entendre offered as seemingly innocent, family-friendly material. Watching it back is double satisfaction! If you've never seen the show, please go here, to Stew's website (video clips page) to watch all eighteen 45min episodes in full! I guarantee you, you will not regret it! Also available on that page is the complete Fist Of Fun, Comedy Vehicle and many links to YouTube classics from what is, to me, Britain's Uncrowned Kings Of Comedy.
