The Sketch Show
| The Sketch Show | |
|---|---|
| Starring |
Lee Mack Tim Vine Jim Tavaré Karen Taylor Ronni Ancona (Series 1) Kitty Flanagan (Series 2) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Production | |
| Running time | 23 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network |
ITV FOX |
| Original release | 10 September 2001 – 24 April 2004 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Not Going Out |
The Sketch Show is a British television sketch comedy programme, featuring many leading British comedians. It aired on ITV between 2001 and 2004. The show was first commissioned in 2001 and was co-produced by a company owned by Steve Coogan. Despite the first series winning a BAFTA award, the second series was cancelled due to poor viewing figures. Lee Mack states in his autobiography "Mack The Life" that the final two episodes have never been broadcast.
A spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States. Similarly to the UK version, the final two episodes were never broadcast.
The show started at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999, and starred Mack, Catherine Tate and Dan Antopolski. Mack later expressed regret at not including them in the TV show, stating: "I’m not a great believer in regret, but looking back over the last eighteen years of me doing this job, not keeping our sketch show Bits together and jumping at the first offer to put a version of it on telly is probably the biggest mistake I’ve made. "
The original line-up of the cast was Lee Mack, Jim Tavare, Tim Vine, Karen Taylor and Ronni Ancona. The gender balance of this line-up enabled considerable variation in the dramatic setups for the sketches, in that all three men could be paired with either of the two women.
For the second series, Kitty Flanagan replaced Ancona, who left to concentrate on BBC One's Alistair McGowan's Big Impression (which was shortened to simply Big Impression to reflect Ancona playing as many parts as McGowan himself). Again, sketches featured performers using their own names.
With the exception of some child actors in certain sketches, there were no guest stars at any point during the programme.
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