First it was a radio show; then an award-winning TV series. Now it’s to be the subject of a South Bank Show appraisal – and also a touring live show.
Little Britain is already a phenomenon. Now ITV are giving the BBC show a boost by devoting Melvyn Bragg’s regular arts show to it as part of its new series. Bragg compared Little Britain’s creators David Walliams and Matt Lucas to the creators of The Goon Show, because “they are hitting new heights of comedy,” and added that it was “preposterous that anyone would even think that we are dumbing down. From the very beginning The South Bank Show has done features on high-quality artists from across the spectrum. People like John Cleese and Billy Connolly have featured and I think that Little Britain is squarely in that area.”
Meanwhile, too, the two also kick off a live 112-date tour at Portsmouth’s Guildhall on October 24 that will take Little Britain across Great Britain.
“We started out doing live shows together but we haven’t toured the UK since 1997, so we’re really looking forward to getting back onstage”, says Matt Lucas, who more recently was seen onstage in the Boy George musical Taboo, in which he played Leigh Bowery. “We like to be quite naughty and spontaneous, getting the audience involved. In fact, we used to confiscate people’s shoes so beware!”, he added.
But who is going to get the writing credit? In another story recently reported in The Independent, Jeff Posner – producer of the 3rd series – is claiming a credit. “It’s not that Jeff Posner is belittling their work, but he wants an ‘additional writing’ credit on the end of the series,” it reports someone close to the production as saying. “Likewise, it’s not as though David and Matt don’t recognise the contribution that Jeff makes as producer, but they aren’t happy that he should also be credited for writing the material.”
