The Fast Show was the brainchild of Paul Whitehouse and friend and writing partner Charlie Higson; Higson had previously enjoyed some success in the UK as a musician in the band The Higsons. After meeting thr… See more

The show featured many characters and sketches. Some of the more prominent recurring characters/sketches are:
• "Unlucky" Alf (Paul Whitehouse), a lonely old pensioner living somewhere in Northern England fo… See more

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp) quotes the show, the Rowley Birkin line "... and then they made me their chief!". In a deleted scene of the movie, Sparrow al… See more

Much of The Fast Show was shot externally, unusually for a sketch show. Early on in the series much of this filming was done in and around the North East of England: County Durham, Tyne and Wear, Northumbe… See more

At the conclusion of the third series, there was a one-off spinoff, Ted & Ralph, which aired on 27 December 1998 on BBC Two. They were the first characters to have their own spinoff show outside the sketches.
In 1999, Th… See more