Just been watching series 1 of ‘A Bit of Fry and Laurie’ on DVD and it struck me how similar it is to ‘That Mitchell and Webb Look’, although Fry & Laurie was aired almost 20 years ago.
There was a running gag in one episode of Fry & Laurie where a man in the studio audience starts heckling, claiming they’ve nicked his material. Camera cuts back to reveal sets, cameras, crew, audience etc. Just like the chiropractor in Mitchell & Webb.
Both series featured sketches about apparently real things being scripted – in Mitchell & Webb it was the bits with them talking between takes. With Fry & Laurie it was a serious novelist appearing on some wanky chat-show, he has a bust-up with the odious host. Fry pretends to forget his lines, the studio audience moan but then it becomes apparent that it’s part of the sketch. The writer and chat-show host have cooked up their argument beforehand and it’s the novelist who’s forgotten his lines, not Stephen Fry.
There are also stylistic similarities – deadpan delivery – between the Fry & Laurie secret agents (‘Hello Control. Thought you might like a nice cup of coffee’ etc) and the sketches where Mitchell and Webb talk about inviting the likes of James Bond and Shaggy round to dinner. Though I have to say that Mitchell & Webb are funnier here.
Continuing the ‘we murder to dissect’ theme: next week I’ll be asking if Bob the Builder pinched his best ideas from Chigley.
Soupy twist!
Oh dear Giles, I thought you knew. They are Fry and Laurie, with prothesis.