I thought it was Big Train, but I was wrong.
A Scots Highlander is rowing a boat across a lake, facing the camera. He tells a long, involved story of having to go across the lake several times, for bread, for milk, to get the fireman...It is punctuated with the words 'so I row and I row and I row', and ends with the payoff that he did it mainly to get the fireman into bed.
It was a show from the last ten years, I'm pretty sure, in the style of Big Train but as I've stated, not. Any ideas?
It's ringing a couple of bells. Perhaps the Fast Show? Do you remember the actor in it? I have a vague mental picture of Simon Day in a boat.
I don't think it was The Fast Show, although I will look - the reason I say not is that it was quite a sedately paced sketch and I always remember The Fast Show as being, well, fast.
Not Simon Day either - this I'm a lot more sure of. The guy I remember was much broader faced and ruddier, with dark hair and a beard. Can't say who it was though.
There was a Scottish show from the turn of the century called Velvet Soup (I think?), and that sketch reminds me of something I remember seeing on that.
It wasn't too bad a show, if I remember rightly, quite dark in places, although it only lasted a series.
I can't find the exact sketch but it seems almost certain that it was from this show. I've recognised an actor as the character in that sketch, a guy called Mark McDonnell. Thanks very much for the call, Chipolata - I would certainly never have found it.