Charlie Higson

Why Charlie Higson was drawn to animation

When Plymouth College of Art ran a competition for members of the public to make a 60-second film about horror icon Boris Karloff, they probably didn't expect the creator of a Bafta-winning comedy show to enter.

Charlie Higson interview

The actor, author, comedian and former singer on the things that make him laugh the most.

Essential episodes: Catterick episode 1

Vic and Bob have had many a success over the years, from Big Night Out to The Smell Of and Bang Bang It's Reeves And Mortimer, and of course Shooting Stars was huge for them, lasting for many years. But the one time the public haven't loved a series was when they created their best work, the sitcom Catterick, which told a six part story about a man searching for his lost son. All of the episodes are equally strong so choosing the best for this feature was quite difficult, so I went for the first as it serves as a superb introduction to the madness that would ensue.

Dick Emery's Comedy Gold (Channel 5) is a long-overdue tribute to a forgotten funster. I expected his humour to be clunky and outdated now but find myself still laughing at it, and still waiting for the trip. So do plenty of contemporary comics. Catherine Tate, Harry Enfield and the Little Britain guys all owe him a debt, their own gargoyle galleries being nothing if not Emery-esque, and The Fast Show's Charlie Higson turns up in the profile to admit as much.

A few years ago on a visit with the kids to the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune I was amused to find one of Emery's biplanes among the exhibits. I wait for the programme to mention his flying exploits and it does. Emery owned many small aircraft and many cars, his son Nick speculating that he changed wheels every time the ashtrays got full.

And he had many wives. Five in all, I think, although it's easy to lose count. One would turn up at his dressing-room to find him "entertaining" a chorus-girl; another would receive his proposal of marriage while he was still wedded to someone else. This Mrs Emery says: "He loved being in love, loved the chase and was usually irresistible to those being chased." He was chased himself - by the RAF for desertion and later by the taxman.

A hectic life, then, and his exit was pretty busy too, with three of the wives jostling for position round the deathbed. His children saw little of him but daughter Eliza sums him up thus: "Always neat hair, really funny, terrible wind, gorgeous."

Filming locations for Fast Show across the North-East

The Fast Show was a little bit wooh and a little bit whey in the 1990s - a fast-paced BBC comedy sketch show, starring Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, that was packed full of catchphrases and featured many scenes filmed in the North-East.

The Fast Show: Bloomin' Catchphrases review

So much more than a bunch of one-liners.

The Fast Show Blooming Catchphrases review: brilliant!

So much more than a standard clips show, this wonderful trip down memory lane proved to be as emotional as it was amusing.

The Fast Show characters on the Covid era

How are Swiss Toni, Ron Manager, Dave Angel, Ken and Kenneth, Brilliant, and a very drunk Rowley Birkin QC handling life in 2020? As The Fast Show returns for a special, its characters talk masks, pronouns and Meghan Markle.