About The Mary Whitehouse Experience
The Mary Whitehouse Experience is remembered as one of the most influential and iconic comedy shows of the early 1990s. It starred four young up and coming comedians, all of whom would go on to major success: David Baddiel, Robert Newman, Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt.
Before The Mary Whitehouse Experience existed, all four of these talented satirists worked on another influential show, the highly successful Spitting Image. Robert Newman and Hugh Dennis lent their voices, while Steve Punt and David Baddiel wrote for the show. Punt and Dennis also had a major role alongside Jasper Carrott on his television series Canned Carrott, and often appeared on tour with him.
The show itself began as a radio programme in 1989. All four men starred, and the show was obviously very similar in format to the future TV version. However, in many ways it was different. Stand up comedians such as Mark Thomas, Jo Brand and Donna McPhail had opportunities to work in front of a studio audience, while other comedians such as Nick Hancock contributed to the comedy. The main stars also didn't appear in every show, most notably when Punt and Dennis were on tour with Carrott.
The radio show had some unique features that separated it from the television version. One such feature was the Punchline Experience. In this skit, in advance of the show the audience would be asked to come up with a punchline for a topical joke. A few were brilliant, most were awful and some were so bad or random that they were very funny. It was really a surprise this feature didn't make it to TV.
However, much of the material that was used on TV was taken directly, word for word from the radio show. For example the running joke 'M Khan Is Bent', and Newman's impression of Jonathan Ross were tried and tested on the radio show first. Indeed much of Baddiel's stand-up routines originated on the radio show, as did most of Newman's impressions.
The show ran on radio for a total of four series, before debuting (after a successful pilot) on BBC Two on October 3rd 1990. The show became an overnight success, and transformed the four stars into household names. The cutting satire was loved by student types, and for its time this show innovated and changed many perspective of comedy.
In its early days, the show was essentially a visual version of the radio show, with the same material word-for-word. Other than some visual jokes by Dennis (such as the dad with the inability to dance) it really didn't do a lot different. However, as the show developed, it gained a number of unique characters and sketches that separated it from the radio version.
One such sketch was the 'History Today' strand. This series of sketches is still regarded as one of the best of the 1990s and was voted 24th on Channel Four's 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches. Newman and Baddiel would play two old historians discussing some kind of historical topic. However, they would do this in an incredibly childish fashion, almost as if they were schoolchildren calling each other names in the playground. Their catchphrase became that's you, that is
, which would come after some kind of insulting line.
However, Hugh Dennis also came up with another highly successful character, one that is often forgotten about today: Mr Strange. This character is, as his name suggests, very strange. He wears an old mac, and is extremely eccentric and has an obsession for sour milk. He would sniff a bottle of milk he brought around him, before uttering his catchphrase Lovely - Milky Milky
.
There were however many other sketches that helped establish the show's cult status. Some of these included Ray (played by Rob Newman), a man who permanently talks in a sarcastic tone of voice, and Edward Colanderhands, a character in the vein of Edward Scissorhands who had colanders for hands instead. Rob Newman's impressions also became a signature of the show, with his many 'victims' including Jonathan Ross, Ben Elton, Robert Smith, Melvyn Bragg and Nick Ross.
The show came to an end after only two series, ending as it had peaked. Rob Newman and David Baddiel went on to perform on their own sketch series, Newman and Baddiel in Pieces. The only sketch they took with them from The Mary Whitehouse Experience was History Today, with the rest consisting of new material. However, the show was a critical disaster, tension was increasing between the two, and after a live, sell-out appearance at Wembley Arena the two split up forever.
Baddiel would go on to form another successful comedy partnership with Frank Skinner, and their successes include Fantasy Football League and Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. Newman meanwhile became an activist and writer, staying out of the spotlight until his recent sketch show The History of the World Backwards on BBC4.
Punt and Dennis meanwhile also went on to their own sketch series, The Imaginatively Titled Punt and Dennis Show. Again, only one sketch came forward from The Mary Whitehouse Experience, that being the character of Mr Strange. However, the dancing dad also gained some increased character development and came back as an Embarrassing Dad. The show was slightly more successful that their former partners' attempts, running for two series, but was again heavily criticised.
However, the duo have stayed together, with their most notable project since being the long running topical radio programme, The Now Show, which has been running since 1998.
Hugh Dennis is now arguably the most successful of the four performers. He played GP Piers Crispin in the mainstream BBC1 sitcom My Hero, and has also gained a talent for improvisation on the panel show Mock the Week and the partially improvised sitcom Outnumbered. Steve Punt meanwhile has also appeared in a number of panel and radio shows, as well as guest roles in several sitcoms.
Overall we can see that The Mary Whitehouse Experience was an innovative, cutting edge topical comedy prgramme that launched the careers of four talented comedians, established some entertaining comedy characters and in many ways helped change the comedy world forever.