The Sketch Show

The Sketch Show
StarringLee Mack
Tim Vine
Jim Tavaré
Karen Taylor
Ronni Ancona (Series 1)
Kitty Flanagan (Series 2)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of series2
No. of episodes16
Production
Running time23 minutes
Original release
NetworkITV
Release10 September 2001 (2001-09-10) –
24 April 2004 (2004-04-24)
Related
Not Going Out
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Sketch Show is a British television sketch comedy programme, featuring many leading British comedians. It aired on ITV between 2001 and 2004. The show was first commissioned in 2001 and was co-produced by a company owned by Steve Coogan.[1] Despite the first series winning the BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy, the second series was cancelled due to poor viewing figures. Lee Mack states in his autobiography Mack The Life that the final two episodes have never been broadcast.

A spinoff of the same title was produced in the United States. It was cancelled after 4 episodes and had a run of 6 episodes.

The show started at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1999, and starred Mack, Catherine Tate and Dan Antopolski.[2] Mack later expressed regret at not including them in the TV show, stating: "I'm not a great believer in regret, but looking back over the last eighteen years of me doing this job, not keeping our sketch show Bits together and jumping at the first offer to put a version of it on telly is probably the biggest mistake I've made."[3]

  1. ^ Deans, Jason (8 February 2001). "ITV orders comedy sketch show". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Lee Mack and Catherine Tate to star in remake of Everybody Loves Raymond". Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  3. ^ "Lee Mack: I shouldn't have ditched my mates : News 2012 : Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide". www.chortle.co.uk. Retrieved 13 August 2016.