The Mighty Boosh
Satisfying the nation's need for kangaroo boxing matches, jazz-mad zookeepers and a gorilla called Bollo, The Mighty Boosh have been an unlikely hit ever since their first stage-bound incarnation.
Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, who would one day declare "we're just interested in being ridiculous", were actually rather serious, studious types when they first met at art college. Julian's first passion was music, and he actually toured Europe playing in a jazz band. Noel, meanwhile, was immersed in the visual arts (and would one day be responsible for the distinctive sets of The Boosh).
Comedy was the last thing on their minds, even as they started performing it on stage. Instead of doing anything as simple as telling jokes, they recited poems, sang songs and baffled the audience by getting a woman to cry on stage and attempting to collect her tears.
Noel and Julian first unleashed The Boosh at the Edinburgh Festival in 1998, winning a Perrier Award. Such was the success of their initial Booshy outing that Julian and Noel did the natural thing - and completely changed it. The year after their Edinburgh breakthrough, they returned with a new version of the show, called Arctic Boosh, which replaced the zoo-keepers with postmen. It was a smash-hit, and was followed the year after that by the even more successful Autoboosh.
The BBC had taken notice by this time, and the pair were signed up to bring The Boosh to Radio 4. But even after the success of the six-part radio series (it won the Douglas Adams Award for innovative comedy writing, a one-off award specifically created to honour The Boosh) there was some doubt in TV-land that the show would successfully transfer to telly. Until one particular fan called Steve Coogan approached the lads and offered to produce a TV version. And the rest is crazed, gorilla-infested history.
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Twisted Fire Extinguisher
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