How Little Britain was made on a whim

The BBC executive who gave Little Britain its big TV break has admitted he never heard the show before commissioning it.

BBC Three controller Stuart Murphy was given tapes of David Walliams and Matt Lucas’s radio show by producer Myfanwy Moore when she was trying to persuade him to take it.

But he promptly forgot about it,  and when she later asked what he thought, he simply said ‘they're great’ and commissioned it.

It was only when the show was in production that he bothered to listen to it, the BBC’s staff magazine Ariel reveals today.

Published: 7 Nov 2005