Review of the nostalgic tour as it hits the London Palladium

Thirty years on, and The Fast Show isn’t short of fans. This reunion tour which started last year is running into next, and catchphrases – the word ‘arse’, specifically – are yelled before the cast even take to the stage.

Those now-familiar sayings have always been the secret to its success, allowing the team to break into that rare echelon of comedy where ‘heard it!’ is not an insult because their audience positively want to hear gags they know. The familiarity of old favourites was the secret sauce even when it was on TV, magnified now it’s a nostalgic night out.

While the ‘farewell tour’ in 2002 was a full-production show, this is pared back. Co-creator Charlie Higson strides on in a normal suit and explains the format will be as much chatty reminiscence as performance before introducing his old mucker Paul Whitehouse – who arrives as the louche 13th Duke of Wybourne, his sleazy shtick updated with a few references to the dark side of aristocratic privilege, by way of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.  As Higson points out, His Grace only has to say: ‘Me?’ to get a warm, appreciative laugh… albeit by putting about five syllables in it to make it funny.

This segment sets the tone for the first half as each cast member in turn – Mark Williams, Arabella Weir, Simon Day and John Thomson – take to the stage with a brief bit of character work before chatting as themselves.

They speak about how they got together, Weir offers some commentary on the sexism she encountered, and as a group they serve up a few snippets of trivia for the die-hards. National treasure Bob Mortimer wrote some of Swiss Toni’s crudest double-entendres; Jamiroquai’s Jay Kay hated his pretentious Jazz Club portrayal (but his band loved it); and the Fast Show team had to sue beer brand Sol for using Scorchio! in its advertising.

That catchphrase was, of course, made famous by Caroline Aherne as Chanel 9 weathergirl Poula Fisch. Her absence here is keenly felt, and tenderly acknowledged with a montage reel that’s followed by a poignant moment featuring Williams’s Roy wordlessly pining for the absent Renée.

In defiance of the title a couple of the early first-half scenes outstay their welcome – showing just how tight the writing usually is – but after the interval, the team give the fans what they want, rattling through their many, many greatest hits. A Chanel 9 variety show – with all the cheap 1970s kitsch you could want – and a showstopping reprisal of Bob Fleming’s Country Favourites offer some theatricality, but otherwise it’s a  back-to-basics offering.

In retrospect, it's remarkable how many classic, indelible characters there are: posh drunkard Rowley Brirkin, phlegmy Bob Fleming, Ron ‘Jumpers For Goalposts’ Manager, Brilliant, Insecure Woman (‘Does my bum look big in this?’), Jesse (‘This week I 'ave mostly been…’), the lascivious Suit You tailors of Ken and Kenneth, Eco Warrior Dave Angel (now purveyor of electric vehicles) and so many more. 

The collective talent for creating memorable caricatures that bore into Britain’s consciousness is immense, and it’s clear the team had a lightning-in-a-bottle moment in creating something that so perfectly hit the 1990s zeitgeist yet has endured in a way the more problematic Little Britain hasn’t.

For this Evening With, they didn’t have to reinvent anything –  and they haven’t. Instead, they’ve dusted down old scripts but with an occasional 21st century reference for relevance, such as Swiss Toni differentiating his old-school suave alpha masculinity from the toxicity of the Andrew Tate manosphere, or Whitehouse adding energy drink to the cheesy peas range. 

As her blunt ‘No Offence’ character, Weir has a tongue-in-cheek sideswipe at  the sort of fans who use comedy show catchphrases as a substitute for their own wit – that little bit of tedious joker Colin Hunt that’s in so many people. However it’s a remarkable achievement that the Fast Show has popularised so many phrases that are now part of the national vocabulary, and even if this show is a fairly straightforward romp through the hits, it’s still fun.

» An Evening With The Fast Show tour dates

Review date: 19 Nov 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: London Palladium