Two years after 'Harry Enfield's Television Programme' ended, Harry returned in triumph to the BBC with 'Harry Enfield & Chums'. It trod more or less the same line as the earlier show, featuring the same mix of characters from before such as gormless Tim Nice But Dim, the repugnant Wayne & Waynetta Slob, the evil Old Gits and obnoxious Mr. Don't Wanna Do It Like That. The same script writers, such as Nick Newman and Ian Hislop were brought back to provide the scripts, Kate. St John provided a new catchy theme tune. Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke returned to the supporting cast, though Charlie Higson dropped out to appear in 'The Fast Show'.
Some characters from before were given the chop such as DJs Smashie & Nicey ( who by this point had gained their own one-off show - 'Smashie & Nicey: The End Of An Era' ), the annoying Double Take Brothers and Les The Forgetful Barman, though some new characters were created such as the lecherous Lovely Wobbly Randy Old Ladies, the acne-ridden Kevin The Teenager ( who appeared in the earlier show as Little Brother Kevin ), the permanently angry Self Righteous Brothers, the dope smoking Dutch Coppers and the Michael Caine inspired Michael Paine, the nosey neighbour. These new creations benefited the show enormously.
Some of the humour could be unnecessarily cruel and unfunny, such as Alf Git cutting a puppy in half with a meat cleaver, but overall the show was more solid than sloppy. It ended on a high in 1998 with a hilarious Christmas special featuring a memorable spoof of 'Titanic'.
Sadly. this was the last decent thing Enfield did. In 2000, he fronted 'Brand Spanking New Show' for Sky One which was so bad even Enfield himself never bothered to watch it. In 2001, he gave us the equally bad 'Harry Enfield Presents' as well as the dire feature film 'Kevin & Perry Go Large'. In 2002, he tried his hand at sitcom again ( his first being 'Men Behaving Badly' in 1992 ) with 'Celeb' but it was a critical disaster. Perhaps the worst thing he has done to date is 'Ruddy Hell! It's Harry & Paul'. Fortunately, 'Chums' is still repeated on UK Gold so one can remind themselves how great a comic Harry once was.
Some characters from before were given the chop such as DJs Smashie & Nicey ( who by this point had gained their own one-off show - 'Smashie & Nicey: The End Of An Era' ), the annoying Double Take Brothers and Les The Forgetful Barman, though some new characters were created such as the lecherous Lovely Wobbly Randy Old Ladies, the acne-ridden Kevin The Teenager ( who appeared in the earlier show as Little Brother Kevin ), the permanently angry Self Righteous Brothers, the dope smoking Dutch Coppers and the Michael Caine inspired Michael Paine, the nosey neighbour. These new creations benefited the show enormously.
Some of the humour could be unnecessarily cruel and unfunny, such as Alf Git cutting a puppy in half with a meat cleaver, but overall the show was more solid than sloppy. It ended on a high in 1998 with a hilarious Christmas special featuring a memorable spoof of 'Titanic'.
Sadly. this was the last decent thing Enfield did. In 2000, he fronted 'Brand Spanking New Show' for Sky One which was so bad even Enfield himself never bothered to watch it. In 2001, he gave us the equally bad 'Harry Enfield Presents' as well as the dire feature film 'Kevin & Perry Go Large'. In 2002, he tried his hand at sitcom again ( his first being 'Men Behaving Badly' in 1992 ) with 'Celeb' but it was a critical disaster. Perhaps the worst thing he has done to date is 'Ruddy Hell! It's Harry & Paul'. Fortunately, 'Chums' is still repeated on UK Gold so one can remind themselves how great a comic Harry once was.