It’s been more than 30 years since Charlie Higson and Paul Whitehouse created The Fast Show.

And things have come full circle for both the comedy sketch show and its creators.

As the name suggests, this format included rapid-fire sketches, some lasting as little as 10 seconds and others lasting no longer than three minutes.

To those watching in the mid-1990s, it was a groundbreaking proposition, quickly achieving cult status with characters and catchphrases embedded in popular culture.

And Fast Show fan Johnny Depp’s appearance has helped the show reach new viewers on social media since it ended in 2000.

“The Fast Show has been kept alive by GIFs and memes on social media, all these little snippets that people save,” Charlie says.

“It was like I could see the future and I thought it was going to be a bunch of short clips,” Whitehouse added.

“I don’t know if any of you realize this, but I actually invented social media. It’s just a coincidence.”

“It’s gotten out of control,” Charlie says. “What were you trying to make?”

Higson and Whitehouse have been making us and themselves laugh ever since they met in college in 1977.

“We always made each other laugh, but this was long before alternative comedy was popular, so we never imagined doing comedy together,” Charlie says.

However, other friends were becoming interested in comedy, including Harry Enfield, who was developing his own character-based TV show and asked Charlie and Paul to write.

Characters like Stavros and Lord Samane quickly became popular with viewers, and Paul and Charlie began being asked to write for other shows.

By the early 1990s they were collaborating extensively with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, writing, performing and, in Charlie’s case, producing.

Caroline Ahern, Simon Day and Mark Williams (later members of the Fast Show team) were also regular collaborators.

And at that point, they decided to try to create their own sketch show.

“There were a lot of sketch shows out there, and what we were doing on that first show was kind of building on what we learned from the character sketch shows we watched as kids, like Benny Hill and Dick Emery and Monty Python,” Charlie says.

They made it shorter and faster to appeal to viewers accustomed to MTV’s new fast-paced pop videos.

And it was full of new characters, including Ted and Ralph, Swiss Tony, and the angler fish.

The average show can squeeze 27 sketches into 30 minutes, while other shows require 9 to 10 sketches. It had a major influence on their other comedy shows.

“I think most of our characters were very warm and very charming, and we didn’t mock or ridicule them,” says Paul.

The exception was Ken and Kenneth (Paul Whitehouse and Mark Williams).

Two tailors in a formal men’s clothing store attack customers with explicit sexual innuendo and the catchphrase “You look great.”

They are among the 70 characters revived in the stage show, which has been touring since 2024. And their catchphrase is the one most often shouted at the White House on the street.

“People love this show, and it’s a celebration of that,” he says.

According to visitors, the show often reminds them of important times in their lives when they used to watch it with their parents and other family members.

Seeing it on stage reminds me of the familiarity I felt when I first saw it.

The show brings together six members of the Fast Show cast (Arabella Weir, Mark Williams, Simon Day and John Thomson), as well as Paul and Charlie.

caroline aherne People who died in 2016 The 52-year-old will be celebrated with a montage of her most famous sketches, including Polo Fish, a weather presenter with an indeterminate accent who declares everything “scorchio”.

“Ironically, she was more of a presence on this tour than on any previous tour, because she didn’t like live gigs and was very busy with her own thing,” Charlie says.

“She was an extraordinary person who gave so much to The Fast Show, so this is how we all say goodbye to her.”

It was very difficult to say goodbye to the show itself. Additional shows have been added in London, and performers say they have been overwhelmed by the response.

“We always knew it was going to be a nostalgic trip,” Charlie says.

“It’s nostalgic for us to get together again to catch up with each other and revisit and reprise old characters, and it’s great to be surrounded by people who love and remember the show.”

Both are busy with their own projects. Paul co-stars with Bob Mortimer in the BBC series Mortimer and the White House: Went Fishing.

And he will next be seen in HBO’s new Harry Potter series. No stranger to the wizarding world, he also appeared in the 2004 film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Charlie is the author of the young adult post-apocalyptic book series The Enemy and the first five novels in the Young Bond series.

The writing of his latest book has been delayed due to his stage tour, but he plans to spend most of 2026 writing it.

He said he hasn’t ruled out further stage shows or reuniting the Fast Show team for new projects.

“It’s not based on The Fast Show, it’s tapping into the Fast Show team,” Charlie says.

“We talked about it a lot on the tour bus. It would be fun.”

A night of fast shows will be held at the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on Tuesday 27th January.