Brilliant Language of the BBC TV-series The Fast Show

Tapani Aulu (fall 2004)
A FAST-BIE-1 (TRENPP2B) Introduction to British English Paper (Luke)
Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere

The Show

Background

On 27th September 1994, a new BBC comedy show appeared on British screens. It was the work of two acting decorators, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, who ended up living in the same estate in Hackney, London, with a promising comedian, Harry Enfield. Although growing up apart, (Whitehouse in Wales, and Higson in England) they knew each other from before being fellow drop-outs from the University of East-Anglia. Enfield they came to know trough a common friend.

They all used to write little sketches to amuse each other and to develop their comedy skills, Enfield being the only one actually performing in front of an audience. When Enfield was asked to do one of his characters, Stavros the kebab shop owner, on Saturday Night Live he made his breakthrough. Immediately following that, he took the other chums and made them his writers. Higson and Whitehouse started to write for Enfield’s show and for Vic Reeve’s Big Night Out, and Whitehouse also joined Enfield on screen. With their success, Higson and Whitehouse were given carte blanche to create a series of their own by BBC.

After seeing a highlight cut of Enfield’s new show, Whitehouse and Higson thought that it was actually better than the show itself, and decided to base their show on that concept; get the characters in, get them to say something funny and get them out. A good, fresh idea and a brilliant, versatile crew was all they needed for worldwide success. Which was nice. (BBC)

Style

The Fast Show, as mentioned, is about characters, regular sketches and, most of all, catchphrases. The show does not have a real plot. Although some consistency and character development does take place, the idea is to have an odd character to do something odd in a somewhat odd place around the country. The show marvellously displays the variety of Britain, the people, the language, the landscape, the manners, the stereotypes. It is an introspective on being British, admittedly exaggerating and generalizing but with a certain amount of reality; enough for a large audience to identify with a number of the characters.

Catchphrase

“A phrase which is often repeated by and therefore becomes connected with a particular organization or person, especially someone famous such as a television entertainer” (Cambridge). Many of the regular characters in the Fast Show had their own phrase, of which several became catchphrases and a few entered the language to stay. For a period, it was hard to miss “Bono Estente!”, “I’ll get me coat” or “Suits you, sir!” being repeated everywhere the next morning.

The characters and the language

The Fast Show introduces well over a hundred characters, some of them re-appearing regularly, others only occasionally. As mentioned, the sketches in the show are deliberately very short; therefore, the characters usually stay on screen for a few lines only. This makes it important for Whitehouse (later PW) and Higson (later CH) to find ways to deliver the comedy promptly, for which, they use various methods; most commonly clothes and locations, but very often language and culture.

Suits you sir!

The most enduring characters of the show are the two exuberantly lascivious tailors played by PW and Mark Williams (later MW), who bombard their customers with suggestions of their private life. One of their well-known phrase is Did she want it, sir? Did she want it? “A bawdy and insistent prodding aimed at discovering whether a woman has actually agreed to have sex with the person being questioned. They never actually get an answer, something that hardly seems to be missed as its significance is completely outweighed by the unrelenting innuendo. These words are often combined with the duo's other favourite catchphrase, suits you, sir.” (Farkas) Working in a high street men’s wear retailer, the language Ken and Kenneth use is very clear, RP (Received Pronunciation) English, although not very subtle at all times, which comes clear in the following excerpt from the first episode of the show, where a customer comes to the shop to look for a suit and Ken comes to help him:

"Good morning, sir. How are we today, sir?"
"Fine. And you?"
"Radiant, sir. Radiant. Woo that is a lovely suit, isn’t it sir?"
"Yes, it’s nice."
"Suits you, sir, suit like that, Ooh! Do you want one off the peg or do you want one made up?"
"Well I’m looking for something a bit smart; I’m starting a new job."
"Ooh, congratulations! Will you be having your own secretary, sir?"
"Yes, yes I think so"
"Will you be giving it to her, sir?" (FS s1e1)

The sketch goes on with Ken taking measurements of the client, while continuing his rather unusual suggestions and making the client feel tremendously uncomfortable.

This sketch combines two remarkably British characteristics, formality and privacy. Formality in the sketch is presented in the vocabulary of the dialogue in the word sir as well as in the usage of we, which is seldom used to mean you in everyday language. Also the dialect and the accent of the characters enforce the formality. At the end of the dialogue, the formal tone is broken with an unexpectedly straightforward sentence. The sketch juxtaposes the mythical view of British as formal predictable people in public life, and the informality they exercise in the private circumstances.

As James O’Driscoll explains, the people in Britain have to obey some quite rigid rules when they are “on duty”, giving an example of a male bank officer who has to wear a suit with a tie, even if he can not afford a very smart one. On the other hand, when people are not playing a public role, they often do not follow any rules concerning clothing. The same goes for talking, people are expected to be discreet and avoid “personal” topics in public. Therefore the tailor’s suggestion is unseemly and just “not done” in real life. O’Dricoll also mentions that despite the increase in informality, it is still regarded impolite in Britain to ask people so called “personal questions” (such as about family or money), and talking about sex is usually embarrassing, even if it is cloaked with complex euphemisms.

“Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee.”

Famous quotes like the one above from Ben Johnson, suggest that an Englishman cannot utter a word without revealing his social class and/or class anxieties. To some extent that is true; the British people prefer to categorize each other by their vowels rather than their bank account balances. Some people like to think the society is not as class-obsessed as it used to be. Whitehouse and Higson do not; as good comedians should not.

In the previous sketch, the social status of the customer entering the shop becomes evident from the few sentences he speaks. He expresses his need of a suit with the attribute of smart, suggesting him to hold a place up high on the class-scale. For middle-middle class and below, the word of choice would likely to have been posh. Also, his clear pronunciation of the vowels moves him up on the social ladder, just to fall down later on in the sketch. He stumbles on one of the deadly sins: the word pardon, thus revealing his true background in the low echelons.

The now-revealed common, or member of the lower classes, also uses another well-known British linguistic characteristic, the understatement. To the tailor’s question about the lovely suit, he replies: “nice”, a stock phrase for almost everything positive. It does not tell whether he just approves of the suit or is astonished by the breathtaking beauty of it. It is a form of British (especially English) ironic humour, rooted so deep that it has almost become automatic. As Kate Fox puts it, any exceptionally delightful object, person or event, which in other cultures would warrant streams of superlatives, is pretty much covered by nice, or, if we (the English) wish to express more ardent approval, very nice.

PW and CH acknowledge the importance of the understatement in another regular sketch, in which a middle-class middle-aged in every way an average person is making coffee, or opening a bottle of wine, or performing some other normal kitchen chore while speaking to the camera about something that has happened to him. His story always ends in the notion: “which was nice”. Following examples show what is meant by The Understatement (with capital letters).

“I was rummaging around in the attic and I found the original copy of the Bible. Which was nice” (FS s2e5)
“And our eldest son, Alexander, won the Nobel chemistry price. So we all went over to Stockholm for the presentation and R.E.M. did an impromptu concert. Which was nice” (FS s2e1)
“…and the same six numbers came up for us again the following week. So that was another three million pounds. Which was nice” (FS s2e2)

Dialect & accent

In some other sketches, language takes a different role, as in the sketches with Chris the crafty Cockney or Cheesy Peas, using various dialects and regionalisms.

The former is a stereotypical Cockney character, who has a very very thick accent indeed, who displays enormous confidence, and is proud of being a helpless kleptomaniac. In one of his appearances, he is giving advice to a person not to park in a specific parking place, because it is his area.

“I'm a little bit whoor, a little bit whaeey, a little bit swish-swish-swish! I'm a little bit dodgy, I'm a geezer. I’ll nick anyfing, so do yaself a favour mate, park somewhere else”, he adds while stealing the person’s wallet. (FS, s2e1)

The latter sketch is a series of fictitious advertisements shown occasionally in between other sketches, parody of cheesy TV commercials based on repetition, rhymes, colours and basic animated pictures. Following is the first of these adverts. In the show it is “announced” a commercial for “Northern types”, and performed in a northern accent, with the evident suggestion of the people from the north to be somewhat simple.

Do you like cheese? D'you like peas? Well, you'll luv these: Cheezy Peaz! A combination of cheese an' peas to form Cheezy Peaz! They're great for your teas! Come on Mam - think cheese, think peas, think Cheezy Peaz! It's easy-peasy with Cheezy Peaz! Pleeease! (FS, s1e4)

Consonants vs. vowels

The Fast Show illustrates another feature of speech concerning both regional dialects and class differences: the use of vowels and consonants. Kate Fox says that the upper classes often consider the lower-class speech incorrect because of their failure to pronounce consonants, in particular the glottal stop. But on the other hand, while concentrating on the consonants, they often pay little attention to the vowels and actually drop them out altogether.

Example of this can be seen in sketches with Rowley Birkin QC, an old uppercrust barrister, a strange looking old man, with a puffy, reddened nose (from drinking too much), who sits in an armchair, whisky in hand, in an old-fashioned sitting room telling largely unintelligible stories about his past exploits and travels. Some segments of the speech would be understandable, but most of it is a mumble of almost nothing but consonants. (Farkas)

"..mm wshng trughthe, mstsay find itvery nstable plitcly, pandemonium! blktha smbiewewe… lashrd…erstts…a poisonous monkey…..I havto -dmit tht I ws vry vry drunk"

The opposite can be noticed in the Dave in the Pub sketch in the second episode of the second season, where three mates are discussing the handling of criminals.

“You caan’ave crimials rannin abou’ in e street, can’ya?” “Naw, ‘s go’a be e boo’ camp!” “B’eyv aaready trie’at aven’ey?”

Vocabulary

There are numerous sketches where the vocabulary is the defining factor. Some of these involve special jargon or terms only familiar to a certain group of people. A good example of this is a sketch from the second season of the series in which a construction site is being inspected by two officials,. Words and phrases used in a thirty-second scene include: acoustic deck, unit costs, occupation on or before the due contract date, topping-up ceremony, penalty clause, all of which have very little if any meaning to the average viewer.

In another example, the sentence structures and the complexity of the utterances deliver the message (or not.) Here is a part of a sophisticated dialogue situated in an aristocratic dinner table:

“I must confess that with or without to the matter of which we spoke, I have quite other thoughts. In so much, as I have taken my resolve, and hold to the conviction, that the sense of demerit does not take as distinct shape in the memory.”
“Sir. I have done you an injustice in that I have interpreted your reticence as a dispensation, conveying perhaps a sanction to a purpose which I have for some time entertained without external encouragement.” (FS s1e6)

The Fast Show also features many sketches based on dialectic and slang speech, and often they include some unusual vocabulary or expressions, archaisms, distinguishably British expressions or even coinage, such as the following:

Slang expressions

British expressions

Coinage

Archaisms

Other unusual or rare expressions

Author's Notes

I grew up with television and other media shaping my view on entertainment, culture, humour, beliefs and my whole look on life. Being a child in Finland, it was virtually impossible not to be influenced by English language, hearing and seeing it in the electric media. I thank the decision makers for favouring subtitling over dubbing. My language skills (if any) have developed primarily due to television, and computers, only secondarily due to the school system. Among the more important of those “storehouses of language” is the Fast Show.


Works Cited:

Last updated 2004/11/25
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