Suit us, Sir - how social media gained The Fast Show a new audience 30 years on

It's more than three decades 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.

The format - as the name suggests - involved rapid fire sketches, some lasting just ten seconds and none lasting longer than three minutes.

For those watching in the mid 1990s, it was a ground breaking proposition which quickly developed cult status with characters and catchphrases embedded in popular culture.

And since the show ended in 2000 – with an appearance from Fast Show fan Johnny Depp – it has found a new audience on social media.

"The Fast Show has been kept alive by social media GIFs and memes, all these little snippets people keep," says Charlie.

"It was almost as if we saw the future and that it was going to be lots of short clips," adds Paul Whitehouse.

"I don't know if any of you are aware but I actually invented social media. Just by accident."

"Well it's got out of control now," says Charlie. "What were you trying to create?"

Higson and Whitehouse have been making us, and themselves, laugh since 1977 when they met at university.

"We always made each other laugh but we never envisaged we might do comedy together because that was well before alternative comedy became a thing," says Charlie.

But other friends were getting into comedy, including Harry Enfield, who was developing his own character-based TV show and asked Charlie and Paul to write for him.

Characters like Stavros and Loadsamoney quickly became a hit with audiences and Paul and Charlie found themselves being commissioned to write for other shows.

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

Caroline Aherne, Simon Day and Mark Williams - who would go on to become members of the Fast Show team - were also regular collaborators.

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

"There were so many sketch shows around but what we were doing with that first show was just kind of honing what we'd learned from all the character sketch shows that we'd watched when we were kids, like Benny Hill or Dick Emery or Monty Python," says Charlie.

They made it shorter and faster, to appeal to an audience used to new fast-paced pop videos on MTV.

And it was packed full of new characters like Ted and Ralph, Swiss Tony and Monkfish.

An average show could squeeze 27 sketches into 30 minutes, compared to nine or ten in other shows. It had a huge influence on their other comedy shows.

"I think most of our characters were quite warm and quite engaging and we didn't sneer at them or mock them," says Paul.

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

Two tailors in a formal menswear shop who bombard their customers with sexually explicit innuendo and their catchphrase "Ooh, suit you sir".

They're among 70 characters revived in the stage show, which has been touring since 2024. And their catchphrase is the one most often shouted at Whitehouse in the street.

"People love the show and it's a celebration of that," he says.

According to those who come along, the show often reminds them of important times in their lives, when they watched with parents and other family.

Seeing it on stage reminds them of the closeness they had while watching first time around.

The show unites six of the Fast Show cast – Arabella Weir, Mark Williams, Simon Day and John Thomson – along with Paul and Charlie.

Caroline Aherne, who died in 2016 at the age of 52, is celebrated in a montage of her best known sketches including Poulo Fisch, the indeterminately-accented weather presenter who declares everything "scorchio".

"She didn't like doing live work and she was very busy on her own stuff so ironically, she has more of a presence on this tour than any previous one," says Charlie.

"She was an extraordinary individual who brought so much to The Fast Show, so it's our way of letting everyone say goodbye to her."

Saying goodbye to the show itself has been hard. Extra shows have been added in London and the cast say they've been overwhelmed by the reaction.

"We always knew it was going to be a nostalgia trip," Charlie says.

"It's nostalgic for us, to get back together again and to catch up with each other and to revisit and replay some of the old characters and it's such a joy to be surrounded by people who love and remember the show."

Both are busy with their own projects. Paul stars with Bob Mortimer in the BBC series Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

And he'll be seen next in the new HBO Harry Potter series. No stranger to the world of wizards, he previously 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, as well as the first five novels in the Young Bond series.

Work on his latest book has been delayed by the stage tour but he plans to devote much of 2026 to writing.

He says they haven't ruled out further stage shows, or getting the Fast Show team back together for a new project.

"Not based on The Fast Show but using the Fast Show team," says Charlie.

"It's something we've talked about a lot on the tour bus. That would be fun."

An Evening With The Fast Show is at SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on Tuesday 27 January.