Little Britain Live

Little Britain Live
Directed by: Geoff Posner and Jeremy Sams
(BBC Video)
Little Britain Live was filmed during a tour undertaken by the cast of BBC’s popular sketch comedy show Little Britain; since the tour featured mostly new material, this disc offers fans of the show who missed it a chance to see its sketches. But Little Britain (co-created by stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas) has always been a show that gets most of its laughs from the familiar—week after week, the show trots out the same lame sketches and overused catchphrases. As such, the “new” material this disc offers is hardly groundbreaking. One oft-repeated Little Britain sketch features intolerant judge Maggie (Walliams), who does blind evaluations of baking competitions. Invariably, she chooses a winner; the winner turns out to be of a different ethnic origin than lily-white Maggie; Maggie spews copious (and supposedly comical) amounts of puke everywhere. On Little Britain Live, Maggie’s evaluating cake, not jelly, so the material can technically be considered “new.” Those who laughed at the gag before will likely laugh again. Even the better sketches on Little Britain are hardly innovative—and mostly are only amusing when contrasted with the lameness that surrounds them. And much like its source material, Little Britain Live has very little new to say
Lindsay McCarney