Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round
Encyclopedia
Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round was a comedy sketch show which ran on BBC2 for a total of 6 episodes over one series in 1998.
Alexei Sayle
's final series was almost identical in format to The All New Alexei Sayle Show
except with yet another change of writers. (This time they included Kevin Cecil
, Dave Cummings
, Kevin Gildea, Andy Riley
and Edgar Wright
). Unusually, there was no studio audience.
Sketches included the talents of Noel Fielding
, Lee Hurst, Paul Putner
, Gemma Rigg, Reece Shearsmith
,
Jessica Stevenson
, David Walliams
and Peter Serafinowicz
The continuing adventures of Bobby Chariot were chronicled. Now free from any obligation to be Alexei's warm-up man, he traversed a series of other career cul-de-sacs under the appalling management of the repulsive "Edna" Denise Coffey
. In one episode, the joke was turned on its head as Chariot performed for an audience of student
s, who enjoyed his act ironically
and responded to his catchphrase "How ya diddling?" with an enthusiastic reply of "We're diddling fine!" (until he got over-confident and moved onto material which insulted his audience.
Meanwhile Alexei Sayle himself was depicted as living in a Teletubbies
-style burrow somewhere in the posh part of North London.
Probably the most famous sketch was "The Ayatollah Of Dibley", an Islamic Fundamentalist version of The Vicar of Dibley
.
Alexei Sayle
Alexei Sayle
Alexei David Sayle is a British stand-up comedian, actor and author. He was a central part of the alternative comedy circuit in the early 1980s. He was voted the 18th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-ups in 2007...
's final series was almost identical in format to The All New Alexei Sayle Show
The All New Alexei Sayle Show
The All New Alexei Sayle Show was a comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC2 television for a total of twelve episodes, over two series in 1994 and 1995...
except with yet another change of writers. (This time they included Kevin Cecil
Kevin Cecil
Kevin Robert Cecil is a British screenwriter.Writing alongside Andy Riley , he has won two BAFTA awards, the first for writing the Comic Relief one-off special, Robbie the Reindeer, in 2000, and the second for Black Books in 2005...
, Dave Cummings
Dave Cummings
Dave Cummings is considered the oldest American still-performing professional porn star....
, Kevin Gildea, Andy Riley
Andy Riley
Andy Riley is a British author, cartoonist, comics scriptwriter, and television screenwriter.Riley has written several best-selling cartoon books, The Book of Bunny Suicides , Return of the Bunny Suicides, The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides, Dawn of the Bunny Suicides, Great Lies To Tell Small...
and Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright
Edgar Howard Wright is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the TV series Spaced, and for directing the film Scott Pilgrim vs...
). Unusually, there was no studio audience.
Sketches included the talents of Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding
Noel Fielding is a British artist, comedian and actor. He is known for his roles as Vince Noir in The Mighty Boosh, which he co-writes with comedy partner Julian Barratt, and as team captain on the music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.-Stand-up comedy:Noel Fielding performed regularly as a...
, Lee Hurst, Paul Putner
Paul Putner
-Life and career:He was born in East Grinstead. He studied at LAMDA where he won, amongst other prizes, the Kenneth More prize for comedy acting.His first significant TV role saw Putner as numerous characters in The Glam Metal Detectives shown on BBC2. His real break in comedy came after he set up...
, Gemma Rigg, Reece Shearsmith
Reece Shearsmith
Reeson "Reece" Shearsmith is an English actor and writer. He is most famous for his work as part of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...
,
Jessica Stevenson
Jessica Stevenson
Jessica Hynes is an English actress and writer. She was known professionally as Jessica Stevenson until 2007.She is possibly best known as one of the creators, writers and stars of the British sitcom Spaced....
, David Walliams
David Walliams
David Edward Walliams is an English comedian, writer and actor, known for his partnership with Matt Lucas on the TV sketch show Little Britain and its predecessor Rock Profile...
and Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz is an English actor, comedian, writer, composer, voice artist and occasional director.-Early life:Serafinowicz was born in Liverpool, England. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School...
The continuing adventures of Bobby Chariot were chronicled. Now free from any obligation to be Alexei's warm-up man, he traversed a series of other career cul-de-sacs under the appalling management of the repulsive "Edna" Denise Coffey
Denise Coffey
Denise Coffey is an English actress, director, and playwright.After training at the Glasgow College of Dramatic Art, Coffey began a career in repertory at the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh, then moved to the Palladium Theatre there...
. In one episode, the joke was turned on its head as Chariot performed for an audience of student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s, who enjoyed his act ironically
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
and responded to his catchphrase "How ya diddling?" with an enthusiastic reply of "We're diddling fine!" (until he got over-confident and moved onto material which insulted his audience.
Meanwhile Alexei Sayle himself was depicted as living in a Teletubbies
Teletubbies
Teletubbies is a BBC children's television series targeted at pre-school viewers and produced from 1997 to 2001 by Ragdoll Productions. It was created by Ragdoll's creative director Anne Wood CBE and Andrew Davenport, who wrote each of the show's 365 episodes. The programme's original narrator was...
-style burrow somewhere in the posh part of North London.
Probably the most famous sketch was "The Ayatollah Of Dibley", an Islamic Fundamentalist version of The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007...
.