>My one critiqué on Lee and Herring is that they are too preachy at times, as opposed to being paradoxical, which i think is better.
>
I find them overrated in an underrated kind of way.

I agree with both of the above

I don't think that Stewart goes far enough.

I think they ought to pose naked for something.

I dont have a vast critique of them.ive just never found them funny.Way too smug and studenty.although inflatable ET tickled me

I didn't like them originally, when they were on R1 (apart from a few sketches). But then I saw an episode of 'FOF' and I became a fan.

My favourite L&H moment was on TMWRNJ, when SLee said an one aim of the show was to present all the people involved in the 11OCS with a plaque saying: "Yeah, buit Ali G was good though". Not a great line itself, but it caused a cheer of agreement from the audience that plainly startled the 2 of them... oh, you had to be watching...

Well I think they're both great - especially the fat one

But will they ever pose nude?

>But will they ever pose nude?

Maybe we should have an opinion poll?

I really hope they don't.

In the Edit News section about L&H, it says their first radio series cost £2000. Did that include their wages? Unbelieveable.

Also, did you notice that originally they were 'Richard Herring & Stewart Lee' but later became 'Lee and Herring'? When did SL seize power? Will RH seize it back again?

Of course it includes our wages. I'm guessing but we probably received around £500-£700 for writing and performing this show (which would have taken at least a month to write)- it can't have been more than a grand each can it?!
I suppose things like the producer's and the tech staff's fees would not be included in this.
Radio is cheap to make and they pay you nothing.
It took me five years of incredibly hard work before I started making anything that could be described as a living from comedy. Stewart did slightly better due to money earned on the stand up circuit.
And there's no guarantee that this time next year I won't be earning nothing again.

I'm not complaining. I like what I do. I'm very lucky. But those are the facts. Make of them what you will.

So do radio writers/performers get paid flat rates, or is it worked out by the producers?

Is there a going rate for stand-ups appearing on eg. Comedy Network?

I bet they paid more to get Stewart Lee though. God knows, he was the only reason I ever watched it.

Why is there an acute accent on the e?

>So do radio writers/performers get paid flat rates, or is it worked out by the producers?
>
I co-wrote a 15-minute pilot which got made by BBC Radio LE in Feb '96 but which didn't get picked up for various reasons (partly because we kept listening to lots of BBC people with often misguided opinions and kept changing the format, partly because it wasn't all that funny in the event - I listened back to the tape not long ago and shuddered at parts of it). Anyway, the two of us got paid £200 each for our trouble - mind you, our producer (who had also produced a couple of L&H shows for R1, and has since done Just A Minute and Huddlines) told us that an established comedy writer/performer (one of The Harpoon cast - not Baynham) was getting about £500 for a R4 pilot. So I think it depends on experience - call us naive or pushovers, but we were quite keen to get something on at the time, so we signed the contract. Ah well...

Our pilot featured impressionist Jon Culshaw (thoroughly nice chap, and should be put to better use than just being on Chris Moyles) and Logan Murray (half of BIb & Bob with Sadowitz). We had a great time that day, and I no longer write radio comedy, but it was a good experience all in all, and really the only gripe I have about the whole thing was that the department kept messing us around a bit over the sort of format they wanted. So if anyone reading this fancies a go at comedy writing, stand your ground and believe in your material (up to a point, obviously - but don't trust script editors on everything, whatever you do!)...

hmm, lot of anonymous posts up there...
I think seeing as the forum is graced with the presence actual comedians ,not only that but comedians who are actually funny, we should acknowledge this in some other way than vague anonymous insults.
so guys, er, when are you gonna be on telly agan?
are you presenting that Montreal thing again?
new TMWRJ coming up?



i loved that hobby-of-the-week character btw

....any nude photos shoots planned...?

Tommy from 3rd Rock From the Sun bares an uncanny resemblance to S Lee...I'm sure Tommy (obviously not his real name but who care's?) would be a good choice to replace Stewart if all the fame and fortune goes to his head. Although he's American and probably doesn't even know who Morrisey is, still something to think about there Richard...

>Well I think they're both great - especially the fat one

I was talking about Lee and Herring to somone who didn't really know who they were once, and to establish which one I was referring to he asked 'is it the fat one or the bald one'?

Did Ianucci decide to make a comedy about news programmes, or did he put the team together and then they all worked out the format?

>Did Ianucci decide to make a comedy about news programmes, or did he put the team together and then they all worked out the format?

Forget where I read it - it may have been The Independent's Robert Hanks' interview with Morris & Iannucci the same day as the last R4 On The Hour - but Iannucci said that he was "looking to do something new with news-based comedy that wasn't topical" (this would have been just after he would've been producing Mary Whitehouse Experience
for Radio 1). He said he heard Morris doing stuff on GLR on Sunday mornings at the same time, and I think the two of them recruited people as they went along.

That's what I remember reading, anyway.