Python Night on BBC2 did one. Erm...

I did try doing an On The Hour/Day Today family tree once. Got bored trying to lay it all out in PowerPoint, but it was fun nevertheless.

>Python Night on BBC2 did one. Erm...

Oh yeah, forgot about that. Must be where I subconsciously got the idea. I think it would be a fun web-based project for people on this board to contribute to and pick nits over.

That comedy magazine that produced about 5 issuses - was it called Comedy Review? - had some of these in. I'll check them out when I get home later on. They'd be well out of date I suppose.

There's an Armando one in the new Loaded. Very simplistic, but unique in acknowledging that Lee and Herring were the key writers on "On The Hour".

If you think they were the 'key' writers you have been misinformed. They were not.

Roger Wilmut did a proper one in 'From Fringe to Flying Circus'.

>If you think they were the 'key' writers you have been misinformed. They were not.

Well, if it suits your sense of semantics better, they wrote large and significant portions of it. That better?

>If you think they were the 'key' writers you have been misinformed. They were not.

I'm sure the actual percentages have been worked out elsewhere! It was a lot anyway. Add to this the influence they had over the writing style of the show in general and it could certainly be argued that they were 'key writers'.

Had they taken The Day Today work they would have been on a fifteen-minute commission per show. This would have made them particularly 'key'.

I would say we wrote about a third of it.

Or at least a third of the ideas some of which were then improed

But it's a long time ago
And it's nice to have it acknowledged that we at least did SOME work on it!

Something has always puzzled me about your claims that they were the major influence on the 'style' of On The Hour. By that I mean that the whole show has blatant Iannucci/Morrisms almost constantly throughout. This has been continued in Brass Eye, The Day Today, Alan Partridge, Armistice and radio shows.
If Lee and Herring set the style of the show does this means the entire careers and comedy style of Morris/Iannucci/Coogan are just a rip off?
If this is the case, why have Lee and Herring not made anything else in the 'On The Hour' style since?
In my view they wrote many funny parts but were definitely not responsible for the style.
Incidentally Richard Herring, I recently obtained several copies of your old shows and watched them for the first time this weekend. The Boy Who Cried Wolf sketch has been making me laugh to myself all week. Which resulted in a few stares when I was sat on the train.

I have never claimed to be the major influence on the writing style of the show. I have always said it was a group effort. But we certainly informed many parts of it (look at all the green desks, sports desks etc. They are very lee and herring) and that Peter O Hanetc thing is pure Lee and Herring.
In fact we got reviews of our stuff saying "obviously influenced by On the Hour" (cos they didn't know we'd written it) so perhaps that pushed us on to creating a new style to some extent.
Glad you enjoyed those shows. I can claim little kudos for the Boy who cried wolf which Stew wrote. (out of everyone involved with these shows I think I have the best memory for who did what!). It sometimes makes me laugh out loud thinking of that sketch too. Roger Mann and Ben Moor are ace in it.

Mr Herring.I know it is a little dodgy for someone in your position to comment on these things (by that I mean you probably bump into them from time to time because of your large comedy circle) but can we have some personal opinions? What did you make of The Brass Eye Special and The Armando Shows?
I'm sure they don't read these posts. Not that I'm suggesting you're scared to comment of course.
I'm also interested in who your favourite comedians past or present are. Or do I have to go to your website for that kind of thing?

> (out of everyone involved with these shows I think I have the best memory for who did what!).

Good-oh! So, on the 1FM show I've been listening to this morning who wrote:

1. The stuff about badmington
2. The new star signs stuff (particularly the line "your birthstone is a stone)

Because they've kept me chuckling through working at home whils being frankly ripped off by a plumber.

Obviously my memory isn't that great then.

The badmington stuff was a joint effort between me and Stew. Don't recall whose idea it was to start with or who decided to keep the g in. But I remember writing th stuff together

Don't even remember the birthstone joke. Sounds like Pete Baynham, or maybe Kev eldon ad lib. But don't even remember the material

I haven't seen the Brass Eye special or Armando's new series.
I think Chris Morris is ace though.
didn't enjoy the Armistice shows as much
To be honest I'm friendly with all the OTH lot (even up to a point Marber).
My favourite comedian changes all the time. Larry Sanders is pretty unbeatable as a TV experience.

Hasn't the Bill gone shit recently? I emailed the fella who plays Duncan Lennox, and he says his favourite flavour of ice cream is vanillia, and pc Roz Clarke hasn't definitely said no to marrying me yet. I emailed DC afro and DC kula shaker but I can't remember what I said, its a pity they got rid of Tom Proctor, In the GOOD OLD DAYS, the half hour days with george garfield and mike jarvis who is now Dr Pc Mike Jarvis in corrie, the bill used to be better than all the comedy on TV, and everything else, but my favourite TV show ever is probably shooting the past, or maybe the high life.

The best episode of Monty Python is the one that finishes with the deja vu bit with the milk float, i liked most of terry gilliams films and i liked ripping yarns too. I liked Happiness, I even liked quite a bit of bang bang, i liked TMWRNJ, i didnt see any of fist of fun, i like sausages, and i quite like beer too. i like the new strokes album even though its sort of slightly fashionable to do so and therefore not remotely credible, i like the divine comedys last album too, so sue me. i like nick caves last album more, and the only other CD ive bought that came out this year is Amnesiac, which isnt as good as Kid A, or Ok Computer, or the bends, but its better than pablo honey obviously, i cant decide if i like Kid A or OKC better, Thom Yorke was iN Spaceghost with bjork last night. Im working so I wont have to try SO Hard tables they turn, sometimes

Richard Herring: what did you think of Blue Jam?