RaspberryLucozade Two years after 'Harry Enfield's Television Programme' ended, Harry returned in triumph to the BBC with 'Harry Enfield & Chums'. It trod more or less the same line as the earlier show, featuring the same mix of characters from before such as gormless Tim Nice But Dim, the repugnant Wayne & Waynetta Slob, the evil Old Gits and obnoxious Mr. Don't Wanna Do It Like That. The same script writers, such as Nick Newman and Ian Hislop were brought back to provide the scripts, Kate. St John provided a new catchy theme tune. Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke returned to the supporting cast, though Charlie Higson dropped out to appear in 'The Fast Show'.Some characters from before were given the chop such as DJs Smashie & Nicey ( who by this point had gained their own one-off show - 'Smashie & Nicey: The End Of An Era' ), the annoying Double Take Brothers and Les The Forgetful Barman, though some new characters were created such as the lecherous Lovely Wobbly Randy Old Ladies, the acne-ridden Kevin The Teenager ( who appeared in the earlier show as Little Brother Kevin ), the permanently angry Self Righteous Brothers, the dope smoking Dutch Coppers and the Michael Caine inspired Michael Paine, the nosey neighbour. These new creations benefited the show enormously.Some of the humour could be unnecessarily cruel and unfunny, such as Alf Git cutting a puppy in half with a meat cleaver, but overall the show was more solid than sloppy. It ended on a high in 1998 with a hilarious Christmas special featuring a memorable spoof of 'Titanic'.Sadly. this was the last decent thing Enfield did. In 2000, he fronted 'Brand Spanking New Show' for Sky One which was so bad even Enfield himself never bothered to watch it. In 2001, he gave us the equally bad 'Harry Enfield Presents' as well as the dire feature film 'Kevin & Perry Go Large'. In 2002, he tried his hand at sitcom again ( his first being 'Men Behaving Badly' in 1992 ) with 'Celeb' but it was a critical disaster. Perhaps the worst thing he has done to date is 'Ruddy Hell! It's Harry & Paul'. Fortunately, 'Chums' is still repeated on UK Gold so one can remind themselves how great a comic Harry once was.

Red-Barracuda Harry Enfield and Chums ran for a couple of series in the 90's, its title was an acknowledgement of the others who contributed to the success of Enfield's comedy, most notably Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke. The series continues the same format that 'Harry Enfield's Television Programme' had started, i.e. sketch based comedy featuring an array of characters that mostly re-appeared several times over the course of the two seasons. It also has to be admitted that the comedy relied quite a bit on the use of catchphrases, which were ultimately an easy identifier for most of the characters. Catchphrase comedy has developed a bit of a bad name over the years for being too simplistic and banal and it's true that many comedy shows definitely fall into this bracket but Enfield seemed to occupy the high ground of this sub-genre back in the 90's and this series definitely shows how good he could be with it. In fairness, the best comedy routines in these shows had a lot more going for them than a memorable repeatable line.Looking at the series objectively from the point of view of today it does seem far more uneven than it did at the time. Back in the day it did come across as absolutely hilarious but some characters that were funny then seem a bit one-note and average now, like the Slobs, the Old Gits and the Scousers. While others such as the Randy Old Ladies and Harry and Lulu are completely unfunny. On the other hand, the show did introduce classic creations such as Kevin the Teenager and The Self Righteous Brothers. It also featured some inspired old school TV invention with the 1930's information films and Mr Dead. But some of the most memorable moments come via one-off sketches like the clever spoof Benny Elton and the bizarre combination of the Italian Il Postino with Postman Pat. While there are a few dud moments sprinkled throughout the two series, the good moments definitely outweigh the bad. Much of the credit for the success of the show simply comes down to the great comic acting of Enfield, Whitehouse and Burke, the latter is truly inspired as Perry the gormless teenage friend of Kevin. It's a shame that Enfield sort of lost his way with this kind of thing in the years that followed because this series showed that he was a master at it when he got it right.

stevenblackburn One of the comedy greats who will forever remain in our video collections for the various characters and Send-ups that he Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke did to gain our interest and liven up our humour zones which we must do so UNSTIFFEN THAT STIFF UPPER LIP!!!!!!!!!

G.Spider Most of the 1994 series is just as good as the previous two Harry Enfield's TV Program series but it starts off very badly. Who exactly is warped enough to think that jokes about mental retards, not to mention tinnitus, are in the slightest bit funny? They just come across as malicious. Why these sketches were included in the video of the series is a mystery. And the two characters talking in that pub do no more than shout about celebrities in rather infantile name-calling torrents of abuse.However, the 1994 series thankfully picks up. The send-ups of 40's documentaries are as hilarious as ever, Mr Don't and the Old G*ts are at their best and there are also some inventive new characters - Kevin the teenager, the randy old ladies etc.The fourth series (first shown in 1997) is just a waste of time. Though it has its moments, it just seems filled with unfunny sketches about gays, northerners and the like. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who found that dated stereotypical German to be nothing but offensive. The 'Mr Dead' sketches are okay and there are some humorous send-ups of 40's adverts, documentaries etc, but most of it's just tired and the humor is mostly forced.