Limmy's Show
Limmy's Show! is a Scottish anti-humour sketch show broadcast on BBC Two Scotland, written and directed by Brian "Limmy" Limond, who stars as himself and a variety of characters in a series of observational, surreal, dark and bizarre sketches. Limmy frequently breaks the fourth wall by directly talking to viewers through the camera. The show stars Brian Limond, Paul McCole, Alan McHugh, Kirstin McLean and Ryan Fletcher. The first series featured a completely different supporting cast, consisting of Debbie Welsh, Tom Brogan and Raymond Mearns.
| Limmy's Show! | |
|---|---|
 Limmy's Show! title card | |
| Created by | Brian Limond |
| Written by | Brian Limond |
| Directed by | Brian Limond |
| Starring | Brian Limond Paul McCole Alan McHugh Kirstin McLean Raymond Mearns Tom Brogan Debbie Welsh |
| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Original language(s) | Scots, English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 20 (+pilot and one special) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jacqueline Sinclair |
| Producer(s) | Rab Christie |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | The Comedy Unit |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two Scotland |
| Original release | 11 January 2010 – 22 December 2013 |
Development
Limmy's Show! was created as a result of the success of Limmy's live performances at The Fringe and the Glasgow International Comedy Festival based on his successful 2006 podcast Limmy's World of Glasgow. Several of the characters seen in Limmy's Show were originally created through this podcast, including Jacqueline McCafferty, Wee Gary and Dee Dee. The first series, which was approved following a successful pilot in February 2009, first aired on 11 January 2010 and ran weekly for six episodes. In July 2012, it was revealed by Limond via Twitter that he was currently filming the third series, which was aired from 12 November 2012.[1] Additionally, a Christmas special was broadcast in December 2013. Limmy has said that he doesn't want to make any more episodes of the show after the Christmas special. Limmy proposed a sitcom based around Falconhoof, aka "Ped", but the show was turned down by BBC Scotland.[2]
Recurring characters
- Limmy – Limmy appears as himself making blunt observations on life and modern culture. These sketches range from short pieces of satire to dancing and complete non-sequitur jokes. On several occasions, he criticises Top of the Pops performances, with himself keyed in over the footage.
- Jacqueline McCafferty – An ex-junkie who spent three years of her life on heroin and a further five years on a methadone treatment programme. Jacqueline tries her hardest to fit in with the middle and upper classes and is very bitter about people looking down their nose at her.
- Falconhoof – The humble, soft-spoken and consistently well-intentioned costumed host of "Adventure Call", a live televised call-in show in which he guides players through a fantasy role-playing game in order to win cash prizes. He regularly has to deal with angry, unexpected and sometimes misleading or threatening callers and situations.
- Derek "Dee Dee" Durie – A spaced-out waster who spends his time doing absolutely nothing but over-analysing trivial things. He prefaces each monologue with "Fockin'..."
- Raymond Day (series 2-3) – A smug television psychic medium based on Colin Fry who imparts devastatingly terrible information on particular members of his otherwise happy crowd. The other members of the audience seem to be completely oblivious as to the emotional horror Raymond is putting those members through, however, Raymond himself is portrayed as an intentionally malicious fraudster.
- Larry Forsyth Experiments (series 2-3) – These sketches are a series of experiments which the title character "Larry Forsyth" conducts with fictional drugs, which often have strange hallucinatory effects, and always end up with a nurse coming into the room and subduing him. The sketch is presented as a black and white TV show from the 1950s, modelled on an infamous unaired episode of Panorama in which Christopher Mayhew carried out a similar experiment using mescaline.
- Mr. Mulvaney (series 1 & special) – A mischievous 60-year-old businessman constantly thinking of ways to avoid the law as he struggles with his desires to engage in acts of petty crime.
- Wee Gary (series 1) – A primary schooler who spends his breaks and lunch times trying to capitalise upon his fellow pupils with manipulative tact and by selling anything and everything.
- Supercomputer (series 1) – Limmy controls a supercomputer to wreak havoc on the things he hates in society and cause mischief in everyday life.
- John Paul (series 1) – A teenage working class ned and all-round trouble maker who terrorises and humiliates his victims, behaving in a loutish way. He has a persistent, negative social media presence.
- The Spies (series 2) - Two inept spies who are intent on 'getting something' on the other one, yet foiled by their inability to predict one another's actions.
- guy in an empty pub (series 1) - at the end of certain sketches Limmy cuts to an empty pub where a guy in an empty pub tells him a story, it sometimes relates to the previous sketch. Limmy always looks confused as to how he’s got there.
Honours
Limmy's Show! has won a Scottish BAFTA award for Best Entertainment Programme twice, the first time in November 2011[3] and the second one in 2013 [4]
References
- Whitelaw, Paul (23 November 2012). "Limmy's Show!: why is this fine comedy broadcast only in Scotland?". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
- Eames, Tom (9 June 2016). "Limmy's Falconhoof sitcom was turned down and he has no plans for new Limmy's Show". Digital Spy. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- "Winners at Scottish BAFTA's: Creative Clyde members win awards". Creativeclyde.com. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
- Ferguson, Brian (17 November 2013). "Scottish Baftas: For Those In Peril wins big". The Scotsman. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
