Little Britain was very successful. The problem was what they were going to do next. Expectations were very high. Little Britain USA was sort of okay, but nothing new.
Eventually they had to do something else. Come Fly With Me is it. It's got a surprisingly high score on here for something that died. The BBC threw money at their new comedy geniuses and waited for them to come up with the goods. They rented entire airports and shot at film studios, unheard of for a UK comedy show. They had their pick of writers, actors and comedians. They could have had anyone they wanted.
What we got was a series of grotesque characters in the mould of a reality TV series from ten years before. Many of the characters were racist themselves or were portrayed in a racially insensitive way not seen on British TV since the 1970s. That's not to say that these things are so taboo that one cannot make good comedy out of them, but Lucas and Walliams didn't. The characters were flat, lazy clichés. A low cost airline that screws people for every possible add-on? A black woman who is devoutly Christian shouting "Praise the Lord!"? A drunk airline pilot? Are we sure it's not the 1970s?
It didn't get a second series. If it had been even half-decent the BBC would have at least have limped out a second series. But no, pretty quickly the announced that it was over. And Walliams and Lucas haven't done anything together since. Walliams has sensibly got out of comedy and moved into children's books, whilst Lucas has sort of stayed in comedy but hasn't really done anything.
I saw some people in other reviews suggest that Come Fly With Me is not comedy for mainstream audiences - "not a show for normal people". That's overselling it. For some Americans, this show can be seen as quirky or niche simply because it's British. The truth is, this is mainstream British comedy... from the 1970s... with pots of money thrown at casually-racist prosthetics and unnecessary locations.
Eventually they had to do something else. Come Fly With Me is it. It's got a surprisingly high score on here for something that died. The BBC threw money at their new comedy geniuses and waited for them to come up with the goods. They rented entire airports and shot at film studios, unheard of for a UK comedy show. They had their pick of writers, actors and comedians. They could have had anyone they wanted.
What we got was a series of grotesque characters in the mould of a reality TV series from ten years before. Many of the characters were racist themselves or were portrayed in a racially insensitive way not seen on British TV since the 1970s. That's not to say that these things are so taboo that one cannot make good comedy out of them, but Lucas and Walliams didn't. The characters were flat, lazy clichés. A low cost airline that screws people for every possible add-on? A black woman who is devoutly Christian shouting "Praise the Lord!"? A drunk airline pilot? Are we sure it's not the 1970s?
It didn't get a second series. If it had been even half-decent the BBC would have at least have limped out a second series. But no, pretty quickly the announced that it was over. And Walliams and Lucas haven't done anything together since. Walliams has sensibly got out of comedy and moved into children's books, whilst Lucas has sort of stayed in comedy but hasn't really done anything.
I saw some people in other reviews suggest that Come Fly With Me is not comedy for mainstream audiences - "not a show for normal people". That's overselling it. For some Americans, this show can be seen as quirky or niche simply because it's British. The truth is, this is mainstream British comedy... from the 1970s... with pots of money thrown at casually-racist prosthetics and unnecessary locations.