Rent Barking (1998)

Hit-and-Miss 1998 Channel 4 Comedy Series Curio with early appearances by those destined for stardom - Barking review by PV

Worth watching this to see Peter Kay (who looks very young) and David Walliams (who overacts in his usual OTT way) in early appearances. Matt Lucas also here. Little Britain is fermenting here - it appeared 5 years later.

And Catherine Tate and Marcus Brigstocke. Rhys Thomas at age 20 here - before he did Down the Line on Radio 4 which became Bellamy's People.

Some sketches and characters work; some fall flat (esp a very odd 2 builders and a clueless son extended sketch series).

The CYCLE MASTER character by Brigstocke is underused! It is so relevant now! Starts only in episode 4 but could have been so many more sketches.

The best is the psycho PE teacher by (Paul) Mackenzie Crook, who also teaches maths bizarrely (geography for PE teachers surely so they know where they are on the pitch, or biology so they know where all the bits are, but maths? Seriously? Most PE teachers are not great at that...). The best character by far - I wonder if it is based on his teachers at Dartford Boys Tech in 1980s? This is before Crook made it big on The Eleven O'Clock Show which gave us Ali G pre Borat, and of course The Office and Detectorists.

Rhys Thomas at age 20 here - before he did Down the Line on Radio 4 which became Bellamy's People.

The worst sketch is by Omid Djalili, deeply unfunny and also racist as this Iranian comic actually blacks up and wears a curly wig to mimic a black African doctor. Gosh.

WHOLE CAST: Niall Ashdown, Will Barton, Marcus Brigstocke, Cliff Kelly, Matt Lucas, Dave Lamb, Sarah Parkinson, Rhys Thomas, Tim Verrinder, David Walliams, Tony Way, Glynne Wiley, Kriston Berlevy, Mackenzie Crook, Jo Enright, Simon Greenall, Catherine Tate, Martin Trenaman, Steve Brody, Steven Burge

Anyway, worth a watch for comedy fans as only one series of 6 episodes - it was not recommissioned.