''Big Train'' is a British television
sketch show created by
Arthur Mathews and
Graham Linehan. The first series was broadcast on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
in 1998, while the second, in which Linehan was not involved, aired in 2002.
Overview
The series starred the actors
Kevin Eldon,
Mark Heap, and
Simon Pegg in both series one and two, with
Julia Davis and
Amelia Bullmore in the first series (
Nick Frost also appeared in two episodes), and
Rebecca Front,
Tracy-Ann Oberman and
Catherine Tate in the second series. All have starred in a variety of other comedy shows including ''
I'm Alan Partridge
''I'm Alan Partridge'' is a British sitcom written by Steve Coogan, Peter Baynham and Armando Iannucci. Coogan stars as Alan Partridge, a tactless and inept radio DJ and television presenter who has been left by his wife and dropped from the BB ...
'', ''
Look Around You'', ''
Spaced'', ''
Smack the Pony'', ''
Brass Eye'' and ''
Green Wing.'' Catherine Tate went on to get her own show on the BBC, ''
The Catherine Tate Show''. The first series was directed by Graham Linehan and other series contributors included
David Mitchell.
The pilot episode was directed by
Chris Morris but was never broadcast in full. Some sketches from the pilot are scattered through the series. Apart from Pegg, all of the first series regular cast members subsequently starred in Morris' sketch comedy ''
Jam'' (2000).
The title of the show is derived from the song run during the credits, "Big Train", which was recorded by
Max Greger and his Orchestra. The writers were fond enough of the song to name the show after it. The song has since been adopted for a commercial for
Virgin Trains.
Both series were shot entirely on location (series one on
35mm film and series two on
DigiBeta) and later shown to a live audience so that a
laugh track could be recorded.
Comedy style and notable sketches
Following in the tradition of
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...
, the comedy of ''Big Train'' is based on the subversion of ordinary situations by the surreal or macabre. For example, one
scene features a bad-mannered man casually stabbed to death by his embarrassed wife at a dinner party. In a recurring sketch from the first series, an animated staring contest is accompanied by commentary from
BBC football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
commentator
Barry Davies and comedy actor and impressionist
Phil Cornwell. The Stare-out Championship was based on a self-published comic book by Paul Hatcher and was animated by
Chris Shepherd
Chris Shepherd (born 11 December 1967) is a double BAFTA nominated television/film writer and director. Born in Anfield, Liverpool, Lancashire, in 1967. He is mainly known for combining live action with animation. His work fuses comedy with com ...
. The championship is portrayed as a huge event akin to the
World Cup and the anecdotes told by the commentators often echoed those from real sporting events, such as performance enhancing drugs, streakers and the theft of the trophy.
Some other notable sketches included:
*A
Ming the Merciless-style galactic despot that struggles to subjugate planets and imprison princes while doing the housework, checking his answerphone and being hospitalised after 'slipping on the little mat that goes around the toilet'.
*A romantic drama conducted entirely in French in which a woman has a relationship with a set of temporary traffic lights, much to the anguish of her human admirer.
*Fat handed t***' -A man with unfeasibly large hands that is ridiculed by members of the public when engaging in any kind of detailed work, such as embroidery.
*An office manager who repeatedly distracts his employees - when they demand their promised overtime payment - with magic tricks, juggling and cute animals before running from the office, hailing a taxicab and flying away aboard an airliner.
*An English tourist asking two Frenchmen for directions, only to have them nonchalantly respond, in perfect English, that they can't understand her as they don't speak English.
*A series of sketches in which 1970s and 1980s pop musicians were placed in unusual or surreal contexts (such as
Kevin Rowland
Kevin Rowland (born 17 August 1953) is a British singer and musician best known as the frontman for the pop band Dexys Midnight Runners (currently called ''Dexys''). The band had several hits in the early 1980s, the most notable being "Geno" an ...
from
Dexys Midnight Runners being reanimated as
Frankenstein's Monster,
Daryl Hall and
John Oates
John William Oates (born April 7, 1948) is an American musician, best known as half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates, with Daryl Hall. He has played rock, R&B, and soul music, acting as a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer ...
acting as
social workers, and
Chaka Khan
Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan (), is an American singer. Her career has spanned more than five decades, beginning in the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. Known as the " Qu ...
as a Wild West bounty hunter pursuing
The Bee Gees).
Transmission details
''Big Train'' originally aired on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
on Monday nights during the following periods:
* Series one (6 episodes): 9 November – 14 December 1998
* Series two (6 episodes): 7 January – 11 February 2002
Reception
Despite running for two series, ''Big Train'' attracted only a limited audience. Even so, the series was well received by critics, with the first series voted "Best 'Broken Comedy' Show" at the prestigious
British Comedy Awards in 1999
''In 1999'' is a 1912 one-act comedic short play by William C. deMille, originally produced by Jesse L. Lasky, that was popular upon its release. Its gags are based on a future where gender roles are reversed.
Production
The piece debuted at th ...
. ''
The Independent'' called the show "divine". Reviewing the DVD, ''
The Guardian'' wrote: "Like most sketch shows, ''Big Train'' is not without its misses, but as a breeding ground for comedy talent and a forefather to such modern-day hits as ''
Little Britain Little Britain may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Little Britain'' (sketch show), a British radio and then TV show
** ''Little Britain USA'', an American spin-off
* "Little Britain", a song by Dreadzone from the 1995 album '' Second Light''
...
'' and ''
That Mitchell and Webb Look'', it remains a gem, boasting some of the finest performances Pegg, Davis and the rest have ever delivered", whilst another author of the same publication called it "one of the most original and most consistently funny sketch shows in years".
Home media
The Complete Series 1 and 2 has been released in the US and the UK.
From March 2021, both series became available on Britbox.
References
External links
*
*
*
''Big Train''on
TV.com
{{Arthur Mathews
1998 British television series debuts
2002 British television series endings
1990s British television sketch shows
2000s British television sketch shows
BBC television sketch shows
English-language television shows
Television series by Fremantle (company)
Television series created by Graham Linehan