The Cheese Shop were a

troupe Troupe may refer to: General * Comedy troupe, a group of comedians *Dance troupe, a group of dancers ** Fire troupe, a group of fire dancers * Troupe system, a method of playing role-playing games * Theatrical troupe, a group of theatrical perform ...

of six comedy writer-performers from the

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

circuit of

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

. Between 1997 and 1999,

Gerard Foster Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...

Dave Lamb David Alexander Lamb (born 17 January 1969) is an English actor, comedian, narrator and presenter. He is best known for his narration work on '' Come Dine with Me'' as well as appearances in British television and radio programmes, especially co ...

, Gordon Southern, Tim Verrinder, Ben Ward and

Richie Webb Richie Webb is a British comedy writer, actor and composer. He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School. He is a composer of music for television – often with partner music producer Matt Katz – contributing to many comedy, entertainment ...

appeared in three series of their comedy sketch show The Cheese Shop Presents: The Butter Factor on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

. This show featured a number of sketches based around eccentric and outrageous characters, including drug-addicted and sexually deviant singer-songwriter Ted Ruby, maniac gardener Jack Finsborough, petty official Miles Stoat and an unnamed but inexperienced vet (''"'Tortoise', you say? Hmm... I must write that down..."'') The third series included a regular section called "Fellah's Hour" this was expanded in a fourth series of The Cheese Shop renamed "Fellah's Hour" but still written and performed by the same 6 writer performers and featuring many of the same characters. Ben Ward, Gerard Foster and

also took part in the Saturday morning children's TV programme

Live & Kicking ''Live & Kicking'' is a British children's television series that originally aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1993 to 15 September 2001. It was the replacement for ''Going Live!'', and took many of its features from it, such as phone-ins, games, c ...

, as Men In Trousers, a parody based on the 1997 film

Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesse ...

, where they all shared the same pair of trousers.

Cast

* Dave Lamb went on to contribute to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n comedy show Goodness Gracious Me and is a prolific comedy actor. He is the narrator for Come Dine with Me. * Ben Ward wrote the remake of

The Basil Brush Show ''The Basil Brush Show'' is a British children's television sitcom series, starring the glove puppet fox Basil Brush. It was produced for six series by The Foundation, airing on CBBC from 27 September 2002 to 25 December 2007. The show is a s ...

SMTV Live ''SMTV Live'' (an abbreviation of ''Saturday Morning Television Live'', and also stylised as ''SM: LIVE'') was a British Saturday morning children's television programme, produced by Blaze Television for ITV. Operating on a similar format to o ...

The Big Breakfast ''The Big Breakfast'' is a British breakfast light entertainment television programme that was broadcast on Channel 4. Originally presented by Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, the show was latterly presented by Mo Gilligan and AJ Odudu. The pro ...

and the award-winning Disney series called Bus Life for which he was nominated as best Original Writer at the 2004 Children's BAFTAs. * Gerard Foster went on to write and star in a very successful Radio 4 sitcom called "At Home with the Snails"; he also wrote

Young Dracula ''Young Dracula'' is a British children's horror drama comedy television series which aired on CBBC, loosely based on '' Young Dracula'', a 2002 children's book by Michael Lawrence. It is also based on the epistolary novel ''Dracula'', writt ...

and

My Parents Are Aliens ''My Parents Are Aliens'' is a British children's television sitcom that was produced for eight series by Yorkshire Television and aired on ITV from 8 November 1999 to 18 December 2006. Overview The show primarily follows the lives of three or ...

. * Tim Verrinder is now a television director specialising in live television and events including music, comedy and entertainment. * Gordon Southern is a stand up comedian. *

writes and performs extensively on Radio 4 and is a prolific composer of music for TV

External links

Official website of Ben WardOfficial website of Gordon SouthernOfficial website of Timothy VerrinderOfficial website of Richie Webb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheese Shop, The BBC Radio comedy programmes