''Three of a Kind'' is a British comedy sketch show starring comedians

Tracey Ullman Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman, 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows ''A Kick Up the Eighties'' (wi ...

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenn ...

and

David Copperfield ''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from inf ...

. Three series were made by the BBC between 1981 and 1983. The show bolstered the careers of Ullman and Henry, as well as being an outlet for young writers including

Rob Grant Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of ''Red Dwarf''. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and '' Dark Ages'', and four solo novels, his most recent being '' F ...

and

Doug Naylor Douglas Rodger Naylor (born 31 December 1955) is an English comedy writer, science fiction writer, director and television producer. Life and career Naylor was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, and studied at Chetham's School of Music ...

Ian Hislop Ian David Hislop (born 13 July 1960) is a British journalist, satirist, writer, broadcaster, and editor of the magazine ''Private Eye''. He has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes and has been a team captain on the BBC quiz show ...

and

Nick Revell Nick Revell is a British comedian and writer for radio and television. Born John Revell, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford. Revell started performing stand-up in 1980 at Comedy Store, where he later became a regular MC, between 1982 and 1 ...

. Ullman and Henry went on to greater success after the show, with Ullman initially launching a brief but successful pop career in 1983 before starring in the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

sitcom '' Girls on Top'' in 1985 and then going on to a career on American television. Henry was given his own BBC series ''

The Lenny Henry Show ''The Lenny Henry Show'' is a comedy sketch show (and in its 1987–1988 incarnation, a sitcom) featuring Lenny Henry. It was originally broadcast between 1984 and 1988, and was later revived twice, in 1995 and 2004–2005. History Original vers ...

'' in 1984, which ran in various iterations until 2005, and has continued appearing on British television, or series produced in Britain ('' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'' as of 2022). While Copperfield continued to appear on television, including his own series ''Lift Off! with Coppers & Co!'', he has had more success as a stand-up comedian in the years since ''Three of a Kind''.

Commercial releases

Books

* A ''Three of a Kind'' book, featuring various sketches from the series, was published by the BBC in 1983.

Video and DVD

A single

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

of the show, entitled ''Three of a Kind'' and released under the "Best of British Comedy" banner, appeared in 1988 from

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. It contained the four episodes of the first series edited together into one programme without the musical guest performances. The same video was released earlier in the UK in 1984 by BBC Video and re-released in 1998 under Paradox Videos. In 2005 and 2006,

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s of each series were released in the United Kingdom by

2Entertain 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

(BBC Worldwide).

Vinyl

* A comedy album was released in 1983. * Tracey Ullman's 'Little Red Riding Hood' story-telling sketch from the series is sampled over an electro-boogie backing track on a Stiff Records

12-inch The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

UY IT 217 The record was pressed in 1984 and only exists as a white label test pressing. 'Little Red Riding Hood' was never released due to copyright issues. Some copies of this extremely rare 12-inch had 'One of a Kind' stamped on the sleeve, a reference to both Tracey Ullman and the name of the show.

References

External links