Little Britain TV Series TwoHome || Little Britain || TV Series Two The Complete GuideLittle Britain Series Two has now finished it's first showing on BBC One. You can still catch repeats occsionally on BBC Three. EPISODE GUIDE
PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS
HISTORY
Quick Fact SummarySeries Two will be SIX episodes and not eight as in Series One. It is written by Matt and David and the script editor is Rob Brydon. The producer of Series 2 is Geoff Posner. Guest stars include:
Production: Location filming began in July and continued into August. We estimate that this will be edited in August in order to provide VT for the Studio Recordings. Studio recording dates were 4th, 5th, 13th, 14th, 15th September at 7pm in London, TV Centre, Shepherd's Bush. The last date was added after the others in oder to give them more time for filming. Locations: Southwold, a small, seaside town in Suffolk (Emily Howard - In series 1 she lived in Herne Bay in Kent). St Felix School, again in Southwold. Possibly Bow Estate in London (Herbie City-Jason/Nan). Also in London, both Hackney (Lou & Andy) and Norley Vale were used as locations. Transmission began on Tuesday, 19th October on BBC Three. There was a special interactive "red button" service during the premiers, with footage from the DVD, interviews with Matt Lucas and David Walliams and "comprehensive introductions" to the new characters from series two. This will be followed by a showing on BBC One at the end of November, with no showing on BBC Two. The episodes on BBC One will be slightly edited for the mass media audience. Characters and plot. David said "We've written lots of new characters, and there's something even more disgusting than me sucking an old lady's toe!". Matt said that the majority of the first series characters will return for the second series. And that a lot more ‘Mr Man’ jokes have been written for series 2. Characters that are definitely in it are:
Writing and casting Series 2Matt and David started writing Series Two almost the moment Series One was in the bag! Jane Root, (the then controller of BBC Two) said at the BBC conference on 3rd December that a second series was being written as was pre-production. "Don't worry," she said, "It will definitely happen." Matt and David said in various interviews around the time of the premier of Series One on BBC Two that they were getting on well with the writing of Series Two. On 19th December 2003, Tony Head was starring as Hook in Peter Pan in London. In a quick chat at the stage door (photo) he said he's was keen to reprise his role as the PM in the second series On 15th January 2004 David and Matt guest starred on The Chris Moyles Show (BBC Radio 1) and revealed that Nigel Havers and Vanessa Feltz will guest star in series 2. Interviewed on BBC Radio One about the RTS awards (17th March), David said:"We've finally got something that's vaguely successful so we thought, nah, we're gonna stop! No, we're writing another series at the moment. It's probably gonna be October or November of this year. It'll be sort of half and half. We've written lots of new characters, and there's something even more disgusting than me sucking an old lady's toe!" Teletext spoke to Matt and David about Series 2 and the Tour on 22nd April. By then there were loads of stars queuing up to be in Little Britain Series 2, including Ken Branagh and Pierce Brosnan! TV Times (19th May 2004) repeated some of the quotes from the Teletext interview. (Scan) From Best magazine, Neil Sean's gossip column says that apparently Jennie Bond hopes to appear again in the next series of Little Britain. "I think it would show off my humour a treat" she thrilled. According to the Sunday People (4th July), Ruth Madoc will play Daffyd's mum. Also, long time Matt and David collaborator, Jamie Theakston, will appear in the show. A few more guest stars were announced in August
Casting was completed in August.
Series 2 in productionThe production was planned similarly to 2003/Series One - location filming in April/May, studio filming in July, broadcast on BBC Three in September and BBC Two in December. This was all delayed slightly by the incredible success of Series One which meant that Matt and David were busy with award ceremonies during April and May. On 18th April, at the BAFTAs, David announced that series two will consist of only six episodes, and not eight as in series one. On 21st April, The Daily Mirror reported an unconfirmed rumour that Series 2 of Little Britain would be broadcast on BBC One. This was finally confirmed that on 16th June, when Matt and David were both interviewed on the BBC America site in advance of the showing of the first series on Sunday 20th June. On 30th June, Rob Brydon told Heat Magazine that he's been script-editing Little Britain Series Two. Read the interview here. In July the BBC Three forum informed fans that Series 2 filming had been delayed:
Tickets for the recording of Series 2 of Little Britain then became available from the BBC Ticket Office on 16th July 2004 but all went in four days. Recording dates were announced as 4th, 5th, 13th and 14th September at 7pm in London, TV Centre, Shepherd's Bush. A fifth date of 15th September was added but was not advertised - tickets were allocated to those who had not been successful with the other dates. It was confirmed on 16th July that Series 2 of Little Britain would definitely be shown on BBC Three first, in the autumn. The BBC reported at the end of August that Little Britain Series 2 would now be shown on BBC One in November, after it's premier on BBC Three in October, skipping BBC Two altogether. According to the BBC Press Office - "to support the return of [Little Britain], there will be an enhanced TV video service available on digital for fans to binge on exclusive new content." We also have a start date for Little Britain Series 2! It begins on Tuesday, 19th October on BBC Three. (Heat Magazine - 21st August). (scan below) More information was released on special interactive "red button" service in October. It was to be available during the premiers, with footage from the DVD, interviews with Matt Lucas and David Walliams and "comprehensive introductions" to the new characters from series two. Fantastic stuff. New Media Age magazine printed an article on this (below).
Matt and David were on Radio 4 (20th October) and confirmed that the BBC One version of Little Britain Series 2 will be different from the BBC Three version. Two versions of some sketches were filmed and some editing will be done for the mass market audience. Various publications ran stories about this including Chortle and Media Guardian (you can read this review here rather than registering for MG) Series 2 on locationIt was rumoured that Little Britain Series 2 location filming had startedon 7th June 2004. Director Steve Bendelack and the BBC film crew were spotted around the Bow Estate towerblock where they film the external shots for Jason/Nan/Gary, and also the doctor's surgery where they filmed Vicky/Daffyd. Tea rooms in Southwold, a small, seaside town in Suffolk, were been approached by the BBC to be used as locations in Series 2 of Little Britain in mid June 2004. The BBC officially confirmed that location filming there would not start for another month. Read the full story here. There's a lovely article in the East Anglia Daily Times giving loads more detail Pictures from Series 2 started to come in from Southwold promenade when David and Matt began filming on 21st July. The Sun did an article on 23rd July, followed by Heat who did a double page spread on 27th.
The text from Heat magazine is as follows.
The Daily Mirror, however, printed a story on 24th July, merely summarising information on guest stars from this web page. The next week, Matt and David were filming Kenny Craig the stage hypnotist, hypnotising a traffic warden. The Sun newspaper - always first with Little Britain photos - printed these pictures. The first two are from the website, the final one is a scan from the paper.
The article reads: LOOK into my eyes, look into my eyes! Little Britain’s Matt Lucas plays hypnotist Kenny Craig trying to dodge a parking ticket. Matt reckons there’s a trance it might just work. See how he fares in the new series with pal David Walliams on BBC3 and BBC1 later this year. Nuts magazine (30th July) had loads of photos of Andy and Lou on the beach. Lou has taken Andy to the seaside for the day and Andy decides to go skinny dipping while Lou's back is turned. The other photos are of the ladies tennis game that the East Anglia daily times says is Emily and Florence but Nuts says is new characters!
After Southwold filming was complete and the crew moved to London. The Daily Mirror did this report from the filming in Hackney. Looks like Andy's getting his kit off again! Star Magazine followed with a lovely two-page report from Hackney.
Tom chatted to Matt Lucas, who revealed a few new facts the majority of the first series minor characters will not return for the second series and a lot of jokes have been written for the "Pirate Memory Game" man in series 2. Filming moved to Norley Vale, London, during the week of 19th August. Matt Lucas was "spotted" in Heat magazine (21st August) giving an autograph to a young fan during a break from filming there. The Daily Mirror (Aug 28th) printed photos of Emily and her friend Florence in tutus on a visit to the opera. Here's a scan.
Zoo Magazine (27th August) did a 16 page comedy special about the new autumn season of TV. Headlining was an article on Little Britain, reprinting a few of the photos from the location filming this summer.
Time Out did an article on Emily and Florence at the Ballet.
Location filming finished at the end of August.
Studio Audience RecordingsThere were five recordings of sketches performed in front of a live studio audience at Television Centre, White City, London. There are some fan reports on what happened are available here:
Comic ReliefSee the special Comic Relief page here. Ratings and International SuccessA record 1.8 million viewers tuned in to BBC Three to watch the first episode of Little Britian, smashing the channel's previous record for ratings.Read more from the BBC. On BBC One the ratings were: Ep 1: 4.2m, Ep 2: 5.9m The Australian network ABC was the first international network to show Series 2 of Little Britain, having had a great success with Series 1. It began showing Series two on Wednesday 9th February 2005. BBC Canada picked up the show in February 2005, and it was broadcast starting 28th April 2005. Here's an article from the Canadian TV Guide.
The Australian press were very complimentary about the series and it seemed to take the country by storm. Read what Green Press had to say about the last episode of Series 2 (below). The Sydney Morning Herald also gave episode 6 a good review.
A parade of Daffyds appeared in the Sydney Mardi Gras 2005. Read all about it and see pictures here. Here's an article about Little Britain from article from the Melbourne Uni magazine Farrago
BBC America have picked up Series 2 of Little Britain. All six half-hour shows will be broadcast starting on 17th August and playing weekly on Wednesdays at 9 pm. BBC America will also reshow the Series 1 in June.
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