The Morwenna Banks Show (Channel 5, 1998-1999)
This is another comedy show from the 90s that I don’t remember watching at the time, but once again, thanks to YouTube, I have finally seen some of this, and here’s why I was interested in this one. When Channel 5 launched in 1997, as you should know by now, I was attracted to their supposedly lively and fresh new schedule, like nothing on UK TV before.
Among the highlights was The Jack Docherty Show. Now I know that have reflected on this in several pieces now, but he was going to be the five-nights-a-week star of their late-night schedule. Why they chose him out of everyone, I’m still not sure. But I wonder how many people know that Jack wasn’t the only cast member of Absolutely to get his own show on Channel 5.
Morwenna Banks is someone who had worked on various TV radio and comedy shows, before becoming best-known for featuring in Channel 4’s Absolutely. After this ended, in 1994, she became one of a small group of British-born people to be a cast member of American show Saturday Night Live. I presume that she did her rambling schoolgirl character, which is her best-known routine.
I can only imagine what American audiences thought of it all though. And in 1995, she was in the cast of American sitcom Dream On. After this, she returned to the UK, and was given a show of her own, and many felt that this was well deserved. In The Morwenna Banks Show, various characters featured, along with the schoolgirl again, because if you find a winning formula, you might was well use it.
There was also a small supporting cast including Absolutely‘s Gordon Kennedy. And as several of the writers and producers were also among the cast of that sketch show, this was almost like a bonus fifth series of Absolutely, although a fairly low-key one shown in a late-night slot. At least Channel 5 had some commitment to home-made comedy at this point though.
There’s no doubt that Banks had the talent to play a wide variety of characters, and get the laughs out of them. This was also repeated on Paramount Comedy Channel, although I don’t remember ever seeing this on there during the time that I had access to that channel (thanks to the mighty ITV Digital), and as far as I know, there has been no DVD release.
After the first and only series ended, a year later, there were two one-off specials, shown as part of themed weekends. The first was all about famous blondes, and the second was about science-fiction. Banks has continued to work on various comedy shows, continuing to collaborate with various Absolutely cast members, and also appeared in the first series of Harry And Paul.
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