Radio Memories – That Mitchell And Webb Sound.

That Mitchell And Webb Sound (BBC Radio 4, 2003-2013)

David Mitchell and Robert Webb are a comedy double-act who have been around since the late-90s. They appeared in some comedy sketch shows including Bruiser and The Mitchell And Webb Situation. These were little-seen shows, but it was a good way for them to develop their style. Their profile really began to increase though with the sitcom Peep Show, which ran for over a decade.

Along with this, they had plenty of other things on the go, including their own radio sketch series. That Mitchell And Webb Sound featured the duo as a wide range of characters, and they wrote most of the sketches themselves. Also featuring among the cast was Olivia Colman, who had worked with Mitchell and Webb on several series, long before her rise to being a winner of several high-profile acting awards, along with James Bachman (who also contributed to Bleak Expectations among others).

There weren’t too many regular characters, but these did include the snooker commentators, who rather than talk about the game, often fantasised about the players (let’s try and forget the time though when they performed as these characters live on Comic Relief and promptly died, now that really was a bad miss). And there were also the panel of old ladies where people had to justify to them their job, and they determined whether it was something worthwhile to do or not.

There were also plenty of one-off sketches that always featured interesting ideas, proving that whether they were being silly or satirical, they always had a sharp wit. Critics who considered them to now be their generation’s equivalent of Fry and Laurie definitely weren’t too far wrong. In 2006, the show transferred to TV as the similarly-titled That Mitchell And Webb Look, a few of the developed characters featuring including the snooker commentators, this ran for four series and won plenty of acclaim and awards, and there was also a book released.

And along with this, they also managed to still have the time to fit in a tour and perform on stage as several of these characters (in The Two Faces Of Mitchell And Webb), and even do a film or two as well, they must’ve been exhausted. There were five series of That Mitchell And Webb Sound, and in more recent years you’re more likely to see Mitchell making wry observations and absolutely losing it on various comedy panel games, which is always a treat.