 Fast and Loose
1 9 5 4 - 1 9 5 5 (UK)
4 x 45 minute episodes (monthly)
5 x 30 minute episodes (fortnightly)
Initially lasting 45 minutes instead of the usual half-hour,
each episode of Fast and Loose consisted of lengthy
sketches starring Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goodwin.
The show has been hailed as the first British program to make
situation comedy work as the sketches were long enough to allow
the situations to develop through the characters.
Bob Monkhouse had begun his writing career in 1943 when, as a
fifteen-year-old schoolboy, he sold a joke to Max Miller, then
appearing at the Penge Emporium, for 2s 6d. He went on to team up
with Denis Goodwin, who had been at the same school as Bob
(although they were in different years and never actually met
there).
Fast and Loose was to have been called The Bob
Monkhouse Show but Goodwin was not too keen on that idea. The
show was a smash but the pair needed time to recharge their
batteries for a second run so Bob faked a collapse at the end of
the first series. The newspapers carried pictures of him
'recovering', and he and Denis thus had the opportunity to prepare
future material.
Comedian Charlie Drake sustained lasting scars from Fast and
Loose when Monkhouse accidentally blew off half of Drake's
left ear during a sketch. Monkhouse fired a blank-firing revolver
which blew the packing out of the cylinder of the gun at Charlie's
face.
He completed the live sketch, keeping his right side to camera,
before collapsing and having his ear stitched back by a doctor.
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