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Tittybangbang
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceTittybangbang (known in its second series as Tittybangbang2 and its third series as Tittybangbang3) is a television sketch comedy show, led by Lucy Montgomery and Debbie Chazen, which has attracted a cult following on BBC Three. The show is produced by the independent production company Pett Productions and is performed almost entirely by women.
History
Producer Lisa Clark wanted to leave no stone unturned in her search for talented actresses to play the leads, so she made the unusual decision to hold open auditions.For the show's name, the writers and producer were looking for something that was catchy and different "like Desperate Housewives", Parker said in an interview. Bob Mortimer came up with the name 'Tittybangbang', because he wanted to try and draw men into a female-led sketch comedy, as well as women.
The pilot episode aired on BBC Three on September 20 2005 and became the most watched new comedy show in the channel's history. The first series was heavily advertised using an advert in which the cast members danced and mimed to the Pussycat Dolls' hit single 'Don't Cha'. It ran from January 10 to February 14 2006 and matched the pilot's success. After the series finished, BBC Three dedicated an evening to the show, airing each episode in succession.
The second series ran from November 13 to December 25 2006. It had a new title sequence and theme tune, consisted of seven thirty minute episodes (including the Christmas special, Chrissytittybangbang) and matched the first series' viewing success. Both the first and second series were shown on BBC2 in a series of 'Best of' compilation specials.
In March 2007, Tittybangbang was nominated for a Golden Rose international television award, and several clips from the second series, including Maxine Bendix and the Harrogate Ladies were shown at the ceremony. The third series had another new title sequence and ran from November 11th to December 16th 2007, followed by the Christmas special, on December 26th.
Sketches
The Italian Lady (Montgomery) is a paradoxical 'shy exhibitionist' maid who tries to attract attention by doing crazy things, such as faking a bout of bird flu or locking tourists in a cupboard, whilst proclaiming "Don't look at me" followed by "I'm shy". In the third series, the maid takes up a new job as a nurse in a hospital, and her antics are occasionally accompanied by a special viewfinder appearing on the screen, highlighting specific areas of her anatomy that the viewer is urged not to look at. Lucy Montgomery has stated that the Italian Maid is her favourite of all the characters she performs.
Maxine Bendix (Montgomery) is an Eastern European woman who has had a grotesque amount of cheap plastic surgery which is prone to 'seepage' that can strip paint off cars and cause temporary blindness. She works as a topless model, and is usually mistreated by people after a slight leak, except for her photographer boyfriend, Frank (Way). She attempted suicide during the second series finale and was thought, for a time, to have died, but she appeared in hospital in the third series, apparently having been saved from death, and soon began a pop career under the name 'Eurobubbles'.
Darters Paula, Ann and Diane are goofy ladettes who frequent the traditional, working-class Scorton Social Club, which is compered by the bubble-permed Tony Pantene (Way). Paula (Chazen) rarely scores any points at the game, suffers severe twitching and anxiety, and claims to be on the same medication as Kerry Katona when she was having trouble with Brian McFadden, much to teamate Diane's (Cheshire) annoyance. Paula is jealous of Ann (Montgomery), her faithful, unassuming team mate, whom she tries to suppress and wilfully underestimates. She becomes especially offended when Tony expresses romantic interest in Ann.
The Harrogate Ladies consist of Val (Montgomery), Joan (Chazen), Margret (Brand) and Edith (Longworth), four middle-aged, middle-class ladies who seemingly spend all their time in their sewing room and knit whilst naked from their waists down. In the second series they take a camping trip in the country, but things don't go very well and the group end up with broken ankles, ruined frying pans and 'night wine' everywhere.
Don Peacock (Montgomery) is a bald, Geordie man who is constantly ordering doctors or, more usually, prostitutes from an agency to come to his flat. When they do come, he says he is going to have a "waz", a "widdle" or "a little pee pee" (urolagnia) on them. After hearing this, the disgusted lady usually leaves. Don then dances, sometimes after urinating on his dog which appears to have been subjected to this before. Don Peacock is also committing benefit fraud, by falsely claiming to be disabled when, in fact, he is perfectly healthy.
Ruth Baxter (Montgomery) is an upper class old aged pensioner, who attempts to attack people by telling them "I want a fight". She uses silly attempts to attack them, such as slapping their face with a leather glove. After her victim eventually gives in, she returns to acting politely and presents them with a business card, whilst reminding them to tell their friends that she "knocked seven shades of shit" out of them.
The Duck and Chip Family consists of father, Jeff (Way); mother Barbarella (Botcher) and daughters Tresemme (Chazen) and Nadia (Montgomery), who repeatedly tell each other to "shut up" while conversing about their favourite meal of duck and chips. In the second and third series, the family are rarely heard to say "shut up" and spend their time obsessing over the meal, which sees the father throwing Nadia's boyfriend out because he doesn't like chips and the family hunting for mallard at a lake.
Carol, Leslie Marie and Dennis: Working class Carol (Chazen) longs to be on "Brat Camp, Blame The Parents or even the Trisha Goddard show", but unfortunately her soft spoken and well behaved daughter Leslie Marie (Tshabalala) prevents this from happening. In the second and third series, she is desperate to appear on The Jeremy Kyle Show and resorts to a number of desperate methods to achieve this, dragging her long-suffering husband (Way) with her. However, she faces competition from neighbour Michelle (Montgomery) who has featured on several reality TV programmes.
Trina and Jean (Chazen, Longworth) are guides at a stately home who, whenever nobody is around, proceed to physically assault each other - but completely silently - often with the aid of the valuable antiques around them. Their sketches are very short and often segue into those of the Italian Maid, who works at the same stately home.
Pamela and Nicola are New Zealanders who lead 'Dance Tots' classes for young children, in a respectable, Daily Mail-reading neighbourhood somewhere in Middle England. Their tumultuous lesbian relationship spills over into the classes, where Nichola (Montgomery) continues private arguments about Pamela's (Chazen) "shutty knuckers", her lust for female BBC newsanchor, Natasha Kaplinsky, and suchlike, and then raises the stakes by coming on sexually to one of the parents (with stripping and 'adult' dance routines). This 'inappropriate' behaviour predictably panics the other parents into withdrawing their children from the room. For their part, however, the children remain unabashed and unaffected, beyond wondering whether Nichola and Pamela will stay together.
Anita and Gwyneth the Singing Coach: Anita (Montgomery) longs to star in a musical in London, but Gwyneth, her elderly chain-smoking singing coach (Chazen), is more interested in divulging her own personal problems than helping her student realise her dreams.
Pete Wade (Montgomery) is a spa salesman who is often trying to hit on the female customers, who all so far seem reluctant thanks to his ridiculously small genitalia. In the second series, he has longer hair and is working as an estate agent, but turns away clients on account of them being in a relationship or lesbian.
Parker and Harris are necrophiliac pathologists. Susan Parker (Montgomery) and her heavy-breathing assistant Harris (Chazen), are first on the scene when a dead body has been found. However, after ordering anyone else out of the room, the pair are more interested in sexually assaulting the corpse than any genuine investigative work. Parker, as the superior of the duo, is always allowed first refusal on the corpse in question, whereas Harris, much to her displeasure, has to make do with Parker's "sloppy seconds".
Colleen, Nathalie and Melanie (Chazen, Montgomery, Tshabalala) are a trio of chavettes who, regardless of their homeland, all speak in thick Jamaican dialects. The group often take it upon themselves to get into lengthy, barely comprehensible conversations about famous faces, such as George W. Bush, Bono and Simon Cowell. Overall, compared with most chav stereotypes, all three girls still appear to maintain much more sophisticated discussions.
Melody Nation (Montgomery) is a female entertainer whose only party piece seems to be a magic act with her long suffering stage partner; a rabbit.
Stella the Market Thief (Montgomery) bamboozles a different vendor each time with a different ruse, such as pretending to be blind, which enables her to steal and make off with the merchandise.
Jackie and Nikki are two Geordie friends. Jackie (Chazen) exploits Nikki's (Montgomery) naivete to trick her out of money in return for teaching her how to do completely nonsensical things, including floating in mid-air, walking on water or speaking a form of 'French' that is actually made-up gibberish.
Salty Tales (Magwash): The residents of a storm blasted coastal town in the Scottish Highlands gather in the pub to await the lengthly tale of the fearsome Magwash (Chazen). Magwash forever slips and uses the wrong words in place of what he meant to say, and when interrupted, shouts "SILENCE!" after which is a thunderclap and a flash of lightning, causing the inhabitants of the pub recoil theatrically.
The Vampire Slayers are Rachel (Montgomery), Donna (Chazen) and Karen (Coles) - the three 'chosen ones', suburban housewives who hunt suspected vampires with the aid of a sword, a mirror, some shallots and a tub of Cillit Bang.
Is It Glynne? (Chazen) is what this woman is desperate to know whenever somebody picks up the phone. She is reluctant to leave until she gets a chance to speak to "Glynne", even chasing people down streets and following a man into a toilet.
Tom Cruise (Montgomery with O'Donnell, Aintree, Oram, Burge and Way) is on a tour of England with his sulky, childish bodyguards. Despite having little knowledge of the country, he's desperate to try out some traditionally English experiences, such as going to a chip shop, country pub and playing football, but his bodyguards usually end up arguing childishly over something or making an idiot of Cruise.
Veronica Cooper (Chazen) is an aristocratic, horselike woman, who has made a DVD with her equally posh toothy friend Christina (Montgomery), in which they spy on overweight, working class and somewhat dumb men in the countryside hoping for 'horsefoolery'.
Rachel Hodgson (Chazen) is the bored host of Radio Cleveland's religious radio show 'Sunday Spiritual', who overuses her jingles and has a tendency to be rude and sarcastic towards her guests, which consist mostly of vicars or other religious figures.
God's People (Chazen, Montgomery) pester anybody they can find, trying to get them to join their religion or buy religious artifacts, such as edible Crucifixes. They speak in harmonious unison and seem to be able to appear and disappear, making them almost impossible for anyone to shake off.
Raul (Montgomery) is a camp, androgynous and childlike hairdresser who would appear to be a woman, if it weren't for the fact that he wears a very tight outfit which quite clearly shows the outline of his balls. He makes a huge amount of fuss over trivial things in the salon and speaks in a barely comprehensible accent, which means that he often has to repeat things several times for a customer to hear it. When, inevitably, he does something wrong and a customer is annoyed, he becomes theatrically upset and runs from the salon, often throwing himself into the skip outside.
Irene (Chazen) is a middle-aged wannabe liberal who appears in a potentially controversial situtation, such as an old man dating a young woman, and proceeds to let the subjects know just how much she approves of them.
Beth Ditto (Chazen) is a rock star on the hunt for "skinny bitches" who might attract paparazzi attention and steal her limelight. Her targets include people such as Amy Winehouse and Keira Knightley and she visits various places looking for them, clad with a double-barrelled shotgun, which she fires at every available opportunity.
Robin's Den is a spoof of Dragon's Den, starring Robin Hood (Montgomery), Maid Marion (Chazen) and Friar Tuck (Way). Contestants offer up their ideas (which are now common everyday items, such as the 'trainer', 'duvet' and 'spucktackle') only to be met with sneers and jibes from the panel.
The Charity Shop is run by Chris (Way) and Sue (Chazen), who spend their time shocking and intimidating innocent shoppers and rejecting their donations in favour of their treasured possessions. They campaign for a series of causes and have them printed on their t-shirts, however they don't ever appear to know what the cause actually is.
Idi Amin (Way) turns up on a housing estate with his downtrodden English wife (Montgomery). He refers to himself as "The King" and spends his time lazing around in bed, watching cartoons, with is wife at his beck and call (of "Emergency, emergency"). However, she never seems to be able to do enough for him and he is nearly always unimpressed.
Lynn "The Power" Thompson (Montgomery) is a self-educated, self-styled teacher of self defence at a local adult learning centre. She teaches the art of "Kinkenko" to a group of hapless students the hard way, by physically assaulting them either by hand or with one of her "power" tools - a knife, pepper spray and a tazer gun.
Eco House is home to Rupert (Lee) and Eleanor (Chazen), who practise a new, middle-class religion of Evironmentalism. The pair appear to care more about seeming eco-friendly than their own son Eddie, who they regularly insult and order to wear his "carbon molecule hat" or stand in front of the "emission simulator".
The Barmaid (Montgomery) attempts to guess just about anything she can, from the name of a new-born baby, to the name of an elderly man's dog, but ends up making ridiculous and rather elaborate guesses.
Birthday Buns? is the question that this frizzy-haired hospital staff member (Way) asks in the middle of an emergency situation, which could be a patient on the edge of death or a woman about to give birth. At this point, everyone pauses what they are doing to deliberate over which bun they should have, oblivious to the angry or distressed patient and their relatives.
Sketches in each series
Series One
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Series Two
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Series Three
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Catchphrases
Like several other sketch show formats, Tittybangbang derives some of its humour from catchphrases. Below are some of the regular catchphrases that are used by characters in the series.| Character | Phrase |
|---|---|
| The Italian Lady | "Dont look at me!", "I'm shy!", and referral to people as "Bozos" |
| Maxine Bendix | "It's just a little bit of seepage", "I won't have anything up me", and "Beep, beep!" |
| Paula | "Right there!", "I'm on the same medication as Kerry Katona when she had all that trouble with Brian McFadden", and "She's bordering on special needs" (About Ann) |
| Valerie | "Get OUT, Edith!" usually followed by "Get out of this field/one-acre pasture!" |
| Don Peacock | "Can I have a little widdle on you?" "I do like to have a little waz on me ladies" and "...little bit of pee pee" |
| Ruth Baxter | "I want to have a fight", "I want to have a fight with a (Certain type of person, such as a tour guide or a liberal) and I want it now!", and (Whilst giving a business card) "...And don't forget to tell your friends that Ruth Baxter (Stresses name) knocked seven shades of shit out of you" |
| Duck and Chip Family | "Shut up!", "You shut up!", referral to duck as "Quack" or "Donald", and "That's bullshit!" |
| Jeff | "Fart on it!" or "You can fart on it!" |
| Nadia | Referral to her father as a "Mug" or "Doughnut" when he says something stupid or says that he is going to do something that he doesn't know how to do. |
| Carol Booth | "He's/She's got a KNIIIFE!", "I'll never get on the telly with you as me live-in lover!", "Don't you want to be on telly?!?", "Oooh!", and constant referral to her "Jeremy Kyle shrine" |
| Anita | "I'm going for an audition in London, London, London!" |
| Pete Wade | "Don't touch, dangerous chemicals!", "Don't touch, still hot from the sales fire!", or "Don't touch, night juices!", and constant use of "Yeah" and "Uh huh" when somebody is trying to speak. |
| Susan Parker | "Lose the breathing, Harris!", "You'll have to make do with sloppy seconds!", "Get out, Clark!", and "I can't resist a stiffy" |
| Colleen, Nathalie and Melanie | "You is h'out of cantral! (control)", "What d'you tink of that (Famous person)?", and "Which bitch is which?" |
| Jackie | "Hows about if I teached ya how to (Something far fetched, such as turning invisible or flying)?", "It'll cost ya a fiver, mind" or "I'll need a fiver, though", and constant referral to Costcutters. |
| Nicky | "I'll bastard do it!", and "That's bastard spooky, Jackie man!" |
| Magwash | "SILENCE!", "How dare you interrupt the tale!" or "How dare you speak before the tale is told!", and "Aye, I did mean (Word), not (Mistake word he actually used)" |
| Vampire Slayers | "Death to vampires!", "Vampire, vampire, fookin' vampire!", "Ram t'shallots down his throat!", and referral to vampires as "Neck pests". |
| Tom Cruise | "It was my idea and the girl/guys/gang loved it", constant use of the words "Woo!" and "Yeah!", and mispronounciation of many words. |
| Veronica Cooper | "Hello, I'm Veronica Cooper, and there's nothing I like better than watching strong, uneducated, half-witted men horsing about", "Come on, ladies...", and "Join us next week, ladies...", and "Oh, look, ladies..." |
| Christina | "I'm not even supposed to be here!", and "Hilarious!" |
| God's People | "We are God's twins", "Hello, would be Christian" or "Hello, Christian soldier", and "We'll make it worth your while, we'll give you a..." |
| Raul | "Ow, my balls...", or "My balls", "Lady shouted!" or "Stop shouting at me!", and "I'm being quite brave" |
| Irene | "Good for you" or "Good, good, good for you" |
| Beth Ditto | "Skinny bitches!", and "I'm lookin' for this (description) skinny bitch, now, you seen her?" |
| Robin Hood | "This is a proper business thingy" |
| Friar Tuck | "I'm out, bring me my partridge" |
| Chris | "It's all crap, might as well chuck it in a fuh-in canal..." and constant use of the word "fuh-in" from both Chris and Sue |
| Idi Amin | "Emergency, emergency!", "I am the king!", "Where the hell is she?", and "What kind of republican nonsense is this?" |
| Barmaid | "Let me guess, I'm good at this...", and "No, no, give me time, I'll get it..." |
Cast
Lucy Montgomery, Debbie Chazen, Tony Way, Shelley Longworth, Lorraine Cheshire, Velile Tshabalala, Di Botcher, Katy Brand, Esther Coles, Steve Oram, Rhys Thomas, Iain Lee, Stephen Burge, Stephen AintreeDVD releases
| DVD Name | Release Date | Additional Information | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tittybangbang: Series 1 | November 20 2006 | Two Disc Contender DVD set, containing all six episodes from the first series. Special features:
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| Tittybangbang: Series 2 | March 31 2008 | 2 Entertain DVD set, containing all seven episodes from the second series. Special features:
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External links
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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 14:55:31 PDT (GMT -0700)
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