The Armstrong and Miller Show

Infobox Television
show_name = The Armstrong and Miller Show


caption = Series logo
genre = Sketch comedy
starring = Alexander Armstrong
Ben Miller
country = United Kingdom
language = English
num_series = 1
num_episodes = 7
producer = Caroline Norris
executive_producer = Mario Stylianides
location =
camera =
runtime = 30 minutes
network = BBC One
picture_format =
audio_format =
first_aired = 26 October 2007
last_aired = present
website = http://www.hattrick.co.uk/shows.php?id=547&catid=79&style1=show&check1=545&shid=37&menu=3
imdb_id =
tv_com_id =

"The Armstrong and Miller Show" is a British sketch comedy television show produced by Hat Trick Productions for BBC One. It reunites the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, who had not appeared together on screen since 2001, and features League of Gentlemen's Jeremy Dyson as scriptwriter. It was first broadcast on 26 October 2007 in the network's primetime Friday night slot.

It was recorded during February and March 2007 at BBC Television Centre in London.

Notable sketches

* The Prime Minister (Armstrong) being told various useless facts and trivia as if they were appointments and meeting briefings.
* A disparate sketch with characters who do something that they should not have, or else have made success. Within the last few seconds of the sketch, they will state, "I'm wearing my wife's knickers!".
* A pair of Flanders and Swann-esque musicians who sing bawdy songs, sometimes hastily censored by the BBC.
* An insensitive father (Armstrong), unable to sugar-coat difficult issues for his son.
* Two RAF airmen from World War II (seen in black-and-white, as though in a David Niven war film), who speak in modern-day teenager slang, albeit with upperclass accents. In one sketch one of Churchill's famous speeches comes on the radio and he is similarly speaking in the same slang. ("We will fight them on the beaches - and shit - and on the landing grounds - big time!")
* Roger (Miller) who continually returns home early, oblivious to the obvious clues that his wife and best friend (Armstrong) are having an affair; he swallows the neighbour's increasingly ludicrous explanations.
* A murderous, effeminate Russian oligarch and football chairman (Miller), loosely based on Roman Abramovich, and his naive team manager (Armstrong), who is innocently caught up in his evil schemes.
* A vegetarian café run by two elderly women (played by Armstrong and Miller) who always end up arguing and ending every sentence at each other with affectionate names like "My sweet." Of course, often a customer comes up and complains. This usually causes one of them to say "It's kicking off, Pru" and beating up everyone in the café. The sketch usually ends with someone being defenestrated.
* Various characters (Armstrong), who, after generally positive conversations, says "kill them!" into a microphone (in the style of a James Bond villain). Armstrong has appeared as The Pope, a football manager, a music group organiser, a Santa Claus, and several others. At the end of the first series, this was spoofed with the series director giving the same command of Armstrong and Miller after thanking them for the work they'd put into the series.
* The Prime Minister, usually in a meeting of crucial importance, leaves the room to realise he has left an important document. This document is often irreplaceable and is needed urgently - and is in one case the PM's own wife that he has forgotten - but the prime minister refuses to return, due to having left with a witty comment or having had great success, or not wishing to go back. The scene usually ends with "we'll just leave it"
* Various people giving vox pops, usually with mental disabilities or strange quirks. They describe their quirks and then end with "so that's why I became a teacher". The scene ends with an internet address describing their quirk.
* A critical Satnav system, usually racist or discriminative, informs the driver to avoid certain roads for tabloid-inspired reasons.
* A Geordie window-washer, discusses important current affairs. He is very intelligent and comes up with extremely clever solutions to the problem, but ends with "but what do I know?"
* A dentist (Armstrong), who discusses deeply personal and embarrassing (and disgusting) aspects of his life unashamedly, while he has his hands inside his patient's (Miller's) mouth. Sometimes his anecdotes include references to other less hygenic places he's had his hands.
* Glengarry Cancer Research. Cancer research done in the style of Glengarry Glen Ross.
* Two dancers at a Regency ball discuss in a polite, Jane Austen-esque manner their sexual desires and intentions towards each other.

Awards

The British Sitcom Guide gave "The Armstrong and Miller Show" the 2007 BSG Award for "Best Sketch Show of 2007". [cite web|url=http://www.sitcom.co.uk/features/awards2007.php|title=The British Sitcom Guide Awards 2007|publisher=British Sitcom Guide|date=2008-01-21|accessdate=2008-01-22]

References

External links

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thearmstrongandmillershow/