Combining a series of wickedly funny sketches observing life in modern Britain as Lucas and Walliams see it today and linked together by Tom Baker’s insightful and eloquent dialogue ("today’s show is finishing early because I have to do a pooh now!"), the series is a triumph for BBC3, where it debuted on the digital station’s opening night. And the characters that populate Little Britain have already reached cult status. The wheelchair-bound Andy, who can secretly walk without any problem but enjoys being pushed around and waited on by his caring and oblivious friend Lou; Sebastian Love, the effete personal secretary to the Prime Minister (Anthony Head), who has a huge crush on his boss; Vicky Pollard, Britain’s most illiterate teenager who had a baby but "swopped it for a Westlife CD"; Daffyd, who is adamant - despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that in Llandewi Breffi he is 'the only gay in the village'; Marjorie Dawes, the ruthless leader of the Britannia Fat Fighters diet club; Jason, a teenager sexually obsessed with his mate Gary's octogenarian grandmother; Ray McCooney, the medieval fantasist who runs Ye Olde Hotele; Anne, clearly the most barking resident of the Steven Spielberg residential home for psychiatric patients; Emily Howard, the rubbish transvestite; and the teachers and pupils of Kelsey Grammar School in Flange.

The show pulls together many of the obsessions Lucas and Walliams had previously explored in other series and also has a touch of The League Of Gentlemen about it (indeed, the 'League's' Mark Gatiss is script editor for 'Britain'). Although some of the sketches featuring regular characters have at times seemed a little repetitive, the show moves along at such a blistering pace that the audience doesn't have time to get bored. And just when you think you've seen it all, that there is no blasphemy left untouched, the series will hit you with a jaw-dropping wallop, as in the sketch featuring a school secretary who is trying to describe to her colleague on the phone, the growth-stunted student who is seated at the opposite side of the desk to her; "You know...the one who buys his clothes from Mother Care. Yeah...that's right, the oompah loompah."
Little Britain does what British comedy has always done best, it flies in the face of convention and delivers it's comedy with a stinging slap!

David Walliams met comedy partner Matt Lucas at the National Youth Theatre, where the two were brought together by their shared love of Reeves and Mortimer. Walliams graduated from Bristol University and after a stint as a stand-up comedian, children's television presenter and scriptwriter, then teamed up with Lucas in 1995. Lucas had made his debut on the London stand-up comedy circuit at the age of eighteen in 1992, appearing as the character Sir Bernard Chumley. His long association with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer started that year when he was 'discovered' by Mortimer. He played the Edinburgh Festival in 1994. Also in 1994, Lucas appeared in The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer, before embarking on four series of the BAFTA award-winning Shooting Stars as George Dawes, the giant drumming baby. Walliams and Lucas took their Sir Bernard Chumley and Friends show to the Edinburgh Festival, returning in 1996 and 1997. This was followed by a sell-out UK tour throughout 1997. They appeared at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada in 1999.

Walliams’ appearances on television include the drama Attachments, Spaced, The League of Gentlemen and Cruise of the Gods with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. But it's for the brilliant Rock Profiles on the now-defunct digital channel "UK Play" and Little Britain that he, along with Lucas, is best known. The Radio 4 series Little Britain (written and performed by Walliams and Lucas and winner of a Silver Sony Award) transferred as an eight-episode TV series to BBC3 in September 2003. Following a repeat run on BBC2, the duo won Best Comedy Show and Performance gongs at the 2004 Royal Television Society Awards and a BAFTA for Best Comedy Series.

A second series of Little Britain aired on BBC3 in October 2004 introducing a number of new characters, the most popular of whom must be Harvey, the twentysomething male who is still breast fed by his mother, and Bubbles, a female character who lives on a health farm and is played by Matt Lucas, who donned a bodysuit of grotesque proportions which helped the series collect a prize at the Royal Television Society’s Craft and Design Awards in December 2004.

A third series is planned for next year, but some of the characters from series one and two could easily be placed in spin-off-shows of their own. They are immensely popular and many of them already have their own catchphrases. Matt Lucas doesn’t discount the possibility: "The biggest compliment we can get is that people want to see more of what we do. For the time being, I think we should stick to the format we have but perhaps one day it would be nice to develop Lou and Andy, because they are our favourites, and they also seem to be popular with fans of the show. We already have a narrative idea for Lou and Andy, which could run across the next series. I could see Marjorie maybe working in a traditional sitcom format, and I think the PM and Sebastian could work in a one-off special too."

Whatever the future brings for the characters of Little Britain here are some facts that you may not know. "Number one: Britain is a country. Number two: Britain is called Britain. Number five: Britain."

"Goodbyyyyeeee!"