Sketch show relegated to BBC Two

Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse’s sketch show has been relegated to BBC Two because of poor ratings.

Enfield today revealed that he had just started writing a third series of Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul – but had been ‘fired’ from the mainstream channel.

The first series attracted around 4.8million viewers per episode, putting it in the top ten of all comedy shows of 2007. A second series ran last September, and averaged 3.4 million.

Enfield told the Broadcast TV Comedy Forum in London: ‘It’s now going to be on Two, because we only got five million viewers.

He added that he was happy to be on the second channel ‘because everyone says that’s better for comedy anyway,’ but said he didn’t pretend to understand the decision.

‘The BBC have management targets, and I don’t have to get involved in all that - at least not until they say “you’re fired”.’

Enfield also revealed that the new show would not be recorded in front of a studio audience. ‘Without an audience, I’m always better,’ he said. ‘An audience made me over-perform.’

He told the conference of TV industry professionals that he recorded half the first series in front of a live audience, and wanted to ditch the lot of it. ‘It was rubbish,’ he said. ‘We didn’t have enough other stuff, so we had to leave half of it in.’

Enfield also confessed what most people already knew – that his much-slated Sky One series of 2000 was substandard.

‘It was completely my fault,’ he admitted. ‘I was doing Kevin & Perry Go Large at the time and I had my eye off the ball. I didn’t go into the edits.

‘There were some good sketches, but they appeared to be performed by someone in a panic. I got a kicking for it, quite rightly.’rn

Published: 23 Sep 2009