...says the Fast Show's Charlie Higson

Charlie Higson says comedy sometimes has to be offensive to be effective.

And he says Britain needs a ‘big, bold, fearless’ new sketch show that ‘comes out with all guns blazing’.

The comedian says he is glad he and Paul Whitehouse created the Fast Show in the days before social media, so they could make the comedy they wanted without caring  what anyone else thought.

Writing  in the new issue of Radio Times, Higson says: ‘"We were spared the torture of neurotically checking Twitter every five minutes and contending with instant judgements, knee-jerk reactions and a bottomless swamp of opinion.’

He added that ‘if you want to make effective comedy you have to stick two fingers up at everyone, and blow a raspberry’ to the world.

‘Comedy needs to be transgressive, and yes, it occasionally needs to be offensive to get its point across, just so long as it always speaks the truth.

‘Now, perhaps more than ever, we need a good laugh. What I’d love to see is a big, bold new sketch show that comes out with all guns blazing.

‘A show that lays it on the line and says: ‘This is the world, and this is what’s funny about it.’ Something adult and fearless and fiercely intelligent.

‘A show that treats social media as what it is – a grand, universal joke. I’d watch that.’

Sketch shows have fallen out of fashion recently, although the return of Tracey Breaks The News to BBC One has attempted to buck that trend.

Published: 19 Jun 2018