Ali G was originally called The Yoof Wanker

....and other secrets from the 11 O'Clock Show

comedy Ali G was originally going to be called 'The Yoof Wanker’ when he was first introduced on the 11 O'Clock Show.

That’s according to Iain Lee who has embarked on a project to dissect and commentate on every one of the 144 episodes of the Channel 4 topical satire show which he co-presented.

The programme, which ran from 1998 to 2000, was pivotal to launching the careers of Sacha Baron Cohen, Ricky Gervais and Mackenzie Crook.

'I'm going to tell you everything' Lee promises on his new Twitch channel, acknowledging his tensions with other presenters and production crew and his burgeoning egotism and drug use at the time.

He admits that it's 'weird, uncomfortable' but 'cathartic' to watch the show for the first time in 22 years, 'laying to rest a lot of ghosts'.

The first episode featured Fred MacAulay and Brendon Burns hosting, with Lee – who describes himself as being a '25-year-old stoner' and 'failed comedian' – in the studio and appearing in pre-filmed footage as a vox-popping roving reporter, 'playing a rip-off of a Chris Morris character'.

Daisy Donovan, Rich Hall, the late rock DJ Tommy Vance and Simon Greenall, aka Michael the Geordie from Alan Partridge, also featured in the opening show from 1998, at a time when comedy was what Lee describes as ‘kind of Loaded, FHM, The Word, shock, shock, shock’.

Even in this atmosphere, Lee marvels at the tone of the show in referencing the recently deceased Princess Diana's bulimia and Caroline Aherne's alcoholism, and recoils at some of the homophobic jokes, admitting they were problematic even at the time. The show got 'nastier' as it became more successful he reflected.

'Ali G was the thing that kept the 11 O'Clock Show going' Lee admitted. 'If we hadn't of had Ali G, the 11 O'Clock Show would have died.’

He added that while much of the praise went to Ali G and Daisy Donovan, ‘who was funny and beautiful… the flak was focused on me’.

Lee admits to being very uncomfortable about a joke about serial killer Harold Shipman in a later episode, in which the murderous GP's wife was doorstepped by reporters and a producer added the line 'you fucked a monster' on voice-over.

Lee added that at that point in 1999, 'the show had been given the specific instruction, unbeknownst to me, to shock. Shock and offend was more important than being funny... The Ali G stuff was hilarious, the Ricky Gervais stuff was divisive but hilarious. But a lot of it wasn't very funny.'

According to Lee, when Baron Cohen first came into the office in his yellow tracksuit, no one thought the prank character would succeed. He attributes the creation of the character to producer Andrew Newman. 'He certainly refined it and came up with the name,’ he recalled of the man who now runs a production company with Baron Cohen.

Newman, who would go on to become head of comedy and entertainment for Channel 4, was one of the many crew members Lee would fall out with after his cocaine use spiralled, and a segment the presenter filmed in Jerusalem was deemed unbroadcastable.

Lee also says he regrets making a crude sexual joke that alienated Donovan, and describes future Inbetweeners creators Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, who worked as VT editors on the show, as 'nice guys'. But Lee lived in fear of Morris' 'very vicious tongue'.

'I wish one of these people would give me a break' he sighed of his former collaborators. 'Ricky [Gervais] did, Ricky put me up, along with a lot of other people, he put me up to audition for a part on The Daily Show, the part that eventually went to John Oliver.'

What's perhaps most striking to modern viewers of the debut 11 O’Clock episode is the generous budget, which paid for Rich Hall to report from outside the White House in Washington and Greenall to report in character as a cod-Dutchman from Brussels, both for segments no longer than a minute.

Here is Lee's commentary on the first two episodes, uploaded to YouTube: