Paul Whitehouse's Sketch Show Years

Paul Whitehouse begins his celebration of sketch shows with its roots in music hall and post-war radio, including live radio performances from Tommy Handley and his gang, gloriously baffling to us now, but they paved the way for short-form comedy's growth in years to come – and clearly influenced Paul's own Arthur Atkinson character.

And influences loom large across the whole series, not least the Monty Python troupe, whose surrealist sketches truly pushed the boundaries of TV comedy. They arrived as the 60s were ending – but in the years that followed truly became the rock & roll comedy for Paul and his generation – something mums and dads couldn't possibly understand… This episode features freshly remastered Python material shown for the very first time.

Elsewhere, across primetime TV, a whole new legion of household names rose up - Dick Emery, Benny Hill, The Two Ronnies and The Goodies. The 70s were rightly hailed as the start of TV comedy's golden era.

The maestro of the comedy sketch Paul Whitehouse continues his celebration of the genre in all its glory down the decades. This time, we're into the 1980s, when the turbulence of the new decade was reflected by a new wave of alternative comedians bursting onto our screens.

Oxbridge loomed large over many of the decade's big hitters, not least in the biting satire of Not The Nine O'Clock News – though for every savage slice of ultra-topical wit, like the racist copper sketch with Griff Rhys-Jones and Rowan Atkinson, there was always room for daftness in a poor quality gorilla suit….

The Footlights also gave us the genius of Fry & Laurie, whose early sketch comedy still stands up among the best work of their glittering careers. But elsewhere, newer, regional voices were also emerging, with the razor-sharp northern humour of Victoria Wood, the distinctly Scottish flavour of Naked Video (which gave us Gregor Fisher's iconic Rab C Nesbitt character) – and the long overdue arrival of more black talent on our screens, most notably courtesy of the young, trailblazing Lenny Henry.

The maestro of the comedy sketch Paul Whitehouse continues his very personal tribute, looking at the 90s – the decade he fully landed on screen with The Fast Show, after earlier work with old pal Harry Enfield on the latter's shows, notably DJs Smashie & Nicey.

The decade of New Labour and Britpop was something of a retread musically and culturally, but comedy, by now being dubbed ‘the new rock & roll' (by some fairly lazy journalists, admittedly), was genuinely a huge force, and still really evolving. In the sketch world, stalwarts of the 80s alternative scene French & Saunders really hit their stride as a TV duo, now totally mainstream and pulling in huge audiences, while newcomers like Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer were busily reinventing what on earth a sketch show could be, taking their cult stage show on screen, with a little help from their mates, including Paul and his college chum Charlie Higson.

And amidst the other great newcomers like Victoria Wood, The Real McCoy, Smack The Pony, Big Train and Goodness Gracious Me, The Fast Show would provide the biggest cast of names and characters, it's quickfire hit-rate proving a lasting favourite of UK viewers.

Paul Whitehouse's epic TV journey concludes with the new millennium – where the arrival of the internet and smartphones did nothing to halt TV comedy's quest to forge new horizons – or push the barriers of taste.

From Catherine Tate's foul-mouthed Nan and ‘Am I bovvered' Lauren, to Little Britain's cast of grotesques, perhaps only outdone by the inhabitants of Royston Vasey, the League of Gentlemen's often disturbing gallery of parochial freaks,TV comedy would never be the same again.

Elsewhere in the 00s, under-rated new talent had barged its way in, courtesy of shows like Little Miss Jocelyn and Tittybangbang, which went a little under the radar, while Oxbridge still provided big hitters like super-smart duos Mitchell & Webb and Armstrong & Miller.

But there was still room for some of the old guard to forge new territory – including our host Paul Whitehouse and long-time, on-off comedy partner Harry Enfield, who enjoyed a renaissance of their own in the new century, with a cast of new, older, but still no wiser comedy caricatures.