We started working on this show more than fifteen years ago. We didn't know it at the time - we thought we were redefining 1970's American television culture.
Chris and I were making episodes of "Husky & Scotch" - a crime drama with familiar characters, written by two people who (wilfully) never watched the similarly named Starsky & Hutch as we thought we should reinvent the wheel without being tied down by the conventions of the original wheel design. For example, my little sister Kristina played the voice of 'F.F.L.O.Y.D.', the (70's) crime-fighting duo's deadly vehicle that was cunningly disguised as a ten year old 1.3-litre Austin Metro.
It was way before the letters 'H&S' became synonymous with risk assessment practices - so ahead of it's time that authenticity was negligible.
We also did an evil-twin storyline that culminated in a chase through a Southend recreational park and a magnificent 'death by spoon' scene.
We were seventeen.
Also this was 1997 and the internet only had green text and early prototypes for hampsterdance [sic], so illegally downloading TV episodes was something we'd only believed possible, never imagined.
Chris Mead and I have a new show coming out. We debut it on 4th April at London Improv at The Miller. It's improvised science fiction. Done properly (see picture below).
"Science fiction is the search for a definition of mankind and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge, and is characteristically cast in a Gothic or post Gothic mode."
- Brian W. Aldiss
... also, sometimes it has aliens that look like squid.
A couple of years ago Husky & Scotch produced "Andrew & The Slides of Chaos", which was then the best thing we (anyone) had ever done.
Then last year we made "Doctor Who's Line Is It Anyway?", which superseded it.
This year we embark on 'Twoprov'. Hopefully it will be at least as good (see picture left).
I'm going to occasionally write a few bits and pieces about it as the show comes together. Just in case someone is interested. We'll be leeching off the skills of some phenomenal improvisers along the way (Katy Schutte, Paul Foxcroft, Cariad Lloyd) and it'd be a shame to keep all their wisdom nuggets completely to ourselves.
Whether you read them or not, we'd love to see you at the show in April. It HAS taken us nearly 16 years to put together.
- Jonathan Monkhouse
"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them, into the impossible."
Arthur C. Clarke
