Unforgettable, that's what they are
From the "today I'm been mostly..." man in the shed (played by Mark Williams), to the irrepressible "brilliant!" teen (portrayed unnervingly well by fortysomething Paul Whitehouse) and the unrequited, unspoken love between avuncular groundsman Ted & lonely aristo Ralph ("Do you like... Tina Turner, Ted?"), The Fast Show set the bar so high that no subsequent series has yet matched it. Suffice to say, the team have created more than 40 characters, and if we listed them all, there'd be no space for anything else.

Breeding ground
As tends to happen in sketch shows, The Fast Show's comedians came together from far and wide, and have gone on to develop rich and strange careers. Co-creator Paul Whitehouse had already found some fame as part of Harry Enfield's comedy team and Caroline Aherne would later prove her own mercurial genius with Mrs Merton and The Royle Family. The less said, however, about Whitehouse's associate Charlie Higson's 1980s indie-pop career, the better.

Real real real
The reason for The Fast Show's success is straightforward: everyone can relate to the characters they portray, however mad they might be. From Billy Bleach (one of Simon Day's many faces), the bloke down the pub who knows everything (i.e. nothing), to the luggage-laden dad perpetually running across concourses yelling "Come on!" to his lagging family, these people are everywhere. And since art imitates life, the reverse is also true. The Fast Show's universal truths have leaked back into the world that spawned them. Just try walking into a tailor's without at least thinking "Suit you, sir!" when faced with an obsequious assistant.

Fast track to fame
Since The Fast Show filmed its final episode in 1999, its stars have done anything but rest on their considerable laurels. Mark Williams shows up on TV and in the movies on a regular basis, perhaps most memorably in Shakespeare in Love; Paul Whitehouse went on to star in the bittersweet mid-life crisis comedy Happiness; John Thomson has moved into comedy-drama on Cold Feet; and Arabella Weir has somehow managed to forge an entire career out of her Fast Show catchphrase. All together now: "Does my bum look big in this?" Classy.