This Morning with Richard Not Judy
This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ is a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC Two. The name was a satirical reference to ITV's This Morning which was at the time popularly referred to as This Morning with Richard and Judy.
The show was a reworking of old material from their previous work together along with new characters. Presented in a daytime chat show format in front of a live studio audience, the programme also featured a number of recorded location sketches. It was structured by the often strange obsessions of Richard Herring; examples include his rating of the milk of all creatures and attempting to popularise the acronym of the show . The show featured repetition, with regular and vigilant viewers being rewarded by jokes that would make no sense to casual viewers. The show seemed to oscillate between the intellectual and puerile. Irony was often used, even though the citing of irony as an excuse was mocked by the show's stars in one of many self-referential jokes.
The actor Kevin Eldon also reprised two of his characters from the earlier Lee & Herring series Fist of Fun, Simon Quinlank and his portrayal of "the false Rod Hull" as a jelly fanatic with a false arm and giant chin. A run of sketches featuring Eldon as the false Rod Hull was filmed for the second series, but dropped when the real Rod Hull died just prior to the start of the series. A new sketch was filmed as a tribute and featured as the closing item of the last programme in the series.
TMWRNJ was the subject of many complaints on Points of View, largely due to the surprisingly adult content for a programme shown on Sunday lunchtime. The Jesus sketches were much remarked upon on Points of View due to the time of broadcast and uncertainty as to whether they were making fun of Jesus or people's take on the scriptures.Regular features: Series 1 and 2
The Curious Orange
Questions about life from a gigantic talking orange, played by Paul Putner. The name is derived from the album I Am Kurious Oranj by The Fall, which was used to introduce each Curious Orange segment. At the end of the first series, having been revealed to be Richard Herring's illegitimate son, he was crushed to death and "juiced", but he was later reconstituted by a mad scientist. Throughout the second series his behaviour became increasingly sinister, and for a while he was replaced by The Curious Alien.Histor's Eye
Ostensibly an extremely low-budget Sky TV children's television programme featuring two pirate crows: the titular Histor and his hapless first mate Pliny Harris. Histor's ability to transport himself and Pliny through time to view past events would be used to satirise current affairs, and the script would be peppered with deliberately weak but dense nautical- and bird-related multiple puns, which would increase in volume and weakness as the series progressed. Pliny's idiocy drives Histor to insanity and, eventually, he murders him by stuffing him with eggs until he bursts, as he keeps using the word "egg" so it has no connection or relation to the context of what Histor was saying,. A running joke in this segment was that despite Pliny's apparent idiocy, he would occasionally counter Histor's right-wing views with extraordinarily eloquent and well constructed left-wing arguments. This would often result in Pliny being physically attacked by Histor or a third party.
Another running gag not featured in the fictional show, but would be part of its introduction, would be a sketch in which Herring naively complains about a recent report in the media, only for Lee to try to correct him before realising the best way to make him understand better is showing him "An educational film for the under fives" he taped from cable TV. After the segment Lee would ask Herring if that cleared the matter up for him, with Herring praising the crows for this saying he now understands. Indeed, Herring once points out that the same joke is always told every week before showing the latest episode, shortly after Lee told him that telling the same jokes soon wears off, with the episode of "Histor's Eye" being focused on that topic. The gag was less frequent in the second series. During the segment, an indent reading "KIDZ CHANNEL" would be displayed in the top left of the screen, a reference to many Sky Television channels at the time during broadcast.Musical Interludes
played keyboards every week on the show and in series 1 played a hymn at the end of the show.The Unusual Priest, played by Kevin Eldon, would present ethical dilemmas, dealing with them in increasingly ridiculous fashion. Based on a character called Monsignor Treeb-Lopez originally created by Lee and Herring for the satirical radio news show On The Hour.When Insects Attack
A parody of the show When Animals Attack!, with a voice-over supposedly by actor Greg Evigan. The last episode of this segment, in the first series, saw The Lettuce Family attacked by a slug, which Evigan points out is a mollusc and not an insect. In the second series this was replaced by When Things Get Knocked Over, Spill, or Fall Out of Cupboards.King (or Queen) of the Show
In each edition, a member of the audience would be crowned "King of the Show", either at random or as a reward for sending in an especially entertaining letter. After being crowned, they would be offered various items from a trolley; these items would all be linked by the current theme of the show. The crown and trolley would be brought on by the normally mute Trevor and Nathalie who would sometimes be dressed in outlandish costumes.Trevor and Nathalie
A man with 'an extremely small face', called Trevor, and a woman called Nathalie, played by Nathalie Brandon, would appear on each show in non-speaking roles as slaves, often to bring in props or to usher in guests or other performers.The Five Aims
Every week, Rich and Stew discussed five aims they wanted to implement before the end of the series, a parody of New Labour's pledge cards from the 1997 General Election..Regular features: Series 1
The Profit Making Phone Opinion Poll
Each week the show staged a phone-in which was purely designed to make money for Lee and Herring. The phone-in was hosted by 'Jo Unwin and the actor Kevin Eldon' and tackled issues which dominated the week's news. The phone-in would present viewers with three options to the topical question, of which one would be phrased in a style similar to "I agree, but trivial phone opinion polls about such important issues are morally offensive."The Ironic Review
A fly-on-the-wall documentary about a so-called cutting edge magazine. The item was ostensibly a satire of The Modern Review, with the journalists being in bitter competition to see who could write the most "ironic" article.Men of Achievement 1974
A short item in which the details of an entry in the book of the same name would be read out. At one point, it was noted as the least popular part of the show, but to be kept in 'until it becomes so popular, it gets its own series'. Men whose entries were read included Harold Warner Munn, Robin Dudding, and Moritz Jagendorf.The School
A fly on the wall documentary focussing on two teachers and their attempts to teach English at a secondary school. Mr Keith Harris is an old fashioned teacher described as a 'good man' by the head master who is abused by his students and enjoys nothing more than marking. Mr Ian Kennedy is a rogue teacher who constantly attempts to rock the establishment. He is described as 'a fuckwit' by the head teacher.Roger Crowley
The self-styled most evil man alive, played by Roger Mann. During the first series he would regularly break into the programme to outline his latest absurd plan for world domination. Based on Aleister Crowley.The Organ Gang
Also known as TOG, in keeping with Richard's unhealthy abbreviation obsession – A spoof children's series, drawn by Joseph Champniss and narrated by Brian Cant, in which the characters were all organs of the human body, they would have some adventure and end up "laughing for a whole five minutes." It bore some resemblance to the real children's series The Garden Gang in which all the characters were fruit and vegetables. The final episode saw Brian Cant ranting at his duty of being the narrator saying I'm Brian Cant!.Special Guests
The first series featured guests who were interviewed in a talk show fashion including Mel & Sue, Jenny Eclair, Peter Baynham and Jack Docherty.Regular features: Series 2
Sunday Heroes
A series of sketches featuring Jesus and his disciples as the main characters, parodying a schoolteacher and his class. In one sketch per week a disciple would pose a question to Jesus, usually on a topic of importance that would split Christianity. Instead of answering directly He would make a vague comment, pause, then say "ahh" in a mysterious manner, causing all but Matthew to "ahh" along with Him, leading the disciple to become frustrated with the evasion Peter would insult Matthew for not understanding, insisting in a smug "class swot" manner that he "got it right away", and Judas would also laugh at double entendres, only to be admonished. The other Apostles were played by Paul Putner, Trevor Lock and TV's Emma Kennedy. These sketches tended to cause some controversy given the time of the show and the day of its broadcast.The Corrs Shrine
A shrine to the Corrs or more correctly 'The Corrs Shrine'. Essentially Herring's infatuation with Andrea Corr. The rest of them he didn't care for, a joke based on the similar looks of the Corr sisters.