Fist Of Fun
Running over three series & four years, spanning radio & television, Fist Of Fun drew material from the duo's previous works and live shows as well as a number of new ideas.
Starting life on Radio One in late 1993, where it ran for six episodes, Fist Of Fun moved to television in early 1995.
The first series was broadcast over six weeks, going out at 9pm on Thursday nights throughout April & May, it was an immediate success, although not an instant rating winner, and Lee & Herring enjoyed a brief tenure as media darlings while they were hailed as the next big thing.
A tour on the back of the first TV series saw Rich & Stew taking in a number of venues across the country before they returned to the airwaves in November '95 for the third & final series of
"The Lee & Herring Radio Show".
A selection of merchandise was released around this time too, in time for the Christmas cash-in period.
A recording of a live show from the tour made it's way onto BBC video, an edited compilation of the radio incarnation of Fist Of Fun was put out & a tie-in book was released.
Shortly after the third radio "music" series aired, Fist Of Fun was back on BBC2, this time as part of the prime Friday night comedy line up going out opposite the Channel 4 American heavyweight of the time, Roseanne. It performed well in terms of ratings, but suffered from lack of budget (a third of the previous series) timescale (the series was only commissioned the previous November) and advertising (the BBC's trails for the show were minimal).
Despite huge fan demand, The BBC elected never to release Fist Of Fun either at the time or posthumously, and so - 16 years later - Lee & Herring bought the rights from the BBC themselves and released it on DVD with the aid of GoFasterStripe.
You can buy Series 1 here, and Series 2 here.