Way back in the land that was 1998, Julian Barret and Noel Fielding conceived their stage show on a pub comedy stage entitled King Dong vs. Moby Dick. The show utilized thrown together costumes, sets and other paraphernalia crammed onto the almost minuscule stage while the audience tried to figure out what was happening.
In 2001, the stage show (now called The Mighty Boosh) was transformed into a radio drama for BBC7. The program drew in a devoted fan following who adored listening to the misadventures of Vince Noir and Howard Moon in the Zooniverse. Not just a simple situation comedy, the Mighty Boosh featured side-splitting tunes created by Barret and Fielding.
In no time at all, the program followed the same path as Little Britain, the League of Gentlemen and many other top notch shows by making the move to TV in 2004 with Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow Productions. The first series relied heavily on the concepts developed in the hot radio show, including their bizarre songs.
Boing Boing Special
A highly imaginative and visually stunning program, the Mighty Boosh utilizes a childlike logic and sense of space. Cartoonish characters exist on an almost 2-dimensional world full of gorgeously vibrant colors and shapes.
The wild designs of characters and settings in the series were all based on Noel’s drawings (usually featuring Polo mints).
Some of these drawings of Noel Fielding‘s were even transformed into brilliant animated sequences.
The Story of Charlie
Being Raised By Brian Ferry in the Jungle
After the success of Series 1, the creators started work on Series 2 in 2005 which dropped the Zoo-theme used for many years now. Instead, Series 2 concerned their characters sharing a flat with Bollo the talking ape and their shaman friend, Naboo.
After Series 2, Barret and Fielding took to the road with a lavish live show that ran in 2006. Entitled “The Ruby of Kukundu” the story followed Howard and Vince in their search for a mystical gem to save Naboo’s life.
The series has won Best TV Show at the Shockwaves NME Awards 2007 and the 2007 Chortle Award for their 2006 tour.
The team have just finished writing Series 3 and have enlisted the help of Richard Ayoade (of Darkplace) as a script editor and have set an autumn premiere date.
Julian Barrat gave away a few details on the official site recently:
“series three is set in naboo’s second hand shop. where he sells under the counter shaman supplies to the local shaman of dalston. howard and vince work there. and get to sell their own stuff. howard sells rare pressings of early charlie mingus records. vince sells luminous drainpipes and see through hats. during the series they get visits from a evil cockney gangster who controls the local eel community, the crack fox , a junky fox who lives in the alley at the back of the shop. and even get shrunk down and injected into the body of a dying punk.”
Mighty Boosh fans are encouraged to sign up for a backstage pass (similar to one developed by Lucas Productions for the Star Wars prequels) to see the new series take place, thus getting a sneak peek before the new program airs in the autumn.
Being a fan located in the States… I’ll have to wait that much longer.
Poo.
Recommended viewing
(unfortunately for those in the UK or Stateside with a multi-region player):
The Mighty Boosh – Series 1 [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]
Mighty Boosh – Series 2 [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]
The Mighty Boosh – Series 1 And 2 [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]
The Mighty Boosh Live [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import]
As part of the viral marketing campaign building up to the inevitable Watchmen film, a new website has emerged called 
