Top 10 British Comedy Breaking Character Moments

#10: Fruit Machine

“Gavin & Stacey” (2007-24)

Stacey’s supposed to march into the arcade and demand to talk to Nessa after a miscommunication leaves her thinking Gavin’s finished with her, but the prop work left much to be desired. The scene starts with Nessa kicking out an elderly man to steal his jackpot on the fruities, only for Ruth Jones to realise she hasn’t been given a fifty pence piece to put in the machine. Later, when Joanna Page arrives to deliver Stacey’s lines, she breaks character while the fruit machine jingle plays. If you thought they added all the sound effects in post, you’d be wrong, because they had a genuine arcade machine giving them all sorts of trouble.

#9: God Compare

“Horrible Histories” (2009-14)

In this sketch about the Gauls, they can’t decide which of their many ancient gods to dedicate their human sacrifice to, bickering about which is the most useful. Cue Jim Howick appearing in a parody of the widely maligned Go Compare adverts. It wouldn’t be the first or last time “Horrible Histories” would satirise contemporary adverts, with various infomercial parodies – also starring Howick as A Shouty Man – and a “We Sell Any Monk” jingle. But he made Matthew Baynton and Ben Willbond break over and over again trying to mime to the recording while they were on location.

#8: Wow

“Ghosts” (2019-23)

Jim Howick really is the king of making people break, and was also responsible for many of the trickier scenes to film in “Ghosts” being tricky in the first place. There was just something about his line delivery or the way Pat looked that made people break down when faced with him, even when he was completely still and professional. While staring out of the window of Button House at the approaching car, Pat’s supposed to say it looks like a spaceship, but there was something about the way he said “wow” that proved troublesome for Baynton right behind him. It’s Charlotte Ritchie who breaks more than anybody else on “Ghosts”, though.

#7: Landing the Car

“Red Dwarf” (1988-)

After believing for years that Earth is completely destroyed and Lister is the last human in the universe, the gang DOES find themselves back on Lister’s home planet – only to realise that they’re seemingly in OUR universe where “Red Dwarf” is a TV show. Perhaps withholding the blooper reel would maintain this illusion, but that’s not what happened, and we got this infamous scene where Craig Charles and Danny John Jules both struggle to get their lines right while they park Carbug. It’s largely Danny flubbing his lines, though at one point the crew gets involved in one of the dud takes. Shooting in a car always seems to cause bother.

#6: Hugh Laurie Gets Kicked Out

“Blackadder Goes Forth” (1989)

Stephen Fry was main cast for “Blackadder Goes Forth” instead of just appearing in guest roles, starring as Lord Melchett opposite Hugh Laurie’s foppish Lieutenant George. But you’d think that given their long history working in comedy together as a double act in their own right, they might be able to keep it together; clearly, though, the complete opposite was true. Though the camera in this outtake was mostly fixed on Fry, he blamed Laurie, off-camera, for causing him to break character over and over again. Whatever he’s doing, it’s bad enough that Fry orders him to leave the room so that he can deliver his lines.

#5: Bettina & Max

“Absolutely Fabulous” (1992-2012)

Edina’s minimalist friends Bettina and Max arrive to stay, only for Eddy to find out that they’re not minimalists at all anymore! They’ve given in to the endless demands of having a baby to look after and come with heaps of bags. The prop work causes chaos, though, with Patrick Barlow repeatedly sent out to fetch more props. The volume of props gets so absurd that it breaks Miranda Richardson completely, which means they have to reset the scene and take all the props back outside. Richardson leaves her handbag behind, so Jennifer Saunders has to deliver it through the door and the scene resets once again. It just won’t stop.

#4: The Sound

“Stath Lets Flats” (2018-21)

Stath gets a new outfit and finally decides to reciprocate Katia’s feelings, so the two of them go back to her flat to cap off a successful group date. But behind-the-scenes clips reveal Jamie Demetriou and Ellie White having trouble with various aspects of this scene, including him accidentally hitting her at least twice. But later, she’s supposed to “give him a hand” in one of British TV’s most enduringly awkward sex scenes, and keeps getting put off by the sound. But actually, them laughing through it makes it far less awkward; it’s much more uncomfortable in the finished episode.

#3: Checking

“Not Going Out” (2006-)

It’s never entirely clear what Lucy’s job is in “Not Going Out”, just that she headhunts people for all manner of companies and roles. In this episode, she finds someone who’s going to be in charge of a vague, testicular awareness campaign, and has brought a lot of the campaign literature home. She’s worried about Lee, and expresses that worry by reading to him from the leaflet – except, Sally Bretton couldn’t get her words out. She just had to read from the page and she got it wrong countless times, distracted by non-stop laughter from the studio audience. She somehow managed it.

#2: Pub?

“Hot Fuzz” (2007)

Time for some cinema, this “Hot Fuzz” scene took Simon Pegg and Nick Frost a while to get right. Danny’s just got to suggest to Sergeant Angel that they go down the pub after work, but the absurd deodorant gesture keeps making Pegg lose it. Eventually, Frost can’t take it seriously either, but Edgar Wright’s direction is always so rhythmic and particular that there’s no way around it. If you ever wondered how Simon Pegg managed to keep it together in “Hot Fuzz” as the eternal straight man, well, he didn’t; plenty of the other scripted visual gags also broke him.

#1: Biggus Dickus

“Monty Python’s Life of Brian” (1979)

The guards are supposed to be laughing in this scene, but clearly not as much as they are, though it does work. Upon being brought in for questioning by Pontius Pilate, Brian insists that his father was a centurion named Naughtius Maximus, prompting laughter from the nearest guard, played by Cleese. Palin, as Pilate, surprises the other actors at every turn; it’s just a rare case of the character-breaking laughter being an intended part of the film. Palin goes on and on to get the genuine laughter out of them, making for a far better scene since the laughing guards are so distracted that they can’t stop Brian from escaping.

Let us know in the comments which character breaks we missed.