the mighty boosh series 2

Hellfire

Noel Fielding first clapped eyes on his future comedy partner when he turned up at the Hellfire Comedy Club in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and watched Julian Barratt perform a stand-up comedy routine. The two men later discovered that they shared a love of surreal comedy and formed a double act after declaring that they would be ‘the new Goodies’.

Unnatural Acts

In April 1998, Julian and Noel came up with Mighty Boosh stalwart characters Howard Moon and Vince Noir, the zookeeper duo, for a series of sketches on the Paramount Comedy programme 'Unnatural Acts'.

Edinburgh Fringe

Working as The Boosh, Noel and Julian came up with three stage shows bound for the Edinburgh Fringe – ‘The Mighty Boosh’ in 1998, ‘Arctic Boosh’ in 1999 and ‘Autoboosh’ in 2000. After they took ‘Autoboosh’ to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and bagged the festival's Barry Award, the duo landed a BBC radio series.

Friends

Noel and Julian met Rich Fulcher, who plays Zooniverse manager Bob Fossil, whilst they were working in America. They also recruited Fielding’s brother Michael (who plays Naboo) and friend Dave Brown as regular collaborators. Another pal, the comedian Richard Ayoade, was drafted in to play zoo boss Dixon Bainbridge but was replaced by Matt Berry in the first series. Ayoade did return as Saboo the shaman in the second and third series, though.

Top Shop

In the first series episode ‘Tundra’, Julian and Noel play two caveman-like creatures applying for positions at the Zoo. At one point, Noel's character pulls at his tie and says, "Top Shop". Noel actually bought the tie from the UK retail clothing store Top Shop.

Adam Ant

In the same episode, the white stripe across Vince's nose is a visual nod to one of Noel Fielding's favourite music acts of the 1980s - Adam Ant. Also, the red and white jacket he wore in ‘Tundra’ was once worn by Freddie Mercury in a Queen video, and later donned by actor Jonathan Rhys Meyer in the film Velvet Goldmine.

Clothes war

Noel has mentioned that he and Julian occasionally argue. Once, after the pair were nominated for a Perrier Award, the duo fell foul of stress and began to fight over the fact that Noel had washed one of Julian's white shirts with coloured washing. In another clothes-related piece of trivia, the t-shirt that Noel wears in the episode ‘Hitcher’ has a picture of his and his brother Mike’s dad on it. And his hat is also the same one that Johnny Depp wore when he was a guest on Brit comedy The Fast Show!

Awards

Noel won the Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy for his solo work , and his first live solo show, ‘Voodoo Hedgehog’, was nominated for the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002.

Creatives

Julian Barratt is a talented musician and scribes all of the tunes heard on The Mighty Boosh. Noel Fielding creates all of the drawings and actually studied fine art at Croydon Art College before turning his attention to comedy.

Special guests

Julian and Noel have a bunch of showbiz pals that they can call on to guest star on their TV shows. Notable luminaries include legendary Who frontman Roger Daltrey, who popped up hoovering in an apron, and the rock group Razorlight, who could be spotted strolling in the desert in the series two episode ‘The Priest and The Beast’.