Hale and Pace: a decade of British television comedy

Gareth Hale and Norman Pace built their partnership in London’s clubs before taking it to television. Their ITV sketch show, Hale & Pace, ran from 1988 to 1998, combining sketches, stand-up and original songs. Along the way, the duo created the stone-faced bouncers the Two Rons and the relentlessly cheerful children’s presenters Billy and Johnny, while also turning a comic dance craze into a Comic Relief chart-topper.

From teacher training to the Tramshed

Hale and Pace met at Avery Hill teacher-training college in Eltham, south-east London. Both were born in 1953: Hale on 15 January and Pace on 17 February. After five years in education, they moved into entertainment in the late 1970s, developing an act that grew out of sustained work in the capital’s club circuit.

They performed mostly at the Tramshed in Woolwich for seven years. Their work there developed into sketch-writing, including a show titled Don’t Stop Now – It’s Fundation. Before television, they also made a series of Radio 4 programmes based on their Tramshed show. The move to broadcasting was therefore not a sudden leap from an unknown act to a hit: it followed years of performing, writing and adapting material for different audiences.

Their early television appearances included The Entertainers and Pushing Up Daisies in 1984, followed by Channel 4’s Coming Next in 1985 and Saturday Gang in 1986. They also appeared three times in The Young Ones, in the episodes “Flood”, “Nasty” and “Time”. These credits placed the pair within a busy period of British television comedy, before their own series gave them room to develop recurring characters and a recognisable format.

A decade of sketches, songs and characters

A Christmas special for London Weekend Television in 1986 preceded the full series, which began on ITV on 2 October 1988. The programme ran until 20 December 1998, comprising ten series and 66 episodes. Most episodes were broadcast at around 10pm on a Sunday. The format mixed sketches and stand-up, with musical numbers a regular feature: every episode included at least one original song performed by Hale, Pace or both.

The Two Rons were among the duo’s best-known creations: stone-faced bouncers, also called the Management, whose stilted conversations included the line “I do do wrong, Ron, I do do wrong”. Their sketches often placed them on dimly lit stairs beside their venue or watching events from above. Later, the characters appeared outdoors in Ron & Ron’s Gardening Tips, dispensing thuggish advice about plants and flowers. The name and catchphrase played on the sound of “Da Doo Ron Ron”; the duo should not be confused with the Two Ronnies.

Another recurring pair, Billy and Johnny, were ever-smiling, colourfully dressed children’s television presenters. Played by Hale and Pace respectively, they spoofed programmes designed to help pre-school children learn. Ainsley Harriott appeared as their co-presenter, Willy, in several sketches. Other recurring characters included the rockers Jed and Dave and the Beat Generation-era poet Groovy Wordbender, whose monochrome appearances were performed by Hale.

The show’s cast and writing also extended beyond its two stars. Early episodes featured performers including Harriott, Annette Badland and Caroline Quentin. Several writing duos contributed over the ten series, alongside Hale and Pace themselves. The result was not just a sequence of character sketches: recurring premises, songs and changes in presentation gave the programme a structure that could evolve across a long run.

Comic Relief, spin-offs and other appearances

In 1991, Hale and Pace joined a charity supergroup as Hale & Pace and the Stonkers. Their Comic Relief single, “The Stonk”, was based on an imaginary dance craze and co-written by the pair with Joe Griffiths. Queen guitarist Brian May produced the recording and played on it. The musicians also included Tony Iommi, David Gilmour and Nick Lowe on guitar, Roger Taylor, Cozy Powell and Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean on drums, and Mike Moran on piano. Comedians Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis, Rob Newman and David Baddiel appeared in the video.

“The Stonk” reached number one in the UK singles chart for one week in March 1991 and was the year’s 22nd best-selling single. It was issued jointly with Victoria Wood’s “The Smile Song”, which appeared as the second track on the seven-inch and CD releases. A separate contribution to public life came through firework-safety films: the Two Rons appeared in public information films screened around Bonfire Night from the late 1980s into the early 1990s.

The characters also supported a television spin-off. The Management, based on the Two Rons, ran for six episodes. Hale and Pace made other specials, including Hale & Pace Down Under in 1996 and April Fools’ Day. In 1997 the pair moved to the BBC for Jobs for the Boys, a three-part, non-comedic series in which they took on employment challenges. One involved writing a UK Eurovision Song Contest entry, with advice from people connected to the contest and the music industry.

Their work was not confined to sketch comedy. In 1989 they briefly appeared as shopkeepers Harvey and Len in the Doctor Who story Survival. Later credits included Oddbods, two episodes of which were broadcast in 1998, the variety and quiz programme h&p@bbc in 1999, and an appearance in The Armando Iannucci Shows in 2001. They also appeared in the 2007 Christmas special of Extras and several episodes of Benidorm in 2018, playing financial-fraud investigators. Their 1994 dramatisation of the Dalziel and Pascoe detectives did not lead to a continuing series.

Reception and a long television afterlife

The sketch show’s mix of recurring characters, music and topical parody made it a distinctive fixture of ITV’s late-evening schedule. Its humour was not universally welcomed: one sketch in which the pair pretended to have microwaved a cat caused controversy. That response is part of the programme’s history too; comic provocation could attract attention as well as laughs.

The series returned to television circulation in a new context when That’s TV acquired it for its comedy line-up in March 2022. Its availability on DVD also extended beyond its original broadcast. A UK two-disc release containing the complete first series and the 1986 Christmas special appeared in 2012. The Two Rons’ continued presence in firework-safety films offers another reminder that characters created for entertainment could also carry a practical public message.

Why Hale and Pace deserve a place in British Legacy

Hale and Pace deserve a place in British Legacy for a body of work that connects the club circuit, radio, commercial television and charity broadcasting. Their ten-series ITV run was built on more than a pair of comic personas: it combined sketches, stand-up and original music, and gave recurring characters room to develop. The Two Rons and Billy and Johnny became readily identifiable creations, while the programme’s years on air made the duo a sustained part of British popular entertainment from the late 1980s into the 1990s.

Their contribution also reached beyond the television studio. “The Stonk” brought their comic invention into a major Comic Relief campaign and topped the UK singles chart, with an unusually large group of musicians and performers involved. The Two Rons appeared in firework-safety public information films, carrying a familiar comic act into a public-service setting. Meanwhile, appearances across radio, television and spin-offs show a partnership that adapted to different formats over decades. These are specific, traceable contributions to British entertainment: a long-running television series, distinctive recurring characters, charity chart success and comedy put to public use.

Sources

Hale and Pace — Wikipedia, revision 1379344663

Adapted in part from Hale and Pace by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.