Then again, perhaps I will just…
I just went from watching Grass, a Fast Show spinoff on BBC3, to reading the final story in the Essential Human Torch volume that I mentioned below. This story features the Watcher, and I realised that I see him as a natural Fast Show character. For those who aren’t Marvel readers, the Watcher is one of a race of unimaginably ancient beings dotted throughout the universe, I think about one to a galaxy, who watch and only watch all events. His role in Marvel comics has been, from his very earliest days, to show up and say something like “My cosmic duty is to observe and never interfere, as I have for countless millions of years… oh all right, just this once then,” and he uses his mighty powers to save the day again. It’s virtually a catchphrase. My noticing this precedes The Fast Show itself, so I always kind of liked to imagine him speaking in the voice of our previous top catchphrase creator, Bruce Forsythe. Try it – I think you’ll enjoy his appearances much more that way.