Matt Lucas and David Walliams – who are on The Jonathan Ross Show tonight (Saturday, March 30) – created some of British TV’s biggest shows, including Little Britain and Come Fly With Me.
However, their close friendship was replaced by a bitter feud that lasted several years.
Here’s everything we know about their long-running feud – and how they finally made up…
How did Matt Lucas and David Walliams first meet?
Matt and David’s friendship first began when they met at the National Youth Theatre in the early 90s. They bonded over their love of comedy and impressions.
Their first project together was Mash and Peas, a parody sketch show about different TV genres. The show aired on Channel 4 between 1996 and 1997.
Another early project together was Rock Profile, which first aired in 1999 and ran for three series. The series consisted of Matt and David doing spoof interviews as famous musicians.
In 2003, they launched Little Britain – their most well-known show and the one that catapulted them to stardom. The controversial show saw David and Matt play exaggerated parodies of British people from all walks of life.
It ran for three series, had Christmas specials, spawned a live show that toured internationally, and even got a US spin-off.
David Walliams and Matt Lucas friendship: Cracks begin to show
In his autobiography, Little Me: My Life From A-Z, Matt revealed that his relationship with David began breaking down in 2005, during the Little Britain Live Tour.
He wrote that one particular disagreement about David’s facial hair during the tour led to an out-and-out screaming match. In the show, Matt and David had to kiss each other in character. However, Matt complained that David’s stubble was giving him a rash and branded him “inconsiderate” for not shaving every day.
Matt wrote that the pair were then “suddenly hurling obscenities at each other” backstage.
They also reportedly demanded that they have separate dressing rooms.
Matt and David made amends, however, tensions arose once again during the Australian leg of the Little Britain tour.
Life after Little Britain
Despite the tension in their partnership, Matt and David continued to work together. In 2010, they launched another sketch show, Come Fly With Me.
Set in an airport, this sketch show was in a similar vein to Little Britain, with David and Matt portraying a range of characters.
The show was another smash hit for the duo, and the BBC even commissioned a second series. However, by 2013, it was revealed by David that a second series wasn’t going ahead because Matt didn’t want to do one.
“We’ve been taking a break, doing different things,” David said at the time during an interview with Esquire magazine.
“Matt didn’t want to do any more Come Fly With Me. He wanted to do his own thing. I was disappointed. I was hoping to do more because when you’ve started something like that, one series never seems enough.”
The duo take swipes at each other
In 2012, David released his autobiography, Camp David.
While promoting his book, the former Britain’s Got Talent star poured cold water on chances of another team-up with Matt anytime soon.
“We’re very different people and probably want different things and had different working methods,” he said during an interview on BBC Radio 4.
“Well, it’s over for the time being. Whether it’s over forever I don’t know,” he then added.
A few years later, Matt made a dig at his former friend in his own autobiography.
“Walliams has now sold so many children’s books he can probably buy his own private jet, all decked out in pink, with a river inside it for him to swim up,” he wrote at the time.
David Walliams and Matt Lucas reunite
In 2018, the death of close friend Dale Winton led to the pair reuniting with the pair spotted together at his funeral.
A year later, after eight years of feuding, they reunited for a radio spin-off of Little Britain, titled Little Brexit.
The same year, they were spotted in the theatre together, and in 2020 Matt revealed that they’re friends again.
“I do get asked about Little Britain a lot but what I can say is that David and I are the very best of friends and we speak or exchange messages every single day. Often it’ll be silly pictures or videos we’ve found online, that sort of thing, and we just make each other laugh all the time,” he told The Sun at the time.
He then revealed that they were committed to working together on something again.
“We’ve already done the one-off radio show last year and we loved working together again, so as far as we’re concerned we’re already back up and running together as a double act. There’s more to come,” he said.
What next for David and Matt?
In 2020, during lockdown, Matt and David brought back Little Britain for one night only for Comic Relief.
Towards the end of last year, it was reported that Matt and David were working on a new series of Little Britain.
However, Matt was forced to deny these rumours – but he did confirm that the pair were working on something else.
“Sorry to disappoint you (or delight you) but the stories in the papers about me and David writing a new series of Little Britain are not true,” he tweeted.
“We’re working on a different idea.”
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The Jonathan Ross Show airs tonight (Saturday, March 30) at 9.35pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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