Hale and Pace

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Hale and Pace are an English Comedy duo who have starred in several TV sketch series. Gareth Hale and Norman Pace met at a teacher-training college in Eltham, south-east London, and roomed together. They discovered much in common, particularly humour, and began playing clubs in a comedy band. This developed into sketch writing, with the duo appearing in the BBC Radio sketch show Don't Stop Now, It's Fundation. Their early TV break came on The Entertainers (1984), Pushing Up Daisies (1984) and the Saturday Gang (1986).

After a single one-off special for London Weekend Television in Christmas 1986, they were given a full series in 1988. Their relationship with ITV lasted a decade, with most of their programmes going out around 10pm on a Sunday. Their most famous comic creations are the bouncers The Two Rons - also known as The Management; and children's TV presenters Billy (Hale) and Johnny (Pace). A number of their TV sketches caused controversy, especially a scene performed when they pretended to have microwaved a cat.

Hale and Pace moved across to the BBC in 1997 and starred in the three-part series, Jobs for the Boys, a non-comedic show in which they took on a variety of employment challenges. A hybrid variety/comedy/quiz/people-show hotchpotch h&p@bbc (1999) was a flop. Similarly, their dramatisation of the Dalziel and Pascoe detectives for ITV in 1994 did not lead to success, and the BBC later attempted the serialisations with more success, with Warren Clarke and Colin Buchanan in the title roles.

They've also made several specials, like the 1996 Showcase Hale And Pace Down Under from Australia and April Fools Day.

[edit] The Stonk

In 1991 they released a charity single in aid of Comic Relief. The Stonk, based on a ficticious dance craze was written by Joe Griffiths and Hale and Pace and was produced by Queen guitarist Brian May who also featured on the track. A UK number one single for one week in March 1991, it was their sole chart single and raised £100,000 for Comic Relief.

Preceded by: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" by The Clash

UK number one single March 17, 1991

Succeeded by: "The One and Only" by Chesney Hawkes