History Series / TheArmstrongAndMillerShow

''The Armstrong and Miller Show'' is an English sketch comedy series starring the eponymous double act of Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. The duo originally broke into British television with a series entitled simply ''Armstrong and Miller'', which ran from 1997 to 2001 on Paramount Comedy and Creator/Channel4, whereas the newer series began six years later in 2007 and aired on [=BBC1=]. The third series of ''The Armstrong and Miller Show'' ended in December 2010. A fourth was planned but neither Armstrong nor Miller could find the time it would take to make it.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The point of the Regency-era ball sketches, in which the upper-class attendees seduce one another using very sophisticated descriptions of the extremely graphic sexual acts they would like to perform.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Brabbins and Fyffe's "Knocking Out a Crafty One."
** In one of the caveman sketches a teenage boy's mother tells his father the boy has been "sharpening his spear".
-->'''Father:''' Oh... ''now'' he a man!

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Played for laughs, obviously. A pair of old-fashioned vampires try to get virgin blood as if they're "on the pull" but are often beaten or outwitted by modern ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''-inspired vampires.

* BenevolentBoss: Played For Laughs. The head of [=MI6=] is this, often to the point of hindering operations that threaten national security. He once interrupted a terrorist [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique interrogation]] so the staff could present the agent with a birthday cake.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: The "kill them" sketches. Plus Miranda and Pru, the owners of Dandylion's cafe in the first series, who are perfectly pleasant (in a bitchy sort of way) when talking to each other, but every sketch ends with them attacking the customers.

*** In addition, the identically-dressed customers played by the same actors always get beaten up in the same way: Karen Hayley (in the grey jacket) always gets punched in the stomach, Jim Howick (in the woolly hat) is always the guy who gets thrown through the window, and Lucy Montgomery (in the dark blue jacket) always gets food dumped on her. In one episode, Miller actually dunks Montgomery's head into a saucepan full of soup.

* AlmightyJanitor: A Geordie window cleaner gives a philosophical monologue consisting of ideas for solving various major crises facing the world, such as climate change or terrorism, before finishing with "but what do I know?"

* DeadAllAlong: Parodied in a sketch with Armstrong as a man who's terrified that everyone he meets is drunk, as if he's in a zombie movie and everyone keeps turning into zombies--including his wife (Sarah Alexander), who he leaves alone for two minutes and when he comes back she woozily confesses "Sorry, Jeff, I'm completely twatted." He makes it to Miller's house and Miller invites him in for tea, but then Armstrong sees empty bottles of booze concealed everywhere and makes off. When he gets home, there's a knock at the door and he opens it--to find his wife and a policeman, who arrests him for public drunkenness. He realises that he was the only one who was drunk the entire time. As his wife and the policeman lead him away, he passes a small boy who says "I see pissed people all the time."

* TheUnfunny: Miller tends to play these roles.

Comparisons to ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' are inevitable, as both shows starred a double act, ran during similar time periods, and were slightly renamed versions of earlier sketch shows. In contrast to Mitchell and Webb, however, Armstrong and Miller do not have readily apparent character archetypes (layman/boffin, straight man/indignant man, et cetera).

* PoirotSpeak: The main trait of the Miller character who hangs out in a Parisian café. Although a native of Reading, he has lost fluency in English since moving to France six months ago, and consequently speaks with an English accent and French syntax. Later taken UpToEleven when he meets a fellow Brit who has lived in Germany for two months:

* RantInducingSlight: One sketch has a newly married couple heading to their new home when the wife mentions they're passing a place she used to visit with an ex-boyfriend. The husband remains silent and withdrawn [[DelayedReaction for the next fifty years]], before finally echoing the comment, moments before dying.