Comedian
Rhys Thomas created the character of Brian Pern in 2008 when he was asked by BBC Comedy commissioner Simon Lupton to come up with an idea for the first batch of Online-Exclusive comedy sketches the BBC Comedy Website was developing. A fan of
Peter Gabriel, Thomas was a frequent visitor to Gabriel's website where the singer would post a monthly video blog about his current projects. At this time other rock musicians from the same generation were doing the same, such as
Brian May and
Brian Eno. In the series, Pern states that he "invented
world music" (a reference to
WOMAD) and was "the first musician to use Plasticine in videos" (a reference to Gabriel's song "
Sledgehammer"). Once the idea was commissioned, Thomas approached his fellow
Fast Show and
Down the Line collaborator Simon Day to play Brian Pern. Day was also a fan of Gabriel. Following a successful run on BBC Online, a second batch of sketches were commissioned. With a small increase in budget, extra cast members were brought in:
Lucy Montgomery as Majita (who would later become Pepita in the TV series) and
Paul Whitehouse as guitarist Pat Quid (Thomas later cited he got the name from
Stacy Keach's character in
Roadgames). The relationship between Pat and Brian is based on that of
David Gilmour and
Roger Waters. Thomas created the part of Brian's manager John Farrow for Michael Kitchen. Thomas had been developing a comedy drama for BBC One with Kitchen and offered him the part in the second series of online specials of Brian Pern. Thomas has stated in various interviews that John Farrow is an exaggerated version of
Queen manager
Jim Beach, whom Thomas had worked with for many years following his involvement with the band. ==Reception==