I met Stewart and Richard in 1987, when I went to Oxford. Stewart was at the same college as me and was in the year above, and has remained so. They had just been to Edinburgh in their earliest incarnation as The Seven Raymonds, and they were trying to sort out a show with which to dazzle the students who had no idea they'd played to four tramps a day in an old church hall - they'd been to Edinburgh and were a success [and, remarkably, this publicity predates their association with Avalon]. I told them how really really keen I was to do some comedy and they smiled, bemused and amused, and that has pretty much been our relationship ever since.

I lived with Stew for a while. He cooks well, with cheese as the backbone of his culinary style. This means I was partly [and entirely unwittingly] responsible for the genesis of one of the finest Fist of Fun moments. A friend of mine had fallen on our mercy - he'd come to London and his flat had fallen through or something so he collapsed on our sofa for a fortnight. One Sunday I cooked lunch, and made lots of roast potatoes, as Stew loves them. As this friend was a guest I offered him seconds of spuds and he pretended to not want them [as manners dictate] and then had them anyway. Little did I know this enraged Stew and my friend ended up as Captain Oates.

For me Stewart has always been the best stand up Britain has never had. He's a mercurial man - capable of pretty much anything he turns his hand to, as his script writing, music criticism, novel, song writing and always bang on the money comedic theorising all attest. It makes me sick. We should put the band back together mate.

Rich on the other hand is an enigma locked within a riddle trapped inside a roundish bloke from Cheddar. Deadly at Risk, he puts it down to reading biographies of Hitler. He's also the hardest worker I've ever met, and the effort he put into Time Gentlemen Please beggared belief. And the sheer depth of his turn as the bean faced post man with slipping sanity is already being shown at drama schools around the country* He's fearless too - no one from the Oxford Revue 1988 can forget the legendary turn that was Herring and Spaz. It's too long and too terrible a story, but one that involves Rich being endlessly heartless to Ben Moor who was meant to be his retarded brother.

But nothing will ever top the glory of Rich's hilarious explaining of jokes he used to do at college * compering some show he'd do a "Jamaica?" style joke around everyone on the bill's names. It would go on forever, and was the first time I thought I wish I could do that.

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In 1991 I decided that I might have more fun if I tried to do stand-up comedy as opposed to 'theatre'. I'd had a run in three 'theatre-in -education' plays in a row, of which the themes were rape, incest and suicide. As you can imagine, the rehearsal periods were not ones of care-free giggling and looning about and when we took the plays into schools I used to feel guilty about depressing perfectly cheerful kids and then afterwards making them talk about the oh- so -earnest though thoroughly well-intentioned load of old toss they'd just had to sit through. So stand-up seemed more like fun.

I did gigs all around the country and often ended up on the bill with the bequiffed Stewart Lee. He was only seven then I think. One night we were driving back from some god-awful student union bar where a bunch of drunk and quite savagely stupid business management students had ignored, talked over or heckled us and Lee told me about a radio series he was recording at colleges around the country with his comedy partner Richard Herring. He said it was going well. 'The only trouble is' he said, 'we can't find any actors who'd be prepared to , say, travel down to Devon for a hundred pounds'. I put my hand up. 'Would you?' he said. Too right I would. Since I'd left college if I hadn't been clinically depressing myself and teenagers in issues - based plays, I'd been on the dole eating tinned sardines and crying a lot. And that's how I started working with them.

A lawyer would probably advise me not to mention in print such things as my having to make my own way to gigs and pay for the transport while they got driven everywhere. Or the way they'd stay in the poshest hotel in town and I'd be reduced to some flea colony in a 12 quid b and b. The lawyer would counsel I keep schtumm about their chronic cocaine abuse and the gay bondage aspect of their relationship . He'd certainly say I shouldn't tell everyone that I actually wrote about 80 per cent of their material and was never credited. And he'd be right to. Because none of those things are true. It was a joke that I thought of and then wrote down here. I'm very pleased with it too.

So, not joking and telling the truth, all I can say is what a laugh I always had working with them. And the fact that they're extremely nice blokes. In fact on tours, I was the one most likely to cause trouble what with being a poncey actor and going into moods and all that. I'm grateful to them in the extreme because they gave me my first decent crack at tv comedy. This was an area I'd always wanted to get into and they gave me a real boost. I owe them a big debt of gratitude there. And getting to play characters like Simon Quinlank was an absolute joy. Darling. I wish they'd been more supported by the BBC. They weren't treated with a great deal of respect. And that does annoy me when you see some of the arse juice that gets commissioned these days. But there you go.

Personality-wise they're chalk and cheese as the routine they once did pointed out. They could get quite confrontational when devising stuff but it never got unpleasant. And if it rarely did, it didn't stay that way. In comparison with other double acts who traditionally give each other hell they were a pretty good model of team-work tempered by an ability to concede and/or compromise when necessary.

I see Stewart a lot more than Richard because Stew lives near me. He's mental on music, you know. I mean it though. Mentally ill on music. I go to gigs with him to see one of his obscure bunch of 40 year old Arizonian ex heroin addicts and he knows every band they've been in, dates, tracks, instrumentation, collaborations, spilt ups, re-groupings, you name it. Bloody weirdo. Rich is the same about Mexican speedway.

I talk about their partnership in the past tense. They've been working on separate stuff for a couple of years now but there's every chance they might well do stuff together again. I hope so. Cheers lads!

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They are great lads, I love Lee and Herring. It's just a shame they haven't moved on from being the new Newman and Baddiel.

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I first saw Rich and Stew's work in my very first week as a student and they changed my life. Not many friends you can say that about but they did that then and they still continue to do so. They were performing as part of the Seven Raymonds doing KMNOĽ, (The Potassium Permanganate Revue), in a small room underneath Balliol College and I thought it was just brilliant. This was exactly the sort of comedy I had wanted to discover and I had found it in, like, seven days. It was almost too easy. . .

I first talked to Richard at a drinks party on a damp November night which was meant to be about the following year's Edinburgh Festival. He was on a filching kick at the time and he had shoved a bottle of wine up his sleeve which I think he expected no one else to notice. I don't know. He looked like he was about to leave when he noticed me in my orange kagoule which I would later wear for Herring and Spaz. I told him how much I'd liked the show and he told me I looked funny so I might be good at comedy and I should audition for the Oxford Revue.

I bumped into Stew at the auditions (they were writing it together) and he looked serious and handsome, and I guess I thought he was this cool comedy genius too.

So I got into the cast and we toured that summer around the country and we performed at the Edinburgh Fringe 1988; it was a brilliant Summer.

I've done loads of other things with the guys since. Stew and Kevin Eldon and me went around the western United States in 1995; I saw the Sex Pistols with a very over-excited Rich in 1996. That's just two things. I mean, there are more, but, hey, those two are up there with the highlights.

I can talk about how they're the most generous people on the planet and how kind they've been to me and my friends and how fabulous their work is. But really the thing is they gave me the Summer of 1988 and made me want to be as good a comedian and as good a person as they both are.

Thanks guys.
Love you.

I'm not gay though.

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I know what it's like to be Richard Herring because when I first worked with him in 1997, in a play he wrote called Excavating Rita, I played the character of Ian Snell, who was based on the eighteen year old Richard Herring. In fact most of the things that happened to the Ian in the play had actually happened to the eighteen year old Richard in life, and therefore, they happened again, to the me on stage, every day for three weeks. Ever since then Richard has confused me with himself and there has always been a special thing between us.

I don't know what it is like to be Stewart Lee as he has never cast me as an incarnation of himself, although it wouldn't be surprising if he said he'd been mistaken for me at some point in his life because of his universal template face thing that he's always going on about. Stewart has only once confused himself with me, that was on stage at the Comedy Bunker in Ruislip. There has always been a special thing between us.

I always think of Lee and Herring as being like the Medici family of 15th & 16th century Florence. Rich and powerful, they have patronised me, a poor starving artist, throughout my career and without them I wouldn't be where I am today. Today I am an unemployed actor remembered only for my small face, unable to get work as anything other than the flower or the three legged potato.

Lee and Herring, together or individually, live or dead, are two of the funniest and most original comedians this country has produced. Is it a coincidence that they have been taken off television at a time when tv comedy is at it's lowest ebb and when comedy bosses of all terrestrial channels seem to be idiots? Yes. As private people, Rich and Stu are two of the most generous, loyal, genuine friends this country has produced. I look forward to enjoying their company as much as I look forward to seeing their work. Good luck to them both in the future, together or separately.

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After performing together at a worthy but ill fated gig in a Kensington Cinema, Stewart Lee invited me and an actor friend of his who was at the time playing the part of Charles Darwin in a museum to his home in Balham in something like 1996 to listen to music, watch classic comedy and drink red wine which made me sick. That and some cheese on toast with an unfavourable cheese to toast ratio. (if anything he was too generous with the cheese.)

Richard once found me wandering around hungover and miserable at the Edinburgh festival and invited me to join himself and the cast of his play for a Chinese meal. I can't remember if he paid for it, but lets say he did.

People think of Lee and Herring as clever men, as funny men. Lets not forget they are also men who eat food, and are happy to share it with others. Tuck in to that.

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Thank you for your email with regards to Ant & Dec. Unfortunately Ant & Dec's diary is closed for the time being due to their ever-growing commitments, the recording of Slap Bang, and SMTV returning in the next few weeks. Thank you very much for thinking of them, but we are unfortunately unable to help you with your request.

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By far the best way to pay tribute to Lee and Herring was to form a Lee & Herring tribute band - or tribute comedy duo - so that's what Andy and I did, copying and repeating them more or less word for word. But like a real tribute band we did it in a slightly different key and were cheaper. Having done that I'm next planning to repeat their early stuff starting with the "Hotdog and Snorkel" sketch that they wrote for Little and Large. It was rejected. (True). Oh and I first met Herring out of Lee and Herring in a lift three years ago. He had a bag and said "I'm going to Australia". Quick as a hilarious flash I replied "I think it only goes as far as the ground floor." He just looked at me as though I was a mental. Rich - you can use my lift joke if you like. Fair's fair.

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For me, my R and S memory would have to be bumping into them in Leeds whilst on tour with 'The Man Who thinks He's It'. It was a favourite ritual of ours to rush back to our hotel on Fridays to watch 'Is It Bill Bailey?' and the repeat of This Morning with Richard not Judy'. Claire, who looked after our costumes became fascinated by The Curious Orange, so when we bumped into the boys, who were staying in the same hotel, they let Claire try on the Orange head. She was thrilled to bits.

They are two thoroughly clever and nice men.

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Richard and Stewart are not only really funny guys, but fantastic people.

The two years we spent making TMWRNJ were brilliant not only due to Rich and Stew, but because I was welcomed into the extended family with wonderful performers like Kevin Eldon, Paul Putner, Richard Thomas, Trevor, Natalie, Jo and Emma.

During the time we did TMWRNJ, getting up at six on a Sunday morning was a joyous experience. Seeing the run through, standing in for the King (or Queen) of the Show and then the excitement of doing a live show.

I thought the second series of TMWRNJ was only the tip of the iceberg. Rich and Stew were in great form. The writing was stronger and assured, the filmed items were brilliant and they thrived on the danger of live TV.

I am really thankful and honoured to have worked with and know Richard and Stewart. A class act.

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Hi, I'm Greg Evigan. I made this!

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They are two of the most supportive, generous and innovative people on the circuit. Meeting them in Australia meant I got to know them away from their home ground and I found them to be amazingly lovely people. I hardy ever get to see them these days, but whenever I do I know they will always be down to earth, and like old buddies. Thay have always supported me, even when they didn't realise they were doing it, and for that I'll be eternally grateful.

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I first met Rich and Stew in the days before their operation, back when they were known as Stewrich Leeherring, popular twin-headed stand-up comic of the early '70s, so famously obsessed by lupine scatology. They were good boys, although naturally haunted my nightmares, where they would leer down at me out of the sky and ask me awkward questions about my geneology; specifically 'Who's your daddy?' "In 1974 I starred alongside the boys in a number of the top-rated sitcoms of the day - 'That's My Groin', 'The Incitement to Racial Violence Show', 'The Man With The Hairy Mouth' and 'What Ever Happened to The Likely Lads Stomach Cramps and Flatulence Christmas Special'. It seemed the public couldn't get enough of them... but only to me. In fact, the public were sick wretched of them.

I also fondly remember the '80s, but not for anything to do with Rich or Stew. Our paths crossed again in the mid-'90s when a group of farmers invited us to beat each other to death for their illicit entertainment. I was happy to oblige, but the Lee & Herrings declined the offer, possibly afraid of my extra-big fists, and also of my beautiful singing voice which has often been likened to that of Julie Andrews.

And so to the present day. Lee is now a successful Replacement, standing in for many of Hollywood's top stars too coke-addled to attend glittering parties; while "Herring" (if that really is his name, which I very much doubt), shrivelled and bitter dwarf that he is, can often be seen swimming up and down the Thames at midnight, howling mournfully and attacking passing ships with his dangerous flippers.

Bless you boys. I won't say it hasn't been fun, because it hasn't.

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One of my favourite L & H memories is a bit embarrassing for me as I made a total tit of myself in public. It was mid-90s during the Festival when I was still living in London and just spending my August's in Edinburgh. The show was called the Dumb Show and it was on late afternoon in Pleasance 2. It was a sketch show starring L & H , Steve Coogan, John Thomson, Simon Munnery and (I think) Patrick 'wanker' Marber.

Anyway me and about 10 friends booked tickets to see it, mainly because we couldn't get tickets to see Steve Coogan at Assembly (sorry !!!). It was the year that Coogan won the Perrier. I do remember that I had been drinking a wee bit and was in high spirits. The show in itself was ok - don't think anyone in it would call it their greatest creative hour. BUT I found it hilarious. I was hysterical from the moment the show started. I was an L & H fan anyway so any bits that either of them were in I found even more hilarious. My laugh is pretty loud and some would say dirty at the best of times but in an almost empty theatre with me going way over the top it was pretty distracting to the performers. So distracting that I seem to remember I made the cast corpse; by corpse I mean laugh from stage at the freak in hysterics. In fact they stopped the show to ask if I was all right and what was I on.

If it's true that laughter is the best medicine I probably immunised my self against every disease known to mankind that afternoon.

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LEE & HERRING: A WORTHY TRIBUTE

I first heard Lee & Herring perform together in the early 90s, during their Radio One show. The following week, being better prepared, I was able to turn the sound down in-between the records. The only highlight of that waste of a wireless licence fee, being when they broadcast my own tribute jingle to them... during which show, Mr Lee described me as a "horrible man"... and from thence the rumour arose... that I was somehow a fan.

Around the mid 90s I saw them perform live in Norwich, during their "how many cans of Diet Coke can we product place today" period. I put this misguided foray down to the fact that I was genuinely ill with the flu that night... no lies. And as if it wasn't bad enough trying to ignore the brain-numbing nausea, face-aches and pains in the neck... I also had to cope with the flu.

These days, I've taken up a somewhat missionary position in the Lee & Herring internet guest-book... preaching to the public at medium-sized that the phrase "...is there a new series in the offering..?" should continue to receive its ever-just reply.

To sum up, then... clearly, they are both men with many talents... but, their shared ancient coin collection aside, it's their amount of innate comic genius which makes people refer to them in the same breath as Reeves & Mortimer, or Morecambe & Wise... usually this takes the form of "Oh come on... they're nowhere near as funny Reeves & Mortimer..."etc.

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My first eperience of seeing Rich and Stew live as opposed to on the telly or radio started with an over-excitable bus journey from our halls into Nottingham city centre consisting mainly of me repeatedly insisting that Kathryn wanted the moon on a stick and then both of us chorusing misrumrimrumremeorisrumpathkay at the top of our voices. I always remember how generous they both were every time we saw them. Rich gave one lad is BFH (bus fare home) and Stew always used to ply Kathryn with extra-mild silk cut cigarettes.

My favourite lee and herring memories come from the three summers me and Kathryn spent at the battersea arts centre to see any and every show which starred lee and/or herring. For some reason it never crossed our minds to venture up to Edinburgh.

Rich and Stew were always very nice to us, as they are to everyone, and they continue to be so, its just a shame that we revert back to being teenagers whenever we are anywhere near them.

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During their second Radio 1 music show, Lee and Herring were taking votes in a poll to find out Britain’s most popular chew bar, with Rich trying to fix the outcome by insisting that everyone vote for the Stinger. Not one to pass up the opportunity of a free, nasty, green lump of sugar, I sent in a long list of false votes. I was thrilled when, about a week later, they wrote back with their own hands and, as well as enclosing a Stinger, they directly answered the ridiculous question I had asked them about Peter Baynham.

The first time I met them was following a particularly arduous recording of Fist of Fun, which had taken three and a half hours to film. When my Dad forced me to introduce myself to them, as we had travelled all the way over from Dublin, I was rendered utterly speechless by the fact that they both recognised me. That is one of the things that is most often mentioned by Lee and Herring fans – the fact that, regardless of who you are, Rich and Stew will make every effort to make idiots like us feel welcome.

I am still very proud to be identified as a card carrying member of their Child Army.

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We hold Lee and Herring completely responsible for the fact that we met, became friends and decided to embark on the journey that resulted in Comedy Lounge. We would both have steady jobs, smaller phone bills and more free time. Instead we have just quit our jobs for the festival, have huge phone bills but are much happier for it.

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