The Cheese Shop were a troupe of six comedy writer-performers from the revue circuit of University of Warwick.
Between 1997 and 1999, Gerard Foster, Dave Lamb, Gordon Southern, Tim Verrinder, Ben Ward and Richie Webb appeared in three series of their comedy sketch show The Cheese Shop Presents: The Butter Factor on BBC Radio 4.
This show featured a number of sketches based around eccentric and outrageous characters, including drug-addicted and sexually deviant singer-songwriter Ted Ruby, maniac gardener Jack Finsborough, petty official Miles Stoat and an unnamed but inexperienced vet ("'Tortoise', you say? Hmm... I must write that down...")
The third series included a regular section called "Fellah's Hour" this was expanded in a fourth series of The Cheese Shop renamed "Fellah's Hour" but still written and performed by the same 6 writer performers and featuring many of the same characters.
Ben Ward, Gerard Foster and Richie Webb also took part in the Saturday morning children’s TV programme Live & Kicking, as Men In Trousers, a parody based on the 1997 film Men in Black, where they all shared the same pair of trousers.