Doon Mackichan
From ‘something completely different’ to icons of comedy and national treasures, this is a collection of rarely-seen Monty Python moments from the BBC archives, following the group’s encounters with ‘Auntie’ over the past 50 years.
Draper's Tours are taking Mildred and her care home friends on an overnight ferry trip from North Shields to Amsterdam, where things will quickly turn turbulent as the passengers and crew begin to get bumped off one-by-one. Throughout it all, Terry is still desperate to pop the question to Gemma, even if the circumstances are less than romantic.
Colin has rented a stately country home for his extended family’s New Year celebrations. He’s the centre of attention until his estranged brother David unexpectedly arrives, throwing the family dynamic far off orbit.
A ship is wrecked on the rocks. Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land. So begins a whirlwind of mistaken identity and unrequited love. The nearby households of Olivia and Orsino are overrun with passion. Even Olivia's upright housekeeper Malvolia is swept up in the madness. Where music is the food of love, and nobody is quite what they seem, anything proves possible.
It has been a quarter of a century since a little-known sports reporter was given his own radio chat show by the BBC. Two radio series, five TV series, four specials, two books and one movie later, Alan Partridge has an unrivalled place in the comedy pantheon. To celebrate Alan’s return to his rightful home at the BBC in 2018, this retrospective documentary will look back at his journey from broadcaster caricature to the award-winning study of complexity and pathos that he has become.
With ruthless US and Japanese investment banks circling Tuftons, a struggling two-hundred-year-old, family-run British bank, can its bumbling, incompetent chairman, Sir Charles Bunbury, fend off the onslaught and save the bank?
Composer John Wilbye spent his entire working life in the employ of Sir and Lady Kytson at Hengrave Hall in Suffolk. Unusually, after his second book of Madrigals was published in 1609 it appears he did not compose again despite being kept on at the house by Lady Kytson until her death in 1628. Draw On Sweet Night examines this mystery in a sumptuous costume drama, produced in collaboration with renowned vocal group I Fagiolini.
A look back at the most outrageous antics by the rich and famous.
Annual countdown of the 40 most shocking celebrity moments of the year.
Mockumentary set on the day of the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum and designed to capture a snap shot of a nation on the brink of both triumph and disaster.
Sir David Frost traces the development of the sketch show over the last fifty years, from variety theatre to primetime television.
Toast of London is a British comedy series following Steven Toast, an eccentric middle-aged actor with a chequered past who spends more time dealing with his problems off stage than performing on it.
Comedy set in a chaotic Hogmanay party. Beth and Eric Baird's Hogmanay goes horribly wrong as family, friends and neighbours descend on their home. As they count down to the bells in traditional Scottish style, a lively evening is assured as drink flows and Beth's legendary steak pie comes out of the oven. Secrets are revealed, tempers fray, scores are settled and a gazebo is destroyed.
At a two-day business conference, God (Simon Callow) decides to romantically pair Terry, a moral crusader, with his "win-at-all-cost" antithesis, Jacqui. However, fate, assisted by unique and corrupt characters, attempt to beset God's arrangements.
Modern Toss is a partly animated British comedy programme based on characters from Modern Toss, the creation of British comedy writers and cartoonists Jon Link and Mick Bunnage. Renowned for their scurrilous humour and highly stylised animation, it was created in 2004, initially as a website publishing single panel jokes and then as series of irregularly released comics. The initial pilot programme was commissioned by Channel 4 as part of their Comedy Lab series and Broadcast in May, 2005. Series one was first broadcast in July 2006. Following the DVD release of the first series in November 2007, a second series began on 23 January 2008. The show was aired on the Independent Film Channel in the United States and in 30+ territories including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Poland, Finland, Ukraine, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia, Philippines, Bulgaria, Finland, Iceland and the African territories reached by MNet. The series last played in the United Kingdom on 4Music in 2011 and the pilot episode received an airing on Channel 4 in August 2012.
Bromwell High is an animated series about a British high school in South London. It first aired on Teletoon in Canada and Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. It is a co-production between Hat Trick Productions in the UK and DHX Media in Canada. According to the website Toonhound, it was originally to be entitled Streatham Hill, but was renamed Bromwell High in January 2005. Streatham Hill is a real London suburb, while Bromwell is fictional. Subsequent international purchases have seen the show screened in the United States on BBC America, on The Box in the Netherlands, dubbed to Spanish and Portuguese on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in Latin America, on the ABC in Australia, on TVNZ's TV2 in New Zealand, and also dubbed in French for the Canadian Télétoon network. It stars three trouble-making girls, Keisha, Latrina, and Natella as they wreak havoc on their impoverished school and its teachers. The show was designed by David Whittle, who is also responsible for illustrating the popjustice icons series of books. The show represents a caricatured view of contemporary British society. For example, the majority of students at Bromwell High School are immigrant children from the Caribbean and Asia, and some of the male teachers are aging 'chavs'. Many of the characters on the show speak a very poor form of English, including the headmaster, Iqbal. Most of the teachers have an affinity for biscuits.
Every year, thousands of commercials are made that never reach our TV screens, deemed too shocking to see. In order to make it onto the screen, they must clear all manner of obstacles, from fussy clients to obsessive regulators and restrictive rights issues. X-Rated takes a look at these outlawed pieces of advertising, revealing the most explicit, controversial and shocking ads never seen. These are ads that break all manner of taboos, from sex, violence, blasphemy, homosexuality, animal cruelty, rapping pensioners, swearing children, suicidal toys and naked athletes to Kylie in her undies on a bucking bronco. Amongst the contributors are advertising executives, producers and censors. The programme also takes a look at the embarrassing world of western celebrities in Japanese ads.
Colombian Luccio and his girlfriend Angie move into a respectable part of Berkshire, learning that Ron and Helen, the previous owners of their house, died mysteriously. Angie discovers that their neighbours, estate agent Roy and his wife Jane, high court judge Charles and his bickering wife Carol and Bilbo, a conceptual artist and his partner were all members of a wife-swapping circle who usually met at Ron and Helen's house. Luccio reveals himself to be a policeman and is curious as to how Ron and Helen died, lining up all the suspects.
Bernard Hill and Victoria Hamilton star in Alistair Beaton's wickedly funny feature-length drama inspired by David Blunkett's private affair held up for very public scrutiny.
Offbeat sword-and-sandals comedy-adventure about three unlikely heroines (Doon Mackichan, Fiona Allen and Sally Phillips) who set out to thwart a Roman invasion and save Celtic Britain in their own unique and outrageous style.
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy is a spin-off of the original Fame Academy show where celebrities sing as students of the Academy. The programme was launched in 2003 to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief, with the final of the show occurring on Red Nose Day. Coverage of the show was widely shown on BBC One, BBC Three, BBC Prime and the CBBC Channel. Many consider the celebrity version of the show to be far more successful than its predecessor. The Comic Relief series returned in 2005 and again in March 2007. It was announced by the BBC that Cat Deeley would not return because she was hosting So You Think You Can Dance. However, Patrick Kielty returned with co-host and host of the former spin-off show Claudia Winkleman.
Comedy Connections was a BBC One documentary series produced by BBC Scotland that aired from 2003 to 2008. The show looked at the stories behind the production of some of Britain's comedy television programmes, showing how they tied in with the production of other comedy shows. The show featured interviews with some of the cast and crew of the subject programme, as well as footage from the series. Comedy Connections mostly documented BBC comedies and sitcoms, although two programmes have been from ITV and two from Channel 4. The first series consisted of six episodes, however the rest of the series consist of eight episodes each, the first two series were narrated by Julia Sawalha, however the rest of the series were narrated by Doon Mackichan.
Don't Eat the Neighbours is a children's comedy series that originally aired in the United Kingdom and Canada in 2001-2002. It was filmed mainly with puppets, but occasionally used computer graphics. The series was focused on the characters Rabbit, Wolf, and their children. Music for the show was done by Jim Guttridge, with the theme done by Dan Gagnon, Sandy Nuttgens, and Michael Scott. Only four episodes were released on VHS and DVD in the 2001 volume A Rabbit for All Seasons.
Bedtime was a British comedy-drama written and directed by Andy Hamilton and broadcast by the BBC. It ran for three series for a total of fifteen episodes between August 2001 and December 2003. The first two series had six episodes each and the third series had three episodes. Series 1 and 2 were released on DVD.
Beast is a BBC One sitcom based in a veterinary surgery. Two series of six episodes each were made, with the first broadcast in early 2000 and the second in early 2001. The main premise of the show is that the main character and practice owner doesn't like being a vet and has a strong dislike of animals.
A sleazy chef is forced to face the truth about the man he has become and realizes that he has the chance to begin again.
Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show Among the show's regular themes were unsuccessful relationships, competition in the workplace and latent lesbianism, but sketches would also dip into the surreal; such as two women jumping from their car as they neared a parking space, and brushing in front of the path of their car to help it move further forward, as in curling. Two regular strands involved a series of different women making dating agency videos about their general likes and dislikes, and a musical parody that would close the show.
Rosie and Vincent know each other for ten years, and are married for five. She doesn't like her job, he isn't too pleased working with her dad. They're trying to have a baby. One morning Benoit, a Frenchman and former pen pal of Rosie, whom she never met, comes to visit. Did Rosie love him? Does she love him now?
Epic Charles Dickens tale of passion, greed and betrayal. Lizzie and her father scrape a living on the banks of the Thames until one day they recover a body that links them with another world.
Eric Feeble is a middle-class divorced father of two who resides in London, England. An average man, with a less than average life, Eric is endlessly at his wits end -- stressed out with his family, coworkers, and his life in general.
Bob and Margaret is a Canadian/UK animated television series that was also shown in the United States and all over the world. The series was produced by Nelvana, a Toronto animation studio, and created by Canadian David Fine and Brit Alison Snowden. The series was based on the Academy Award winning short film Bob's Birthday, featuring the same main characters, which won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1994. The series is one of the few Canadian TV shows to ever have regular American exposure. In Canada, it was the highest rated Canadian made animation series ever when it aired in prime time on Global Television. The show revolved around a married English couple named Bob and Margaret Fish, a middle class 40-ish working couple with no children and two dogs named William and Elizabeth. Bob is a dentist and Margaret is a chiropodist. Bob and Margaret struggle with everyday issues and mid life crisis. Stories often revolve around the mundane, but in a way which is eminently relatable. From the trials of shopping to dealing with friends who annoy them, but owe them a dinner. In the first two seasons, Bob and Margaret lived in England, in the South London community of Balham. For the third and fourth seasons, however, they moved to Toronto, Canada, allowing the writers to explore the humour of culture clash. The move was actually inspired by the realities of funding, with certain Canadian tax benefits dependent on stories actually based in Canada. As such, to keep the series funded, the move was necessary. The creators of the series chose to take an executive role on these latter two seasons, reviewing scripts and consulting, but not involved in the detail they were for the first two seasons. Snowden continued to provide the voice of Margaret, but Bob's voice, originally played by Andy Hamilton, was replaced by Brian George.
The four-inch-tall Clock family secretly share a house with the normal-sized Lender family, "borrowing" such items as thread, safety pins, batteries and scraps of food. However, their peaceful co-existence is disturbed when evil lawyer Ocious P. Potter steals the will granting title to the house, which he plans to demolish in order to build apartments. The Lenders are forced to move, and the Clocks face the risk of being exposed to the normal-sized world.
Agony Again is a British sitcom that aired on BBC1 in 1995. Starring Maureen Lipman, it is the sequel to Agony, an ITV sitcom that aired from 1979 to 1981. Agony Again was written by Carl Gorham, Michael Hatt and Amanda Swift.
The Glam Metal Detectives is a comedy show produced by the BBC in 1995. Shown on BBC2 on Thursday nights at 9pm, it combined both sketch and sitcom elements, As with other shows launched in this timeslot, The Glam Metal Detectives attempted to innovate and combine genres, resulting in an off-the-wall mix of the sublime and the surreal which broke new ground with its 'multimedia' approach. The show consists of a single series of seven episodes. The scripts were written by the cast, and director Peter Richardson, and the series starred Gary Beadle, Phil Cornwell, Doon Mackichan, Sara Stockbridge, George Yiasoumi, and Mark Caven. The show was designed to appear as if the viewer was channel surfing through a multi-channel wasteland, happening upon spoof adverts, short sketches, and recurring show elements. Like other BBC content of the mid-1990s, it often lampooned the low-budget quality of satellite television available in the UK at the time.
The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992. On the Hour was written by Morris, Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, David Quantick, and the cast. For The Day Today, Peter Baynham joined the writing team, and Lee and Herring were replaced by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews. The principal cast of On the Hour was retained for The Day Today. The Day Today is composed of six half-hour episodes and a selection of shorter, five-minute slots recorded as promotion trailers for the longer segments. The six half-hour episodes were originally broadcast from 19 January to 23 February 1994 on BBC2. The Day Today has won many awards, including Morris winning the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. All six episodes are available on BBC DVD, having previously been issued on VHS.
Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge is a BBC Television series of six episodes, and a Christmas special in 1995. It is named after the song "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA, which was used as the show's title music. Steve Coogan played the incompetent but self-satisfied Norwich-based host, Alan Partridge. Alan was a spin-off character from the spoof radio show On the Hour. Knowing Me Knowing You was written by Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber, with contributions from the regular supporting cast of Doon Mackichan, Rebecca Front and David Schneider, who played Alan's weekly guests. Steve Brown provided the show's music and arrangements, and also appeared as Glen Ponder, the man in charge of the house band. The show was a parody of a chat show. It featured a live audience whose laughter meant that viewers could not mistake the show for a real chat show. Alan went on to appear in two series of the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge, following his life after both his marriage and TV career come to an end.
