Peter Baynham
The story of the wonderful walking, talking, digitally connected bot that sweeps the world becoming every kid’s new best friend. But when an eleven-year-old boy ends up with one that doesn’t work, his attempts to teach it become a hilarious, heart-warming exploration of what real friendship means in a world of algorithms and social media.
14 years after making a film about his journey across the USA, Borat risks life and limb when he returns to the United States with his young daughter, and reveals more about the culture, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the political elections.
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.
Summer 2003 and Bob Monkhouse entertains a room full of comedians with stand-up, chat and a comedy masterclass. It proved to be his final gig. The night became the stuff of legend among comedians, but was never transmitted until now.
Alan Partridge has had many ups and downs in life—national television broadcaster; responsible for killing a guest on live TV; local radio broadcaster; nervous breakdown in Dundee; and a self-published book that was subsequently recalled and pulped. Alan tries to salvage his public career while negotiating a potentially violent turn of events at North Norfolk Digital Radio.
Welcome to Hotel Transylvania, Dracula's lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up and no humans are allowed. One special weekend, Dracula has invited all his best friends to celebrate his beloved daughter Mavis's 118th birthday. For Dracula catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem but the party really starts when one ordinary guy stumbles into the hotel and changes everything!
Each Christmas, Santa and his vast army of highly trained elves produce gifts and distribute them around the world in one night. However, when one of 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa on Christmas Eve is missed, it is deemed ‘acceptable’ to all but one – Arthur. Arthur Claus is Santa’s misfit son who executes an unauthorized rookie mission to get the last present half way around the globe before dawn on Christmas morning.
Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev travels to America to make a documentary. As he zigzags across the nation, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. His backwards behavior generates strong reactions around him exposing prejudices and hypocrisies in American culture.
Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, above all, his local pub. This gentle routine is threatened when the dead return to life and make strenuous attempts to snack on ordinary Londoners.
A documentary on the life and career of Norwich's finest broadcaster, Alan Gordon Partridge. In the programme Alan is asked tough questions about his divorce, Toblerone addiction and his autobiography 'Bouncing Back' by formidable interviewer Ray Woollard. The documentary will show rare and previously unseen footage of Alan broadcasting on Radio Norwich, commentating on sport and reading extracts from his book. He also talks candidly about the state of television today, his hatred of London and his three rules for life.
The former stars of a TV sci-fi series are reunited for a cruise with members of their fan club.
Combat Sheep is a heart warming Christmas story of four army mascots who have been made redundant due to military cutbacks and are jettisoned into the cold to face civvie life and it’s bleak options on offer.
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.
In the seventies Strange Fruit were it. They lived the rock lifestyle to the max, groupies, drugs, internal tension and an ex front man dead from an overdose. Even their demise was glamorous; when lightning struck the stage during an outdoor festival. 20 years on and these former rock gods they have now sunk deep into obscurity when the idea of a reunion tour is lodged in the head of Tony, former keyboard player of the Fruits. Tony sets out to find his former bandmates with the help of former manager Karen to see if they can recapture the magic and give themselves a second chance.
I'm Alan Partridge is a BBC situation comedy starring Steve Coogan, of which two series of six episodes each were produced — the first in 1997 and the second in 2002. The series followed the titular Alan Partridge, a failed television presenter whose previous exploits had featured in the chat-show parody Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, and who is now presenting a programme on local radio in Norwich. Both series were written by Peter Baynham, Coogan and Armando Iannucci; supporting Coogan were Felicity Montagu as his faithful, mouse-like personal assistant, Lynn Benfield; Simon Greenall as Geordie Travel Tavern handyman/BP garage attendant Michael; and Phil Cornwell as disc jockey Dave Clifton. It has been well received by both critics and fans, and was nominated for three BAFTAs, two British Comedy Award, and a Royal Television Society award.
In depth interview special with Steve Coogan's spoof Portuguese musical megastar Tony Ferrino
TV Comedy from radio award-winning writers Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.
The Saturday Night Armistice was a British satirical television comedy programme presented by Armando Iannucci with Peter Baynham and David Schneider, which ran from 1995 to 1999. The programme took an irreverent and often surreal look back at topical events, and featured studio discussions, sketches and setups. Like many 1990s British comedy series it included appearances and writing contributions by a large number of UK comedians including amongst others Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan, Simon Pegg, Andy Riley, Kevin Cecil, Kevin Eldon, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Omid Djalili, Al Murray, Ben Moor, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.
Fist of Fun was a British comedy television and radio programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. A lot of the show's comic material was adapted from Lee and Herring's radio programme Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World. Each episode of Fist of Fun featured several disparate sketches and situations. Fist of Fun began as a BBC Radio 1 series in 1993, before becoming commissioned as a television series on BBC Two in early 1995. It was broadcast at 9pm on Tuesday nights, and was successful, but not a major ratings-winner. The second series was aired on Friday nights, and although its ratings were relatively good, the show suffered from a lack of preparation and poor promotion. The show was not given a third series, and Lee and Herring went on to write This Morning with Richard Not Judy, for BBC Two. Many other comedians who appeared in the series went on to fame themselves, including Kevin Eldon, Peter Baynham, Ronni Ancona, Alistair McGowan, Al Murray, John Thomson, Rebecca Front, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, Ben Moor and Sally Phillips.
