Quick linkage: Want tickets for various tv / recordings yourself? Then visit: Tv Recordings.com, Lost In Tv, Standing Room Only, Chortle, The BBC's ticket unit, Clappers Ltd, Granada, Applause Store or Hat Trick.
Which Is: A new sketch show for BBC2.
When: January 11th, 2006.
Where: The Drill Hall in London, which is just off of Tottenham Court Road.
Starring: David Mitchell, Robert Webb and Olivia Coleman of Peep Show fame, plus also James Bachman and Mark Evans.
Time Queuing: About 30 minutes. When the doors opened there was a stampede to get in to the hall the likes of which we've never seen before for a tv recording. We can only guess that Mitchell and Webb fans are a tad on the obsessive side judging by this.
And The Audience?: The normal mixture of 18-30 year olds.
Studio Staff Rating: Fine, polite, etc.
Actual Recording: Wasn't a recording at all. We attended a preview night where the cast performed for about 90 minutes without the aid of sets, and only a few props. This was a good thing however, as it allowed them to rattle through about three episodes worth of material during the evening, and there was no waiting around whilst they filmed retakes, or changed sets, etc. From what we saw, That Mitchell and Webb Look seems to be a fairly conventional sketch show, with most of the sketches involving only Mitchell and Webb, though sometimes a few other actors. Olivia Coleman, best known as Sophie from Peep Show (and those irritating Kev - Bev car insurance ads) did little during proceedings, which surprised considering how well known she is these days.
Some of the sketches seemed to be one offs, whilst others recurred a few times during the evening. As to the quality of the sketches, it was generally pretty high, though there were the odd one or two which didn't go down that well with the audience, and hopefully won't be seen in the finished series. Our favourites were the two SS officers, one of whom is beginning to fear that they may be on the wrong side (commenting on the skulls on the uniform, and by using a flip chart comparing their current situation to how things work out in films, that it was unlikely that they'd come out of the war on the winning side) and Mitchell's voice over for a football ad was fantastic stuff, with references to how it's all pointless as the ongoing battles between teams will go on forever. Also worth mentioning is a sketch with Mitchell and Webb as two party organisers, who are complaining about the twattiness of the actions of one of their guests, James Bond, which was great, and also a bizarre and obviously pointless tv gameshow called Numberwang, where contestants seemed to win just by guessing a number!
A What Not To Wear parody featuring Mitchell dressed in a Burqua amused, though wasn't laugh out loud material until they broke out of character to discuss the possible racist implications of the sketch. Okay, this may not sound that wonderful, and definitely owes a debt to A Bit of Fry and Laurie, but whilst the duo aren't quite as great as Hugh and Steven once were, we can hardly complain, because, well, who is these days? That they're attempting something mostly different wins acclaim from us.
The return of posh waiters in restaurants, Mitchell's visit to his chiropractor (allowing Webb to do a fantastically silly voice), with the appearance of his real chiropractor half way through, and two snooker commentators making remarks about how one of the players is a homicidal lunatic and would kill his opponent after the match amused, were generally fairly funny, though not the duo's strongest material, but there wasn't really a bad sketch all night long. And you can't really say that about many sketch shows, can you.
Whilst That Mitchell and Webb Look isn't going to take comedy in to new, unexplored regions, or be as ridiculously successful as The Fast Show once was, it is solid, strong, and very funny stuff, and if not essential tv, certainly very worthy of your time.
Misc: According to a reliable source, most of the material was taken from That Mitchell & Webb Sound, the duo's Radio 4 show, though some of it was partially rewritten.
Where To Get Tickets: The BBC's ticket unit page - http://www.bbc.co.uk/whatson/tickets/
Which Is: A recording of Neman's recent stand up show for More4, the new digital channel from Channel 4.
When: 19th November 2005.
Where: Hoxton Hall, Hoxton.
Starring: Rob Newman.
Time Queuing: We got in to the hall at about twenty past one, but alas due to a technical problem we weren't seated in the main theatre area till 2.40pm, and the recording didn't begin till 3pm. We didn't mind, but some around us seemed outraged. If we'd been paying to see it perhaps their point could have been seen, but as it was free it seemed a bit odd. Human behaviour, eh, ain't it just crazy!
Studio Staff Rating: Great, despite the wait, a very funny gentleman kept us informed of proceedings, and organised the audience so well, and with such flair, that we think he deserves his own tv show!
Actual Recording: This has to be the most disjointed tv recording we've ever been too. It began with Newman performing a song, and then his ramshackle band performing two instrumental tracks, before Newman went off stage and then came back and began the show a-proper. 40 odd minutes later there was an interval, and when we came back he shot two minor segments (for what use we're not sure), and then got an audience member to read the script whilst he rode a bike which powered a small victorian style street lamp (the idea being that the show should be carbon-free, and eco-friendly in general, though this obviously wasn’t the case when it came to powering other lights / the cameras, etc!). He then performed the second half of the show, but it ended on a whimper rather than a bang, and felt a bit odd.
Now the above might suggest this is going to be a critical review of Newman's latest stand up show, but despite the technical delays and rather odd set up, it's far from it. Whilst perhaps not being as laugh out loud funny as some comedians of his ilk, like Mark Steele and Mark Thomas for example, Newman's put together an astonishing show. If a little misleading. For it's not exactly a history of oil, but a history of Governments obsession with the fossil fuel. It began with Newman explaining how World War One was actually the first invasion of Iraq, and not to do with the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand (Nobody's that popular he joked), and went on to detail the 1970 agreement that all oil sales have to be carried out in US dollars, which explains the strength of their economy, and world dominance in the field. The second part of the show went in to how long we've left before fossil fuels run out, what will happen afterwards, the idiocy of present Governments who just don't seem to care, and what, if anything, can be done.
Now this all sounds incredibly serious, and it can't be argued that much of the subject matter is, yet Newman managed with ease to inject humour in to it, whilst he may not have the gag rate of some comedians, the strength of the material is unquestionably great, he's clearly researched it in enormous detail, at times mentioning some of the books the material comes from, which really should be on everyone's reading list (The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg being the only one we can remember right now). Newman's a superb performer too, rattling off enormous amounts of information with consummate ease, and lurching from one accent to another with the speed of someone who's spent their entire life doing so! The only real disappointment was the ending, which had Newman leading up to what we must do to stop civilisation from falling apart, but then not actually saying what that was. This was far from the finished product though, Newman mentioned various parts which were presumably going to be filmed at a later date, including the response after he faxed the script to various people, and also sketches which were going to be inserted in to the show, one of which was due to be filmed after the performance ended, which only those seated downstairs were to take part in.
This was an incredibly intelligent, thoughtful, and surprisingly depressing comedy show, and one which will remain in your thoughts long afterwards. The finished product should be even more impressive, and we can't wait to see it, and so should you. And afterwards you'lll no doubt start thinking about what needs to be done before chaos reigns.
Misc: The audience were asked to dress in Victorian garb, and those who did got to sit downstairs at the venue, whilst most others were upstairs. Why they wanted us dressed in such a way we just don't know, presumably the finished recording will make sense of this; The show was going to be recorded in front of another audience later on that evening, though we don't know why that is either. We're pretty useless this time around, eh?!
Where To Get Tickets: It's unlikely this will ever be recorded again being a one off show, but just for the record the tickets were provided by the good folks at Standing Room Only at: http://www.sroaudiences.com/
Which Is: A new sitcom from the writer of Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps, Susan Nickson, which'll be shown on BBC3. But carry on reading, I know it sounds unlikely, but this was an okay sitcom. Not great. But actually fairly watchable. Which came as an enormous surprise to me too.
When: 2nd September, 2005.
Where: The BBC Televsion Centre, White City, London.
Starring: Sheridan Smith (Janet in Two Pints), Rob Rouse (The Friday Night Project), O.T. Fagbenle (As If), Steven Meo (Roger Roger), Fiona Wass (The Royal).
Time Queuing: Only about five minutes, though we had a twenty minute wait once in the studio.
And The Audience?: 18-24 mostly.
Warm Up Man Rating: 8/10. Andy Collins was tonight’s host, and rather than rely on tired stand up material like most warm up men, he got the audience involved in various games, where (tiny) cash prizes could be won, and forced the audience to dance badly as well. It sounds awful, I know, but despite vague embarrassment, it was a lot of fun, and considering the amount of breaks in filming, greatly needed.
Actual Recording: As you might've guessed, I wasn't looking forward to seeing Grownup's being recorded. Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps is one of my least favourite sitcoms ever, full of predictable and painful scenarios with characters so annoying and tedious that if they existed in real life I'd have to
But despite all of the above, Grownups is fairly fun stuff. Comedy purists will probably despise it as strongly as they do Two Pints, but here the writing is stronger, there's a nicely odd surreal tone to some moments, and most importantly it's not as painfully laddish as Two Pints sadly is. Sheridan Smith's only ever going to be a sitcom actress, she's all forced reaction shots and silly voices, but she fits this style of sitcom perfectly, and makes for a decent female lead. And I'm not saying that just because I've a relatively middling crush on her. Possibly. Formerly Garbled's Public Enemy No.1 - Rob Rouse of The Friday Night Project - was almost her male equivalent, idiotic yet prone to the occasional moment of amusement, but he's likable for the first time here, and he gets bonus points for interacting with the audience from time to time. The rest of the cast were on fine form as well, and perhaps that's what raises this above the level of Two Pints. As well as the fact that thankfully it doesn't have Will Mellor in the cast.
Plot wise this episode revolved around Michelle accidentally telling new boyfriend Dean that she loved him, before realising that she didn't. He's persuaded by Mike to tell Michelle he loves her, before they both decide they don't love each other. Meanwhile, Mike tries to get over his fear of the dark, Claire's giving out bad advice, and Grant plans to be cryogenically frozen. Damnit, I've managed to persuade you it's shite again, haven't I? And from the above description it does sound awful, I know. And who knows, maybe it will be, perhaps we saw the one vaguely enjoyable episode of the six being filmed, despite everything I'm not convinced that this is actually going to be worth your while tuning in to. But on the strength of this one episode alone, if you're bored when it's screened, then we do recommend checking it out. Though I've a feeling I might regret writing that one day.
Misc: The audience could only see two sets (the flat and the bar), whilst a third, the Gym, was behind these. Getting a good view of what was being filmed in the main two sets was difficult too, due to the amount of cameras and mic operators on cranes, and was as you might imagine, pretty annoying; Nearly every scene required two takes, with a fair few pick up's needed within these takes too, and it quickly became fairly frustrating. Rob Rouse was the king of the fuck ups, thought at least had the decency to joke about with the audience, whilst Sheridan came a not very close at all second; Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, earlier on in the day Garbled witnessed the new series of Hustle being filmed in Soho. And we can confirm that Jamie Murray is as stunningly sexy in real life as she is on screen - though whilst co-star Marc Warren signed autographs and posed for photos, she ignored the general public. Damn her. And so I've still yet to ask someone to marry me.
Where To Get Tickets: The BBC Ticket Unit at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/whatson/tickets/
Have you attended a tv recording lately? Or do you plan to soon? If so, it'd be great if you could submit a report about it to us. If you'd like to, please email: editor@garbledonline.net
Which Is: A sketch show for Channel Four. This was the filming of the pilot, and on the strength of it, a whole series may or may not be commissioned.
When: Friday 12th August, 2005.
Where: The London Television Studios, Waterloo.
Starring: Rhys Thomas (Swiss Toni, Nathan Barley), David Mitchell (Peep Show, FAQ U), Simon Farnaby (Zeppotron, whatever that is), Tony Way (Swiss Toni, he's the big guy who looks like an even more stupid version of Eastenders' Ricky), Tom Meten (The Mighty Boosh apparently, though I didn't regonise him from it), and Nina Conti (Black Books, though again I can't remember her being in it).
Time Queuing: We arrived at 6.15pm, just as the doors opened, and were led straight in to the studio. Unfortunately we then had about a 45 minute wait before filming began.
And The Audience?: Mostly 18-30, there were some much older people in the audience - but not all of them stayed to the end.
Actual Recording: This was the most unusual recording that Garbled's ever attended. A mix of pre-recorded segments and studio based sketches, with the odd monologue, Blunder's certainly a far from normal sketch show. Directed by Joe Cornish (of The Adam and Joe Show fame), who came out and chatted to the audience at the beginning briefly, whether audience's will take to it's strange mix of comedy styles is open to question. But we hope they do. As with nearly all sketch shows, some of the material and characters were a little hit and miss, but most were pretty darn funny.
The characters in Blunder include: Frank, a man who farts or urinates at the wrong time and place, each time in front of a shocked David Mitchell before overdramatic music plays; A pissed off tv viewer who gets so enraged by the crap on tv that he goes to Channel Four's offices to complain; The Peat Bog Man who's dug up after three and a half thousand years but then just sits around watching dvds; A stripper in a two pence peep show; and a woman so bored that she brevilles her breasts / gives head to a vacuum cleaner. There were also five sketches which were all but monologues, featuring a talking horse, a talking rabbit (both played by Simon Farnaby), Mr Malibu, a rakish, decadent and oh so horny gentleman (Rhys Thomas), The Baron, a ridiculously geeky but OTT goth ("I skull fuck skulls! I am the Baron!") and Dr Pinnafore, a slightly schizophrenic Open University style trendy teacher (Tom Meten). Some of these didn't quite work, and went on for far too long, though I've got to admit to being fond of both The Baron and Mr Malibu.
Okay, reading this you'll probably think it all sounds pretty bizarre, and perhaps a tad weak, but it's strength is not conceptually but in the dialogue and the acting, both of which are largely superb. As mentioned, some segments aren't that great - I've got to admit to not being overfond of Dr Pinnafore or the horny rabbit, but most made me laugh out loud a fair few times, and what more from comedy can you ask for that that? Mitchell and Thomas' roles were easily the finest on the night, with Thomas surprising with the diversity of his comedic talents. I've never had that much time for him in the past, but definitely have now. Mitchell was also superb, though not many of his characters were much of a stretch from his Peep Show character Mark, but as the material was so strong it seems churlish to complain.
Nearly all of the characters featured in two sketches, bar, thankfully, the horny rabbit, but it's impossible to predict exactly how long the running time of the show will be, and how much will be cut, due to the amount of time between filming, which lasted about two and a half hours. This was a bit too long considering a) how uncomfortable the seating is, b) how unfunny the warm up man was, and c) the amount of breaks during filming whilst sets were hastily constructed. But if a series of Blunder is commissioned, then we'd definitely recommend catching it being recorded.
Misc: Both Martin Freeman (Tim from The Office) and Nicholas Burns (Nathan Barley from Nathan Barley) were in the audience. Garbled was tempted to harass them at the end of the recording, but the lure of the pub on a Friday night saved them from a no doubt annoying ordeal; One of the highlights that won't be shown was seeing Rhys Thomas forget how the Mr Malibu sketch ended, and randomly rambling on before Joe Cornish stopped him, and jokily asked him to play the role "How we had planned to."
Where To Get Tickets: Standing Room Only at: http://www.sroaudiences.com/
Have you attended a tv recording lately? Or do you plan to soon? If so, it'd be great if you could submit a report about it to us. If you'd like to, please email: editor@garbledonline.net
Which Is: BBC2's new panel based news satire show. If Have I Got News For You and Whose Line Is It Anyway? had a bastard love child, this would be it. Which maybe won't come as too much of a surprise when you learn that it was created and produced by Whose Line creators Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson
When: Thursday 9th June, 7.15pm, broadcast at 10pm on Sunday 12th June.
Where: BBC TV Centre, White City.
Starring: Dara O'Brien, Rory Bremner, Hugh Dennis, Frankie Boyle, Mark Steel, Jo Brand, Andy Parsons.
Time Queuing: The e-ticket advised us that the studio doors opened at 7pm, but unknown to us they actually opened before we arrived at 6.30pm. The Jonathan Ross Show, Eight Out of Ten Cats and The Lenny Henry Show were also being
And The Audience?: 18-65. Which for tv recordings is a very rare, but nice to see, age range.
Studio Staff Rating: Very friendly and helpful. The warm-up man, Andy, was actually a fairly decent comedian too, something rarely witnessed at live recordings.
Actual Recording: Lasted an Audience Participation record of two hours and thirty minutes. Of this, the last twenty minutes were retakes (more on which later), but a good two hours was spent just recording material for the show. Which means that roughly ninety minutes of material is cut from the final broadcast - making a night out to see the show definitely worth it. Mock The Week's easily one of the best of these type of shows too, at times achingly funny, I can't remember laughing so much during a recording (or any other evening for that matter) in a long long time. It's hard to guess at what will be cut, bar the occasional weak line, though certain material will no doubt be edited out for legal reasons (a McNugget comment especially), and some for taste reasons - in the improvised round "Worst thing to start a party political broadcast with", Frankie Boyle chipped in with "My Niggers, My Bitches". Which I can't imagine the BBC ever allowing to be screened, but in context made the audience roar with laughter. One other presumably cut line took place in the "Worst thing to say to the Queen" section, as we can't imagine "So how exactly did you kill Princess Diana?" making it past the censors either.
There were two takes of the "Bombshell phone call round", one featuring John Prescott and Tony Blair, and centring around the idea of Prescott having an electric car, whilst the second saw Blair and Bush discuss Cherie Blair. We imagine the latter will be used, as it worked far better than the first did. The only other obvious cut was an entire round based around Question Time, where Frankie Boyle and Andy Parsons sat in the audience and asked the rest of the panel their opinon on various topical issues. Both Jo Brand and Mark Steel apologised for their general awfulness in that round (with Steel at the end comically begging for the round be cut), and when Patterson asked the audience at the end which rounds they liked, only this one was greeted with boos and jeers. Questionably the panel was just tired by the end of a long evening, and trust me, you didn't miss anything.
Before the recording began, Mock The Week's producer Dan Patterson chatted with the audience, and joked about how many of us might not recognise some of the comedians, but that this was a good thing as the younger comic's are more hungry for laughs than the older, lazier brigade. Or words to that effect. And he was mostly right too, with the aformentioned Frankie Boyle really being the star of the show. Or recording at least, as we've yet to see the final broadcast version of the night's events. Dara O'Brien was also particularly strong, though much of his material is scripted, and a lot of the time his role is to keep the show moving forward, rather than to provide humour. Mark Steel had a 70 / 30 hit rate in his favour, but at least jokily apologised or made up excuses when laughs failed to materialise. Andy Parson's also impressed, but I'm disappointed to report that Jo Brand seemed a little on auto-pilot. I'm a big fan of her stand up material, but here she mostly resorted to jokes about her size / appetite / sexual allure, of the kind seen too many times before. Hugh Dennis was fairly decent most of the time, occasionally shining, but I'm struggling to forgive him right now for using one joke which I heard him tell in The Mary Whitehouse Experience well over a decade ago.
And finally then there's Mr Bremner. An award winning high brow comic for over twenty years now, I've got to confess to not being his biggest fan exactly, but last week on the show he'd surprised, coming across as quick witted and not just on the ball, but about twenty of them. Tonight he seemed to be very self-depricating, and very aware of the fact that he was probably getting the least amount of laughs. He's definitely a perfectionist (re-taking one "improvised" routine on Live 8 three times in total, and it would have been four if he'd not fucked up almost immediately and then given up). He seemed to warm up as the show went on, and I've certainly more respect for him than I'd previously had, but it has to be said that his hit rate was the lowest of all of the comedians.
Despite this, the show flowed extraordinaryly well, with an incredibly high amount of great jokes, some tear-inducingly superb lines, and it was a genuine pleasure to see the show being recorded. The only real downside to one of the best recordings I've attended was the fact that so much needed to be re-recorded at the end, largely Dara's links, though a fair few individual lines needed to be said again too. It took over twenty minutes, and even the panel were getting fed up by the end, with Boyle jokingly calling Dan Patterson a wanker and Hugh Dennis calling for a taxi. But hey, no one forces you to stick around, and Andy the warm up man did his best to keep the audience entertained during this.
Misc: Mock The Week's filmed with seven, yes, seven camera's, including one on a huge crane which annoyingly obscures the audience's view at times. Why they need quite so many is inexplicable, I've certainly never seen that many ever before.
Where To Get Tickets: Standing Room Only at: http://www.sroaudiences.com
Which Is: A new panel based comedy show on Radio 4.
When: Recorded at 8pm on May10th, broadcast on May 11th.
Where: Drill Hall in London, which is just off of Tottenham Court Road.
Starring: Armando Iannucci, and three guests, who this week were Phil Jupitus, Clive Anderson and John Oliver.
Time Queuing: About 10 minutes. We did notice that some people were turned away, so it's probably best to turn up at about 7.30pm to guarantee getting in.
And The Audience?: The normal mixture of 18-24 year olds, plus some people in their thirties.
Studio Staff Rating: Fine, polite, etc.
Actual Recording: Took about 90 minutes, for what we presumed would be edited
The subject's covered in this recording were The Election - Politician's Standing Down and Postal voting, How Long Tony Blair will remain in power according to Gordon Brown, Jeremy Paxman interviewing George Galloway, Michael Jackson's trial, The Jazzing Up of Religion on Tv, and the Pope and his Nazi past, and Prince Harry. Oddly enough a lot of the political satire was weak material, obvious and just not that funny, though all of the guests were a lot better when covering the other subjects. An enormous amount of material was cut from the final broadcast, the best being a reference to Jimmy Saville during the section on Michael Jackson's trial, and a comment about how it'd be great if Prince Harry went to Deepcut barracks(!)
Annoyingly for a show which feature's Armando's name in the title, Iannucci takes a bit of a back seat in the programme, allowing the guests to use up much of the airtime. Which is frustrating as Iannucci was very very funny when he did contribute to the show, and was the main reason we booked tickets for it. Hopefully this will change in future episodes. Interestingly, when the credits were read out at the end of the recording we were surprised to hear five writer's credited, none of which included the panel. It's difficult to guess how much of it was scripted though.
Overall it was a fairly decent show, which worked a lot better when edited down to an thirty minutes, but we'd recommend listening to the show first before booking tickets to see it.
Misc: Only a couple of lines needed to be rerecorded, the main one centering around Phil Jupitus' use of the word knobbing, which apparently isn't a word Radio 4 like. Before recording began the show's producer asked the audience whether they'd learnt about the show through the BBC's website, or through the Time Out advert. Surprisingly no one had seen the Time Out advert, leading the producer to comment "That's a waste of Eight Hundred and Ninety Five pounds, plus VAT, then." Well, it made us smile, anyway. If you missed it, you can listen to the show at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/atoz/
Where To Get Tickets: The BBC's ticket unit page - http://www.bbc.co.uk/whatson/tickets/
Which is: A new comedy show on Radio 2.
When: Recorded at 8pm on 28th September 2004To be broadcast on Saturday 2nd October at 1pm.
Where: The University of London, which is just off of Tottenham Court Road.
Starring: Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, Danny Robins, Dan Tetsell, Christian Reilly.
Time Queuing: About fifteen minutes.
And the Audience? Mostly young, 20-30, as per usual.
Studio Staff Rating: Absolutely fine, the few that I noticed.
Actual Recording: The show's based around the idea of looking back at what happened in the current week throughout the years, but it's basically an excuse for a mix of stand up and sketches and the odd bit of improvisation. Herring's pretty charismatic, and funny even without the presence of longtime partner Stewart Lee, and fans of his will recognise various ongoing jokes such as his taking the piss out of people from Somerset and general ineptness with women. Despite having strongly disliked her for years, (mainly because of those bastard annoying Heat ads, admittedly) Emma Kennedy was mostly funny, and there
Misc: The best thing about witnessing a radio programme being recorded is that if someone screws up a line, they only have to re-record that one moment. Thus you don't have to sit there watching a scene over and over again, nor fake laughter each and every time.
Where To Get Tickets: http://www.lostintv.com/
Audience Participation Archive:
So Graham Norton
The 11 O'Clock Show Christmas Special
Blind Date
The Mark Thomas Product
Harry Hill
Trisha
This Morning With Richard Not Judy
Bonjour La Classe
Have I Got News For You
Johnny Vaughan Tonight
Closure
Celebrity Big Brother
Night Fever
Big Brother
Time Gentlemen Please
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