Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, while the introduction of television and the first tests commencing in 1927. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed.
BBC Three is a British free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC, on-air regularly from 19:00 to around 04:00, timesharing with CBBC. It was first launched in 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, current affairs, and drama series. The television channel closed down in 2016 and was replaced by an online-only BBC Three streaming channel. After six years of being online-only, BBC Three relaunched to linear television on 1 February 2022.
The National Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme features Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band. First broadcast on 2 November 2001, the show began its final series in January 2010 and ended on 16 July 2010.
Patrick Joseph McGuinness is an English actor, comedian and television presenter. He rose to fame with the help of Peter Kay, who invited him to appear in his programmes That Peter Kay Thing, Phoenix Nights and Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere. He is best known for his roles within Channel 4, ITV and the BBC presenting game shows such as Take Me Out as well as, since 2019, being one of the three hosts of BBC's Top Gear. In 2021, he became the new host of Question of Sport.
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year is an approximately annual British television programme broadcast in the last or first week of the year on Channel 4. Essentially, the show is a comedy panel game in the style of a pub quiz. Three teams, of two celebrities each, are asked questions relating to the events of the year just gone by, which they write answers to on an electronic board in front of them. At the end of each round, they then display their answers, scoring a point for each correct one.
The Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Derren Litten. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC. Collectively, the show has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards, two British Comedy Awards and an Emmy Award, and it has won two Royal Television Society Awards, two British Comedy Awards and a National Television Award since its debut in 2004.
Richard & Judy is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 August 2008, but later moved to digital channel Watch from 7 October 2008 to 1 July 2009.
New Tricks is a British television police procedural, created by Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell, produced primarily by Wall to Wall, and broadcast on BBC One. The programme originally began with a pilot episode on 27 March 2003, before a full series was commissioned for 1 April 2004, with it concluding after twelve series on 6 October 2015. The show utilises an ensemble cast, of which Dennis Waterman was the only constant over all twelve series; this cast variously included Alun Armstrong, James Bolam, Amanda Redman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Larry Lamb.
Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme broadcast between 2001 and 2012 on ITV. The show was produced by Avalon Television and was written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. Each episode took a humorous look back at the previous week of programming on British television.
In an episode of The Russell Brand Show broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Saturday 18 October 2008, the comedian Russell Brand and the presenter Jonathan Ross made prank calls to the actor Andrew Sachs that created controversy in the United Kingdom. Brand and Ross called Sachs to interview him on air; when he did not answer, they left lewd messages on his answering machine, including comments about Brand's relationship with Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie.
Alan Carr: Chatty Man is a British comedy chat show presented by comedian Alan Carr. The show included interviews with celebrity guests, sketches, topical chat and music. In 2013, Carr won a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance.
BBC's New Year's Eve is a series of New Year celebration shows broadcast across the United Kingdom on BBC One during the end of a year and the beginning of a new year. The format for the show has changed throughout the past few years in many iterations.
Channel 4's Comedy Gala is an annual British comedy benefit show organised by Channel 4 in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. The show is filmed live at the O2 Arena in London, and then broadcast later by Channel 4. An inaugural gala was held in 2010, while a second gala was held in 2011. A third Gala aired in May 2012. A fourth Gala was filmed on Saturday 18 May 2013. A fifth Gala was confirmed on 24 February 2014 to be recorded on 16 May 2014 at the O2 Arena.
Channel 4's Comedy Gala of 2010 was a British comedy benefit show organised by Channel 4. It was the inaugural Channel 4 Comedy Gala, an annual charity event held O2 Arena in London in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Filmed live on 30 March 2010, a two and a half-hour highlights show was broadcast on Channel 4 on 5 April 2010. Billed by Channel 4 as "the biggest live stand up show in UK history" it featured seventeen comedians performing stand-up, as well as a number of others performing live and pre-recorded sketches, to an audience of 16,000. It raised nearly £1 million to open a new anaesthetic room.
Alexander James Brooker is an English journalist, presenter and comedian best known for his television work with Channel 4.
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of Countdown, but presented in a comedic panel show format seen on 8 Out of 10 Cats, with the show being a crossover of the two.
Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) is the UK version of Stand Up to Cancer, a US charitable television telethon, broadcast between 2012-2018 on the Channel 4 network in the United Kingdom, and again from 2020. The most recent edition of the telethon was on 15 October 2021, a programme which was hosted by Davina McCall, Alan Carr, Maya Jama and Adam Hills. By February 2015, the 2014 broadcast had raised £15,585,444 in pledges, in aid of cancer research.
