14 November 1997 (1997-11-14)– 25 February 1999 (1999-02-25)
No. of series
3
No. of episodes
18
Blue Jam is a sketch comedy radio programme created by Chris Morris. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in the early hours of the morning for three series from 1997 to 1999.
Warp Records released a compilation of Blue Jam sketches in 2000. Morris adapted Blue Jam into the television series Jam, broadcast on Channel 4 in 2000, and a Blue Jam monologue into the 2002 short film My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117.
Production
Blue Jam was created, directed and produced by Chris Morris. His previous work, the news satire Channel 4 series Brass Eye, had attracted controversy. Morris said he had been "forced to be a sort of surrogate lawyer", which he found creatively stifling. He said Blue Jam came from "a desolate mood. I had this misty, autumnal, boggy mood anyway, so I just went with that."[1]
Jam comprises sketches and monologues set to ambient music.[1][4][1]The Guardian described it as a "lo-fi anti-comedy", with taboo topics including dead children and abusive doctors.[1] Quantick later described it as "In the Night Garden in hell".[2]NME wrote that Blue Jam was "about the things that happen when sentimentality and 'feeling' obliterates reality and thinking, when hypocrisy reigns and the taboo is just another lifestyle choice for the toxically jaded".[4]
Sequences include monologues performed by Morris describing the experiences of a mentally ill man in the London media industry; an abusive doctor; a spoof interview with the celebrity biographer Andrew Morton; a couple whose television set is infested with lizards; a dysfunctional man who employs an office to assist with trivial tasks such as finding his wallet; a couple unconcerned about the abduction of their six-year-old son; a four-year-old fixer covering up a murder; a disease known as "the gush" afflicting pornographic actors; a couple having surreal sex; and "stings" that parody BBC DJs such as Chris Moyles and Jo Whiley.[4][5][6]
Broadcast
Three series were produced of six episodes each. All episodes were originally broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 1. Series 1 was broadcast from 14 November to 19 December 1997; series 2 was broadcast from 27 March to 1 May 1998; and series 3 broadcast from 21 January to 25 February 1999. The episodes were broadcast early in the morning.[3] The first five episodes of series 1 of Blue Jam were repeated by BBC Radio 4 Extra in February and March 2014, and series 2 was rebroadcast in December.[1]
Reception
Blue Jam was favourably reviewed by The Guardian[7][8][9][10] and also received a positive review by The Independent.[11]Digital Spy wrote in 2014: "It's a heady cocktail that provokes an odd, unsettling reaction in the listener, yet Blue Jam is still thumpingly and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious."[12]Hot Press called it "as odd as comedy gets".[6] It won the prize for comedy at the 2000 Sony Radio Awards.[13]Vice described Blue Jam as "comedy extreme in its ambition".[14]
CD release
Warp Records released a compilation of Blue Jam sketches on 23 October 2000.[14]Vice described the release as Warp's "boldest act of diversification".[15]
Blue Jam was later made for television and broadcast on Channel 4 as Jam. It used unusual editing techniques to achieve an unnerving ambience in keeping with the radio show. Many of the sketches were lifted from the radio version, even to the extent of simply setting images to the radio soundtrack. A subsequent "re-mixed" airing, called Jaaaaam was even more extreme in its use of post-production gadgetry, often heavily distorting the footage.
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