Harry Hill's TV Burp (also referred to as TV Burp) is a British television comedy clip series, written and hosted by comedianHarry Hill, and produced by Avalon Television for ITV. The show's format sees Hill take a comedic look towards a previous week's schedule of programming from across terrestrial and digital channels, with episodes often featuring sketches and parodied scenes.
Much of its comedy derived from either taking scenes out of context, mostly in the case for fiction-based dramas, or highlighting comedic moments that occurred in a programme, often from non-fiction programming such as reality TV shows. The programme often featured appearances from real-life people and various television personalities and actors that featured in each episodes. Production of each episode primarily required Hill and his team to review preview tapes for a week's television schedule in advance to provide the foundation for the script of that week's TV Burp episode.
TV Burp was aired on ITV1 between 2001 and 2012. The show aired on Thursday nights for the first three series, before moving to Saturday evenings from series 4 onwards. It received positive reviews from critics, earning several rewards, and spawning merchandise, including DVDs of compilation episodes featuring highlights of various series. An Australian version of the programme was made in 2009 for Seven Network, while Cartoon Network re-ran a "child-friendly" version of TV Burp after its conclusion, but despite some re-runs of original episodes, repeats were discontinued due to licensing complications on clips the show used from other programmes and television networks.
Format
TV Burp is a clip show that features the comedian Harry Hill taking a comedic look over a week's schedule of programming, focusing on scenes from a selection of television shows, including dramas, soap operas, documentaries, cooking shows, game shows, and reality TV. Hill presents the show from a desk in front of a live studio audience, introducing and commenting on clips while dressed in a suit with an oversized collar and large black glasses.[1][2]
Clips are usually taken out of context or highlight a moment that was unintentionally funny. Sometimes the continuity of the clips are extended, either by re-editing the existing footage to include Hill, or by the appearance of props and characters in the TV Burp studio. Cameos in other television programmes and video messages from celebrities are also sometimes featured. In earlier series, more studio segments and sketches were featured, but these reduced for later series to retain a focus on clips.[1][2]
Jokes and sketches are delivered at a fast pace, allowing Hill to move onto new clips in quick succession,[1][3] with repeated callbacks feeding into Hill's "comic strategy of accumulating non-sequiturs until they acquire an air of logic".[1] These callbacks would often morph into series-long catchphrases and in-jokes, setting up larger pay-offs in later episodes.[1][4][5]Slapstick and physical humour were also common elements.[1]
Recurring segments included a slapstick fight before the advert break introduced by Hill stating that he liked two separate things before asking "But which is better? Only one way to find out! Fight!"; "TV Highlight of the Week" showing an often inconsequential moment from a show; and an ending musical piece performed by a guest from one of the episode's clips.[1]
Production
Following a successful pilot broadcast on 22 December 2001, a series was commissioned, starting on 14 November 2002. Production of an episode often involved Hill and his programme's associate writing team, including Brenda Gilhooly, Paul Hawksbee, Daniel Maier, Joe Burnside, David Quantick and Madeleine Brettingham, watching significant amounts of television, much on preview tapes. Throughout Series 1 to 8, the show was recorded before a live audience in Studio 1 of Teddington Studios, South-West London, but from Series 9 to the final episode of Series 11, recording was relocated to BBC Television Centre in Studio 4. The first two series of the show were broadcast within a late night slot on Thursdays, with repeats late night on Fridays. During the first series, Hill stated that the BBC would not allow clips of EastEnders to be shown on TV Burp; Hill was required, during the series, to accompany his comments on the British soap with either crude animation, courtroom-style sketches or staged comic re-enactments of scenes from the show. Actual clips from EastEnders were shown from series 2 onwards. Whilst the show was well received, the late night scheduling was criticised due to the family-friendly humour, leading to the third series, which still had its episodes initially aired on Thursday nights, receiving a teatime repeat slot on Sundays. Starting from the fourth series, the show moved to a Saturday teatime slot, and then later to a Saturday primetime slot.
Due to the inclusion of a large amount of material to which ITV and Avalon do not hold the rights, repeats of past TV Burp episodes were rare outside immediate broadcast repeats. However, in 2009, The Best of TV Burp was introduced, which featured clips from previous episodes, while additionally, new episodes were also made available to view online on the ITV Player service after original transmission.[6] As of 7 April 2012, 24 Best of TV Burp episodes have been aired, in addition to a Best of Christmas TV Burp episode on 25 December 2010, featuring clips from previous Christmas episodes of the show. On 28 October 2011, Cartoon Network began airing a similar format (along with Shark Infested Custard), in which they took past episodes of the series and edited segments together to make the series more child-friendly, but did not record new segments for this version, with the exception of the trailer.
Following months of speculation, Hill confirmed to his studio audience at the taping of the final episode of Series 11 that it would be his last.[7] In October 2013 Gold began airing repeats of the show starting with the third series.[8] The titles of the show were briefly featured as part of London 2012's opening ceremony.
Reception
Critical reception
TV Burp received positive feedback from critics. Mark Lawson from The Guardian said it was "the freshest and most original show in mainstream television"[9] and it was listed as one of the best shows on TV in The Telegraph and The Times.[10][11]Simon Hoggart, writing in The Spectator, commended the show for "[assailing] everything on television that is stupid, shoddy, lazy, contemptuous of the audience and generally rubbish".[12] Andrew Mickel from Den of Geek praised the fast pace of the gags but felt the show relied too heavily on ITV soap operas.[3] In a review for a TV Burpbox set, Tim Lusher said its skits were "timeless" and called the show "exuberantly daft, and mischievous but affectionate".[13]
Throughout its run, TV Burp faced controversies over some of its jokes. In 2007, Ofcom ruled that TV Burp had breached guidelines by including clips from a Bear Grylls programme that were inappropriately scheduled for its early evening show time and family audiences, including clips that featured Grylls eating a frog and cooking a turtle.[14][15] Another clip was banned by Ofcom in a 2016 repeat episode. Originally broadcast in 2008, it featured a comedic review of a Channel 4 documentary about Thomas Beatie, a transgender man. The clip was ruled "highly offensive to the transgender community" by Ofcom.[16][17]
Writing at the time of the show's final series in 2012, Bruce Dessau said that the show's quality had varied over its run, but at its best it had managed to create an "across-the-board appeal" reminiscent of The Simpsons.[18] In a retrospective for the i newspaper, Alex Nelson praised TV Burp's "electric pace" and the originality of its approach to clip shows. He also felt the show avoided a judgmental tone by targeting low- and high-brow entertainment equally.[19] Another retrospective for The Guardian by Rich Pelley called the show a "TV masterclass" but argued that the quality declined in later seasons due to the increased number of episodes and hence increased workload on Hill and the show's other writers.[2]
Popularity and viewing figures
Viewing figures for the show in its primetime slot were considerably high and achieved a considerable share of the audience - Series 8 averaged 6.1 million viewers during its run, taking an average share of around 25.1% of the audience for its timeslot, compared to Series 11 which averaged 4.9 million viewer and an average audience share of 19.3%. One of its highest-rated episodes, achieved 8 million viewers and took a 32% audience share.[20]
Awards and nominations
In 2007, Harry Hill's TV Burp was nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the 2007 British Comedy Awards,[21] while in 2008, it won two British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance (for Harry Hill) and Best Entertainment programme, and in 2009 won Harry Hill another BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance.
From 2005 to 2011, the biennial BBC One transmission of the Red Nose Day telethon in aid of Comic Relief included a short TV Burp segment. Hill also recorded a short TV Burp segment for Blue Peter in February 2009.
As per repeats, it was initially thought that a DVD release of TV Burp would be unlikely. However, a DVD titled Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold was eventually released in November 2008. Four other DVDs have since been released, as detailed below, with additional content from the show.[22] A complete series-by-series release still appears unlikely. A TV Burp book was also released in 2009.
1234567Leggott, James (2010). "'There's Only One Way to Find Out!': Harry Hill's TV Burp and the Rescue of Invisible Television". Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies. 5 (1): 17–31. doi:10.7227/CST.5.1.4. ISSN1749-6020.
↑Hunt, Leon (2013). Cult British TV Comedy: From Reeves and Mortimer to Psychoville. Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0-7190-8377-8.
↑Darlington, Joseph (2014). "Catchphrases: a semiotic, genealogical and cultural materialist study of the form". Comedy Studies. 5 (2): 123–136. doi:10.1080/2040610X.2014.969075. ISSN2040-610X.
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