| Help Me Anthea, I'm Infested | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Anthea Turner, Mark Coltman |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | RDF Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Three |
| Original release | 26 September – 10 October 2007 |
Help Me Anthea, I'm Infested is a 2007 factual entertainment television show produced by RDF Television [1] for BBC Three, presented by Anthea Turner and Mark Coltman, a professional pest control expert. The presenters visit people whose houses have pest control problems, give them advice and help them to exterminate vermin.
Originally slated for six episodes, [1] the BBC cut the series short after the third episode was broadcast. [2] According to an interview with Anthea Turner, only the first three episodes were planned to be on bug infestations, although she did not specify what later episodes would cover. [3]
Critical reactions were very negative: James Watson at the Daily Telegraph described it as being both boring and exhibiting "grinding, excruciating pointlessness", [4] while The Guardian's Nancy Banks-Smith described it as "frightful". [5] Charlie Brooker thought Turner came across as "a hard, judgemental piece of work who spends most of her time haranguing the human inhabitants for living in filth", and the resulting programme feels like "a strange psychodrama in which the punters are caught between unfeeling vermin on one side, and an unfeeling former Blue Peter presenter on the other". [6] Jeremy Paxman used it as an example of the perceived low quality and lack of public value of BBC Three programmes in an interview with the BBC chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, on Newsnight along with My Man Boobs and Me, My Dog Is As Fat As Me, Freaky Eaters and Fat Men Can't Hunt. [7] The novelist P.D. James listed it as one of the BBC's "most embarrassing programmes". [8]
Rentokil Initial list the show as one of a small number of pest control-related television shows. [9]
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is an English broadcaster, journalist, author, and television presenter. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate newspaper Varsity. At Cambridge, he was a member of a Labour Party club and described himself as a socialist, in later life describing himself as a one-nation conservative. He joined the BBC in 1972, initially at BBC Radio Brighton, relocating to London in 1977. In following years, he worked on Tonight and Panorama, becoming a newsreader for the BBC Six O'Clock News and later a presenter on Breakfast Time.
University Challenge is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. University Challenge aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC revived the programme on 21 September 1994 with Jeremy Paxman as the quizmaster. Paxman will relinquish his role as host following the conclusion of the 52nd series in 2023, after which he will be succeeded by Amol Rajan. In October 2022, an ITV documentary, Paxman: Putting Up With Parkinson's, revealed how the disease has impacted him and revealed that Paxman recorded his very last episode of University Challenge on 15 October 2022, which is to air sometime in 2023.
Anthea Turner is an English television presenter. She was a host of Blue Peter from 1992 until 1994, and of GMTV from 1994 until 1996.
Newsnight is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30 and is also available on BBC iPlayer.
Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business but subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through organic growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thompson in the 1980s and 1990s, and in part, through the acquisition of BET plc in 1996, into a business delivering a wide range of facilities management services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Harold Maxwell-Lefroy was an English entomologist. He served as a Professor of Entomology at Imperial College London and as the second Imperial Entomologist to India. He left India after the death of two of his children from insect-borne diseases. He worked on applied entomology and initiated experiments on the use of chemicals to control insects. A formula he developed was utilized to save Westminster Hall from destruction by wood-boring beetles, while others were used to control lice in the trenches during the First World War. The success of his chemicals led to increased demand and the founding of Rentokil, a company for insecticide production. He was killed in an accident while experimenting on fumigants to control insects.
Charlton Brooker is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series Black Mirror, and has written for comedy series such as Brass Eye, The 11 O'Clock Show and Nathan Barley.
David James Stuart Mitchell is a British comedian, actor, writer and television personality. He is part of the comedy duo Mitchell and Webb, alongside Robert Webb.
Tony Jordan is a British television writer. He was listed as the number one television screenwriter in the United Kingdom by Broadcast magazine in 2008 and among British broadcasting's top twenty in The Stage in 2009.
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is a British television review comedy programme created and presented by Charlie Brooker and broadcast on BBC Four. The programme contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced.
Betty Diana Coupland, billed as Diana Coupland, was an English actress and singer, best remembered for her role in the sitcom Bless This House, as Jean Abbott, the wife of Sid James character Sid, which she played from 1971 to 1976.
Aidan Turner is an Irish actor. He played the roles of Ross Poldark in the 2015–2019 BBC adaptation of The Poldark Novels by Winston Graham, Dante Gabriel Rossetti in Desperate Romantics, Ruairí McGowan in The Clinic, and John Mitchell in the supernatural drama series Being Human. He played Kíli in The Hobbit film series (2012–2014).
Billy the Exterminator is an American reality television series which aired on the A&E network.
The Rat Pack is a British six-part documentary, shown on BBC One, about the daily life of pest controllers in London, England. The show ran for 6 weeks from 23 July 2009 to 20 August 2009.
Kanak Asha "Konnie" Huq is a British television and radio presenter, screenwriter and children's author. She became the longest-serving female presenter of the British children's television programme Blue Peter, presenting it from 1997 to 2008. She has been a presenter and guest of shows including the 2010 series of The Xtra Factor on ITV2.
Vermin (colloquially varmint(s) or varmit(s)) are pests or nuisance animals that spread diseases or destroy crops or livestock. Since the term is defined in relation to human activities, which species are included vary by region and enterprise.
Charlie Hamilton James is an English photographer, television cameraman and presenter, specialising in wildlife subjects. He started his career at 16, working on David Attenborough's The Trials of Life. His work has since been commissioned by National Geographic Magazine, the BBC's Springwatch/Autumnwatch shows and The Natural World.
Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe is a British television review programme created and presented by Charlie Brooker. It is the most recent addition to Brooker's Wipe series, and the first to be broadcast in HD. The programme is an amalgam of the earlier Wipe series, with reviews of current television programmes, news events, games, and films.
Michael John Whitehall is an English author, producer, talent agent and television personality. He is a former theatrical agent who went on to form two production companies, Havahall Pictures in 1988, and Whitehall Films in 1998. He has represented Colin Firth and Dame Judi Dench. He is the father of comedian and actor Jack Whitehall.
"The National Anthem" is the series premiere of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker, it was directed by Otto Bathurst and first aired on Channel 4 on 4 December 2011.
