Ruby | |
---|---|
Genre | Talk show |
Directed by | Ed Bye Peter Orton Southan Morris |
Presented by | Ruby Wax |
Theme music composer | Simon Brint |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 48 |
Production | |
Executive producer | Clive Tulloh |
Running time | 40 min |
Original release | |
Network | BBC Two |
Release | 12 May 1997 – 9 November 2000 |
Ruby was a late-night talk show broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom.
The series premiered on 12 May 1997, [1] and was hosted by writer and comedian Ruby Wax. In each episode Wax holds an unscripted roundtable discussion with up to five guests. Framed as a dinner party, guests included actors, writers, stand-up comedians, musicians, journalists and other well-known figures in the entertainment industry.
A total of 48 episodes were broadcast between May 1997 and November 2000.
Each episode was recorded at BBC Television Centre. All episodes were pre-recorded, and often with no time limit. The conversation between Wax and her guests would sometimes last up to three hours, and would later be edited down to 40 minutes for broadcast. Multiple episodes could be recorded on the same day. The set was dressed as a restaurant and bar, and guests would eat, drink and smoke as if at a dinner-party. To add to the restaurant atmosphere, additional tables were populated by BBC staff including producers, secretaries, cafeteria and office workers. [2]
Actress and writer Carrie Fisher appeared regularly on the series. Fisher and Wax had become close friends since first meeting on Wax's earlier series, The Full Wax. Fisher appeared in a total 7 episodes of the series. [3]
According to his 2004 autobiography, talk show host Graham Norton first met Fisher when they both appeared as guests on the same episode, and also became good friends with her. [4]
Actor and comedian Scott Thompson appeared during the series' third season, and spoke at length about witnessing the 1975 Brampton Centennial Secondary School shooting.
Actor Alan Cumming also appeared during the series' third season, and spoke at length of his experience of being stalked by obsessive fans while he was performing in the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret .
In reviewing the first three episodes, columnist Jasper Rees wrote in The Independent :
Ruby (BBC2, Mon to Wed) doesn't feel fully thought through: you get the impression it's an experimental stop-gap. But - hats off - it doesn't skimp on ambition. Uniting guests round a dining table with no particular axe to grind or product to promote, the challenge accepted by Ruby is to keep the conversational ball up in the air without the support system of topicality, and without the flabby or ill-disciplined as an equivalent show on radio could get away with. [5]
The first series of 12 episodes was broadcast thrice-weekly, usually on Monday-Wednesday nights, in May and June 1997.
No. overall | No. in series | Guests | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Leo Bassi, Raoul Heertje, Eddie Izzard, Terry Jones and Babben Larsson | 12 May 1997 |
2 | 2 | Eve Arnold and John Simpson | 13 May 1997 |
3 | 3 | Marianne Faithfull, Lucinda Lambton and Will Self | 14 May 1997 |
4 | 4 | Carrie Fisher and Salman Rushdie | 19 May 1997 |
5 | 5 | Carrie Fisher, Joanna Bowen, Helen Lederer, Kathy Lette and Bernadette Moran-Ferreira | 20 May 1997 |
6 | 6 | Carrie Fisher, John Lahr and Hugh Laurie | 21 May 1997 |
7 | 7 | Frances Barber and Meera Syal | 27 May 1997 |
8 | 8 | Frances Barber and Meera Syal | 28 May 1997 |
9 | 9 | Jeremy Hardy, Jonathan Miller and Muriel Spark | 29 May 1997 |
10 | 10 | John Diamond, Carmen Callil and Helena Kennedy | 2 June 1997 |
11 | 11 | Rupert Everett, Jill Robinson, Fiona Shaw and Martin Sherman | 3 June 1997 |
12 | 12 | Alan Davies, Anna Massey and Glenys Kinnock | 4 June 1997 |
A second series of 12 episodes was broadcast thrice-weekly on Monday-Wednesday nights in July 1998.
No. overall | No. in series | Guests | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|
13 | 1 | Jeanne Moreau, Joanna Lumley and Boy George | 6 July 1998 |
14 | 2 | Frances Barber, Michelle Collins and Gerald Ratner | 7 July 1998 |
15 | 3 | Rhona Cameron, Brigitte Nielsen and Joe Simpson | 8 July 1998 |
16 | 4 | Edwina Currie, Helen Lederer and Tony Slattery | 13 July 1998 |
17 | 5 | Dominick Dunne and Clive James | 14 July 1998 |
18 | 6 | Carrie Fisher, Dominick Dunne and Clive James | 15 July 1998 |
19 | 7 | Carrie Fisher, Julian Lennon and John Diamond | 20 July 1998 |
20 | 8 | Ivana Trump, Dana International and Julian Clary | 21 July 1998 |
21 | 9 | Richard Wilson, PD James and Elizabeth Wurtzel | 22 July 1998 |
22 | 10 | Bruce Robinson, Joanna Bowen and Ian Ross | 27 July 1998 |
23 | 11 | Neil Simon, Anna Massey and Josephine Hart | 28 July 1998 |
24 | 12 | Bret Easton Ellis, Carrie Fisher and Elizabeth Wurtzel | 29 July 1998 |
A third series of 12 episodes was broadcast thrice-weekly on Monday-Wednesday nights in September and October 1999.
No. overall | No. in series | Guests | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|
25 | 1 | Terry Gilliam and Eddie Izzard | 13 September 1999 |
26 | 2 | Anthony-Noel Kelly, Carrie Fisher, Graham Norton and Griff Rhys Jones | 14 September 1999 |
27 | 3 | Frances Barber and Graham Norton | 15 September 1999 |
28 | 4 | John Lloyd, Joanna Lumley and Sarah Miles | 20 September 1999 |
29 | 5 | Billy Crystal | 21 September 1999 |
30 | 6 | Robert Bly, Marion Woodman, John Simpson and Tony Slattery | 22 September 1999 |
31 | 7 | Glenda Jackson, Helena Kennedy, John Diamond and Patrick Kielty | 27 September 1999 |
32 | 8 | Marianne Faithfull, John Brown, Nicky Haslam and Anita Pallenberg | 28 September 1999 |
33 | 9 | Scott Thompson, Rhona Cameron and Robert McLiam Wilson | 29 September 1999 |
34 | 10 | Malcolm McDowell and Edward Hibbert | 4 October 1999 |
35 | 11 | Malcolm McDowell, Edward Hibbert, Lindsay Duncan, Scott Thompson and Karen Moline | 5 October 1999 |
36 | 12 | Olympia Dukakis, Martin Sherman and Alan Cumming | 6 October 1999 |
A fourth and final series of 12 episodes was broadcast on Monday-Thursday nights in October and November 2000.
No. overall | No. in series | Guests | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|
37 | 1 | Roseanne Barr | 23 October 2000 |
38 | 2 | Jerry Hall, Graham Norton and Georgina Beyer | 24 October 2000 |
39 | 3 | Siân Phillips, Amanda Donohoe and David Sedaris | 25 October 2000 |
40 | 4 | Lucie Arnaz, Alexis Arquette and Suzanne Bertish | 26 October 2000 |
41 | 5 | Jackie Collins, Rich Hall and Helen Lederer | 30 October 2000 |
42 | 6 | Roseanne Barr, David Baddiel and Lynda La Plante | 31 October 2000 |
43 | 7 | John Diamond, Matthew Manning, Beechy Colclough and Jonathan Harvey | 1 November 2000 |
44 | 8 | Jay McInerney, Kate O'Toole, and David Sedaris | 2 November 2000 |
45 | 9 | Ewan McGregor and Eddie Izzard | 6 November 2000 |
46 | 10 | Michael Gambon, James Fleet and Kevin McNally | 7 November 2000 |
47 | 11 | Anthea Turner, Will Carling, Clarissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott | 8 November 2000 |
48 | 12 | Robert Winston, Phil Hammond and Muriel Gray | 9 November 2000 |
Victoria Wood was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over several decades and her live comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions which she performed at the piano. Much of her humour was grounded in everyday life and included references to activities, attitudes and products that are considered to exemplify Britain. She was noted for her skills in observational comedy and in satirising aspects of social class.
Carrie Frances Fisher was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the original Star Wars films (1977–1983) and reprised the role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)—a posthumous release that was dedicated to her—and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), through the use of unreleased footage from The Force Awakens.
Ruby Wax is a British-American actress, comedian, writer, television personality, and mental health campaigner. A classically-trained actress, Wax was with the Royal Shakespeare Company for five years and co-starred on the ITV sitcom Girls on Top (1985–1986).
Alan Roger Davies is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and TV presenter. He is best known for his portrayal of the title role in the BBC mystery drama series Jonathan Creek (1997–2016) and as the only permanent panellist on the BBC panel show QI since its premiere in 2003, outlasting its original host Stephen Fry.
Peter John Kay is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He has written, produced, directed and acted in several television and film projects, and has written three books.
Christopher David Addison is a British comedian, writer, actor, and director. He is perhaps best known for his role as a regular panellist on Mock the Week. He is also known for his lecture-style comedy shows, two of which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4.
A Country Practice is an Australian television soap opera/serial which was broadcast on the Seven Network from 18 November 1981 until 22 November 1993, and subsequently on Network Ten from 13 April 1994 to 5 November 1994. Altogether, 14 seasons and 1,088 episodes were produced.
Jo Caulfield is stand-up comedian, comedy writer, and author from Flintshire, north Wales. She was joint winner of the 2021 Comedians Comedian of The Year – an award voted for by her peers and members of the comedy industry.
Graham Duff is an English writer, actor and producer. His work for television and radio is typified by intricate plotting, large casts, frequently dark subject matter and a love of wordplay and surrealism.
So Graham Norton is a British television chat show hosted by Irish personality Graham Norton. It aired on Channel 4 from 3 July 1998 to 1 March 2002.
Naked City is an American police procedural television series from Screen Gems that aired on ABC from 1958 to 1963. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture The Naked City and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format. As in the film, each episode concluded with a narrator intoning the iconic line: "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
The Graham Norton Show is a British comedy talk show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton succeeding Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in BBC One's prestigious late-Friday-evening slot in 2010.
The Jack Docherty Show was a weeknightly comedy chat show which first aired on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom between 30 March 1997 and 23 June 1999. Presented by comedian Jack Docherty, the programme was one of the first to air on the channel, doing so as part of its opening-night schedule on 30 March 1997. The show was recorded at London's Whitehall Theatre during the early evening and would then be broadcast in a late-night slot. It featured a mixture of chat with celebrity guests, comedy, and music, and followed a similar format to shows such as NBC's Late Night with David Letterman in the United States.
Nighthawks was an Irish television series broadcast on Network 2. It was presented by Shay Healy. It was part of the major re-brand of RTÉ Two as Network 2 in 1988.
Carpool is a web series presented by English actor and comedian Robert Llewellyn. In each episode he interviews a guest while giving them a lift in an eco-friendly car. The guests are often well-known British television personalities such as Jonathan Ross or Ade Edmondson. However, Llewellyn also interviews less-well-known figures as long as he feels that they will prove to be an interesting subject. The guests also included Llewellyn's fellow Red Dwarf actors, Danny John Jules, Craig Charles, Chris Barrie and Hattie Hayridge. Llewellyn has also reunited with his Scrapheap Challenge co-hosts, Cathy Rogers and Lisa Rogers for interviews.
The Project is an Australian news-current affairs and talk show television panel program, airing weeknights and Sunday across Australia on Network 10, produced by Roving Enterprises. The show is hosted by Waleed Aly, Sarah Harris, Georgie Tunny, Hamish Macdonald, Rove McManus, Sam Taunton and Michael Hing with rotating daily panellists usually appearing once a week.
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Taskmaster for Channel 4 and QI for BBC Two.
Christopher Ramsey is an English actor, comedian and presenter. After appearing in Hebburn as Jack (2012–2013), Ramsey began presenting series including I'm A Celebrity: Extra Camp (2016), Virtually Famous (2016–2017) and Stand Up Central (2017).
The twenty-first series of the British medical drama television series Holby City began Airing on BBC One on 2 January 2019 in the United Kingdom. The series consists of 53 episodes. Kate Hall acts as the series producer for episode one and was replaced by Jane Wallbank from the following episode; Simon Harper is the executive producer. The series is billed as an anniversary year for the drama as it celebrates twenty years since its launch. The series also features a crossover episode with sister show Casualty, an episode written by the show's co-creator Tony McHale and the show's 1000th episode, due to be broadcast in November 2019. Thirteen actors reprise their roles from the previous series and former cast members return for guest stints throughout the series. Three new regular characters were also introduced, while Nic Jackman was promoted to the main cast in his role as foundation doctor Cameron Dunn.