The Hudson and Pepperdine Show is a comedy sketch show vehicle on BBC Radio 4 (repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra) for the duo Melanie Hudson and Vicki Pepperdine. Four series have been broadcast, in 2000 (4 episodes), 2001 (4 episodes), 2003 (6 episodes) and 2005 (6 episodes, of which 5 were broadcast). They also did a single Afternoon Play in 2008 titled Hudson and Pepperdine Save the Planet. Other regular cast members include Martin Hyder, Jim North, and Dave Lamb.
The show has the premise of Hudson and Pepperdine as flatmates who present a radio show from their flat, with comedy deriving from visitors to the flat and the situations in which the duo find themselves. However, the show differs from a sitcom as the interactions of Hudson and Pepperdine simply serve to link together more traditional sketch based material with strands featuring a men's support group; rough neighbourhood girls; Edie Trinder, a pastiche of wartime radio comedy; and their upstairs neighbours, the 'Dirty Sloanes'. The show theme music is a customised version of Barry Manilow's "Copacabana".
The planned first show for the fourth and most recent series, scheduled to be broadcast on 7 July 2005, was pulled due to that day's terrorist attacks in London as it depicted Mel and Vicki's interaction with the government's emergency warning leaflet.
French and Saunders is a British sketch comedy television series written by and starring comedy duo and namesake Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders that originally broadcast on BBC2 from 1987 to 1993, and later on BBC One until 2017. It is also the name by which the performers are known on the occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. The show was given one of the highest budgets in BBC history to create detailed spoofs and satires of popular culture, movies, celebrities, and art. French and Saunders continued to film holiday specials for the BBC, and both have been individually successful starring in other shows.
BBC Radio 4 Extra is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the principal broadcaster of the BBC's spoken-word archive, and as a result the majority of its programming originates from that archive. It also broadcasts extended and companion programmes to those broadcast on Radio 4, and provides a "catch-up" service for certain programmes.
Hancock's Half Hour was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six-episode radio series, it has since spanned a total of 20 television episodes for BBC Three which aired from 2004 to 2007, and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the United States. The first television series is set in a zoo operated by Bob Fossil, the second in a flat and the third in a secondhand shop in Dalston called Nabootique.
The Two Ronnies is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, serial stories and musical finales.
Alas Smith and Jones is a British comedy sketch television series starring comedy duo and namesake Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones that originally ran for four series and two Christmas specials on BBC2 from 1984 to 1988, and later as Smith and Jones for six series on BBC1 until 1998. A spin-off from Not the Nine O'Clock News, the show also had a brief run in the United States on A&E and PBS in the late 1980s, as well as on CBS in the early 1990s during their late-night block.
Vic and Bob, also known as Reeves and Mortimer, are a British double act consisting of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. They have written and starred in several comedy programmes on British television since 1990, with Reeves having made his first TV appearance in 1986. They have often been referred to as the modern day Morecambe and Wise.
The Burkiss Way is a BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy series, originally broadcast between August 1976 and November 1980. It was written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, with additional material in seasons 1 and 2 by John Mason, Colin Bostock-Smith, Douglas Adams, John Lloyd, Tom Magee Englefield and Liz Pollock.
Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc is an English actress, comedian and television presenter. With Sue Perkins, she has co-hosted series including Light Lunch for Channel 4, The Great British Bake Off for the BBC and chat show Mel and Sue for ITV. In early 2017, Giedroyc co-presented the BBC show Let It Shine.
The Now Show is a British radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, which satirises the week's news. The show is a mixture of stand-up, sketches and songs hosted by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. The show used to feature regular appearances by Jon Holmes, Laura Shavin, a monologue by Marcus Brigstocke, and music by Mitch Benn, Pippa Evans or Adam Kay, but now features a much wider range of contributors.
Julia Charlotte L. Davis is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy Nighty Night (2004–2005) and the comedies Hunderby (2012–2015) and Camping (2016), which she also directed. Davis has been noted by critics for creating boundary-pushing black comedy that centres female anti-hero characters.
Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, known collectively as Mel and Sue, are an English comedy double act. They are known for hosting the BAFTA Award-winning BBC One cookery series The Great British Bake Off. Previously, they hosted the lunchtime chat shows Light Lunch and Late Lunch on Channel 4.
Still Game is a Scottish sitcom, produced by The Comedy Unit with BBC Scotland. It was created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who played the lead characters, Jack Jarvis, Esq and Victor McDade, two Glaswegian pensioners. The characters first appeared in the pair's previous TV sketch show Chewin' the Fat, which aired in Scotland from January 1999 until December 2005.
15 Minute Musical is a comedy series on BBC Radio 4 written by Richie Webb, David Quantick and Dave Cohen. Each episode is in a different musical style with a story featuring current celebrities and politicians. The show won the 2009 Writers' Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy.
Melanie Hudson is an English actress and comedian. With Vicki Pepperdine, she was part of the double act Hudson and Pepperdine. The two women wrote and starred in BBC Radio 4's The Hudson and Pepperdine Show. Hudson performed multiple roles in Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge (KMKY), including Alan's French co-host Nina Vanier. She played Lauren Cooper's French teacher in a sketch on The Catherine Tate Show. She has also worked with the KMKY team in a number of projects, including The Friday Night Armistice and The Armando Iannucci Shows.
Chris Neill is a British comedian, producer, and writer who features regularly on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland. Performing also as a stand-up comedian on the UK circuit, he has presented five solo shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe since 2002.
Vicki Pepperdine is an English comedy actress and writer. She was nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards for co-writing the BBC sitcom Getting On (2009–12), and was also nominated for a British Comedy Award for her portrayal of Dr Pippa Moore in the series.
Up the Women is a BBC television sitcom created, written by and starring Jessica Hynes. It was first broadcast on BBC Four on 30 May 2013. The sitcom is about a group of women in 1910 who form a Women's Suffrage movement. Hynes originally planned to write a comedy film about a suffragette plot to assassinate H. H. Asquith, but after realising the plot had turned quite dark, she decided to write a sitcom instead. Christine Gernon directed the three-part series, which became the last sitcom to be filmed before a live audience at BBC Television Centre and the first to be commissioned for BBC Four. A second series was commissioned in June 2013 and aired on BBC Two from 21 January 2015. Up the Women was not renewed for a third series.
Chickens is a British sitcom that was first broadcast on Channel 4 as a television pilot on 2 September 2011, as part of the channel's Comedy Showcase season of comedy pilots. It was then followed by a six-episode series that was commissioned on Sky 1 and broadcast between 22 August and 26 September 2013. The show is about three men who don’t go off to fight in the First World War and consequently become social outcasts in their village. It was nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2014 Broadcast Awards.
Puppy Love is a British comedy television series broadcast on BBC Four. The first episode was shown on 13 November 2014. It was written by Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, co-creators of Getting On. Puppy Love follows two women at dog training classes on the Wirral.