The Wright Way

Last updated

The Wright Way
The Wright Way.png
Genre Sitcom
Written by Ben Elton
Directed byDewi Humphreys
Starring David Haig
Mina Anwar
Luke Gell
Toby Longworth
Beattie Edmondson
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersGregor Sharp
Lucy Ansbro
ProducersBen Elton
Rohan Acharya
Production location dock10 studios
Production companyPhil McIntyre Television
Original release
Network BBC One
Release23 April (2013-04-23) 
28 May 2013 (2013-05-28)

The Wright Way is a British television sitcom written by Ben Elton which aired on BBC One from 23 April to 28 May 2013. It concerns a health and safety manager, his staff and his family. Widely panned by critics, it was cancelled after one series. [1]

Contents

Plot

The series centres around Gerald Wright, manager of the health and safety department of the fictional Baselricky Council implied to be in Essex. Wright's team includes Malika Maha (Mina Anwar), Clive Beeches (Luke Gell), and Bernard Stanning (Toby Longworth). His family includes daughter Susan and her girlfriend Victoria, and ex-wife Valerie.

Characters

Production

The Wright Way was commissioned by BBC One Controller Danny Cohen and Controller of BBC Comedy Commissioning Cheryl Taylor. [2] It was originally to be titled Slings and Arrows, until it was decided viewers would mistake the title for a historical documentary. [2] An alternative working title was ...Gone Mad, a play on the cliché saying "It's health and safety gone mad".

The series was filmed at dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester from January to March 2013 and broadcast on the BBC. [2]

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date
1"The Rogue Speed Bump"Dewi Humphreys Ben Elton 23 April 2013 (2013-04-23)
2"Conkers Bonkers"Dewi HumphreysBen Elton30 April 2013 (2013-04-30)
3"Lethal Swing Back"Dewi HumphreysBen Elton7 May 2013 (2013-05-07)
4"Concealed Sharp Objects"Dewi HumphreysBen Elton14 May 2013 (2013-05-14)
5"Curbing the Kerb"Dewi HumphreysBen Elton21 May 2013 (2013-05-21)
6"The Deadly Receptacle"Dewi HumphreysBen Elton28 May 2013 (2013-05-28)

Reception

Critics heavily panned the first episode. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] The second episode was heavily criticised by Tom Phillips in the New Statesman, who found it to be even worse than the first. [11] Adam Postans in the Daily Mirror called it 'the worst sitcom ever'. [12] Oliver Nagel of German blog britcoms.de included it in an article on "The Shitcoms of the year", commenting: "Worst. Sitcom. Ever.", "Gags that can hardly be described as such, dogmatism that speculates on approving laughter, gruesome characters - really everything is wrong here" and "With 'The Wright Way' Ben Elton has reached the very bottom." [13]

Ben Elton himself later reflected on the series during an interview for BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright in the Afternoon the following year, commenting that "...Sometimes you can pull it out of the hat, and sometimes you can't. Blackadder was initially drubbed and set to be cancelled, and that went on to become one of the British comedy greats; with this one (The Wright Way) it just never really found its niche. I'd originally envisaged it as a bit more of an alternative, BBC Two jobby, but I'm not sure Auntie [the BBC] and I were ever totally in tune with each others view on what it was going to be. On hindsight I don't think it was packaged very well, maybe not titled very well, nobody knew quite what it was. A shame, but that's the business we're in."[ citation needed ]

See also

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References

  1. Dowell, Ben (9 July 2013). "BBC axes Ben Elton comedy The Wright Way – Heading Out and Getting on also chopped". Radio Times . Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "Filming begins on new BBC One comedy The Wright Way". BBC Media Centre. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  3. Simons, Jake Wallis (24 April 2013). "The Wright Way, BBC One, review". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 22 August 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2013. I thought it was one of the BEST sitcoms ever !!!
  4. Sutcliffe, Tom (24 April 2013). "TV review – The Wright Way, BBC1" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  5. Watson, Keith (24 April 2013). "Ben Elton's The Wright Way took a very wrong turn on the comedy front". Metro . Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  6. Crace, John (24 April 2013). "The Wright Way; Edward VIII's Murderous Mistress; Keeping Britain Alive: A Day in the NHS – TV review". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  7. Heritage, Stuart (22 April 2013). "The Wright Way: the sitcom that proves Ben Elton is no longer remotely funny". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  8. Cole, Tom (24 April 2013). "Ben Elton's The Wright Way rubs critics up the wrong way". Radio Times . Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  9. Tate, Gabriel (16 April 2013). "The Wright Way". Time Out . Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  10. Sherwin, Adam (24 April 2013). "Ben Elton mauled by critics after getting BBC sitcom The Wright Way badly wrong" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  11. Phillips, Tom (1 May 2013). "How did Ben Elton's "The Wright Way" get it so wrong?". New Statesman. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  12. Postans, Adam (28 April 2013). "The Wright Way: New BBC Comedy by Ben Elton is the worst sitcom ever". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  13. "Britische Sitcoms » Die Shitcoms des Jahres (Teil 2)". www.britcoms.de. Retrieved 26 July 2018.