Tourist Trap | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy |
Written by | Sian Harries, Tudur Owen, Gareth Gwynn |
Directed by | Keri Collins |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 2 + 1 Rugby Special + 1 Stay At Home Radio Special |
Production | |
Executive producer | Rab Christie |
Production company | The Comedy Unit |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One Wales |
Tourist Trap is a Welsh TV mockumentary-style comedy series following the fictional tourist board WOW Wales. [1] Sally Phillips heads the cast as the director of the organization. [2] The show was first broadcast on BBC One Wales in 2018 as part of the channel's Festival Of Funny. [3] As of 2024, the series is available to stream for free in the UK on BBC iPlayer. [4]
Tourist Trap shares a production company (The Comedy Unit), executive producer (Rab Christie) [5] and some members of its production team with the stylistically similar shows Scot Squad and Soft Border Patrol , [6] which are broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC Northern Ireland respectively. All three are semi-improvised sketch-shows, filmed in a mockumentary style and initially comprised stand-alone scenes set within the individual departments of the fictional organizations they follow. However in the Six Nations special and series 2 of Tourist Trap, the show began to deviate from this template as episodes would sometimes incorporate a narrative and the show also saw members of individual departments appear in other team's scenes. [6]
The show reflects contemporary Welsh events including the rugby team's performance, [7] the appearance of a new Banksy artwork in Port Talbot [8] and the increased popularity in DNA tourism. [9]
In June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a single radio edition of the show was broadcast on BBC Radio Wales. Using the same format as the television show, The Stay At Home Radio Special dealt with the characters having to work from home and interact via telephone and Zoom as the organization changed its message and asked tourists to not visit Wales during lockdown. [10]
Absolutely is a British comedy sketch show. The cast and crew are mainly Scottish; the principal writers and performers are Moray Hunter, Jack Docherty, Peter Baikie, Gordon Kennedy, Morwenna Banks (English) and John Sparkes (Welsh). The original television series, produced by Absolutely Productions, aired on Channel 4 for four series between May 1989 and February 1993. Following an award-winning one-off radio reunion special for BBC Radio 4 in 2013, the show returned for a new four-part radio series with most of the original cast in September 2015. A second Radio 4 series of four programmes was broadcast from 25 June 2017, and a third in July 2019.
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Sally Elizabeth Phillips is an English actress, comedian, and television presenter. She co-created and was one of the writers of the sketch comedy show Smack the Pony. She is also known for her roles in Jam & Jerusalem as Natasha "Tash" Vine, Miranda as Tilly, I'm Alan Partridge as Sophie, Parents as Jenny Pope, Set the Thames on Fire as Colette in 2015, Zapped as Slasher Morgan, and her guest appearances as the fictional Prime Minister of Finland Minna Häkkinen in the US TV series Veep. Phillips also co-starred in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as Mrs Bennet and in the role of Shazza in all three films of the Bridget Jones franchise.
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