Bremner, Bird and Fortune
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| Bremner, Bird and Fortune | |
|---|---|
 Bremner, Bird & Fortune title card |
|
| Format | Satirical Comedy |
| Created by | Rory Bremner, John Bird and John Fortune |
| Starring | Rory Bremner, John Bird, John Fortune, Pauline McLynn and Frances Barber |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of episodes | 82 (to 18 November 2008) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (included Television advertisements) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Channel Four |
| Original run | 17 October 1999 – Present |
Bremner, Bird and Fortune is an award-winning satirical British television programme produced by Vera Productions for Channel Four, uniting the longstanding satirical team of John Bird and John Fortune ("the Two Johns") with the satirical impressionist Rory Bremner.
The show started in 1999. The fourteenth series was shown in November 2008. A new series of 3 episodes, The Last Show Before The Recovery, started on 7 June 2009.
[edit] Regular features
The show is almost entirely political, but in recent series different genres of sketches have been introduced. The programme features regular stand-up impressionism sections by Bremner.
Another feature are interviews between Bird and Fortune, one of them normally as George Parr, a man in a government position or a businessman, who normally ends up exposing the idiocies of their area of expertise.
There are also heavily researched, bitingly satirical three-handed historical narratives, the dinner party sketches, featuring Bird, Fortune, Pauline McLynn and Frances Barber, other small sketches and ends with a usually political musical number.
In November 2008 a four-part mini series was produced, called Silly Money. The trio looked at the economic downturn, with fewer of the usual sketches and co-stars. The episodes contained many more George Parr sketches than usual. They also included a number of archive clips to further illustrate points and create satire from them based on hindsight.
[edit] Books and Awards
In October 2004, they published a book based on the show, called You Are Here: A Dossier (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 288 pages, ISBN 0-297-84778-3, also available as a paperback from Orion mass market paperback, ISBN 0-7528-6493-9).
In 2000 Bird and Fortune were nominated for a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for Best Entertainment Performance.
In 2002 and 2003, two years running, three members of the show's production team, Geoff Atkinson, Steve Connelly and David G. Croft, were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Programme or Series and Bird and Fortune were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance or Best Comedy Performance. In 2005 Rory Bremner was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance.
Bremner Bird and Fortune was filmed up until the second series 11 in 2006 at The Riverside Studios. It is now filmed in Teddington Studios, South London.[citation needed] Series 11 was filmed in Studio 1 and Series 13 was filmed in studio 2.[citation needed] Teddington Studios was once the home to comedy greats as Benny Hill, Kenny Everett and Tommy Cooper.
The next series, 14, is being filmed at The Fountain Studios in Wembley, London where Series' 4 - 8 were also filmed.[citation needed]
In 2003 the episode "At Her Majesty's Pleasure" won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Entertainment.
[edit] External links
- Internet Movie Database entry for Bremner, Bird and Fortune
- YouTube - Bremner Bird, and Fortune's Clips
