Harry Hill's TV Burp

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Harry Hill's TV Burp
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Current TV Burp Logo
Format Comedy Entertainment
Presented by Harry Hill
Country of origin  United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of series 8
No. of episodes 90 (including pilot and 5 specials)
Production
Producer(s) Nick Symons
(2002-2006);
Spencer Millman
(2007-present) Richard Allen Turner (TV Burp Gold)
Location(s) Teddington Studios
Running time 30 minutes (including commericials)
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Picture format PAL (576i, 16:9)
Original run 22 December 2001 (pilot),
14 November 2002 –
present
Chronology
Related shows The Soup, The Harry Hill Show, You've Been Framed
For the Australian version, see TV Burp (Australian TV series)).

Harry Hill's TV Burp is a popular BAFTA award-winning British television comedy programme, produced by Avalon Television for ITV, and is hosted by the comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the previous week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances.

Contents

[edit] Format

TV Burp usually consists of jokes about the week's television. Hill usually comments on programs from the five terrestrial channels, however does comment on other shows such as Freaky Eaters on BBC Three, Farm of Fussy Eaters on UKTV Style and American Inventor on Virgin 1.

[edit] History and airings

The show is filmed at Teddington Studios, Greater London, in Studio 1 and is based on clips of the previous week of programming, showing lines of dialogue that can be twisted out of context, unusual set layouts and actions performed on the shows. Although Hill does most of the writing himself, Brenda Gilhooly, Paul Hawksbee, Dan Maier, Joe Burnside and David Quantick also help write the weekly show. The show premièred with a pilot on 22 December 2001, which is available to watch on Avalon's website. The pilot contained many of the common elements that remain on the show to the present day, now in its eighth series, such as "TV Highlight of the Week" and the pre-break "fight".

Following the success of the pilot, a full series was commissioned, starting on 14 November 2002. Seven subsequent series have followed, as well as two Christmas specials (see Transmissions).

Series 1-3 were originally shown in a late-night slot on Thursdays and Fridays respectively. This received criticism from many, as it was very family-friendly humour, and called for it to be broadcast earlier. Series 3 saw a repeat showing in a Sunday teatime slot. Series' 4 and 5 saw Burp broadcast on a Saturday teatime slot - although now, from being criticised for being shown too late, some feel that its new slot was too early, and deserved a prime-time evening slot. Series 6 was given a boost following Hill's successful narration of You've Been Framed. The eighth series began on 18 October 2008. [1] On the 6 December that year the show was broadcast in between two episodes of The X Factor, and received its highest audience to date with 8.28 million watching. [2].

Although for a period it was thought that a DVD was unlikely due to the multiple copyright clearance issues, a Best Of DVD (titled Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold) has been released 10 November 2008.[3] However, a complete series-by-series release still appears unlikely.

[edit] Recurring elements

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  • Pre-advertisement 'fights' that attempt to determine which of two people or things from a scene are "best", such as "babies or cats" (from an episode of The Apprentice), "chicken or turkey", "White Rat or Brown Rat" (from a nature documentary), "Mars or meat" (from Life on Mars) or even "Jesus or Hitler". After making the comparison, Hill's signature tagline follows: "But which is better? (A) or (B)? There's only one way to find out... FIGHT!", at which point two actors representing the characters of the comparison appear from either side and engage in a wrestling match while Hill goads them on (usually favouring one specific party).
  • During one episode in Series 7, the fight consisted of seven people.
  • During series 8, one such fight was Smurfs vs gorillas. In the following episode, during another joke about gorillas with an actor in costume, the Smurf returned to renew the fight and had to be taken away. This was again repeated during the 22 November 2008 episode, when the closing song was sung by an albino gorilla. Following this, the Smurf received cameo appearances in various episodes.
  • Also, in the penultimate episode of series 8, the fight was between pasta and nothing, so only the pasta emerged from one side of the door, and when the other door opened to reveal nothing, the pasta walked off.
  • "TV Highlight of the Week": a tiny segment of a show showing an entirely mundane event such as throwing out some sour milk, exhaling, snoring, spraying disinfectant or serving tea. Occasionally this is replaced with a variant on the same theme, such as "TV High Voice of the Week", "TV Expert of the Week", "Voiceover Highlight of the Week", "Most Ineffective Liar Of The Week", "Slightly Odd-Looking Gingerbread Man of the Week", "Most Elaborate Dog Wee of the Week", "Smallest Amount Of Sick Produced When Being Sick of the week."or even something as complicated as "Lopsided Glasses Wearer Who Looks A Bit Like David Baddiel of the Week" or "Most Casual Turning On Of A Car Indicator of the Week', with the usual jingle artificially stretched to fit in the extra words. Series 7 also included the recurring "I Beg Your Pardon Of The Week", which features a clip of mumbled or unintelligible dialogue.
  • At the end of every show, one of the people referenced in the show makes a guest appearance to sing a song. For example, in the pilot episode, Bruce Jones sings Rhinestone Cowboy after Harry gave him a pet horse.
  • Staged or edited shots in which Hill 'appears' in a show (sometimes as himself, sometimes as a character from said show) to artificially alter the outcome of the scene or to mimic or attack a character that has annoyed him.
  • Series-specific running gags, such as "Celebrity Big Brother Round-Up", pretending to be the banker on the other end of the phone on Deal or No Deal, and the uncanny ability of the respective casts of Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Dancing on Ice to make inadvertently animal-like noises.
  • Praising The Mustard Shop whenever Norwich is mentioned.
  • Victims of jokes turning up on set immediately after a scene in which they appear.
  • Hill, a fan of the British singer Morrissey, has also used songs of Morrissey in the show on several occasions. TV Burp used to have a segment called "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", which was introduced by the Morrissey song of the same name. Also, in the 2006 series, Hill jokingly changed the theme tune of the popular soap opera EastEnders to "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths. In the 2009 series, Hill paid tribute to the series Paris Hilton's British Best Friend by singing Morrissey's recent single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris".
  • Since Harry Hill narrates the TV series 'You've Been Framed' (which is broadcast just before TV Burp on the same channel) the two programmes are treated as a continuation of each other. Harry has often mentioned You've Been Framed in his jokes, as if it is his own show. Most notably when he defends it when Dermot O'Leary from X-Factor says "Your Saturday night starts right here!", Harry responds, "How dare you! You watch Hole in the Wall, then turn over to You've Been Framed!" This was followed up in a later episode when Harry opened the show with, "Your Saturday night starts right here!", ironically this episode was broadcast after The X Factor and well after 8pm.
  • TV Burp Poetry Corner - a segment in which a clip of some dialogue is said that inadvertently rhymes - making it sound slightly poetic. For example, in one episode the dialogue featured in this segment was, "Marine Biologist Dr. Marks, who has spent his life studying sharks". Or, "I thought you went to get the pies", "No, I was preparing a surprise."
  • Harry playing Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack contestant Calista Robertson's 'Bongo Jam', in parody of Robertson being shown recording it on the show and calling it 'quite popular on the funky house scene'. The song tends to appear when trends or bongo drums are mentioned. After a long absence, the gag was used on the 28 March 2009 show in reference to Sir Alan Sugar referring to contestants of The Apprentice being 'as easy to play as bongo drums'.

[edit] Series specific recurring elements

[edit] Series 7

  • Almost every episode of series 7 contained a segment looking at that week's episode of the BBC Three lifestyle documentary programme Freaky Eaters, about people with strange eating habits. After a clip showing the particular food the 'Freaky Eater' is either addicted to or repulsed by, Harry will repeat them in a loud, moronic, toothless gurn (e.g. "beans!", "chippy chips!", "sausages!", "hoopy hoops!", "sweet snicknoin!" (sirloin). When collecting his BAFTA in 2008, Harry used this voice again, and jokingly said that Freaky Eaters should have received the award because it's the "best show on telly". This was continued in later episodes of Series 8.
  • Emmerdale character Val's cataracts became a recurring joke, based on a scene in which she questions "Cataracts?" after a diagnosis. The scene was spoofed with Harry repeating the surprised declaration then passing the news onto a chain of various celebrities (mainly those under contract with ITV) and the show's own history of highlighted extras who respond "Cataracts?" one after another. A passing tongue-in-cheek mention of 'ear cataracts?' a few weeks later was spoofed on the 1 March 2008 edition of the show in exactly the same way, lasting almost a minute and a half and featuring cameo appearances from comedians Al Murray, Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais, Jeremy Kyle and Noel Fielding, in all there were 41 cameos made.

[edit] Series 8

  • Many jokes about Hole in the Wall, which mostly included the Hole In The Wall catchphrase "Bring on the wall!". The show's host, Dale Winton, appeared once as a guest during the series.
  • Harry was regularly attacked by a puppet shark jumping out of various items. Harry will then attack the shark with a towel rail, leading to it eventually retreating. It started with a bowl of shark fin soup, then went on to a bowl of washing up liquid, then a budgie cage, and recently from a basket of pants. The shark's more recent appearances have seen it act more friendly towards Harry, although in one episode it attacked a member of Time Team.
  • The "Eoghan Quigg" look - During series 8 Harry mocked X Factor contestant Eoghan Quigg (pronouncing the name as 'EE-OG-HAN') He claimed that Eoghan used a "vote for me" face (consisting of an awkward smile) and Harry would try to imitate the expression whilst wearing a blonde wig. Quigg's failure to win the series was attributed by Harry on the 20 December show to his failure to have pulled the face during the final.
  • The Many Faces of Louis Walsh (or the one-off "Many Faces of Alexandra Burke and "Many Faces of Peggy Mitchell") - A segment which shows facial expressions made by X-Factor judge Louis Walsh. They included surprise, joy, smug, outrage, sad and Hitler.
  • A new recurring character was introduced, "Knitted Character", after a knitted toy which featured briefly in EastEnders. Knitted Character is implied to be part of the TV Burp staff and holds a rivalry with Peggy Mitchell.
  • Harry wobbling a red jelly to The Surfaris' Wipe Out for a period of time, parodying a reference from Heston Blumenthal's Victorian Feast to the Victorian's finding amusement at having wobbling jellies at the dining table. The first use of this joke also served as one of the show's frequent satires of ITV's often perceived low standards. The Knitted Character often asked to ride the jelly during this segment, and Harry's Alan Sugar puppet had ridden the jelly as well. At the end of the final episode of the series, an extra-large prop jelly was brought on for Harry to ride, whilst holding the Knitted Character.
  • Harry repeating the theme song to Sky1 show The Lion Man with alternative lyrics. These include 'Frying Man', about Gordon Ramsay, 'Crying Man' about Minty Peterson from EastEnders and 'Cyan Man', about a contestant on The Colour of Money.
  • Various characters/individuals passing behind Harry in succession. These include The Lion Man, Jeremy Paxman on a barge, Andrew Marr on a boat and an 'Attention Seeking Door', based on a sliding door very slowly closing in the background of a scene in Coronation Street.
  • Harry regularly featured an overweight man dressed with a pink hairband and in red overalls to appear as Heather Trott from EastEnders. The character is usually featured eating or the sketch has some reference to Heather's weight
  • Harry made recurring jokes about Paris Hilton and her television show, Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. He usually spoofs or makes reference to Hilton's use of abbreviations for phrases such as "TTYN" for "Talk To You Never" which Hilton used when a contestant was eliminated. He also spoofed the fact that in one shot of the show, it appeared as if Hilton's legs were dressed in different coloured tights. When the spoof was retired, it showed Paris Hilton announcing the winner of the show, but then cut to a different, similar looking and sounding woman claiming Harry had won the contest, him running towards her and knocking her off the top of a building, and then grabbing onto her legs, repeating the multi-colour tight reference.
  • "This Weeks Apprentice in a Nutshell" covering the first 2 episodes of the 2009 UK edition of The Apprentice. The fired candidate is shown boasting how they will surely win the contest, directly followed by the moment Sugar fired them.

[edit] Recognition and Awards

Harry Hill's TV Burp has been nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the 2007 British Comedy Awards.[4] It won two 2008 British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance (for Harry Hill) and Best Entertainment programme.[5] The British Comedy Guide website voted TV Burp as the "Best British TV Panel Show/Satire" of 2008.[6] Harry Hill also won a third BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance in 2009

[edit] Special Editions

A special compilation edition aired as part of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day 2007 and 2009. These were mainly made up of clips from the most recent series.

On February 4 2009, Harry presented a special Blue Peter TV Burp. This was an original sketch with Harry sitting at a mock up of his famous desk, but this time within the Blue Peter studio. The clips all came from recent episodes of Blue Peter. The feature ended with the famous "FIGHT" sequence, this time it was: "Who's better? The Blue Peter dogs or the Blue Peter cats?"

Harry later took part in a standard interview with the Blue Peter presenters to discuss his new joke book and his Fair Trade peanuts.

[edit] Transmissions

Series 1-8

Series Premiere Last in series Episodes
1 14 November 2002 19 December 2002 6
2 30 October 2003 18 December 2003 8
3 20 February 2004 2 April 2004 7
4 23 October 2004 27 November 2004 6
5 21 January 2006 25 March 2006 10
6 20 January 2007 14 April 2007 13
7 12 January 2008 5 April 2008 13
8 18 October 2008 4 April 2009 25*
  • Series 8 included a 'Review of the year' as episode 11 of that series, and four 'Best-of' episodes, which aired as episodes 12-15.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.tvguide.co.uk/thistime=18&thisDay=10/18/2008&systemid=&gridspan=03:00&catColor=
  2. ^ http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammesOverview?_s=4
  3. ^ http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=224;5;31;-1&sku=841765
  4. ^ "The British Sitcom Guide - News". http://www.sitcom.co.uk/news/news.php?story=000326. Retrieved on 2007-11-07. 
  5. ^ http://www.bafta.org/awards/television/latest-winners-and-nominees,91,BA.html
  6. ^ "British Comedy Guide Awards 2008". British Comedy Guide. http://www.comedy.org.uk/features/bcg_awards/2008/. Retrieved on 2009-01-19. 
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