Beadle's About

Beadle's About
Starring	Jeremy Beadle
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer	LWT
Running time	30mins (inc. commercials)
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	1987 – 1996
Related
Game For A Laugh

Beadle's About was a British television programme hosted by Jeremy Beadle, where members of the public became victims of practical jokes behind hidden cameras. It was produced by LWT for ITV, and ran from 1987 to 1996.

An example of one of the practical jokes would involve a person's car or van secretly being swapped for an identical one, and then having a disaster befall on it, such as it exploding, falling into the sea, or being dropped from a great height, as the owner of the vehicle looked on in horror. After a few minutes Beadle would appear in disguise (typically as a policeman or some other figure of authority, and often wearing a fake beard on top of his natural beard), and interact with the shell-shocked and / or irate victim. He would subtly drop more and more hints and would remove his disguise and point a stick microphone at the person. As the public were familiar with Beadle from the earlier show Game for a Laugh, they would then immediately realise they had been had, often with the words "I don't believe it!". However, one infamous prank targeted a woman who was at a wedding, and was then destroyed. After Beadle removed his disguise and pointed the microphone at her, the woman ignored him and asked him to leave her alone, until a friend explained it was "Jeremy Beadle off the television".

Other stunts involved trainee workers having to cope with problems while the manager was away, such as in a bed shop where an overweight family would break all the beds by sitting on them, or a launderette where all the washing machines would malfunction, flooding the building.

The "Bleep" or "Oops" bubble used to block out offensive language was a well known feature from the show. The bubbles were simply clouds with either "Bleep" or "Oops" in them, the text being set in a font looking similar to the 'Balloon' typeface.

As the series went on, the practical jokes became more and more intricately planned out, often with a huge, bigger budgeted prank at the start and / or end of the current series (possibly the most memorable being one where a woman was convinced into believing that aliens had landed in her garden). Very seldom were the pranks rumbled, with one of the only instances being in the early 1990s when a woman returned from shopping to find her red Ford Fiesta in amongst a car park full of identical cars. She instantly guessed it was a Beadle's About prank and the ruse had to be abandoned (the footage was never broadcast).

At its peak, the show attracted approximately 15 million viewers, making it one of ITV's most popular Saturday night programmes during that period. In 1993, a man was arrested for trying to pull the beard off a policeman, thinking it was Jeremy Beadle in disguise.