Beadle's About
| Beadle's About! | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Ralph Edwards |
| Presented by | Jeremy Beadle |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 10 |
| No. of episodes | 94 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Keith Stewart (1986) Richard Hearsey (1987) |
| Production location | The London Studios |
| Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production companies | LWT in association with Ralph Edwards Productions and Action Time |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 22 November 1986 – 21 September 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 on Saturday nights from 22 November 1986 to 21 September 1996.
Format
An example of one of the practical jokes would involve someone's car or van secretly being swapped for an identical one, and then, having a disaster befall it, such as 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!". A follow up series was entitled 'It's Beadle!' which followed a similar format.[1]
Memorable pranks
One of the most notable pranks was where Dorset resident Janet Elford was convinced into believing that aliens had landed in her garden. Members of the public were set up by a resident team of Beadle's About! actors including: Pam Cole, Ricky Diamond, Tony McHale, Nicholas Young and Flavia Brilli.[2]
Popularity
At its peak, the show attracted approximately 15 million viewers, making it one of ITV's most popular Saturday night programmes during that period.[3]
Profanity bubble
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 Balloon typeface. These were also used to cover up offensive hand gestures as well.
Jeremy once revealed in an interview that during editing, they deliberately inserted "bleeps" where there were no profanities as this made it funnier.
Home media
The first two series of Beadle's About! have been released on DVD by Network.
| DVD Title | Discs | Year | Episodes | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 2 | |||||
| Complete Series 1 | 1 | 1986 | 6 | 28 March 2011 | |
| Complete Series 2 | 1 | 1987 | 8 | 2 April 2012 | |
Transmissions
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 November 1986[4] | 27 December 1986[5] | 6 |
| 2 | 5 September 1987[6] | 24 October 1987[7] | 8 |
| 3 | 22 October 1988[8] | 17 December 1988[9] | 9 |
| 4 | 16 September 1989[10] | 16 December 1989[11] | 13 |
| 5 | 15 September 1990[12] | 15 December 1990[13] | 13 |
| 6 | 22 September 1991[14] | 1 December 1991[15] | 10 |
| 7 | 10 October 1992 | 26 December 1992 | 10 |
| 8 | 29 October 1993 | 12 February 1994 | 10 |
| 9 | 11 March 1995 | 13 May 1995 | 10 |
| 10 | 29 June 1996 | 21 September 1996 | 10 |
References
- ^ "Jeremy Beadle: Loved and loathed TV prankster". The Independent. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
- ^ "Janet Elford". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
- ^ Martin Hodgson. "Veteran TV joker Jeremy Beadle dies of pneumonia, aged 59". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
- ^ "22 November 1986, 30". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "27 December 1986, 28". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "5 September 1987, 28". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "24 October 1987, 38". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "22 October 1988, 40". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "17 December 1988, 69". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C&dat=19890916&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
- ^ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C&dat=19891216&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
- ^ "15 September 1990, 65". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "15 December 1990, 63". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "21 September 1991, 76". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
- ^ "1 December 1991, 96". Retrieved 5 August 2019.