It's Been a Bad Week
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| It’s Been a Bad Week | |
|---|---|
| Run time | 30mins |
| Starring | Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis |
| Station | BBC Radio 2 |
| Related shows | The Now Show; Parsons and Naylor's Pull-Out Sections |
| Air dates | 11 February 1999 – 22 June 2006 |
| No. of series | 14 |
| No. of episodes | 100+ |
It’s Been a Bad Week is a British radio comedy on BBC Radio 2, first broadcast on 11 February 1999. It is presented by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, and is also referred to as Punt and Dennis: It's Been a Bad Week. More than 100 episodes have been broadcast as of 2006, the latest series ending on 22 June 2006. It is normally broadcast on Thursdays at 10pm, with each episode being repeated on Saturdays at 1.30pm. The show is recorded the week of broadcast at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.
The show is co-presented by regular guests Mitch Benn, Toby Longworth (Series 6 onwards), Sue Perkins (Series 6 onwards) and Simon Greenall (Series 8 onwards). Past co-presenters have been Mervyn Stutter (Series 1-2), Jon Culshaw (Series 1-5), Emma Clarke (Series 1-5) and Jo Caulfield (Series 6), although these varied in some weeks. One famous guest appearance was Canadian comedy legend Leslie Nielsen. The other contributor to the show is their fictional sound effects man, “Van Man”, so called because he supplies the sound effects from his white van, "illegally parked outside Ronnie Scott's."
It’s Been a Bad Week is a mock awards show, where true stories and urban legends alike compete for the tongue-twisting "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis".
Contents |
[edit] Format
Each show originally began with the "Bad Week Round-up", which is described as the section for "Bad Week stories they couldn't fit anywhere else". This was a quick two-minute recap of what had been going on in the news that week. This was later replaced with "Van Man's Week of Sound", where Van Man illustrated that week's news with his sound effects. Currently, Van Man just plays the main sound effect of the week. A recurring gag is that Van Man's sound effect seems to refer to one of the week's main news stories but actually refers to a different one.
The show consists of three sections, "Sections 1, 2 and 3". In each section, there are three or sometimes four stories from around the world of bad things which have really happened. Usually each section consists of one story related by Punt, one by Dennis and one by another presenter. Benn normally chooses a music-related candidate and sings a song relating to it, Longworth or Greenall often do stories about dumb criminals (frequently American), and Perkins covers something sexual. Sometimes there will be a "Bad Week Update", where a story previously featured returns, because either the same thing has happened again or a new aspect to the story has surfaced.
In every section, Van Man illustrates each story with his sound effects. Originally he also chose the winner of each section; now it is done by a topical "guest announcer" (impersonated). After the three finalists are chosen, the audience take their electronic keypads (also fictional) and vote for the winner of "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis". The prize changes from week to week, depending on the theme of the show.
The series has had several New Year specials, entitled It's Been A Bad Year, awarding (as it was put in one episode) "The Worst New Year of the New Year Award, Awarded New Yearly, on a First Week-by-First Week Basis". Further, the last show of the current year has a different award, "The Worst Week of the Year Award, Awarded Yearly on a Year-By-Year Basis"
[edit] Series
[edit] First series
- 11 February 1999
- 18 February 1999
- 25 February 1999
- 4 March 1999
- 11 March 1999
- 18 March 1999
[edit] Second series
- 29 July 1999
- 5 August 1999
- 12 August 1999
- 19 August 1999
- 26 August 1999
- 4 September 1999
[edit] Third series
- 17 February 2000
- 24 February 2000
- 2 March 2000
- 9 March 2000
- 16 March 2000
- 23 March 2000
- 30 March 2000
- 6 April 2000
[edit] Fourth series
- 23 November 2000
- 30 November 2000
- 7 December 2000
- 14 December 2000
- 21 December 2000
- 28 December 2000
- 4 January 2001
- 11 January 2001
[edit] Fifth series
- 17 November 2001
- 22 November 2001
- 29 November 2001
- 6 December 2001
- 13 December 2001
- 20 December 2001
- 27 December 2001
[edit] Sixth series
- 20 June 2002
- 27 June 2002
- 4 July 2002
- 11 July 2002
- 18 July 2002
- 25 July 2002
- 1 August 2002
[edit] Seventh series
- 31 October 2002
- 7 November 2002
- 16 November 2002
- 21 November 2002
- 28 November 2002
- 5 December 2002
- 12 December 2002
- 19 December 2002
- 26 December 2002
- 2 January 2003
[edit] Eighth series
- 15 May 2003
- 22 May 2003
- 29 May 2003
- 5 June 2003
- 12 June 2003
- 19 June 2003
- 26 June 2003
- 3 July 2003
- 10 July 2003
- 17 July 2003
[edit] Ninth series
- 13 November 2003
- 22 November 2003
- 27 November 2003
- 4 December 2003
- 11 December 2003
- 18 December 2003
- 25 December 2003
- 1 January 2004
[edit] Tenth series
- 13 May 2004
- 20 May 2004
- 27 May 2004
- 3 June 2004
- 10 June 2004
- 17 June 2004
- 24 June 2004
- 31 June 2004
- 7 July 2004
[edit] Eleventh series
- 23 December 2004
- 30 December 2004
- 6 January 2005
- 13 January 2005
- 20 January 2005
- 27 January 2005
- 3 February 2005
- 10 February 2005
- 17 February 2005
[edit] Twelfth series
- 2 June 2005
- 9 June 2005
- 16 June 2005
- 23 June 2005
- 30 June 2005
- 7 July 2005 (not broadcast owing to the London Bombings)
[edit] Thirteenth series
- Autumn 2005; exact dates not known
[edit] Fourteenth series
- 18 May 2006
- 25 May 2006
- 1 June 2006
- 8 June 2006
- 15 June 2006
- 22 June 2006
[edit] Notable nominations
The following are notable nominations for "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis":
[edit] Winners
- An American armed robber who robbed a bank disguised as Tigger from “Winnie the Pooh.”
- An Uruguayan bass trombonist who was wanted to make his trombone sound louder by placing a firecracker in it.
- A Scot who robbed a tobacconist by asking for a pack of cigarettes, gave the cashier a £10 note, then demanded all the money in the till. He stole only £4.80, forgot to pick up his £10 note and the cigarettes, and thus lost £5.20.
- The Orgasmatron – A device that allows women who find it hard to have an orgasm to have one with a flick of a switch.
- A German Vicar who ordered a Christmas video to be copied for his flock, and instead got back several pornographic videos.
- A Latvian who was the drunkest man in the world. He had a blood-alcohol so high, he should have been dead.
- Some armed robbers from Finland who robbed a bank whilst they where drunk. A member of staff asked them if they would, “Like to take an interest free loan instead,” and were asked to come back in an hour, by which time the police had arrived.
- Tony Blair, after he had been attacked by Fathers 4 Justice campaigners using condoms filled with purple flour.
- A Californian traffic eye pilot who ran out of petrol in his helicopter, and was forced to land on the road causing a traffic-jam.
- A scientist who discovered that British ducks have regional accents (This is the only winner to receive their Bad Week prize, which was some bread, plum sauce and little slice of cucumber to feed to the ducks.)
- A pole dancer who had an allergy to the nickel in her pole and thus came out in a rash every time she performed.
- A woman who was operated on by a drunken dentist.
- A roofer from Saxony, Germany who tried to destroy a hive of wasps with his blow-torch, but the wasps flew back into their nest and burned the house down.
- The American Armed Forces, who once planned to make a bomb that would make the opposing army gay and thus stop them fighting.
- A Chinese tattoo artist living in America who was so fed up by giving people Chinese inscriptions, despite the fact the customers could not read Chinese, he instead tattooed rude insulting messages in Chinese, such as, “Small Penis.”
- The town of Cumbernauld near Glasgow. The Channel 4 television program Demolition allowed people to vote for the building they wanted demolished more than any other. The people of Cumbernauld where so fed up of their town, they asked for their entire town centre to be demolished.
- Tony Blackburn, when his radio station banned him from playing Cliff Richard songs.
- A Norwegian woman who lived above a bar discovered a plumber had accidentally connected the pipes wrong, so she ended up with beer coming out of her kitchen sink. It was a bad week because they fixed the problem.
- A Croatian barman who has invented a cocktail that is made by jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet.
- An American who put petrol in his washing machine, which caused it to explode and blow him across the room.
- A plane flight from Cape Town, South Africa to the UK was held up do a terror threat. The threat was a six-year-old girl from Plymouth, armed with a Bugs Bunny shaped water pistol filled with sweets. She was interrogated for an hour, despite the fact she brought the water pistol from the airport gift shop.
[edit] Other candidates
- Donald Rumsfeld, after his famous, “Known Knowns,” speech.
- A member of the Ku Klux Klan who washed a red shirt with his white robes, and thus his robes turned pink. He wore them to his next KKK rally and was sent away for, “Looking too gay.”
- Gordon Brown, after it was discovered that his next-door neighbour Tony Blair was a fan of The Darkness.
- A nine-day old baby from Germany whose parents took him to an AC/DC concert.
- An American politician who was on Air Force One, and got his tongue stuck on an ice lolly in front of George W. Bush.
- A New Yorker who dropped his mobile phone down the toilet. He tied to grab it out but he got his arm stuck.
- Austrian retail workers who where so sick of listening to rubbish Christmas songs that they threatened to stop working if they did not stop.
- Dutch pensioners. A recent government plan was formed to allow care homes to have rooms where Dutch OAP’s could go and have sex.
- American hurricane haters, who thought the best way to stop hurricanes would be to attack them with nuclear bombs.
- A German man who was caught on his mobile phone whilst driving. The person who was calling him was his cousin was telling him of a police trap that was set up to detect drivers talking into their mobile phones.
- A Romanian priest who was having his church restored kept having stuff stolen from the site. He decided to stop it by putting up a sign that read, “Those who steal from here will be cursed.” The signs worked.
- Japanese scientists, who calculated the world’s best chat-up line to be, “This time next year, we’ll be laughing together.”
- Children in an American church. A man dressed as the Easter Bunny was brought to the front of the church, was attacked, had his eggs chucked on the ground by the priest and congregation, and said to the children, “There is no Easter Bunny.”
- A man from Belarus who went to a portable toilet, which was stolen with him inside it.
- A man from Bristol was almost arrested after he sent a text message to the wrong person that mentioned something about the price of, “A jet-liner and ten prisoners.” The man was let off after it was discovered that they were the lyrics to, "Tommy Gun", by The Clash. He was from a Clash tribute band, and was sending the lyrics to a fellow band member who had trouble remembering them.
- A man who contacted the fire service after he thought he saw a horse that was stuck in the mud. It turned out just to be an elderly Shetland pony.
- The rock band British Sea Power, after one of their band members, Hamilton, climbed up a tree and sawed the branch he was holding onto.
- El Grande, the largest tree in Australia, which was accidentally burned down by the wildlife staff.
- Norwegian shoppers, at a time when there was a dramatic shortage of toilet paper. A Danish radio station helped out by asking its listeners to send in their toilet paper to be shipped to Norway.
- A man from America who had just been married offered his wedding reception all a gift, which was taped to the bottom of everyone’s chairs in envelopes. It was a photo of his new bride having sex with the best man, taken by a private detective after the groom suspected they were having an affair.
- A 102-year-old Italian woman who fell out of a 4-storey window, and landed on a bouncy castle with only minor injuries.
- A restaurant in Vienna had a fire, the staff rang the alarm and all got out safely. However they forgot one thing: all the customers.
- An American electrician's wife. The electrician discovered his wife was having an affair. Then he hit a deer and wrote his car off. Then his dog was put down. Then he had to pay-out a large amount of money to pay for his divorce. Almost broke, he spent his last cash on a lottery ticket, and he won, two days after his divorce went through, meaning his cheating wife did not get a cent.
- Cliff Richard's being discovered to be the best way of getting people out of pubs.
- The band Coldplay, for being beaten to the No. 1 spot on the UK charts by the Crazy Frog
- A school brass band from the USA who were banned from performing the song Louie Louie because of the (alleged) obscene lyrics, despite the fact that this band only did instrumentals.
- The wife of an Indian man who, after an argument, ran off and climbed a tree. The argument happened in 1956 and he's been there ever since, thus making it about 2,600 bad weeks for the wife.
- Theatre-goers on Broadway, after having to go through a live acted-out commercial before the play begins
- A man who sued the city of Lodi, California because the dump truck that he drove backed into his own car.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Buy tickets to see the show at lostintv.com
- Celador (the broadcaster)
- Episode guide at epguides.com
