Blue Jam
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Blue Jam was an ambient radio comedy programme produced by Chris Morris. It aired on BBC Radio 1 in the early hours of the morning from 1997 to 1999.
The programme gained cult status due to its unique mix of surreal monologue, music, synthesised voices, heavily edited broadcasts and recurring sketches. It featured the extreme voice talents of Kevin Eldon, Julia Davis, Mark Heap, David Cann and Amelia Bullmore. Morris himself delivered disturbing monologues, one of which was revamped and made into the BAFTA-winning short film, My Wrongs 8245 - 8249 and 117.
Writers who contributed to the programme included Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Peter Baynham, David Quantick, Jane Bussmann, Robert Katz and the cast.
Chris Morris is known for pushing the limits of what is acceptable for the media, as is illustrated by an incident surrounding the sixth episode of Blue Jam, named after the sketch which precipitated it, "Bishopslips".
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[edit] Bishopslips controversy
In a 'sketch' commencing approximately thirteen minutes into the sixth episode of Blue Jam, Morris re-edited the Archbishop of Canterbury's speech at Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral to make it appear that he was making inappropriate comments regarding AIDS and the British Royal Family. The broadcast of this episode was halted in the middle of the edited speech, which was "broadcast almost in its entirety before being faded by a transmission engineer" [1]. It is unknown who ordered this, either a BBC employee receiving complaints (before the sketch had ended?), or Chris Morris himself as a stunt. The same episode was later rebroadcast, with "Bishopslips" omitted.
[edit] Derivative shows
A first attempt at translating the series for television came with the pilot episode of Big Train in 1998. Directed by Morris, written by Linehan & Matthews and starring the Blue Jam cast (with the exception of Cann, replaced by Simon Pegg), it had much of the offbeat humour from the radio show, but without the ambient feel. When the series was commissioned it was without Morris, and as an entirely separate entity. However, Morris did make a cameo appearance in the first series, narrating a mock nature documentary in which a herd of horseracing jockeys on the Serengeti are stalked and then attacked by the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. He also directed a few sketches throughout the series, notably the Bee Gees Wild West sketch.
Blue Jam was later made for television and broadcast on Channel 4 as Jam. It utilised unusual editing techniques to achieve an unnerving ambience in keeping with the radio show, and largely repeated the radio sketches. A subsequent "re-mixed" airing, called Jaaaaam was even more extreme in its use of post-production gadgetry, often heavily distorting the footage.
In place of closing credits the show had the website address of jamcredits.com [2]
[edit] Blue Jam CD
A CD of some of the best Blue Jam sketches was released on 23 October 2000. Although the CD claims to have 22 tracks, the last one, "www.bishopslips.com," is a reference to the "Bishopslips" sketch. Most of the sketches on the CD were remade for Jam.
[edit] CD tracks
- Blue Jam Intro
- Doc Phone
- Lamacq sting
- 4ft Car
- Suicide Journalist
- Acupuncture
- Bad Sex
- Mayo Sting
- Unflustered Parents
- Moyles Sting
- TV Lizards
- Doc Cock
- Hobbs Sting
- Morton interview
- Fix It Girl
- Porn
- Kids Party
- Club News
- Whiley Sting
- Little Girl Balls
- Blue Jam Outro
- www.bishopslips.com (Not a real track)
[edit] External links
- Blue Jam Sketch Guide: details of the shows, some sound files. Note: the free hosting of this site comes at the cost of a great many invasive pop-ups.
- It Started In The Park: transcripts of every episode of the first two series of Blue Jam.
| Chris Morris |
|---|
| Radio Shows |
| No Known Cure • Chris Morris • Loose Ends • Up Yer News • The Chris Morris Christmas Show • On the Hour • Why Bother? • The Chris Morris Music Show • Blue Jam |
| Television Shows |
| The Day Today • Brass Eye • Jam/Jaaaaam • Brass Eye Special • Nathan Barley |
| Other Projects |
| Big Train • BEST BAR (NONE) • Second Class Male/Time To Go • The Smokehammer • Absolute Atrocity Special • Bushwhacked • My Wrongs 8245 - 8249 and 117 • The IT Crowd |
| Related articles |
| Charlie Brooker • Armando Iannucci • Peter Cook |
