Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Television Review |
| Creator(s) | Charlie Brooker |
| Starring | Charlie Brooker |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of episodes | 15 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30-50 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC Four |
| Original run | 2 March 2006 – |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe is a humorous British television review programme broadcast on BBC Four by Charlie Brooker. It is similar in tone to Brooker's Screen Burn column which he writes in The Guardian newspaper’s weekly Saturday listings magazine, The Guide. The programme contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and commentary on how television is produced. Brooker's style is funny and caustic, though he is none the less sincere in his comments.
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[edit] Series Run
The first three-part series was broadcast on BBC Four from Thursday 2 March 2006 to Thursday 16 March 2006. The second series ran for 5 episodes from Thursday 20 July 2006 and included a special on US television. A Christmas special was broadcast on 21 December 2006 and a review of the year 2006 was broadcast on 31 December 2006. A third series ran from Monday 5 February 2007 to Monday 26 February 2007. A fourth series 'with a larger budget' (according to a voiceover at the end of the final episode from the third series) has not been commissioned yet, according to Brooker's blog.
[edit] Format
Screenwipe is a television programme about television programmes; the cost, the surprising amount of work and bureaucracy involved, how programmes are selected for broadcast, and, usually scathing, analysis of specific programmes and genres. Brooker often pays particular attention to more obscure channels on satellite, freeview and cable, such as those dedicated to gambling, shopping, horoscopes, and pornography.
He explores the probable effects of television in society, and how often programmes can create in the viewer feelings of inadequacy, depression, fear, and anxiety. To balance things, usually one segment of each show is dedicated to positive reviews, with analysis on why the style and content is so absorbing.
[edit] Humour
The humour of the show is usually based in sarcasm and cutting remarks, in a similar style to Harry Hill's TV Burp or The Soup. Screenwipe can be characterised as being intellectually harsher, however, with Brooker often making over-the-top - and slightly unbalanced - moral comparisons between the seeming attitude of certain programmes, and the logical conclusions of that attitude if it were turned towards real life.
Brooker often displays archive footage of various shows, but alters the viewer's perception through near stream-of-consciousness narration and/or ironic juxtaposition with contrasting footage or sound, e.g. highlighting what he believes is the organised crime feel of Dragon's Den by running the trumpet solo from The Godfather over the original dialogue. He has also been known to make jokes at the expense of his own show and himself, in particular making light of his supposed resemblance to Laurence Fishburne, and in the third episode of the third series he claimed he had "a face like a paedophile walrus".
[edit] Unsarcastic/Complimentary
Despite his derogatory and insulting remarks aimed at many television shows, people and near enough everything and everyone, Brooker does show his happier side and has spoken of his like for notable US drama series such as Deadwood; The Wire; and the most recent version of Battlestar Galactica; as well as the current series of Doctor Who; and older British programmes such as Jacob Bronowski's documentary The Ascent of Man. Brooker singles out Bronowski for praise regarding his style of presentation.
[edit] Animations
The show is also notable for using animations produced by internet animator David Firth. To date the show has used five of Firth's original creations. The 2006 Christmas Special featured a special appearance from Firth's deranged alter-ego, Jerry Jackson, whose cartoon appeared substituting for an animation that Firth had created beforehand. This original animation was rejected by the BBC on the grounds that it was far too offensive to be broadcast on TV. Firth recently announced on his website that the BBC had asked him to produce an animation for each episode of the third series of Screenwipe. Three were shown but the fourth, a Jerry Jackson cartoon, was once again rejected by the BBC. Firth stated in a post on Fat-Pie.com that "Jerry's [cartoon] was about Political Correctness on TV and contained a certain degree of sarcasm, yet sarcasm the TV company didn't see the funny side of, and they refused to use it".
