15 Minute Musical

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15 Minute Musical
Genre Comedy
Running time 15 Minutes
Country Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Languages English
Home station BBC Radio 4
Starring Richie Webb
Dave Lamb
Vicki Pepperdine
Mel Hudson
Alex Lowe
Writers Richie Webb
David Quantick
Dave Cohen
Producers Katie Tyrrell
Air dates October 2004 to 
No. of series 4
No. of episodes 24
Website
Radio 4

15 Minute Musical is a comedy series on BBC Radio 4 written by Richie Webb, David Quantick and Dave Cohen. Each episode is in a different musical style with a story featuring current celebrities and politicians.

Contents

[edit] Episodes

The first series aired from October 2004 and featured the following episodes:

  1. Brothers In Arms - A rock musical about Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the 1994 Labour Party leadership race
  2. Jeffrey! - A Gilbert and Sullivan style operetta portraying the rise and fall of Jeffrey Archer
  3. BollyWindsor - A Bollywood romp starring the Royal Family
  4. Calamity Dave - An Oklahoma! pastiche about the life of David Beckham
  5. Horror Tory - Michael Howard and Ann Widdecombe plot their next move in Rocky Horror style
  6. The Elton Story - Ben Elton sells his soul in an Andrew Lloyd Webber twee-fest

The second series aired from December 2005, featuring:

  1. Blunketto - An Italian opera charting life of David Blunkett
  2. Simon Smug and The Crap Factory - Simon Cowell and his fellow judges come a cropper in a Roald Dahl musical scenario
  3. George W Formby Does It Again - George W. Bush tries to save the world armed with his ukulele
  4. Food! - Celebrity chefs enrol in Delia Smith's Fame Academy
  5. Nice Hair - A Sixties love-in with Robert Kilroy-Silk
  6. My Foul-Mouthed Lady - Madonna and Guy Ritchie try to change themselves into something they're not

The third series aired from August 2006, featuring:

  1. Manager Mia - A tribute to former England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and the songs of ABBA
  2. S.S. Metaphor - Kate Moss and Pete Doherty star in an unbreakable love affair on an unsinkable ship
  3. Oh! What a Lovely Blair - Field Marshal Corporal Lieutenant General Tony Blair in the trenches
  4. The Court of King Michael of Parkinson - Who will take Michael Parkinson's prog rock chat show throne?
  5. The Blue Brothers - Dave 'Cocaine' Cameron and Boris 'Bonkers' Johnson are on a mission – to save the Conservative Party orphange
  6. The Three Smugateers - Chris Martagnan and friends make the world safe for his p'tit bébé, Pomme

The fourth series aired from September 2007, featuring:

  1. Westminster Side Story - Gordon Brown and David Cameron are the two gang leaders with nothing to fight about.
  2. Life on Noel - Noel Edmonds wakes up in 2007 and is desperate to return to 1973.
  3. How Do You Stop a Woman Like Camilla? - Camilla Parker Bowles leaves the convent to help look after Charles Von Windsor's huge family of two boys.
  4. When You Wish upon a Car - A tornado dumps Jeremy Clarkson under the rainbow in the Land of Oz.
  5. The Princess and the Frog Chorus - A fairytale about young princess Heather (Mills) and not-so-young prince Paul (McCartney).
  6. Around the World in 15 Minutes - in which Tony Phileas Blair takes a bet from Gordon Brown.

[edit] Notes

Richie Webb and Vicki Pepperdine also performed a one-minute musical on 28 Acts in 28 Minutes on Radio 4.

And a 30 minute spoof documentary featuring Mark Lawson interviewing the non-existent composer Sir Richard Von Webber (played by Richie Webb) about his life's work, aired in December 2006 on Radio 4. The show managed to include an excerpt from all eighteen musicals to date.

A fifth series is scheduled for broadcast in Autumn 2008.

The fourth series is available on CD.

[edit] Production team

  • Starring Richie Webb, Dave Lamb, Vicki Pepperdine, Mel Hudson, Alex Lowe
  • Written by Richie Webb, David Quantick, Dave Cohen
  • Music composed, performed and arranged by Richie Webb
  • Music production by Matt Katz
  • Produced by Katie Tyrrell

[edit] External links