15 Minute Musical
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. The show won the 2009 Writers' Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy.[1]
Episodes
The first series aired from October 2004 and featured the following episodes:
- Brothers In Arms — A rock musical about Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the 1994 Labour Party leadership race
- Jeffrey! — A Gilbert and Sullivan style operetta portraying the rise and fall of Jeffrey Archer
- BollyWindsor — A Bollywood romp starring the Royal Family
- Calamity Dave — An Oklahoma! pastiche about the life of David Beckham
- Horror Tory — Michael Howard and Ann Widdecombe plot their next move in Rocky Horror style
- The Elton Story — Ben Elton sells his soul in an Andrew Lloyd Webber twee-fest
The second series aired from December 2005, featuring:
- Blunketto — An Italian opera charting life of David Blunkett
- Simon Smug and The Crap Factory — Simon Cowell and his fellow judges come a cropper in a Roald Dahl musical scenario
- George W Formby Does It Again — George W. Bush tries to save the world armed with his ukulele
- Food! — Celebrity chefs enrol in Delia Smith's Fame Academy
- Nice Hair — A Sixties love-in with Robert Kilroy-Silk
- 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:
- Manager Mia — A tribute to former England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and the songs of ABBA
- S.S. Metaphor — Kate Moss and Pete Doherty star in an unbreakable love affair on an unsinkable ship
- Oh! What a Lovely Blair — Field Marshal Corporal Lieutenant General Tony Blair in the trenches
- The Court of King Michael of Parkinson — Who will take Michael Parkinson's prog rock chat show throne?
- The Blue Brothers — Dave 'Cocaine' Cameron and Boris 'Bonkers' Johnson are on a mission — to save the Conservative Party orphanage
- 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:
- Westminster Side Story — Gordon Brown and David Cameron are the two gang leaders with nothing to fight about.
- Life on Noel — Noel Edmonds wakes up in 2007 and is desperate to return to 1973.
- 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.
- When You Wish upon a Car — A tornado dumps Jeremy Clarkson under the rainbow in the Land of Oz.
- The Princess and the Frog Chorus — A fairytale about young princess Heather (Mills) and not-so-young prince Paul (McCartney).
- Around the World in 15 Minutes — in which Tony Phileas Blair takes a bet from Gordon Brown.
The fifth series aired from November 2008, featuring:
- Washington High School Musical — Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton compete to be President of Washington High.
- Ramsey Todd — Gordon Ramsay Todd finds a new ingredient that makes his pies the talk of London Town.
- We're All Going On An Olympic Odyssey — London 2012 is fast approaching and the country is relying on Boris Johnson.
- Cleggarella — Feeling unloved and unnoticed, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is granted three wishes.
- Pappa Pia — Piers Morgan discovers that his father is one of three reality show judges.
- A Christmas Gordon — Gordon Brown is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
The sixth series[2] aired in December 2010:
- Dr Bruce — Bruce Forsyth plays Doctor Who to defend his place in the Saturday night TV schedule
- The Lying King — Nick Clegg goes into coalition with the Conservatives.
- Mary Poppin-up-at-the-last-minute-to-score-the-winner — the coaching style of Fabio Capello
- Thoroughly Modern Miliband — the Labour leadership election
- Just the Two Tone of Us — about Ant and Dec.
- QuadraQueenia — about a year in the life of HM The Queen
Notes
- Richie Webb and Vicki Pepperdine also performed a one-minute musical on 28 Acts in 28 Minutes on Radio 4.
- 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.
- The third and fourth series are available on CD.
- Series 1–3 and 5 were recorded at The Drill Hall in London. Series 4 was recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre.
References
External links