| Never Mind the Buzzcocks | |
|---|---|
Never Mind the Buzzcocks title card (Series 25-present) |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Format | Panel game |
| Presented by | Mark Lamarr (Series 1–17) Simon Amstell (Series 19–22) Guest presenters (Series 18, 23–present) |
| Starring | Phill Jupitus (Series 1–present) Sean Hughes (Series 1–10) Bill Bailey (Series 11–21) Noel Fielding (Series 21, 23–present) Guest captains (Series 22) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 25 |
| No. of episodes | 239 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Peter Fincham (1996–2003) Jim Pullin |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC Two |
| Original run | 12 November 1996 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding (from 2009) as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two. The title plays on the names of punk rock band Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks album, and the pop punk band Buzzcocks.
The show is noted and known for its dry, sarcastic humour and scathing, provocative attacks on the music industry. It has also had some controversial guests throughout its 15-year run.
Contents |
The show has been running since 1996. From its inception until December 2005, it was presented by Mark Lamarr (who also produced the show, from 2004 through to his departure). Simon Amstell started hosting in October 2006. Regular team captains include Phill Jupitus, Sean Hughes (until May 2002), Bill Bailey (September 2002 – February 2008), Noel Fielding, and also the guest captains (October 2008 – January 2009). Bill Bailey had appeared as a guest in series 4 on Phill Jupitus's team and series 5 on Sean Hughes's team.
At the end of 2005, it was announced that Mark Lamarr was to take a break from the show after 150 episodes, to concentrate on other projects. The series that aired in spring 2006 was hosted by guest presenters, before being permanently handed over to Simon Amstell, who had appeared twice as a panellist (series 13, episode 8 and series 16, episode 11), and once as a guest presenter (series 18, episode 2). The first time Amstell appeared as a panellist under Lamarr's tenure, coincidentally, Lamarr jokingly accused him of "stealing his act".
Following series 20 (Amstell's second as regular host), a highlights show was broadcast, presented by Alan Yentob as a parody of his own arts series Imagine. The highlights programme was sub-titled Imagine… A Mildly Amusing Panel Show.
Series 20 of Never Mind the Buzzcocks concluded on 7 March 2007. The show began its 21st series on 15 November 2007[1] with Simon Amstell as host and Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey as team captains, although Noel Fielding temporarily replaced Bill Bailey for three episodes of series 21.[2] Series 21 concluded on 14 February 2008.
On 18 September 2008 the BBC announced that Bill Bailey would be leaving the series to concentrate on other commitments after 11 series on the show. While Simon Amstell and Phill Jupitus returned for the show's 22nd series, Bailey was replaced by a series of guest captains, including comedians Bob Mortimer, Jack Dee, Frank Skinner, Stephen Fry, James Corden, Mark Watson, Russell Brand, producer Mark Ronson, and television presenters Dermot O'Leary and Davina McCall.
On 25 April 2009, host Simon Amstell announced via his internet mailing list that he would not be hosting another series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks because of his desire to concentrate on his live tours and performances instead.[3] The new series began October 1 with Noel Fielding as a new permanent captain. Guest hosts included Alex James, Dermot O'Leary, Jack Whitehall, Rhod Gilbert, David Walliams, Claudia Winkleman, Frank Skinner, Frankie Boyle, James Corden, Mark Watson, Martin Freeman and David Tennant.[4] Phill Jupitus is the only performer to have appeared in every 'standard' episode of NMTB since its inception although did not feature in the special episode filmed as part of Comic Relief's 24 Hour Panel People, and missed the recording of the episode aired November 7th 2011. On that occasion, Frankie Boyle filled in as team captain.
In 2010 guest hosts continued to present the show's 24th series, including Mark Ronson, Jack Dee, Josh Groban, Terry Wogan, Tim Minchin, Robert Webb, Tim Westwood, Catherine Tate, Frankie Boyle(hosting for the second time), and David O'Doherty, who also hosted a compilation show transmitted on 11 January 2011.[5] On 16 July 2011, the first ever live Never Mind the Buzzcocks special was hosted at Latitude. It lasted roughly two hours, was hosted by David O'Doherty, had the team captains Phil Jupitus and Noel Fielding, and featured guests Seann Walsh, Charlie Baker, Paloma Faith, and Seasick Steve (who was supposed to be there but never arrived so Robert Milton stood in for him).
The show usually consists of four rounds. The first round has changed multiple times over the course of the show. It now usually consists of the teams being asked a question concerning a unique fact about a musical artist or artists, such as "Why did Girls Aloud once have to cancel a show?" or "What have we pixelated in this still from a music video?" Sometimes the teams are given options to pick from and other times they have no help. Alternatively, the first round is 'Connections' in which the teams are asked to identify the connection between two bands or artists.
The second round is the Intros Round, wherein two members of a team are asked to convey the introduction of a song a cappella (but using vocal sounds for instruments rather than words) for their fellow team mate to guess. During the Christmas specials, the teams are often given instruments with which to play, though they are usually inappropriate or toy instruments.
The third round is usually the Identity Parade, though this has occasionally been replaced by a few other alternative rounds. The audience is shown a video of a usually old musician, and the teams have to pick the correct person from a line-up of five people. The audience and people at home are the only ones to see the video, making it harder for the contestants.
The final round is called 'Next Lines', in which the host will speak a line of a song and the team must name the next line of the song. Often the songs chosen will be ones mentioned in earlier rounds and ones recorded by panel members. In the latter case, guests often prove incapable of reciting the lyrics to their own songs; for example, Romeo Stodart of The Magic Numbers failed entirely to recognise a line from a song which he joked was "like the B-side from our first single".
For the Christmas Eve 2006 Bumper Edition, the Next Lines round was omitted in order that the teams, plus a guest band and members of that show's Identity Parade, performed a particular song (chosen, in a short skit, by a dreidel). Phill's team, with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, performed Rachel Stevens' "Some Girls", and Bill's, with the Bollywood Pandits (a Bollywood Bhangra band), performed the Rednex's "Cotton Eye Joe".
In the first series of 2005, Mark Lamarr introduced a new segment after the end of the quiz proper, wherein Lamarr tells the audience out-of-context punchlines which weren't used during the show. Often these have included incongruous references to fingerless gloves.
In most of the episodes in the Spring 2006 series, there was an intro or outro sketch where Phill, Bill and Athelston Williams (a frequent member of the lineup in the Identity Parade round) played in a pub band called "Fat, Gifted and Black" (a play on Young, Gifted and Black), or "Athelston, Lake and Palmer" (a play on Emerson, Lake & Palmer). The guest presenter would usually be the lead singer for this segment (e. g. Lauren Laverne and Ricky Wilson).
| Role | Series | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | 11–17 | 18 | 19–21 | 22 | 23–present | |
| Presenter | Mark Lamarr | Guests | Simon Amstell | Guests | ||
| Team captains | Phill Jupitus | |||||
| Sean Hughes | Bill Bailey | Guests | Noel Fielding | |||
Until series 18, Never Mind the Buzzcocks was chaired by Mark Lamarr. Until series 10, the team captains were Phill Jupitus and Sean Hughes. After series 10, Hughes departed and was replaced by Bill Bailey. Lamarr left after series 17, and series 18 was chaired by a series of guest hosts. One of these, satirical comedian and former Popworld presenter Simon Amstell, took over as presenter from series 19 to series 22. Amstell sent an email to his fans on 24 April 2009, stating "I am Simon Amstell. Here is some news, should you be interested in this sort of thing. I will not be hosting another series of the fun pop quiz, ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’. When I first took on the role of hosting ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’, my only hope was to bring joy and laughter to the world and if I was lucky, put an end to war, disease and poverty. Now that I have achieved that, I plan to concentrate on my live work. " Series 23 was chaired by a series of guest hosts which continued for Series 24 because "none of the guest hosts were good enough" according to the comedic voice over on the first episode of Series 24.
At the beginning of series 21, Bill Bailey was unable to attend filming, so Noel Fielding provided cover for three episodes starting 22 November 2007.[6] Bill Bailey officially left the show after series 21 to pursue other commitments.[7] His role as team captain was filled by several 'guest captains' for series 22 and permanently filled by Noel Fielding from series 23 onward.
There have been some instances of guests walking off the show, or episodes being pulled from broadcast due to guest behaviour:
In 1999, BBC Worldwide published Never Mind the Buzzcocks: The Book, the CD, the Brief Intense Rush (followed by a feeling of paranoia and insecurity). The book includes famous moments from the first five series of the show, from selected Identity Parades, I Fought the Law, Word Up and Connections rounds, along with collections of Mark Lamarr's one-liners from the show. The book also features new material, including comic strips (one explaining the origin of The Human League frontman Philip Oakey's hairstyle) and "Great Moments in Rock History", in which photos of famous musical moments are altered to imply that line-up regular Athelston Williams was present. The CD features several Intros rounds from the show, in the format of a game to play at home.
In 2000, Paul Lamond Games released the Never Mind the Buzzcocks board game, licensed from the BBC and Talkback. The board game is played as follows: the players arrange themselves into two teams. They have two counters each on the board—one as a point marker along the edge of the board and the other to select the round they have to play on the roll of a dice. There are six rounds that can be played:
The teams earn the number of points given for the round on the card. For "In the Style of…", it is always one point for the song, and two points for the artist they are doing the song in the style of. At the end of their turn, the team moves their counter on the outer ring clockwise, by the number of points they scored.
The team that overtakes the other on the squares on the edge of the board wins the game.
A best of DVD including some of the unbroadcastable scenes from the Simon Amstell series' was released on the 16 November 2009. The DVD contains 3 specials including:
The DVD also includes best of clips and scenes which weren't broadcast with a compulsory commentary by Simon Amstell and Phill Jupitus.
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