Bruiser (TV series)

Bruiser was a TV comedy sketch show produced for BBC Choice. It premiered on 28 February 2000 and ran for six episodes ending on 15 March 2000. The main writers were David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Additional writers included Richard Ayoade and Ricky Gervais.

Cast members were Olivia Colman, David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Martin Freeman, Matthew Holness and Charlotte Hudson.

Recurring sketches

• TV executive producing programmes for Alan Titchmarsh (Mitchell with Colman and Webb)
• "Outdoor Wee" in which an interviewer (Holness) conducts his interview over an 'outdoor wee'
• Hapless, paranoid man (Freeman) who over-analyses the situations he has stumbled into in his head, and begins to worry that said situations appear to make him look like a pervert, stalker or paedophile, and then shouts out loud that he isn't, to the bewilderment of people around him.
• All Pile On Man (Holness) in which an overweight man seizes any opportunity to launch himself and a group of others onto an unsuspecting victim
• James Bond spoof in which inventor Mitchell shows his new "weapon" (actually an ordinary pen, watch, etc.) to spy Freeman, but then "demonstrates" it on a dummy by punching and kicking it, not using the "weapon" at all.
• Sparky the puppet (voiced by Webb), a mischievous puppet who disrupts his human friend's (Freeman's) efforts with the bank manager, a romantic date, etc.
• Womanizing Australian sportsman (Holness) who boasts about the best places to seduce women including over a game of bowls, archery and during choir singing, calling it pussy on a stick.
• Builder (Holness) who is extremely touchy about being called touchy, and attacks the man (Freeman) who constantly calls him that.
• Married couple Gary and Samantha (Freeman and Colman) who bicker about Gary's faddish new interests in areas such as converting to Islam, stating he is gay, or constant fear of being murdered.
• Vulgar IT technician (Holness), (seen to be the precursor to Simon in the sitcom The Office, also played by Holness), who calls everything a wank.
• American TV anchorperson Sasha Solomon (Colman) who offends actors and actresses and mispronounces Worcestershire, pronouncing it Woort-cesta-shy-a.
• Hollywood celebrity interviewer (Mitchell), who makes irrelevant opinionated remarks and constantly fears offending interviewees.
• Cautiously exploitative friend/coworker (Webb)
• Group of French artists, who carry puppets and remark about dead artists. The sketch is a parody of French new wave films.
• Poison-seeking husband (Webb) who barges into different businesses and asks incriminating questions, but then upon questioning proclaims his innocence. In one episode he goes to a poison store, and asks a man who behaves just like him for a lilo.
• Female friends (Colman and Hudson) discussing sexual habits, finishing each other's sentences until Colman says something that goes one step beyond.
• Man (Freeman) who accidentally injures himself whilst showing off to attractive women.
• Inconvenient office pranks including giving someone a wedgie
• Frustrated, angry and sarcastic plumber/paramedic/farmer/burglar/etc. (Mitchell), who says he's had a bad day.
• An irate Satan (Webb) on the phone taking wrong numbers, as people call 666 asking for Steve, instead of 669.
• Bass Guitar Player (Holness) who gets none of the attention lavished on his fellow band members, e.g. while other members make out, he does a code breaker.
• BBC schools revision programme presenters (Webb and Hudson) giving banal A-Level revision lessons on subjects such as Geography, Philosophy and General Studies, giving useless facts and wrong translations, e.g. "Eureka! Which is philosophy for 'hiya!"
• I Love Ballet Man (Freeman) who tries to convince his friends he loves pursuits which he clearly does not, such as Jazz.
• Time-Team type Archaeologist (Freeman) on an archaeological dig whose enthusiasm far outstrips his knowledge.

Series writing credits

• Bash Doran
• Richard Parker
• James Bachman
• Jason Doll-Steinberg
• Ricky Gervais
• Daniel Lander
• David Mitchell
• David Tomlinson
• Robert Webb
• Russell Young

DVD release

The series was released on DVD on 23 July 2007

External links

• Bruiser at BBC Programmes
• BBC Bruiser guide