You've Been Framed!

You've Been Framed! is a British television series where viewers can contribute to the programme with their humorous home videos for the entertainment of others. It is produced by Granada Television and comedian Harry Hill has been providing narration to the programme since 2004. The series began in 1990, and is currently in its 29th series. As of the 27th series, there have been 457 main-series episodes, excluding specials, of which there have been approximately 67.

Current format

During the show, the video clips are played and the people who sent them in receive £250. Just before the advert break, viewer-participation competitions are started, and then are concluded when the programme resumes; examples of these include the "What Happens Next?" competition where the viewers have to guess what happens after a clip is frozen is started, the "Framed Gold Records" competition, where viewers have to guess how many times something can happen before something else happens (for example, "how many people can fall over before a dog gets through a very tight space?"), or "Are You A Cry Baby? Maybe" competition, in which viewers guess if there will be tears before bedtime, is played. The answer is revealed after the break.

The video clips are normally sorted into separate categories, with examples being categories based on animals, humorous things children say, or embarrassing situations at weddings. Some of the categories let their clips play with humorous commentary from Harry Hill, whilst others have consistent musical backing, so that the clips can be seen as forming a sort of music video. Generally, the soundtrack choice is relevant to the subject of the category (for example, "What's New Pussycat?" once played over a category on cat videos). The musical categories also feature shorter clips than the commentary categories, as the latter will often feature more of what happens before and after the incident in the clip to accommodate Hill's commentary.

Episodes will typically begin with Hill announcing what is "coming up" in the retrospective episode, showing three brief clips, before seguing into the title sequence, although these openings could be considered part of the title sequence. This is a departure to episodes in the Lisa Riley era, which used to contain cold openings showing all of a clip without any voice-over.

Sometimes, special editions featuring countdown or "A-Z" lists will be produced, which mostly reuse older clips. There have been approximately 67 specials, and are especially common in the current day.

History

Title card (2010–14)

Title card (2014-2017)

The show is similar in format to a number of shows worldwide, including America's Funniest Home Videos and Australia's Funniest Home Video Show. In a deal with various foreign producers of similar shows, many imported clips are used, in exchange for home-grown videos from the UK. The Bottom sequence was not featured in the show.

The show was first commissioned as a pilot and aired on ITV on 14 April 1990 with Jeremy Beadle as the host; a second pilot was also commissioned and aired on 1 September 1990. These featured more audience participation: for example, brief interviews with people who had been featured in clips. Both pilots were a success, with a full series commissioned, which aired on 6 January 1991. The series was referenced in the closing episode of Bottom, "Carnival", in 1995 with the name Jeremy Beadle's Viciously Hilarious Violent Domestic Incidents, for which the lead characters Richie and Eddie tried to film a fake clip they would later submit for it. Ironically, a section of the show featuring fake submissions, "Named, Framed and Shamed", was a part of the show when Jonathan Wilkes was host. Another parody of the series, You've Been Filmed, featured as a short clip from the "Clip Round" in a 2009 episode of comedy panel show Shooting Stars, where the comedians from the series appeared in their own clearly faked video clips.

The format has been tweaked in recent years, and the studio set and logo changed several times. Lisa Riley took over the role as host from Beadle in 1998. While the programme was presented by Jonathan Wilkes, who replaced Riley in 2003, the studio audience voted for which clip was the best of the night at the end of the show, and the person who sent in the winning clip won £1,000. A segment was also introduced showcasing clips which had obviously been faked, called "Named, Framed and Shamed!", which ended when the studio was ditched in favour of an apartment setting later on while Jonathan Wilkes was still presenting.

This was short lived, and visual continuity was replaced with a narrator, voiced by Harry Hill, in late 2004, which meant that for the first time since the show began, there was no studio set nor on-screen personality. Hill provides humorous commentary on the clips via voice-over, which means more clips can be shown. This move has been seen by some as a cost-cutting exercise.

In the series' ninth year of transmission, ITV started another home videos series, Animals Do the Funniest Things featuring humorous clips of animals, which, although originally produced by LWT when it was first broadcast in 1999, was produced by Granada Television from 2002, therefore becoming Granada's second home video television series after You've Been Framed. Episodes of the series were broadcast sporadically, however, unlike how You've Been Framed is broadcast in separate series.

Submission of clips to You've Been Framed is free (without stampage) and in recent years, the show began accepting clips via e-mail, and more recently, the inclusion of mobile phone videos; noted on-screen by a small mobile symbol in the corner of the screen, resembling a digital on-screen graphic. Granada Reports newsreader Andrew Brittain was a regular announcer from 1991 until the end of the Lisa Riley era in 2002 when he left Granada Reports.

Nowadays in the show, Hill makes regular obtuse references to the Norfolk market town of Swaffham, in reprisal of the serious injuries he once received in a bizarre bird attack in the town. Additionally, whenever a woman vaguely resembles former host Lisa Riley, Hill refers to her as his "arch-nemesis". The latter is an example of how many of Hill's commentaries refer to people vaguely resembling celebrities as such celerities. Even if someone resembles Hill, he will himself refer to himself as the person in the clip. For a period when Hill's television series Harry Hill's TV Burp was produced, the latter show would be broadcast directly after You've Been Framed! on ITV1, and Hill would occasionally make references to the consecutive scheduling on Harry's Hill TV Burp. The latter show's official book also features a section dedicated to You've Been Framed!, where Hill refers to it as "your second favourite show on television".

Transmissions

Main series

Special episodes

Throughout its run since its debut in 1990, You've Been Framed! has featured several spin-off specials (often reusing clips from previous shows):

References

External links

• Official website
• You've Been Framed! on IMDb