''Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish'' is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

comedy television show that ran for five series between 2013 and 2017. It was broadcast on

Dave Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

and presented by

Dave Gorman David James Gorman (born 2 March 1971) is an English comedian, presenter, and writer. Gorman began his career writing for comedy series such as ''The Mrs Merton Show'' (1993–1998) and ''The Fast Show'' (1994–1997), and later garnered ac ...

. The series mainly consisted of Gorman presenting comedic

PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...

presentations in which he attempts to argue that modern life is neither bad or good, but "good...

ish Ish may refer to: *Ish (name) also ancient Hebrew word for Man at Genesis 2:23, also Ish-shah for Woman *Chazon Ish, sobriquet of Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz *the Sanskrit for "lord", see Ishvara * ''...ish'' (audio drama), Doctor Who audio d ...

". The series began on 17 September 2013. A fifth series began airing on 31 October 2017. Gorman announced on 18 December 2017 that the show would conclude after the final episode of series 5 aired the following night.

Format

Each episode sees Gorman present a stand-up show using PowerPoint, on a particular theme about modern life. Examples include celebrity culture and social media. Each episode features a recurring section called the "Found Poem", in which Gorman reads out a selection of bizarre comments left on news websites, all covering a particular story. Gorman performs the Found Poem with a lone spotlight shining on him, while accompanied by the Billroth String Quartet (Billroth Ensemble from Series 4) playing 'Sarabande' from

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

Keyboard suite in D minor (HWV 437) The Keyboard suite in D minor (437) was composed by George Frideric Handel, for solo keyboard (harpsichord), between 1703 and 1706. It is also referred to as '' Vol. 2 No. 4''. It was first published in 1733. Movements The work consists of five mo ...

. The title of each episode comes from a line out of the Found Poem.

Production

The programmes were recorded at the

Tabernacle, Notting Hill The Tabernacle is a Grade II-listed building in Powis Square, Notting Hill, west London, England, built in 1887 as a church. The building boasts a curved Romanesque façade of red brick and terracotta, and towers with broach spires on either s ...

. The episodes were recorded in pairs. Prior to the final recordings, Gorman did "dry run" performances of each episode's content in small theatres. Gorman frequently rewrote portions of the performance after the dry runs. The show was labour-intensive to create; in the final three weeks before taping a pair of episodes, Gorman would work for over 100 hours a week. The heavy workload was one of the contributing factors to the decision to end the show in 2017. Another factor was Gorman's decision to tour in 2018. The show's title is similar to that of the 1993 Blur album ''

Modern Life Is Rubbish ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' is the second album by English alternative rock band Blur, released in May 1993. Although their debut album ''Leisure'' (1991) had been commercially successful, Blur faced a severe media backlash soon after its releas ...

''. When asked if the title was an intentional reference, Gorman said 'I think it's a Blur reference if you want it to be. The "rubbish" version, I think, comes to mind anyway. I just like that'.

Series overview

Episodes

Series 1 (2013)

Series 2 (2014)

Series 3 (2015)

Goodish Hits (2016)

Series 4 (2016)

Series 4 of ''Modern Life Is Goodish'' was confirmed on 7 August 2015. The series contained only 6 episodes because Gorman took a break to look after his expected baby. The show began airing on Dave on 8 November 2016.

Series 5 (2017)

Series 5 of ''Modern Life Is Goodish'' was also confirmed on 7 August 2015; the series contained 8 episodes. It was confirmed on 18 December 2017, by Gorman, that there would be no sixth series.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Dave original programming 2010s British comedy television series 2010s British satirical television series 2013 British television series debuts 2017 British television series endings British satirical television series British stand-up comedy television series Dave (TV channel) original programming English-language television shows