''Bremner, Bird and Fortune'' is a

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

British

television programme A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...

produced by Vera Productions for

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...

, uniting the longstanding satirical team of John Bird and

John Fortune John Fortune (born John C. Wood; 30 June 1939 – 31 December 2013) was an English satirist, comedian, writer, and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series ''Bremner, Bird and Fortune''. Early life Fortu ...

("the Two Johns") with the satirical impressionist

Rory Bremner Roderick Keith Ogilvy "Rory" Bremner,"Rory Bremner". '' Who Do You Think You Are?''. Wall to Wall for BBC One. 2 February 2009. No. 1, series 6. (born 6 April 1961) is a Scottish impressionist and comedian, noted for his work in political sati ...

. It had 16 series, followed by several one-off episodes.

History

''Now Something Else''

Rory Bremner's first television series started in 1986 on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

, which ran for seven series. The BBC gave him his own television series after successful shows at the Edinburgh festival. The series also had input from Jeremy Hardy, Steve Nallon, Steve Brown and Enn Reitel. In 1989 John Bird started to collaborate on the show with John Fortune following in 1991. From the fourth series it was renamed ''The Rory Bremner Show''.

''Rory Bremner, Who Else?''

In 1993 the series moved to Channel 4, and over the six series the show developed into a more hard-edged, satirical and political show whilst satirical sketches of ''

The Jerry Springer Show ''Jerry Springer'' is an American scripted syndicated tabloid talk show that aired from September 30, 1991 to July 26, 2018. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Jerry Springer, it aired for 27 seasons and nearly 5,000 episodes. The television ...

'',

Ainsley Harriott Ainsley Denzil Dubriel Harriott (born 28 February 1957) is an English chef and television presenter. He is known for his BBC cooking game shows '' Can't Cook, Won't Cook'' and '' Ready Steady Cook''. Early life Harriott was born in Paddin ...

and sporting personnel were reduced.

''Bremner, Bird and Fortune''

By 1999 all non-political sketches were dropped from the show and series was refocused purely on political satire, with a name change. In 2002 three members of the show's production team, Geoff Atkinson, Steve Connelly and Tristam Shapeero, were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Programme or Series. Bird and Fortune were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance in 2001 and Best Comedy Performance in 2002. They did not win, however. In 2003 the episode "At Her Majesty's Pleasure" won a

Broadcasting Press Guild Award The Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) is a British association of journalists dedicated to the topic of general media issues. History The Guild was established in 1974 as a breakaway of The Critics' Circle. Currently it groups over 100 staff and fr ...

for Best Entertainment. In October 2004, the show's stars published a book based on the show, called ''You Are Here: A Dossier'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 288 pages, , also available as a paperback from Orion mass market paperback, ). In 2004 Rory Bremner was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance. In November 2008 a four-part miniseries was produced called ''Silly Money''. The trio looked at the economic downturn, with fewer of the usual sketches and co-stars. The episodes contained many more George Parr sketches than usual. They also included a number of archive clips to further illustrate points and create satire from them based on hindsight. The last full series was broadcast in late 2008. Two further series, both having three episodes, focussed more on specific issues. ''The Last Show Before The Recovery'', started on 7 June 2009 and looked at the banking crisis and ''The Daily Wind-Up'', aired from 2–4 May 2010, and focused on the

2010 United Kingdom general election The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom unde ...

.''Bremner, Bird and Fortune: The Daily Wind-Up'' Channel 4 site

Regular features

For most of its run, the show was almost entirely political, but in the later series different genres of sketches were introduced. The programme featured regular stand-up impressionism sections by Bremner. Another feature was interviews between Bird and Fortune, one of them normally as George Parr, a man in a government position or a businessman, who ended up exposing the idiocies of his area of expertise. There were also heavily researched, bitingly satirical three-handed historical narratives; the dinner party sketches, featuring Bird, Fortune,

Pauline McLynn Pauline McLynn (born 11 July 1962) is an Irish character actress and author. She is best known for her roles as Mrs Doyle in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Father Ted'', Libby Croker in the Channel 4 comedy drama '' Shameless'', Tip Haddem in the BBC ...

and

Frances Barber Frances Barber (née Brookes, born 13 May 1958) is an English actress. She received Olivier Award nominations for her work in the plays '' Camille'' (1985), and ''Uncle Vanya'' (1997). Her film appearances include three collaborations with Gar ...

; and other small sketches. Each episode ended with a (usually political) musical number.

Episodes

Now Something Else

*Series 1: 5 Episodes (3 March - 7 April 1986) *Series 2: 5 Episodes (3 April - 8 May 1987) *Series 3: 6 Episodes (5 May - 2 June 1988) From this point onwards renamed Rory Bremner Show *Series 4: 6 Episodes (31 March - 5 May 1989) *Series 5: 6 Episodes (20 May - 25 June 1990) *Series 6: 6 Episodes (15 March - 19 April 1991) *Series 7: 6 Episodes (8 May - 12 June 1992)

Rory Bremner, Who Else?

*Series 1: 9 Episodes (9 October - 4 December 1993) *Series 2: 10 Episodes (8 October - 10 December 1994) *Series 3: 8 Episodes (7 October 1995) - (25 November 1995) *Series 4: 8 Episodes (5 April 1996) - (24 May 1996) *Series 5: 10 Episodes 27 September 1996) - (29 November 1996) *Series 6: 7 Episodes (24 October 1997) (12 December 1997) *Series 7: 8 Episodes (11 October 1998) - (6 December 1998) 60 episodes in total.

Bremner, Bird and Fortune

A near full list of most episodes can be viewed on the BFI website: https://web.archive.org/web/20140101142653/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/32481

References

External links

* *
YouTube - Bremner Bird, and Fortune's Clips
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