''Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'' is a
British television
Regular television broadcasts in the United Kingdom started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection ...
review comedy programme created and presented by
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
and broadcast on
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 . The programme contains reviews of current shows, as well as stories and
commentary on how television is produced.
Format
''Screenwipe'' is presented by comedian
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
, who reviews other British television programmes with a caustic and humorous tone. Brooker analyses specific programmes and genres, regularly making jokes about how programmes are created. Brooker often pays particular attention to more obscure channels on satellite,
Freeview and cable, such as those dedicated to gambling, shopping, horoscopes and pornography. He explores the probable effects of television on society and the feelings programmes can create in the viewer. One segment of each show is usually dedicated to positive reviews, with analysis on why the style and content are so absorbing.
Much of the programme is filmed in Brooker's living room, with shots of him sitting in front of his TV (and laptop) with remote control in hand talking to camera, occasionally bellowing insults or sarcastic comments at whatever happens to be shown at the time, interspersed with shots of TV shows. Occasionally he will make use of props for the sake of humour, including a "
seance trumpet" to mock
Colin Fry's performance and an
oven glove
An oven glove, also commonly known as an oven mitt, is a thermal insulated glove or mitten usually worn in the kitchen to easily protect the wearer's hand from hot objects such as ovens, stoves, cookware, etc. They are functionally similar to pot ...
with a smiley face into which he claims to channel his unfulfilled emotions.
When not in the living room, Brooker presents segments on various pieces of television, different genres or peculiarities of production. Instead of actors, these sections often feature members of the ''Screenwipe'' production crew to illustrate points; for example, director Al Campbell as the half-witted satirist "Barry Shitpeas", and researcher Mike Bradley in a number of roles.
The series has spawned several spin-off shows which use a very similar format but examine different media: ''
Newswipe with Charlie Brooker'', ''
Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
''Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe'' is a special one-off British, video game culture show by Charlie Brooker, broadcast in September 2009 during the BBC's Technology season. Following on from Brooker's '' Screenwipe'' and '' Newswipe'', ''Gameswipe'' ...
'', and ''
Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe''.
Episodes
The first full series finished with an extended edition on US television billed as ''Screenwipe USA''. A Christmas special was broadcast on 21 December 2006 and a review of the year 2006 special was broadcast on 31 December 2006. A third series 'with a massively increased budget' (according to a
spoof voiceover at the end of the final episode from the second series), was revealed to have been commissioned on 9 May 2007. The third series was preceded by a mini-''Screenwipe'' on 12 May (shown on BBC Two's ''
The Culture Show''), which reviewed ''
Grease is the Word'' and ''
Any Dream Will Do''. Shortly after the third series concluded, a ''Screenwipe'' clip show was shown 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 ...
, with repeats of the series airing on the channel in the weeks following. The third series featured a number of episodes focusing on specific themes, such as television news coverage and
reality television series.
The fifth series of ''Screenwipe'' began airing on BBC Four on Tuesday 18 November 2008. The first episode dealt with (among other things)
Manuelgate and television production costs (and the effect of the credit crunch on said costs). The second was focused on the changes in television advertising throughout its history, and the third was an extended edition composed entirely of Brooker's interviews with prestigious writers such as
Russell T Davies
Stephen Russell Davies (born 27 April 1963), better known as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer whose works include ''Queer as Folk'', ''The Second Coming'', '' Casanova'', the 2005 revival of the BBC One scien ...
and
Tony Jordan
Tony Jordan (born 21 July 1957) is a British people, British television writer. He was listed as the number one television screenwriter in the United Kingdom by ''Broadcast (magazine), Broadcast'' magazine in 2008 and among British broadcastin ...
. Episode four focused on "mission shows" such as ''The Great British Body'', and featured a parody involving "pee-shyness" (
paruresis), while episode five focused on children's programming through the ages. The final episode of the season was a review of 2008. In 2009, the show didn't return for another series, but a review of the year was scheduled as had been the case with previous years.
Style
The humour of the show is usually based on sarcasm and cutting remarks, in a similar style to ''
Harry Hill's TV Burp'', or ''
The Soup''. ''Screenwipe'' can be characterised as being intellectually more harsh with Brooker often making surreal moral comparisons between the so-called 'real-world attitude' of certain programmes, and the logical conclusions of that attitude if it were turned towards real life. It often forms the basis for analysis of programmes - such as his review of the ITV musical drama
Britannia High in which he describes the characters as "irritating show-offs" and that the school which they inhabit "in any sane world would have its windows bricked up by the government before the self-satisfied inmates could get out and infect the rest of the population."
Brooker is known to be critical of reality television shows such as ''
Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
'' and ''
The X Factor
''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...
'', and often makes scathing remarks about the sort of people who watch these shows. One example in the 2008 Christmas Special involved a remark about X Factor winner
Alexandra Burke
Alexandra Imelda Cecelia Ewen Burke (born 25 August 1988) is a British singer, songwriter and actress. She won the fifth series of the British television series ''The X Factor'' in 2008, and has been signed to Epic Records, RCA Records and Sy ...
's cover of
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
's "
Hallelujah", which Brooker went on to claim is now "ruined forever as a song destined to be played at thick people's funerals".
Brooker often displays archive footage of various shows, but alters the viewer's perception through near
stream-of-consciousness narration and/or ironic juxtaposition with contrasting footage or sound, e.g. highlighting what he believes is the
organised crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally tho ...
feel of a scene from ''
Dragons' Den'' by running the trumpet solo from ''
The Godfather
''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 The Godfather (novel), novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al ...
'' over the original dialogue. He has also been known to make jokes at the expense of his own show and himself, in particular making light of his resemblance to
Laurence Fishburne, and in the first episode of the third series he claimed he had "a face like a paedophile walrus". Also of note was the deliberate mention of
Victor Lewis-Smith, described by the 'TV Insider' being interviewed (and presumably written by Brooker) as "kind of like a rich man's you". Lewis-Smith co-wrote and presented a similar show in the late nineties called ''
TV Offal'' which Brooker sarcastically and knowingly claims to have no knowledge of.
Despite his derogatory and insulting remarks aimed at many television shows, people, and near enough everything and everyone, Brooker does show his happier side and has spoken of his liking for certain US drama series including ''
The Shield''; ''
Deadwood
Deadwood may refer to:
Places Canada
* Deadwood, Alberta
* Deadwood, British Columbia
* Deadwood River, a tributary of the Dease River in northern British Columbia
United States
* Deadwood, California (disambiguation), several communiti ...
''; ''
The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2, ...
''; ''
Mad Men
''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its ...
''; and the most recent version of ''
Battlestar Galactica''; as well as the current series of ''
Doctor Who''; and older documentary programmes such as
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He was known to friends and professional colleagues alike by the nickname Bruno. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to sc ...
's ''
The Ascent of Man'', ''
Civilisation'', and ''
The World at War''. Brooker singles out Bronowski for praise regarding his style of presentation describing it as 'a bit like taking a warm bath in university juice'. In a more solemn example, at the end of an episode screened in December 2008, Brooker paid tribute to children's programmes creator
Oliver Postgate
Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television progr ...
, who had died the day before the programme was aired.
Brooker often makes a point of laying light praise upon unlikely targets, such as Milkshake,
Five's morning programmes aimed at pre-school age children, stating, "There isn't a single piece of negativity in the whole thing and that's what you need at this time in the morning."
Annual Wipe
From 2006 to 2016, the BBC broadcast an Annual Wipe. From 2017 onwards, there was no Annual Wipe due to Brooker's other commitments, with a ''
Frankie Boyle's New World Order'' Review of the Year filling the vacant gap. At the end of the decade on 30 December 2019, BBC Two broadcast a 90-minute compilation show entitled "The Best of 2010-2015 Wipe with Charlie Brooker" followed by a repeat of the final 2016 Wipe. In May 2020, BBC Two broadcast "Charlie Brooker's Antiviral Wipe", a 45-minute programme in the style of the Annual Wipes, focusing on the news coverage of, and public reaction to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
.
Animations
The show is also notable for using animations produced by internet animator
David Firth David Firth may refer to:
* David Firth (actor), English actor and writer
* David Firth (animator), creator of the British animated web series ''Salad Fingers''
* David Firth (statistician), British statistician
See also
* David Frith
David E ...
. To date the show has used eight of Firth's original creations. The 2006 Christmas Special featured a special appearance from Firth's deranged alter-ego, Jerry Jackson, whose cartoon appeared substituting for an animation that Firth had created beforehand. This original animation was rejected by the BBC on the grounds that it was far too offensive to be broadcast on TV. Firth recently announced on his website that the BBC had asked him to produce an animation for each episode of the second series of ''Screenwipe''. Three were shown but the fourth, a Jerry Jackson cartoon, was once again rejected by the BBC. Firth stated in a post on Fat-Pie.com that "Jerry's
artoonwas about Political Correctness on TV and contained a certain degree of sarcasm, yet sarcasm the TV company didn't see the funny side of, and they refused to use it".
The third series saw Firth produce four more short animations (of which three were aired) entitled 'The World Within A Sock', in which a group known as
The Establishment
''The Establishment'' is a term used to describe a dominant group or elite that controls a polity or an organization. It may comprise a closed social group that selects its own members, or entrenched elite structures in specific institutions. ...
buys the year 2008.
See also
* ''
Newswipe with Charlie Brooker''
* ''
Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
''Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe'' is a special one-off British, video game culture show by Charlie Brooker, broadcast in September 2009 during the BBC's Technology season. Following on from Brooker's '' Screenwipe'' and '' Newswipe'', ''Gameswipe'' ...
''
* ''
You Have Been Watching''
* ''
How TV Ruined Your Life''
* ''
Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe''
References
External links
*
*
*
{{BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series) 1981–1999
2000s British satirical television series
2006 British television series debuts
2008 British television series endings
BBC television comedy
BBC Television shows
Television series about television
Television series created by Charlie Brooker
Television series by Endemol
Television series by Zeppotron