Harry Hill's TV Burp

''Harry Hill's TV Burp'' (also referred to as ''TV Burp'') is a British television comedy clip series, written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill, and produced by Avalon Television for ITV. The show's format sees Hill take a comedic look towards a previous week's schedule of programming from across terrestrial and digital channels, with episodes often featuring sketches and parodied scenes.

Much of its comedy derived from either taking scenes out of context, mostly in the case for fiction-based dramas, or highlighting comedic moments that occurred in a programme, often from non-fiction programming such as reality TV shows. The programme often featured appearances from real-life people and various television personalities and actors that featured in each episodes. Production of each episode primarily required Hill and his team to review preview tapes for a week's television schedule in advance to provide the foundation for the script of that week's ''TV Burp'' episode.

''TV Burp'' was aired on ITV1 between 2001 and 2012. The show aired on Thursday nights for the first three series, before moving to Saturday evenings from series 4 onwards. It received positive reviews from critics, earning several rewards, and spawning merchandise, including DVDs of compilation episodes featuring highlights of various series. An Australian version of the programme was made in 2009 for Seven Network, while Cartoon Network re-ran a "child-friendly" version of ''TV Burp'' after its conclusion, but despite some re-runs of original episodes, repeats were discontinued due to licensing complications on clips the show used from other programmes and television networks.

Format

''TV Burp'' focuses on comedian Harry Hill taking a comedic look over a week's schedule of programming, focusing on scenes from a selection of television shows, both fiction and non-fiction in nature, including soap dramas, documentaries, cooking shows, gameshows, and reality TV. Each episode focuses on a set of programmes whose clips are used in one of two ways:

* Taking a scene outside of the context of their original programme or script, with Hill often providing limited information about the scene to viewers. An example of this is a scene of a soap drama in which the actors involved are discussing something about another character's behaviour, to which Hill makes out, often sarcastically. they are actually discussing something else contrary to the script for that scene.
* Highlighting something that is comedic in nature that was unintentionally funny. An example of this is a person in a reality TV show doing something that is quite suggestive, or saying something bizarre for them to talk about.

Alongside using clips, the show often featured sketches based on what happened on a clip, or an extension of the scene spoofed by Hill and ''TV Burp'', often using stand-in actors of actual characters, as well as props based on items showcased in a clip; though in earlier series, fewer clips were used and more studio segments and sketches created. As the programme gained popularity though, episode would sometimes feature actual guest appearances of celebrities television personalities, actors (as themselves, or a character they were performing at the time of an episode's broadcast), and real-life people.

A number of characters designed for the programme were later maintained throughout it broadcast until its final episode: a spoof version of ''EastEnders'' character Heather Trott (portrayed by Steve Benham); a spoof version of Alan Sugar portrayed by Hill's ventriloquist dummy; the Knitted Character, based on a toy that featured briefly in an episode of ''EastEnders''; and "Wagbo", a character devised from a clip from ''The X Factor''

The programme often featured recurring gags and elements in its script, which primarily consisted of the following:

* A "news bulletin" to open each part of an episode, always involving a collection of clips taken out of context. During the early series, this would be a mix of clips from television shows, home movies, still images and Hill performing impersonations of celebrities or television characters, while in the later series, this segment was always solely clips from television shows.
* A highlight of one or more clips, baring a title that concluded with "...of the Week". Originally "TV Highlight of the Week", there were many later variations. Such clips were short, often focused on something hilarious, such as somebody saying something nonsensical and hard to understand ("I beg your pardon of the Week"), an extra doing something notable ("Extra of the Week"), or somebody making an obvious statement ("TV Expert of the Week").
* "TV Burp Poetry Corner", showing a clip where two consecutive sentences, spoken by one or two people, created an unintentional rhyme.
* A mock slapstick fight to introduce the commercial break, often introduced by Hill by discussing as like of two different things before asking "But which is better?" The fight often is never referenced in the second part or revealed how it was resolved.
* A musical piece or song to end each episode, often featuring a guest appearance and/or Hill performing it. The segment most notably always finished the musical number on a "cha-cha-cha" staccato ending.

Production

Following a successful pilot broadcast on 22 December 2001, a series was commissioned, starting on 14 November 2002. Production of an episode often involved Hill and his programme's associate writing team, including Brenda Gilhooly, Paul Hawksbee, Daniel Maier, Joe Burnside, David Quantick and Madeleine Brettingham, watching significant amounts of television, much on preview tapes. Throughout Series 1 to 8, the show was recorded before a live audience in Studio 1 of Teddington Studios, South-West London, but from Series 9 to the final episode of Series 11, recording was relocated to BBC Television Centre in Studio 4. The first two series of the show were broadcast within a late night slot on Thursdays, with repeats late night on Fridays. During the first series, Hill stated that the BBC would not allow clips of ''EastEnders'' to be shown on ''TV Burp''; Hill was required, during the series, to accompany his comments on the British soap with either crude animation, courtroom-style sketches or staged comic re-enactments of scenes from the show. Actual clips from ''EastEnders'' were shown from series 2 onwards. Whilst the show was well received, the late night scheduling was criticised due to the family-friendly humour, leading to the third series, which still had its episodes initially aired on Thursday nights, receiving a teatime repeat slot on Sundays. Starting from the fourth series, the show moved to a Saturday teatime slot, and then later to a Saturday primetime slot.

Due to the inclusion of a large amount of material to which ITV and Avalon do not hold the rights, repeats of past ''TV Burp'' episodes were rare outside immediate broadcast repeats. However, in 2009, ''The Best of TV Burp'' was introduced, which featured clips from previous episodes, while additionally, new episodes were also made available to view online on the ITV Player service after original transmission. As of 7 April 2012, 24 ''Best of TV Burp'' episodes have been aired, in addition to a ''Best of Christmas TV Burp'' episode on 25 December 2010, featuring clips from previous Christmas episodes of the show. On 28 October 2011, Cartoon Network began airing a similar format (along with '' Shark Infested Custard''), in which they took past episodes of the series and edited segments together to make the series more child-friendly, but did not record new segments for this version, with the exception of the trailer.

Following months of speculation, Hill confirmed to his studio audience at the taping of the final episode of Series 11 that it would be his last. In October 2013 Gold began airing repeats of the show starting with the third series. The titles of the show were briefly featured as part of London 2012's opening ceremony.

Criticism

In 2007, Ofcom ruled that ''TV Burp'' had breached guidelines by including clips of a Bear Grylls programme which featured Grylls eating a frog and cooking a turtle; Ofcom ruled that the clips were 'inappropriately scheduled' given the offence they could potentially cause viewers when taken outside the context of the whole Grylls programme.

In 2008, ''The Best of TV Burp 3'' included footage originally broadcast in 2004, which lampooned Sky reality series ''The Real Mrs Robinson''. ITV and Avalon were not aware that two of the participants in the programme had died between the original broadcast and the 'Best of'. However, Sky's licence to use the footage made no mention of this, and the participants were not referred to by their full names in the footage, restricting TV Burp's ability to research the case ahead of putting the programme to air. After complaints were made to ITV and Ofcom, the programme was voluntarily re-edited such that the segment was removed from all further broadcasts. Ofcom did not uphold a complaint made by relatives of the deceased, stating that whilst it recognised that the broadcast of the footage would have been distressing to the family, the manner of the broadcast did not breach the broadcasting regulations.

A 2016 broadcast on Dave, of an episode originally screened by ITV in December 2008, featured a comedic review of a Channel 4 documentary about Thomas Beatie. UKTV had edited out around a minute of the segment ahead of broadcast, but much of the skit remained. Complainants felt the treatment was offensive to the transgender community; Ofcom ruled the complaints had been resolved by way of UKTV voluntarily cutting the entire section on Beatie's film, preventing it from future broadcast on their channels.

Reception

''TV Burp'' received positive feedback from critics and viewers; Mark Lawson from ''The Guardian'' said it was "The freshest and most original show in mainstream television." In 2008, visitors to the British Comedy Guide website voted ''TV Burp'' as the "Best British TV Panel Show/Satire of 2008". Viewing figures for the show in its primetime slot were considerably high and achieved a considerable share of the audience - Series 8 averaged 6.1 million viewers during its run, taking an average share of around 25.1% of the audience for its timeslot, compared to Series 14 and 15 which averaged 4.9 million viewer and an average audience share of 19.3%. One of its highest-rated episodes, achieved 8 million viewers and took a 32% audience share.

Awards and nominations

In 2007, ''Harry Hill's TV Burp'' was nominated for ''Best Comedy Entertainment Programme'' at the 2007 British Comedy Awards, while in 2008, it won two British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance (for Harry Hill) and Best Entertainment programme, and in 2009 won Harry Hill another BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance.

Transmissions

Series

Specials

From 2005 to 2011, the biennial BBC One transmission of the Red Nose Day telethon in aid of Comic Relief included a short ''TV Burp'' segment. Hill also recorded a short ''TV Burp'' segment for Blue Peter in February 2009.

Merchandise

As per repeats, it was initially thought that a DVD release of ''TV Burp'' would be unlikely. However, a DVD titled ''Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold'' was eventually released in November 2008. Four other DVDs have since been released, as detailed below, with additional content from the show. A complete series-by-series release still appears unlikely. A ''TV Burp'' book was also released in 2009.

See also

*'' The Soup'', a similar show in the US

Footnotes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harry Hill's Tv Burp
2000s British satirical television series
2010s British satirical television series
2001 British television series debuts
2012 British television series endings
BAFTA winners (television series)
British television shows featuring puppetry
British English-language television shows
British surreal comedy television series
Harry Hill
ITV comedy
Television series about television
Television shows shot at Teddington Studios