''Week Ending'' was a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
radio current affairs sketch show broadcast on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
between 1970 and 1998. It was devised by writer-producers
Simon Brett
Simon Anthony Lee Brett Order of the British Empire, OBE Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL (born 28 October 1945 in Worcester Park, Surrey, England) is a British author of detective fiction, a playwright, and a producer-writer for ...
and
David Hatch and was originally hosted by ''
Nationwide'' presenter
Michael Barratt.
The show's title was always announced as "Week Ending..." followed by the broadcast date, although the
ellipsis
The ellipsis (, plural ellipses; from , , ), rendered , alternatively described as suspension points/dots, points/periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when t ...
was dropped from its billed title in ''
Radio Times
''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...
'' during the mid-1970s. The show was written and recorded shortly before the first broadcast (which was usually on a Friday evening) and satirised events of the week. Each show concluded with "And now here is Next Week's News", although this collection of one-liners was abandoned in the early 1990s. Short gags were thereafter scattered throughout the show. Relatively few editions survive in the BBC archives, and they are rarely repeated.
Contributors and cast
''Week Ending'' was considered a "training ground" for a large number of comedy writers, performers and producers. Many young BBC production recruits were given the programme for a month or so in order to get to grips with scripted comedy and working with performers. The programme also accepted material by post, fax and e-mail. This open door policy, which it shared with Radio 2's long-running ''
News Huddlines'', made it a point of entry for writers who went on to have successful careers in British radio and television.
Script contributors included
Mel Giedroyc
Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc ( , ; born 5 June 1968) is an English actress, comedian and television presenter.
With Sue Perkins, she has co-hosted series including ''Light Lunch'' for Channel 4, '' The Great British Bake Off'' for the BBC an ...
,
Sue Perkins
Susan Elizabeth Perkins (born 22 September 1969) is an English actress, broadcaster, comedian, presenter and writer. Originally coming to prominence through her comedy partnership with Mel Giedroyc in ''Mel and Sue'', she progressed into radio a ...
,
[https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/sue-perkins-childhood-friendship-gmb-29136216] Andy Hamilton,
Mark Burton,
John O'Farrell,
Guy Jenkin,
Andy Riley,
Kevin Cecil,
Richard Herring
Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leadin ...
,
D. A. (Debbie) Barham,
Peter Baynham,
Julian Dutton
Julian Dutton is an English writer and performer. He is principally known for television and radio, whose work has won a British Comedy Award, a BAFTA, and a Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Comedy. He is the author of seven books.
He is the ...
,
Harry Hill,
Al Murray,
Ben Moor,
Tony Lee
Tony Lee is a British comics writer, screenwriter, audio playwright, and novelist.
Early life
Born in 1970, Tony Lee attended Hayes Manor School, now Rosedale College.
Career
A #1 ''New York Times'' bestselling writer, Lee has written for ...
,
Rich Johnston
Richard "Rich" Johnston is a British comics creator, columnist, and founder of the comics news site ''Bleeding Cool''.
'' The Comics Journal'' described Johnston as having claimed to be "the oldest extant comics news reporter on the Internet. ...
,
David Baddiel,
Rob Newman,
Graeme Sutherland,
Kim Morrissey,
Barry Pilton,
Paddy Murray,
Ivan Shakespeare,
Barry Atkins,
Stewart Lee,
Colin Bostock-Smith and
Martin Curtis.
Regular performers during the run included
David Jason
Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally as David Jason, is an English actor. He has played Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'', Detective Inspector Jack Frost in the drama series '' A Touch ...
,
Bill Wallis,
Nigel Rees,
David Tate,
Jon Glover,
Sheila Steafel,
Alison Steadman,
Tracey Ullman,
Toby Longworth,
Chris Emmett
Christopher Roderick Emmett (born 13 December 1938 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire) is a British actor and comedian best known for his work on the BBC Radio 4 comedies '' The Burkiss Way'' (1976-1980) and '' Alison and Maud'' (2002-2004). He was a re ...
and
Sally Grace.
For several months during 1997, ''Week Ending'' carried a musical number written by
Gerard Foster and performed by
Richie Webb. This broke a lengthy hiatus for musical content, which until 1982 had involved
Bill McGuffie,
David Firman and
Steve Brown.
Amongst the producers were
John Lloyd,
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...
,
David Tyler,
Jimmy Mulville,
Harry Thompson,
Gareth Edwards,
Armando Iannucci
Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer and performer.
Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. St ...
,
Jon Magnusson,
Geoffrey Perkins,
Griff Rhys Jones
Griffith Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a Welsh actor, comedian, writer and television presenter. He starred in a number of television series with his comedy partner, Mel Smith. He and Smith came to national attention in the 1980s for ...
,
Sarah Smith and
Adam Tandy.
Broadcast
Until 1983, ''Week Ending'' was taken off the air during election campaigns. As sensitivities eased, it was allowed to remain on air during the 1987, 1992 and 1997 elections, albeit with rigid levels of political balance.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
broadcast a highlights programme once a month. This would include sketches from ''Week Ending'' episodes transmitted during the previous four weeks, more usually the items that could easily be understood by an international audience. This was broadcast by the World Service, usually on the last Friday of the month, under the title of "Two Cheers for ''
onth' ". For many years, there was also an annual highlights show, akin to ''Year Ending'', called "Two Cheers for 1982" (etc.).
From the early 1980s, the theme tune was a loop of the instrumental section of
The Associates' 1982 hit "
Party Fears Two", which replaced the original 'whistled' flute piece, "Smokey Joe". Over the years, the tune changed a number of times – totalling four pieces, the third debuting in 1993 and the fourth in 1997 – but the final edition in 1998 finished with the original (each of the others having been heard briefly in sketches set in earlier decades).
Tie-ins
Series writers
Ian Brown
Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963) is an English musician. He was the lead singer and the only continuous member of the alternative rock band the Stone Roses from their formation in 1983. Following the band's initial split in 1996, he be ...
and
James Hendrie wrote a book based on the series in 1985, ''The Cabinet Leaks''. ''Ten Years With Maggie'', a cassette compilation of sketches written during Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister, emerged in 1989 and was reissued on CD as ''Week Ending with Maggie'' in April 2009.
References
Further reading
* ''Prime Minister, You Wanted To See Me? – A History of Week Ending'' by Ian Greaves & Justin Lewis, .
External links
*
radiohaha – encyclopaedia of contemporary British radio comedy
{{Authority control
1970 radio programme debuts
1998 radio programme endings
BBC Radio comedy programmes
BBC Radio 4 programmes
British satirical radio programmes