7 /10 1 Votes
Country of origin United Kingdom No. of series 10 First episode date 22 November 1986 Number of episodes 94 | 7/10 IMDb Original language(s) English No. of episodes 94 Final episode date 21 September 1996 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Similar Game for a Laugh, You've Been Framed!, In Bed with Medinner, Chain Letters, Rising Damp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Beadle s about 1989 includes double yellow lines bed shop pranks
Beadle's About! is a British television programme hosted by Jeremy Beadle, where members of the public became victims of practical jokes behind hidden cameras. It was produced by LWT for ITV, and ran on Saturday nights from 22 November 1986 to 21 September 1996.
Contents
- Beadle s about 1989 includes double yellow lines bed shop pranks
- Format
- Memorable pranks
- Popularity
- Profanity bubble
- DVD releases
- References
Format
An example of one of the practical jokes would involve someone's car or van secretly being swapped for an identical one, and then, having a disaster befall it, such as exploding, falling into the sea, or being dropped from a great height, as the owner of the vehicle looked on in horror. After a few minutes, Beadle would appear in disguise (typically, as a policeman or some other figure of authority, and often wearing a fake beard on top of his natural beard), and interact with the shell-shocked and/or irate victim. He would subtly drop more and more hints and would remove his disguise and point a stick microphone at the person. As the public were familiar with Beadle from the earlier show Game for a Laugh, they would then immediately realise they had been had, often with the words "I don't believe it!". A follow up series was entitled 'It's Beadle!' which followed a similar format.
Memorable pranks
One of the most notable pranks was where Dorset resident Janet Elford was convinced into believing that aliens had landed in her garden. Members of the public were set up by a resident team of Beadle's About! actors including: Pam Cole, Ricky Diamond, Tony McHale and Nicholas Young.
Popularity
At its peak, the show attracted approximately 15 million viewers, making it one of ITV's most popular Saturday night programmes during that period.
Profanity bubble
The "Bleep!" or "Oops!" bubble used to block out offensive language was a well known feature from the show. The bubbles were simply clouds with either "Bleep!" or "Oops!" in them, the text being set in a font looking similar to the Balloon typeface. These were also used to cover up offensive hand gestures as well.
Jeremy once revealed in an interview that during editing, they deliberately inserted "bleeps" where there were no profanities as this made it funnier.
DVD releases
The first two series of Beadle's About! have been released on DVD by Network DVD.
