Running time 30 minutes | Country United Kingdom Language English Number of episodes 93 | |
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Starring Miles Jupp (Series 1-4)Justin Edwards (Series 5-9)Romesh Ranganathan (Series 10-11)Nish Kumar (Series 12-15)Angela Barnes (Series 16- ) Produced by Adnan Ahmed and Abby Kumar Air dates since 4 June 2009 (2009-06-04) Similar Dead Ringers, Whack‑O!, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, The Alternative Comedy, Stewart Lee's Comedy Profiles | ||
Newsjack joke from series 9 episode 3
Newsjack is a satirical sketch show hosted by Angela Barnes and previously by Nish Kumar (February 2015 - October 2016), Romesh Ranganathan, Justin Edwards and Miles Jupp. It was first broadcast on BBC Radio 7 on 4 June 2009. The series is notable for having an "Open door" policy on writing, meaning that unsolicited writers without contract to the BBC can send in material. The show is designed to give new writers an opportunity to get material broadcast. It is hoped by the people behind the show that it may become a modern version of Week Ending, an earlier sketch show which also accepted material the same way.
Contents
Newsjack 17 02 2011 episode 2 part 1
Format
Each episode of Newsjack begins with an introduction from the presenter before the main sketches. The host is joined by a different cast each week - a mixture of experienced sketch performers and new upcoming talent. Previous regular cast members include: Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Lewis MacLeod, Pippa Evans, Andi Osho and Jess Robinson; Philip Fox has also appeared in several episodes.
As well as standalone sketches, the show also features recurring segments. The current segments are Breaking News and Number Crunching. In the past recurring segments have included:
Writers wishing to submit material for Newsjack are invited to write material for these segments as well as their own sketches not related to them.
Production
Newsjack, was always intended to be an "Open door" show in terms of writing. However, it first became known in early 2009 when it launched a competition to find new comedy writers for the show. The winners of this competition went on to a masterclass on comedy writing with David Mitchell on 9 March 2009. Although originally Gareth Edwards was intended to be producer for the show, the job of producer eventually went to Tilusha Ghelani and Sam Michell. The current producers are Adnan Ahmed and Abby Kumar.
The show was first broadcast as a pilot on 4 June 2009. This pilot was broadcast first so as to give a guide to new writers about the sort of material that the programme was looking for. The first deadline for new material was 15 June 2009 at noon. While the first series was originally intended to run for ten weeks, this was reduced to the pilot and six episodes, one per week. In total there have been sixteen series of six episodes, and two compilation episodes: a review of the year episode, broadcast on New Year's Eve 2011, and shortly before series eight, a programme 'Newsjack Revisited' broadcast on Radio 4, featuring the best sketches from previous series seven. The episodes are also available to download as a podcast.
Transmission dates are as follows. The programme is normally broadcast on a Thursday evening on BBC Radio 4 Extra and repeated the following Sunday.