8 /10 1 Votes
Genre Comedy Written by Rhys Thomas
Simon Day Country of origin United Kingdom First episode date 10 February 2014 Network BBC Four Original network BBC Four; BBC Four HD | 8/10 IMDb Created by Rhys Thomas Directed by Rhys Thomas Original language(s) English Final episode date 30 January 2016 Number of episodes 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Simon Day; Michael Kitchen; Rhys Thomas; Paul Whitehouse; Lucy Montgomery; Nigel Havers Similar Bellamy's People, The Fast Show, Fun at the Funeral Parlour, Tittybangbang, It's Kevin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The life of rock with brian pern trailer bbc four
Brian Pern: A Life in Rock is a British comedy spoof-documentary series about a fictional ageing rock star, Brian Pern, the former frontman of the 1970s progressive rock group Thotch. Series 1, titled The Life of Rock, with Brian Pern, was originally broadcast in three weekly parts on BBC Four from 10 February 2014. A second series of three episodes was promoted to BBC Two and broadcast from 9 December 2014, retitled Brian Pern: A Life in Rock. A third series of three episodes Brian Pern: 45 Years of Prog and Roll was broadcast on BBC Four from 14 January 2016.
Contents
- The life of rock with brian pern trailer bbc four
- Main cast
- Recurring cast
- Guest cast
- Production
- Origins
- Reception
- References
The series is written by Rhys Thomas and Simon Day, and stars Simon Day, Michael Kitchen, Paul Whitehouse and Nigel Havers in supporting roles alongside Day. The character of Brian Pern is an affectionate parody of Peter Gabriel.
Main cast
Recurring cast
Guest cast
In addition to Gabriel's cameos, the series features a range of musicians playing themselves including Roger Taylor, Jools Holland, Rick Wakeman, Rick Parfitt, Chrissie Hynde, Tim Rice, Billy Bragg, Roy Wood, Paul Young, Mark King, Noddy Holder, Martin Kemp, Melanie Chisholm, Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock.
The following actors and television or radio personalities have appeared as themselves in guest roles: Roger Moore, David Arnold, David Baddiel, Noel Edmonds, Miranda Sawyer, John Humphrys, Dan Cruickshank, Mike Read, Jack Whitehall, Martin Freeman, Kathy Burke, Alex Jones, Dan Snow, Matthew Wright, Alan Yentob, Paul Gambaccini, Tony Blackburn, Simon McCoy, Annie Nightingale, Dermot O'Leary, Kirsty Young and Ian Wright.
Production
The commissioning of the series was announced by Janice Hadlow on 22 August 2013 at the Edinburgh International Television Festival under the name of Rock Ratatouille. The series is a BBC Comedy production.
Origins
Comedian Rhys Thomas created the character of Brian Pern in 2008 when he was asked by BBC Comedy commissioner Simon Lupton to come up with an idea for the first batch of Online-Exclusive comedy sketches the BBC Comedy Website was developing. A fan of Peter Gabriel, Thomas was a frequent visitor to Gabriel's website where the singer would post a monthly video blog about his current projects. At this time other rock musicians from the same generation were doing the same, such as Brian May and Brian Eno.
Once the idea was commissioned, Thomas approached fellow Fast Show/Down the Line collaborator Simon Day to play Brian Pern. Day was also a fan of Gabriel. Following a successful run on BBC Online, a second batch of sketches were commissioned. With a small increase in budget, extra cast members were brought in to play cast members. Lucy Montgomery as Majita (who would later become Pepita in the TV series) and Paul Whitehouse as guitarist Pat Quid (Thomas later cited he got the name from Stacy Keach's character in Roadgames. The relationship between Pat and Brian is based on that of David Gilmour and Roger Waters.
Thomas created the part of Brian's manager John Farrow for Michael Kitchen. Thomas had been developing a comedy drama for BBC One with Kitchen and offered him the part in the second series of online specials of Brian Pern. He agreed. Thomas has stated in various interviews that John Farrow is an exaggerated version of Queen manager Jim Beach, whom Thomas had worked with for many years following his involvement with the band.
Reception
Musician Peter Gabriel said of the series:
It made me laugh a lot, even though it was at my expense. I love to laugh. Spike Milligan was a hero to me and I was a big Fast Show fan, but I’m not sure that part of me comes across when I bore people about politics and social stuff. People can’t always see who you really are.