- It's Been a Bad Week
Infobox Radio Show
show_name = It’s Been a Bad Week
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format = Comedy
runtime = 30 mins
country =United Kingdom
language = English
home_station =BBC Radio 2
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starring =Steve Punt Hugh Dennis
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first_aired =11 February 1999
last_aired =22 June 2006
num_series = 14
num_episodes = 100+
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podcast ="It’s Been a Bad Week" is a British
radio comedy onBBC Radio 2 , first broadcast on11 February 1999 . It is presented bySteve Punt andHugh Dennis , and is also referred to as "Punt and Dennis: It's Been a Bad Week". More than 100 episodes have been broadcastas of 2006 , the latest series ending on22 June 2006 . It is normally broadcast on Thursdays at 10pm, with each episode being repeated on Saturdays at 1:30pm. The show is recorded the week of broadcast at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.The show is co-presented by regular guests
Mitch Benn ,Toby Longworth (Series 6 onwards),Sue Perkins (Series 6 onwards) andSimon Greenall (Series 8 onwards). Past co-presenters have beenMervyn Stutter (Series 1-2),Jon Culshaw (Series 1-5),Emma Clarke (Series 1-5) andJo Caulfield (Series 6), although these varied in some weeks. One famous guest appearance was Canadian comedy legendLeslie Nielsen . The other contributor to the show is their fictional sound effects man, “Van Man”, so called because he supplies the sound effects from his white van, "illegally parked outside Ronnie Scott's.""It’s Been a Bad Week" is a mock awards show, where true stories and
urban legend s alike compete for the tongue-twisting "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis".Episodes are sometimes repeated on
BBC 7 .The Saturday 26th July 2008 entry in Mitch Benn's Blog (http://www.mitchbenn.com/blog/) says that this programme has 'bitten the dust".
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Format
Each show originally began with the "Bad Week Round-up", which is described as the section for "Bad Week stories they couldn't fit anywhere else". This was a quick two-minute recap of what had been going on in the news that week. This was later replaced with "Van Man's Week of Sound", where Van Man illustrated that week's news with his sound effects. Currently, Van Man just plays the main sound effect of the week. A recurring gag is that Van Man's sound effect seems to refer to one of the week's main news stories but actually refers to a different one.
The show consists of three sections, "Sections 1, 2 and 3". In each section, there are three or sometimes four stories from around the world of bad things which have really happened. Usually each section consists of one story related by Punt, one by Dennis and one by another presenter. Benn normally chooses a music-related candidate and sings a song relating to it, Longworth or Greenall often do stories about
dumb criminals (frequently American), and Perkins covers something sexual. Sometimes there will be a "Bad Week Update", where a story previously featured returns, because either the same thing has happened again or a new aspect to the story has surfaced.In every section, Van Man illustrates each story with his sound effects. Originally he also chose the winner of each section; now it is done by a topical "guest announcer" (impersonated). After the three finalists are chosen, the audience take their electronic keypads (also fictional) and vote for the winner of "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis". The prize changes from week to week, depending on the theme of the show.
The series has had several
New Year specials, entitled "It's Been A Bad Year", awarding (as it was put in one episode) "The Worst New Year of the New Year Award, Awarded New Yearly, on a First Week-by-First Week Basis". Further, the last show of the current year has a different award, "The Worst Week of the Year Award, Awarded Yearly on a Year-By-Year Basis"eries
First series
#11 February 1999
#18 February 1999
#25 February 1999
#4 March 1999
#11 March 1999
#18 March 1999econd series
#29 July 1999
#5 August 1999
#12 August 1999
#19 August 1999
#26 August 1999
#4 September 1999Third series
#17 February 2000
#24 February 2000
#2 March 2000
#9 March 2000
#16 March 2000
#23 March 2000
#30 March 2000
#6 April 2000Fourth series
#23 November 2000
#30 November 2000
#7 December 2000
#14 December 2000
#21 December 2000
#28 December 2000
#4 January 2001
#11 January 2001Fifth series
#17 November 2001
#22 November 2001
#29 November 2001
#6 December 2001
#13 December 2001
#20 December 2001
#27 December 2001ixth series
#20 June 2002
#27 June 2002
#4 July 2002
#11 July 2002
#18 July 2002
#25 July 2002
#1 August 2002eventh series
#31 October 2002
#7 November 2002
#16 November 2002
#21 November 2002
#28 November 2002
#5 December 2002
#12 December 2002
#19 December 2002
#26 December 2002
#2 January 2003Eighth series
#15 May 2003
#22 May 2003
#29 May 2003
#5 June 2003
#12 June 2003
#19 June 2003
#26 June 2003
#3 July 2003
#10 July 2003
#17 July 2003Ninth series
#13 November 2003
#22 November 2003
#27 November 2003
#4 December 2003
#11 December 2003
#18 December 2003
#25 December 2003
#1 January 2004Tenth series
#13 May 2004
#20 May 2004
#27 May 2004
#3 June 2004
#10 June 2004
#17 June 2004
#24 June 2004
#31 June 2004
#7 July 2004Eleventh series
#23 December 2004
#30 December 2004
#6 January 2005
#13 January 2005
#20 January 2005
#27 January 2005
#3 February 2005
#10 February 2005
#17 February 2005Twelfth series
#2 June 2005
#9 June 2005
#16 June 2005
#23 June 2005
#30 June 2005
#7 July 2005 (not broadcast owing to theLondon Bombings )Thirteenth series
#1 October 2005
#8 October 2005
#15 October 2005
#22 October 2005
#29 October 2005Fourteenth series
#18 May 2006
#25 May 2006
#1 June 2006
#8 June 2006
#15 June 2006
#22 June 2006ee also
*
Darwin Awards
*Ig Nobel Prize
*Voice of Reason
*Fark External links
* [http://www.lostintv.com/frameset.html?http://www.lostintv.com/badweek.htm Buy tickets to see the show] at lostintv.com
* [http://www.celador.co.uk/programmes_past.php?id=13 Celador] (the broadcaster)
* [http://epguides.com/ItsBeenaBadWeek/ Episode guide] at epguides.com
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