- Monkey Dust
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Monkey Dust
Monkey Dust DVD coverFormat Animated Sketch Show Created by Harry Thompson and Shaun Pye Starring Simon Greenall
Sharon Horgan
Morwenna Banks
Rebecca Front
Frances Barber
Enn Reitel
Kate Robbins
Shaun PyeCountry of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 18 Production Producer(s) Talkback Thames Running time 29 minutes Broadcast Original channel BBC Three, repeated on BBC Two Original run 9 February 2003 – 8 February 2005 Monkey Dust is a British satirical cartoon, notorious for its dark humour and handling of taboo topics such as murder, suicide and paedophilia. There were three series broadcast on BBC Three between 2003 and 2005. Following co-creator Harry Thompson's death, no further series were made.
Contents
Episodes
Each episode featured animation by several different companies including Slinky Pictures, Nexus Productions, Sherbet Animation (of which Mr Bingo.[1] was a part) and Caroline Mabey[2] and Picasso Pictures, but is linked by recurring themes and jokes, and by seamless transitions between sketches. The episodes are untitled but instead are known by the characters introduced or the one-off sketches included. The principal writers and creators of the series were Harry Thompson and Shaun Pye, although other contributors were responsible for a significant proportion of the work; sometimes collaborating with Thompson and/or Pye; sometimes contributing fully formed sketches to the show. A short overview of the main characters, called a nocturne, set in the various characters' bedrooms with no dialogue and a depressing accompanying song, usually precedes the final section.
Music
The animation in each episode is accompanied by contemporary music which helps the transition between scenes. Numerous songs by Goldfrapp, Boards of Canada and Black Box Recorder. The theme music for all three series is by Eels ("That's Not Really Funny" from Souljacker).
The inclusion of music from Goldfrapp during the first series would have pre-dated the commercial release of their debut album, but production on the series took so long that by the time of airing, Goldfrapp were about to release their second album and the songs included in Monkey Dust were fairly well known. Thompson and Pye comment on this in the Series 1 DVD commentary.
Also River Styx contributed a song he wrote and produced in collaboration with singer Rosamund Daegenhardt. It appeared in series 3, episode 6.
The background music for the Saint Stephens Hospital sketches in series three is "Ivory Blush" by K-West. [1]
Release
On 8 November 2004, the first series of Monkey Dust was released in the UK on DVD. Several musical substitutions had to be made from the television airing (where the BBC is allowed to play any commercial release without permission), as artists such as Cliff Richard and David Gray would not allow their work to be used on the DVD. Cover versions of the original songs were used instead.
The second and third series were broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Three respectively. Only the first series of Monkey Dust was commercially released on DVD, however in September 2009 eight episodes from across series 2 and 3 (along with four episodes from the already released series 1) were made available for download from iTunes.
Characters
Main article: List of Monkey Dust charactersAwards
- 2003: International Student Jury Award (Banff Rockies Awards)
- 2004: Best Multichannel Programme (Broadcast Awards)
- 2004: Best Comedy (British Animation Awards)
See also
- British dark comedy
Further reading
- Monk, Claire (2007). "London and Contemporary Britain in Monkey Dust". Journal of British Cinema and Television (Edinburgh University Press) 4 (2): 337. doi:10.3366/jbctv.2007.4.2.337.
References
- ^ Mr Bingo at Modular People }}
- ^ "Information". popcorncomedy.com. http://www.popcorncomedy.com/category/information/. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
External links
Categories:- 2003 television series debuts
- 2005 television series endings
- 2000s British television series
- British animated television series
- BBC television comedy
- Black comedy television programs
- Satirical television programmes
- Sundance Channel shows
- 2000s animated television series
- British television sketch shows
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