There are, in general, two kinds of TV script books. The first is when the book is based on a draft of the script used in the actual production of the show, such as Father Ted: The Complete Scripts (Boxtree, 1999). The second is when they bodge together a load of transcripts and pretend it was something worth publishing, like with Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty (Penguin, 1998). Perhaps the former is more common than the latter, but damn, that Blackadder one still hurts.| Dirty Feed
There are, in general, two kinds of TV script books. The first is when the book is based on a draft of the script used in the actual production of the show, such as Father Ted: The Complete Scripts (Boxtree, 1999). The second is when they bodge together a load of transcripts and pretend it was something worth publishing, like with Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty (Penguin, 1998). Perhaps the former is more common than the latter, but damn, that Blackadder one still hurts.| Dirty Feed
There are, in general, two kinds of TV script books. The first is when the book is based on a draft of the script used in the actual production of the show, such as Father Ted: The Complete Scripts…| Dirty Feed
I have to be honest, I didn’t exactly have a rule against embedding GB News material on here. I didn’t think I really needed one. What was the likelihood that I’d ever have cause to do it?| Dirty Feed
Due to complicated work stuff, it may be a bit of time before the next significant article here on Dirty Feed. So now seems a excellent chance to point you towards Jonathan Bufton‘s series of articles on 90s Saturday morning kids show Parallel 9. These started way back in 2022, and the final piece went up in April, which seems an good excuse to read them all over again.| Dirty Feed
FREDERICK: The study of birds and their habits is quite fascinating, Mrs. Gamely. I was only reading about it in stir… Sir Benjamin Stir, I mean… he’s the leading author on the subject, you know.| Dirty Feed
Recently, we had some tradesmen round to our house to fit a new hob. Before they arrived, my partner decided to hide our newly-purchased copy of the complete Love Thy Neighbour DVD boxset. After all, they might think we were massive racists. Or even worse, start telling us that Enoch was right.| Dirty Feed
Recently, we had some tradesmen round to our house to fit a new hob. Before they arrived, my partner decided to hide our newly-purchased copy of the complete Love Thy Neighbour DVD boxset. After all, they might think we were massive racists. Or even worse, start telling us that Enoch was right.| Dirty Feed
Some videos in this article contain racist views and language. Of all the things I expected to write on this site in 2025, “The unbroadcast Love Thy Neighbour pilot is really interesting” wasn’t top of the list. Anyway, the unbroadcast Love Thy Neighbour pilot is really interesting. Completely reshot for the first episode of the […]| Dirty Feed
Recently, we had some tradesmen round to our house to fit a new hob. Before they arrived, my partner decided to hide our newly-purchased copy of the complete Love Thy Neighbour DVD boxset. After al…| Dirty Feed
Over the years, I’ve written plenty about comedy writers reusing jokes. Today’s topic is one of the most famous and most-quoted examples of the lot. So let’s turn to ersatz Bond film Never Say Never Again, which premiered in the US on the 6th October 1983. Oh dear, James Bond isn’t having much fun. NURSE: […]| Dirty Feed
As I’ve spoken about many times before on this site, I’m constantly surprised at how often the generally accepted transmission dates for various TV shows turn out to be a load of rubbish. Sometimes, the confusion is understandable – a last-minute schedule change not reflected in the Radio Times, say. Other times, I struggle to […]| Dirty Feed
Many years ago now, I had to study Seamus Heaney for A-Level. All a bit pointless, really. Sure, “Death of a Naturalist” is all very well, but did he ever write anything as good as the …| Dirty Feed
Some of you may think I’m a little too obsessed with studio recording dates for sitcoms. It is surely something deeply unhealthy, which makes me look less like a proper TV historian, and more like someone who enjoys wading through irrelevant trivia.| Dirty Feed
Right, after my last piece about mocked-up newspapers in sitcoms, time to get on with some real work. Anyone got any suggestions? How about friend of the site Rob Keeley, have you got anything?| Dirty Feed
Right, after my last piece about mocked-up newspapers in sitcoms, time to get on with some real work. Anyone got any suggestions? How about friend of the site Rob Keeley, have you got anything? …| Dirty Feed
The opening episode of the first series of I’m Alan Partridge, “A Room with an Alan”, was broadcast on the 3rd November 1997. What is the first thing we see Alan Partridge doing in his room at the Linton Travel Tavern? Oh, the usual stuff. Some bad programme ideas. The first of many dream sequences. […]| Dirty Feed
There is something a little mysterious about the Absolutely Fabulous episode “Magazine”, you know. But to understand exactly what, we have to get deep, deep into recording dates. I am giving you ample warning to either strap yourself in, or leave quietly. Still here? Excellent. So, most of the episode was shot in the normal […]| Dirty Feed
As we’re in an Absolutely Fabulous mood at the moment, let’s watch the end credits of Episode 1.4, “Iso Tank”, broadcast on the 3rd December 1992. I promise you there’…| Dirty Feed
“The finished movie we see on the screen is often far different from the director’s original conception. The Cutting Room Floor is the intriguing study of the wounds, bruises, Band-Aids, and sometimes miracle remedies that can often improve a film… or destroy it.”| Dirty Feed
19th September 1975, 9pm, BBC2, and the first programme of a little series called Fawlty Towers is broadcast. And whilst most of that first series of Fawlty Towers was shot in the summer of 1975, the very first episode – A Touch of Class – was recorded eight months earlier, in December 1974. The reason for this is simple: that first programme was a pilot. Unlike some programmes, which are re-recorded entirely for their first episode1, most of that pilot made it to air more or less in its ...| Dirty Feed
Last time, we took a look at an early edit of the pilot for Absolutely Fabulous. Today, we’re going back even earlier: to the original script for the episode, containing scenes – and even characters – which never even made it into that initial version of the show. This is much easier to do than […]| Dirty Feed
“The pilot show of a new sit-com about Edina, a neurotic, but successful woman who runs her own PR/design/fashion business and is obsessed with keeping up with the times. Her very sensible, teenage daughter Saffron lives with her and is forced into taking the mothering role. Edina is easily lead astray by her degenerate friend, […]| Dirty Feed
I don’t want much out of life, you know. I really don’t. Just the basics. Like, for example, knowing which episode of Absolutely Fabulous was broadcast on BBC2 on the 17th December 1992…| Dirty Feed
Series 1, Episode 7 of Marion & Geoff, first broadcast on the 7th November 2000, is different from every other episode in the first series of that show. How? For the answer, let’s turn to the excellent DVD commentary, with Blick and Brydon. HUGO BLICK: We’ve got to be honest with you, viewers. We structured […]| Dirty Feed
One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is the danger of assumptions when it comes to figuring out shit about old telly. I’ve always made it a point of order to invite people to correct or challenge me on my writing here… whether it’s a minor point, or something which upends a whole article.1 My […]| Dirty Feed
I sometimes feel like I spend half my life trying to figure out obscure production details about my favourite sitcoms. Sometimes with a great deal of success… and sometimes, less so. The deep…| Dirty Feed
I really do love this set of episode reviews for Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, by Steve Phillips. In a world where so much of the conversation around the show degenerates into variations of “It’s very funny” / “No it’s not”, it’s nice to have someone tackle each episode on its own merits, instead of […]| Dirty Feed
What’s the best episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em? Probably not the one where Frank is busted for distributing hardcore porn, which is always a good one to throw at people to se…| Dirty Feed
Having just done a full rewatch of Men Behaving Badly, I thought it was about time to do a multi-part article on the series, really nailing exactly what it is that makes the show tick, what Simon Nye was trying to say about how people worked, and why we seem to find it impossible to […]| Dirty Feed
Jason Dyer’s All the Adventures project – “Wherein I play and blog about every adventure game ever made in (nearly) chronological order” – is undergoing a particularly amazing time at the moment. Since the start of the year he’s covered no less than 32 full games from 1982, some of them very obscure indeed, and […]| Dirty Feed
“We are aware that there will be those who say ‘What a shame to show us these characters’, but I would always rather be brave.” – Rob Brydon, The Sunday Telegraph, 2nd September 2001 “You’ve got to carry on swimming. I was really keen not to put this precious character of ours in a cul-de-sac […]| Dirty Feed
In 1994, two things happened to me which had major implications years down the line. Firstly, my Dad died. Secondly, I got into Red Dwarf. I’m not quite sure which was the most damaging to me…| Dirty Feed
The Young Ones was written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall, and Lise Mayer, with additional material by Alexei Sayle. One of those names is not like the others. After all, Ben Elton shows up on-screen in …| Dirty Feed
Recently, I’ve been rewatching quite a lot of documentaries about The Young Ones, seeing as I can’t seem to stop writing about that damn show. This is why I find myself watching The Making of The Young Ones from the 2007 DVD release… for the 2000th damn time. One little section of that documentary stood […]| Dirty Feed
It somehow seems fitting that the very first thing recorded in studio for The Young Ones was one of its most well-remembered sketches. On the 23rd January 1982 at 7:30pm, without a studio audience …| Dirty Feed
“The pilot show of a new sit-com about Edina, a neurotic, but successful woman who runs her own PR/design/fashion business and is obsessed with keeping up with the times. Her very sensible, teenage daughter Saffron lives with her and is forced into taking the mothering role. Edina is easily lead astray by her degenerate friend, Patsy, who is a magazine editor. Bubble is Edina’s secretary.| Dirty Feed
For reasons which will become apparent later in the year, I’m currently buried in research on Three of a Kind. It’s a show which I entirely dismissed a few years back on the strength &#…| Dirty Feed
Here’s a question for you. Exactly how many opening title sequences did Drop the Dead Donkey have? I suspect the answer is: more than you think. After all, to answer the question properly, we can’t just go by the broadcast material. In 2005, the DVD release of the first series contained the unbroadcast pilot, shot […]| Dirty Feed
The other day, I received an email with the subject line “YouTube removed your content”. Oh dear, what have I done now? “It looks like [your video] didn’t follow our Community Guidelines. We removed it from YouTube. We think your content violated our hate speech policy.” What the fuck? “Content that promotes hateful supremacism by […]| Dirty Feed
I sometimes feel Dirty Feed is a weird mix of stuff. Obviously, a large part of my audience comes here for ridiculous minutiae about old television, particularly old comedy. Hello there. I like you…| Dirty Feed
MAROON: Look, Valiant. His wife’s poison, but he thinks she’s Betty Crocker. I want you to follow her. Get me a couple of nice juicy pictures I can wise the rabbit up with.| Dirty Feed
While watching a 1987 episode of Spitting Image the other day, something rather odd occurred. And something odd occurring during an episode of Spitting Image has rapidly turned into this site’…| Dirty Feed
Here’s one of my very favourite sketches from End of Part One, Renwick and Marshall’s magnificent sketch show which eviscerated contemporary television in much the same way Python did a decade earlier.1 It’s from Series 2 Episode 3, broadcast by LWT on the 26th October 1980. Warning: contains a slang term for gay men near […]| Dirty Feed
Recently, I’ve been burying myself in Radio Times letters pages of the 1970s. It can be a grim place to be, with its long, outraged analysis of various current affairs programmes. It’s almost as bad as Bluesky. So thank heavens for the following shaft of light, published in Issue 2575, cover date 17th-23rd March 1973: […]| Dirty Feed
For many viewers, The Mrs Merton Show sprang fully-formed onto BBC2 on the 10th February 1995. But things are never quite as simple as that. And with Caroline Aherne and Mrs Dorothy Merton, the sto…| Dirty Feed
Just occasionally, my silly research for this site turns up something wonderful. So, there I was, perusing the archives of that august organ Huddersfield Daily Examiner, when I spotted the following Channel 4 programme scheduled on the 30th November 1992: 11:00 CATHOLICS AND SEX Examining the Catholic Church’s attitudes towards birth-control and pre-marital sex. Catholic […]| Dirty Feed
Website stats are funny old things. For a start, it’s become deeply unfashionable to actually care about them. “Write for yourself, not for others”, people cry, myself included. This is, on the face of it, an entirely reasonable attitude… but I have to admit that these days, I really want people to read my stuff. […]| Dirty Feed
5 years • 10 years • 15 years Fifteen years of anything is an odd anniversary to celebrate, really. Five years is a reasonable commitment to anything. Ten years is obviously special. Twen…| Dirty Feed
Recently, I embarked on yet another rewatch of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I always find the TV incarnation a slightly odd experience. There are enough episodes, and the shows themselves are so packed with stuff, that no matter how many times I see them, huge swathes of sketches are somehow always a surprise. So as […]| Dirty Feed
I somehow feel it’s bad etiquette to go on about the brilliant holiday I had in LA this year. So I won’t talk about the brilliant Warner Bros. Studio Tour I went on, visiting Vasquez aka Star Trek Rocks, or eating at the oldest McDonald’s in the world. Look, the last one is exciting to […]| Dirty Feed
2015 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 • 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024 Well, another year, another complete failure to get my big Christmas music mix ready…| Dirty Feed
Back in June, I published the first part of my Young Ones Music Guide, detailing every single piece of music heard in Series 1 of The Young Ones. Some of you may be wondering why the second part is…| Dirty Feed
In 1994, two things happened to me which had major implications years down the line. Firstly, my Dad died. Secondly, I got into Red Dwarf. I’m not quite sure which was the most damaging to me in the long run.| Dirty Feed
Recently, I asked people to send me anonymous questions again, which is always good fun until someone sends you something unpleasant. Anonymity and nasty messages, what are the odds?| Dirty Feed
While we’re on an anonymous questions kick, here’s something else I was asked recently: “Favourite behind-the-scenes moment?” Which gives me an excuse to talk about something brilliant. Take a look at this scene from Red Dwarf, “Stasis Leak”, broadcast on the 27th September 1988. This was shot on location in the Midland Hotel in Manchester, […]| Dirty Feed
Recently, I asked people to send me anonymous questions again, which is always good fun until someone sends you something unpleasant. Anonymity and nasty messages, what are the odds? Anyway, I part…| Dirty Feed
It’s the 6th February 1984 in studio TC4, and Rik Mayall is having a circular saw aimed at his knackers. I write a lot about comedy on here. Sometimes I write some very silly things about com…| Dirty Feed
Recently, I was going through some of my old emails from 2009. That’s from before Dirty Feed was even launched. In fact, those of you with very long memories may remember that Dirty Feed didn’t even start out as Dirty Feed; it was originally called “Transistorised” for most of the launch year of 2010, after […]| Dirty Feed
“This is it! It’s THE FAST SHOW as you’ve never seen it before – literally! This special video compilation has sketches you will not have seen on TV featuring all your favourite characters as well as loads of completely new ones, so fresh and raw they don’t even have proper names – Mid-life-Crisis Man, Road […]| Dirty Feed
NO OFFENCE: Anyway, you’re about to see a show that has been cobbled together using bits of shoddy old material previously thought unworthy for your eyes, but now in a desperate attempt to stuff their schedule with any old tat, the once trustworthy BBC is pretending it’s something really quite exclusive. No offence. Introduction to […]| Dirty Feed
FREDERICK: The study of birds and their habits is quite fascinating, Mrs. Gamely. I was only reading about it in stir… Sir Benjamin Stir, I mean… he’s the leading author on the subject, you know.| Dirty Feed
I am currently in the middle of writing about the previously unseen sketches from The Fast Show which featured on Fast Show Night. The only surprising thing about the above sentence is that I haven’t got round to it before now. You can plug all my obsessions into a spreadsheet, and the above article pops […]| Dirty Feed
One of my favourite games when I was a kid was The Seventh Star, a text adventure for the BBC Micro. Not that I was any good at text adventures. Or any games full stop, really. The number of games from the time I actually completed can be counted on one hand.1 So I never […]| Dirty Feed
When you’re a Red Dwarf fan, it’s easy to forget how spoilt you are. The DVDs bombard you with deleted scenes and unused material. Want an early version of the opening episode, featuring an entirely different introduction to The Cat? The DVDs have you covered. Sadly, Red Dwarf is an outlier; a rare example of […]| Dirty Feed
I have to be honest, I didn’t exactly have a rule against embedding GB News material on here. I didn’t think I really needed one. What was the likelihood that I’d ever have cause to do it?| Dirty Feed
Over the past few days, I’ve been posting lots of interesting facts about exactly what’s on Onslow’s telly in Keeping Up Appearances. If I was somebody sensible, I would pretend I…| Dirty Feed
Last time in our look at Keeping Up Appearances, we saw Harold Snoad making a load of fake films for Onslow’s telly. But Onslow doesn’t just enjoy watching the offcuts of Snoad’s …| Dirty Feed
DAISY: There was a time when you used to chase me all over the house. ONSLOW: That was before we got colour, wasn’t it. — Keeping Up Appearances, “The Art Exhibition”, TX: 1…| Dirty Feed
FREDERICK: The study of birds and their habits is quite fascinating, Mrs. Gamely. I was only reading about it in stir… Sir Benjamin Stir, I mean… he’s the leading author on the su…| Dirty Feed
Old TV shows gather anecdotes over the years. They gather anecdotes until it’s sometimes difficult to see the real story through the detritus. It’s not really anybody’s fault. It …| Dirty Feed
I have to be honest, I didn’t exactly have a rule against embedding GB News material on here. I didn’t think I really needed one. What was the likelihood that I’d ever have cause …| Dirty Feed
OK, so my planned Summer hiatus really didn’t work. To be fair, would you rather have a nice walk outdoors enjoying the sunshine, or spend your free time working out what is showing on Onslow…| Dirty Feed
Where were you when Napalm Death appeared on Children’s BBC? For me, the answer was… not watching Napalm Death on Children’s BBC. Music show What’s That Noise? was not a fav…| Dirty Feed
Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five • Part Six • Part Seven Welcome to the final part of my series of articles looking at stock footage in Smashie…| Dirty Feed
Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five • Part Six • Part Seven Last time in our look at stock footage in End of an Era, we hung around in the nice cl…| Dirty Feed
Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five • Part Six • Part Seven There comes a time in every project like this where you run into a problem. There̵…| Dirty Feed
I have to be honest, I didn’t exactly have a rule against embedding GB News material on here. I didn’t think I really needed one. What was the likelihood that I’d ever have cause to do it?| Dirty Feed
Hello there. Welcome to another exciting instalment of “interesting studio recording dates for audience sitcoms”. And if you’ve managed to get past that sentence and onto this one…| Dirty Feed
As we come to the end of the year, it’s a time for reflection, and pondering exactly what you have achieved with your life. It’s a shame, then, that this is exactly the moment that I fi…| Dirty Feed
Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five • Part Six • Part Seven At last, something easy with this series of articles looking at stock footage in Smash…| Dirty Feed
Yeah, yeah, I know. I don’t have a good record with this kind of thing. There is a very real possibility I’ll pick up writing this site again after a couple of weeks. But for various re…| Dirty Feed
Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five • Part Six • Part Seven NICEY: Freddie was my most glorious introduction to pop. I remember the morn after the…| Dirty Feed
Shooting audience sitcom has all kinds of unique production problems compared to other types of television. After all, any TV show has to decide whether to shoot a given scene on location, or in th…| Dirty Feed
One problem with writing Dirty Feed is that there are so many strands of research here, that I end up losing track of some of them. Such was the case with early 80s Radio 2 sitcom Wally Who?, writt…| Dirty Feed
Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four • Part Five • Part Six • Part Seven So far in our analysis of stock footage in End of an Era, we’ve seen Nicey meeti…| Dirty Feed
Some of you may think I’m a little too obsessed with studio recording dates for sitcoms. It is surely something deeply unhealthy, which makes me look less like a proper TV historian, and more…| Dirty Feed
Saturday the 12th April, 2014. I’m sitting in NC1, BBC One’s transmission suite. I’m not yet fully running things by myself; I’m still training. And one thing I’m stil…| Dirty Feed
