Broken News (2005– )

Stars:

Claudia Christian, Duncan Duff, Sharon Horgan

Cast

Series cast summary:
Claudia Christian	...	Julia Regan - IBS (6 episodes, 2005)
Duncan Duff	...	Richard Pritchard - ESN (6 episodes, 2005)
Sharon Horgan	...	Katie Tate - ESN (6 episodes, 2005)
Phil Nice	...	Russ - Look Out East (6 episodes, 2005)
Carli Norris	...	Sarah Holt - Look Out East (6 episodes, 2005)
Colin Stinton	...	Anthony Markovitz - IBS (6 episodes, 2005)
Steve Toussaint	...	Adam Lockwood - PVS (6 episodes, 2005)
Indira Varma	...	Melanie Bellamy - ESN (6 episodes, 2005)
Kim Wall	...	Phil Curdridge - Look Out East (6 episodes, 2005)
Clare Wille	...	Frances Walsh - PVS (6 episodes, 2005)
Joanna Bobin	...	Natalie Gosling - Go Sports (6 episodes, 2005)
Philip Brodie	...	Colin Kay - So News (6 episodes, 2005)
Tom Goodman-Hill	...	Guy Batson - Go Sports (6 episodes, 2005)
Sarah Hadland	...	Claire - Traffic Reports (6 episodes, 2005)
James Howard	...	Kevin Peters (6 episodes, 2005)
Phil Nichol	...	Josh Cashman - So News (6 episodes, 2005)
Lucy Porter	...	Claudia Van Sant - So News (6 episodes, 2005)
Roderic Culver	...	Richard Harbinger (PVS -- Network Reporter) (6 episodes, 2005)
Pip Torrens	...	Sam French - Bullet Points Presenter (6 episodes, 2005)
Simon Scardifield	...	Nick Andrews - Look Out East Network Reporter (6 episodes, 2005)
Robin Weaver	...	Penny Watson - Look Out East Network Reporter (6 episodes, 2005)
Amber Agha	...	Laura Berthould (6 episodes, 2005)
Ashley Blake	...	Alexis Fantom - ESN Reporter (6 episodes, 2005)
Sumit Bose	...	Andrew Clayton (6 episodes, 2005)
Rob Butler	...	Andrew Farley (6 episodes, 2005)
Max Digby	...	Andrew Adams (6 episodes, 2005)
Melissa Lloyd	...	Sam Graham - Bullet Points Presenter (6 episodes, 2005)
Roger Barclay	...	Mitchell Oatis - Aronovitz (5 episodes, 2005)
Kevin Day	...	Gary Mills - Aronovitz (5 episodes, 2005)
Lauren Ward	...	Alecia - IBS (5 episodes, 2005)
Alice Arnold	...	Sam Foskett - Bullet Points Presenter (5 episodes, 2005)
Darren Boyd	...	Nick Burnham (5 episodes, 2005)
Beth Chalmers	...	Laura Hughes (5 episodes, 2005)
Sian Jones	...	Wendy Fox - Weather (5 episodes, 2005)
Kate Maravan	...	Laura Dunnford (5 episodes, 2005)
Preeya Kalidas	...	Anita Ratchathani (5 episodes, 2005)
Tom Skippings	...	Andrew Evans (5 episodes, 2005)
Lorelei King	...	Loren Peterson (IBS -- Network Reporter) (4 episodes, 2005)
John Schwab	...	Miles Anderton (IBS -- Network Reporter) (4 episodes, 2005)
Jon Briggs	...	Joe Alloway - Weather (4 episodes, 2005)
Derek Gibbons	...	Joe Randall (4 episodes, 2005)
Sunita Shroff	...	Wendy Sandhu - Weather (4 episodes, 2005)
Wendy Wason	...	Wendy Watts - Weather (4 episodes, 2005)
Joanna Ampil	...	Michelle Wong - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
John Chancer	...	Tom Mitchell - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Ian Duncan	...	Todd Todmore - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Chris French	...	Dan Evans - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Britta Gartner	...	Katerina Schultheiss - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Jack Gustav	...	Johan Fleischer - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Haruka Kuroda	...	Kyoko Ogura - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Luis Soto	...	Francis Xavier-Menensez - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Ralph Van Dijk	...	Brett Mackensie - World Money Today (4 episodes, 2005)
Benedict Cumberbatch	...	Will Parker (3 episodes, 2005)
Tim Bentinck	...	Ben Black (3 episodes, 2005)
Hugh Parker	...	Justin Rustin - ESN Network Reporter (3 episodes, 2005)
Stuart Nurse	...	Sam Gregory - Bullet Points Presenter (3 episodes, 2005)
Nicola Walker	...	Katie Willard (3 episodes, 2005)
Lauretta Gavin	...	Wendy Bridge - Weather (3 episodes, 2005)
Yiolanda Koppel	...	Wendy Allan - Weather (3 episodes, 2005)
Belinda Stewart-Wilson	...	Amanda Panda (3 episodes, 2005)
Lucy Briers	...	Sam Henman - Bullet Points Presenter (2 episodes, 2005)
Nicholas Rowe	...	Ben Green (2 episodes, 2005)

Storyline

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Taglines:

5 continents, 25 channels, 227 reporters...All the news you're ever going to need in 30 minutes.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 October 2005 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

This is not a sketch show

What some of the people commenting on this series don't seem to understand is that this is not a sketch show.

The fact that none of the characters are particularly memorable, the fact that the news stories are not particularly surreal and the fact that each "channel" starts to feel repetitive even before the end of the episode are all deliberate.

As with "People like us", John Morton is able to avoid focusing on the superficial humour (the "jokes") at the expense of the deep humour (satire).

And that is all there. The bad grammar, the lack of scientific knowledge and basic research of the average journalist, the milking of non-events to fill hours of airtime, the patronising xenophobia of some US networks, the obsession with "live" coverage for the sake of it, the overly dramatic music, the distortion of facts so the reporter can end his story with a "witty" catchphrase or cliché. It's all there.

There are also plenty of jokes and nonsense, but I suspect most of those are just there so you won't mistake the show for a real news network. It's their way of saying "unlike the 'real' news networks, we are still sane enough to realise that this whole thing is ludicrous".

Some of the references will only make sense to people working in the field, but anyone who has spent 10 minutes zapping between different "news" networks will be able to relate.

Be warned, though: there are no pauses to let you laugh and no punchlines telling you when to laugh (a lot of people can't seem to understand humour without the latter). If you laugh, you miss something. In fact, even if you don't laugh, it's hard not to miss something (another obvious reference to the information overload - or "noise" - in modern news broadcasts).

To be watched with a progressively widening mental grin.