"Broken News" (2005) TV series 2005-????

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

20 October 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

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

Cast

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 Agar	...	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)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Broken record

This blatant "Day Today" rip off promised a new, cutting edge BBC comedy. It's nothing of the sort, rather a tepid satire on the banality of television news but without the biting humour and insight that Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci provided for "The Day Today" and "Brass Eye".

Where does "Broken News" fail where the older shows succeed? 1) It's made itself a one trick pony: In episode one it shows the headless chicken style of modern TV news reporting, where no actual information is reported and presenters just love the sound of their own voice. Fine, after half an hour we get the joke. Then it's repeated week after week. Same joke, same premise. The show doesn't progress, introduce new elements or play around in its own rigid format. The American news desk will always be the same, the "Look Out East" crew will have suggestive banter in the same manner and Standing News was great as a one off joke, but it's repeated again and again.

2) The cast. It must have seemed like a great idea in the planning stages to have quality dramatic actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Pip Torrens and Claudia Christian in a satire/sub-sketch comedy show but these things are best done by comedy actors...even a team of them. There's no chemistry between the cast, which is huge (what a waste of money) and what made "The Day Today" and "Brass Eye" so good was the caricature like characters created by a smaller but gifted comedy group. Can any of the "Broken News" characters stand out like Alan Partridge, or Peter O'Hanrahahanrahan, or Austen Tasseltine or Ted Maul? The cast are playing it too serious, too real and the result is a flat comedy.

3) Blatantly stealing from "The Day Today". We're not just talking about the concept, but the actual material as well. Frozen urine, death penalty reports by glamorous American journalists, nonsensical captions, fake football team names, overwrought graphics...all done on "The Day Today" and done much better.

The BBC comedy department is at one of its lowest points at the moment. It's overly dependent on "Little Britain" and Ricky Gervais to keep it afloat for one thing. It thinks by re-hashing old comedy concepts such as "My Family" and "Broken News" it will count on getting viewers who have put much better equivalent shows out of their memories and it is fiercely loyal to character based sketch shows which can spin out episode after episode of 8 characters and their stock catchphrases. This is hardly a recipe for growth and surprise.