The Bigger Picture with Graham Norton (Tonight on BBC1)

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Right, so how many of us are going to watch this with one of those 'open mind' things?

[Paul Dee]

I doubt I'll bother. What's the format? Is it a chat show?

[purlieu]

I keep thinking 'maybe I'll give Graham Norton another chance', because I love him in Father Ted.
But he still succeeds at making me want to drown things.

[The Mumbler]

I quite liked So Graham Norton in the first series.  No, come back!  He was still unknown enough to make the format quite pleasant and the guests weren't necessarily camp stand-bys.  But I was tired of him by the millennium special when (I seem to recall) I was shouting obscenities at his overexposure and desperation.  Maybe, like on Father Ted, he should just make three programmes and go away again.

He's doing a lot of "take me seriously" interviews at the moment, isn't he?  Had his "silly" chat shows run out of guests?

[Squidy]

I quite liked So Graham Norton in the first series.  No, come back!  He was still unknown enough to make the format quite pleasant and the guests weren't necessarily camp stand-bys.  But I was tired of him by the millennium special when (I seem to recall) I was shouting obscenities at his overexposure and desperation.  Maybe, like on Father Ted, he should just make three programmes and go away again.

There's a really nice atmosphere to the first series of So Graham Norton, almost like a radio recording. The studio seating is full, obviously, but for some reason it feels like the audience is made up of only half-a-dozen or so, all of whom are attentively appreciating George Melly's wartime anecdotes or whatnot as if they were the audience for Loose Ends. It was only when the later serieses stuck so rigidly to the tried-and-tested format (Topical Monologue - Stand Up Sit Down - Daft Sketch - First Guest - Prank Call - Commercial Break - Another Daft Sketch - Guest Two - Webcam - Another Commercial Break - Audience Participation - Generation Game-style Finale - Outro) and the audience became two hundred drunkards cackling at phallic objects that the show became unendurable.

This new BBC One show is just going to be like every other BBC One show, isn't it? Indistinguishable from all those failed National Lottery game shows or anything with Marcus Brigstocke sat behind a desk. Expectations aren't high.

[The Mumbler]

He's also relatively benign and merely silly towards Betty in the early shows, rather than simply offensive and kickable.

[Mister Cairo]

If this is the future of satire, I will weep. Funny how any programme that attacks the goverment has been replaced by Jimmy Carr wanking on about polls and this bildge.

At least Robinsonbot isn`t in this one.

[Squidy]

All the papers are making a big thing about how this new show is being recorded on the night of transmission for extra topicality, but surely the same was also true of V Graham Norton?

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I remember Private Eye reporting this months back. They felt that it was an attempt by the Beeb to find something - anything - for Norton to do, now that own him.

There were quotes along the lines of "I am being serious now, yes" from Norton himself, to confirm The Mumbler's comment.

[benthalo]

The only thing this is good for on its first night is another round of Guess Who Wrote The Additional Material. On this occasion, I'll go for Lucy Porter, David Quantick and Will Ing.

[The Mumbler]

My guesses are Robin Ince, Dan Gaster, Rob Colley and Jo Caulfield.

[benthalo]

Richard Wilson really is a dull cunt in anything other than an acting capacity. His Room 101 was marginally more engaging.

Colley was a big result as head writer, Mumbler. I'm amazed by the absence of Caulfield and Quantick, especially as I spotted the latter wandering Riverside Studios with Jo Brand on Thursday. Well, they had to be there for a reason. The Jude Law song titles screamed Quantick anyhow.

Jane Moore - wasn't she in T4's hateful The Morning After Show recently? Except with bigger hair and an increased cluelessness towards presentation.

The experience has immediately been eradicated by Mark Radcliffe, with new songs by Richard Thompson and Helen Love (!) broadcast in the last five minutes.

[The Mumbler]

Another sideways look at the week that would have been preferable if it had eyeballed a coal hammer.  

I got Dan Gaster as well, which is admittedly nothing to be proud of.  The others, for what it's worth (nothing), were Colin Swash, Giles Pilbrow, Georgia Pritchett and (of all people) Steve Punt.  A 2DTV reunion, virtually.

It was much like the old Graham Norton when all was said and done: the usual digs at people's physical appearance masquerading as topical gags, and what would have been the worst sketch I've seen in a long time (involving Sharon Stone and a running gag involving - ho ho - an icepick like in Basic Instinct) were it not for the fact that it was almost immediately bottomed by Richard Wilson doing an astronaut sketch and returning to a level of applause that might have suited Burns & Allen in their prime but not that bollocks.  And Jo Brand's agent clearly despises her.  What *is* she doing?

[gazzyk1ns]

Colin Swash

Is he related to Joe and Shana?

[Braintree]

Jane Moore - wasn't she in T4's hateful The Morning After Show recently? Except with bigger hair and an increased cluelessness towards presentation.

Wasn't that Barunka O'Shaugnessy? She seems to be in a lot of comedy programmes but never really gets credited for them.

[mayer]

Nice G2 quote from Norton today (paraphrased)

'That Sun headline after that bloke got shot... "One down, three to go".... well, actually, if you're going to just shoot innocent people it's more like "one down, quite a few million to go"'.

He then explained why he couldn't say stuff like that on this show, cos it'd be tasteless to read that off an autocue.


Was out, missed the show. He gives a good interview that Norton. Seems like a nice chap.

[benthalo]

Wasn't that Barunka O'Shaugnessy? She seems to be in a lot of comedy programmes but never really gets credited for them.

Ah right. Similar voice.

[Bean Is A Carrot]

They did a joke about Michael Howard looking at himself in a mirror and only seeing his glasses...because he's a vampire. HAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

[terminallyrelaxed]

All I could think of at the end was them all badgering the designer as he half-heartedly knocked up their 'bigger picture' mongs. I thought the whole thing was pretty mediocre really. The first thing he said was 'whos seen the Not Afriad website' and I thought 'here we go again'. Then I thought, 'why am I watching this anyway?' and stopped for a while, though I caught the last few minutes.

[mothman]

It had the ability to make me wish I'd watched Sex Inspectors instead.

[Paul Dee]

I caught the end and a 'Blunkett is blind' gag. I can't imagine I missed much.

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

it's just FAQ with more famous guests.

Norton annoys me the more I see him - with his "uhm hmm ahhh" at the end of every line to reassure himself how funny the thing he just said was, and to con us that he's being at all funny.
the effect is that I just want to punch the guy.

I still haven't worked out if the audience are laughing to cover their utter embarrasment of the "gags", or if it's a laugh-track inserted to cover the lack of laughter.

more digital channels - more utter shit on offer.

[Mister Cairo]

That was terrible, was it not? Where has all the satire gone? Or are we not allowed to laugh at the policies of the goverment any more, we just laugh at how fat Prescott is or how Robin Cook looks? Which affects no-onel, os its just pathetic abuse.

Listening to the PC Savage except on the Not... radio reunion made me relase how satire seems to have been taken over by bland morons laughing at things which are irrelevent. Who cares about polls? Why is it important to make a comedy show about how 26% of Suffolk want to explode.

Satire can be used to point out the wrongs of those in power-look at BBF. It`s great news for Bliar and Co that all we have now is Norton going "oooh, look at that, isn`t Lopez stringy" or whatever.

My point is that satire is an important democratic tool, and when its pushed away to make room for this shit, we should be up in arms

Fuck you, Norton. Fuck you, BBC. And fuck you till you choke, Jane Moore, your twisted Sun columist.

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

Fuck you, Norton. Fuck you, BBC. And fuck you till you choke, Jane Moore, your twisted Sun columist.

yeah I quite agree.

My point is that satire is an important democratic tool, and when its pushed away to make room for this shit, we should be up in arms.

The Satire boat has definitely taken a huge back seat to the light-weight hybrid shows of late.  At the moment it only seems to be Rory Bremner, Have I got News, Dead Ringers & 2D-TV which touch on the "satirical" - and those arn't anywhere near as satirical as Spitting Image at its peak.
Even those shows proclaiming to "undermine" those they mock, all hold back so not to offend where everything is water-down to appeal to a broader audience, playing safe.  The worse case is when you've got shows like the Bigger Picture which create the illusion of being "topical humour" when it's just Heat magazine without the jokes.

They are so committed to produce this insipid shit to make the dimwitted think they are in on the topical satire joke.  They think it's scathing and risqué because Graham Norton is the host.

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

infact do the BBC have a forum?  I want to tell them how shit this show is.

[Mister Cairo]

Could try e-mailing Points Of View, but I`vce always thought that the programme`s used to ridicule people who complain about programmes. Private Eye did a very good parody of it a few years back.

They do have message boards  as well,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/communicate/

Can`t find a Comedy forum but the list is at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/messageboards/atoz.shtml

[Gavin]

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/aug05/norton020801.php

Graham Norton's new comedy show The Bigger Picture got off to a disappointing start in the ratings.

Just 2.4 million viewers tuned into the first episode of his topical chat show – meaning half the 4.8 million who saw the 10 O'Clock News switched off immediately.

The figure – about 15 per cent of the entire audiences – is less than recent reruns of Jack Dee Live At The Apollo and One Foot In The Grave, which attracted 2.7 million and 3.1 million to the same slot in recent weeks.

Good!

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Graham Norton in the Radio Times last week:

'Obviously you can't do jokes about the London bombings, but you can say 'It's been a strange few weeks' and then go onto an item about ID cards.'

That's the problem with satirical comedy - the failure of people to realise that the London bombings is what you should be making jokes about. A routine based on the 'Why don't they keep a Koran in each carriage?' discussion on GD, for example - that would be great. Too dangerous? Only as dangerous as TW3 doing The Consumers' Guide to Religion' in 1962, surely?

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

The only  passionate/visceral/cathartic piece of 'satire' I've heard about the bombings was on Heresy the other week, in the 'We are not afraid' round.Which got a huge amount of complaints from missing-the-point fuckwits.

[Mister Cairo]

you can say 'It's been a strange few weeks'

Bet that brings the Norton house down every time.