Bedsitcom
Encyclopedia
Bedsitcom is a British reality television
series that was broadcast on Channel 4
in December 2003. Pitched as "somewhere between a sitcom and a reality TV show", the show documented the lives of six young people living in a loft flat
in London. Its hook
was that its TV audience was aware that three of the participants—named Mel, Paul and Rufus—were actually actors being directed by a trio of "writers" in a garage on the ground floor.
Bedsitcom was commissioned by the Channel Four Television Corporation and produced by Objective Productions
. Producers auditioned thousands of people to be the show's genuine contestants and selected from them six young adults to live in the flat with the three actors. These six contestants were told that they would be starring in a new reality TV series called Making Friends, and featured on the show three at a time over a period of eight weeks. The programme ran for a single series of eight episodes and featured various storylines, involving dead goldfish, dodgy dealings, promiscuous mothers and telephone psychics.
The show received largely negative feedback from television reviewers, who criticised the show's premise as a "deeply offensive" idea. It received a viewership peak of 1.2 million with its final episode, giving it an audience share of 8.9 per cent. Bedsitcom was not recommissioned for a second series and is currently not available either on DVD on Channel 4's on demand
service, 4oD
.
and Andrew O'Connor, and was conceived as a parody of both reality television and the traditional sitcom. It combined these two elements by featuring three members of the public being unknowingly placed in extraordinary situations by three actors being directed by writers. After being commissioned for Channel 4
by Danielle Lux, Bedsitcom was produced by Matt Crook and Kirsty Smith of Objective Productions
.
The show was pitched as "somewhere between a sitcom and a reality TV show" and was promoted as "an entirely new genre of television programme". Its title is a portmanteau of the words "bedsit
"—a British term referring to a form of rented accommodation consisting of a single room and shared bathroom—and "sitcom". The title is technically a misnomer
: as the accommodation's bedroom and sitting area were separate, it was not a bedsit.
were selected as the three actors to feature in Bedsitcom. Jones had previously portrayed the part of Crispin in the 2002 drama White Teeth; Gibbon had played the lead role of Link in the series Stone Cold. To avoid breaking character, all three used their real names while living in the flat and went through weeks of rehearsals. O'Connor described the entire process as "exhausting".
To find suitable candidates to live with the three actors, producers auditioned roughly 10,000 people, who were told that they would be taking part in a new reality television programme in London called Making Friends. Six members of the public, named Barrington, Bob, Dave, David, Jessica and Shirine, were selected to feature on the show.
Among the team of writers were Jesse Armstrong
and Sam Bain
, who had created the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show
with O'Connor earlier that year, plus Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons. Filming of Bedsitcom began in May 2003 and lasted for approximately eight weeks. The flatmates were filmed for 12 hours a day, with this footage then being edited down to roughly 25 minutes per week of filming.
called the show "about as funny as sharing a flat with that German cannibal" and Paddy Sherman of The Liverpool Echo
branded the show "intensely irritating". Paul Hoggart of The Times
called it "a show that seemed to have nothing to recommend it whatsoever",—after watching the first episode, Charlie Catchpole of The Daily Star simply stated: "It isn't funny." Critics on Newsnight Review also spoke harshly about the programme, with Tom Paulin
calling it "a disgraceful piece of television" and Jeanette Winterson
describing it as "incredibly dull".
A slightly more positive review came from Joe Joseph of The Times
, who suggested that "if it [the format] works, [it] could be profitably franchised around the world". Deborah Bull
said that, while it was "a terrible programme", there were "some funny lines". Chris Wilson, editor of Collective
, similarly wrote that "while the end results are often amusing and tackle some interesting storylines, the whole project smacks of lazy, cruel television".
In a 2005 interview, series creator Andrew O'Connor spoke about Bedsitcom and the critical reaction that it had received. He said that he felt that the premise of the show was a "great idea", but that it did not make "great television". He also remarked: "We didn't cast it right and the public didn't take to the series."
festival, a European awards show that commemorates achievement in entertainment television. The programme was submitted in the Best Situation Comedy category, but was beaten by Peep Show
.
. It premièred in the UK at 10:40 p.m. on 8 December 2003. Bedsitcom's eight episodes were 'stripped' over two weeks: the first four were broadcast nightly until 11 December and the remaining four were shown each night from 15 December. There are currently no plans to revive the series, and it is not available either on DVD or on 4oD
, Channel 4's on demand
service.
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series that was broadcast on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in December 2003. Pitched as "somewhere between a sitcom and a reality TV show", the show documented the lives of six young people living in a loft flat
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
in London. Its hook
Narrative hook
A narrative hook is a literary technique in the opening of a story that "hooks" the reader's attention so that he or she will keep on reading...
was that its TV audience was aware that three of the participants—named Mel, Paul and Rufus—were actually actors being directed by a trio of "writers" in a garage on the ground floor.
Bedsitcom was commissioned by the Channel Four Television Corporation and produced by Objective Productions
Objective Productions
OBJECTIVE PRODUCTIONS is a UK-based television production company, based in London and Glasgow and was founded by Andrew O'Connor and Michael Vine in 1991...
. Producers auditioned thousands of people to be the show's genuine contestants and selected from them six young adults to live in the flat with the three actors. These six contestants were told that they would be starring in a new reality TV series called Making Friends, and featured on the show three at a time over a period of eight weeks. The programme ran for a single series of eight episodes and featured various storylines, involving dead goldfish, dodgy dealings, promiscuous mothers and telephone psychics.
The show received largely negative feedback from television reviewers, who criticised the show's premise as a "deeply offensive" idea. It received a viewership peak of 1.2 million with its final episode, giving it an audience share of 8.9 per cent. Bedsitcom was not recommissioned for a second series and is currently not available either on DVD on Channel 4's on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
service, 4oD
4oD
4oD is a video on demand service from Channel 4. Launched in November 2006, 4oD stands for "4 on Demand". The service offers a variety of programmes recently shown on Channel 4, E4, More4 or from their archives...
.
Concept
Bedsitcom was created by Peter JamesPeter James (writer)
Peter James is a British writer of crime fiction and film producer.-Life:James is the son of Cornelia James, the former glovemaker to Queen Elizabeth II. He was educated at Charterhouse School and went on to Ravensbourne Film School. Subsequently he spent several years in North America, working as...
and Andrew O'Connor, and was conceived as a parody of both reality television and the traditional sitcom. It combined these two elements by featuring three members of the public being unknowingly placed in extraordinary situations by three actors being directed by writers. After being commissioned for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
by Danielle Lux, Bedsitcom was produced by Matt Crook and Kirsty Smith of Objective Productions
Objective Productions
OBJECTIVE PRODUCTIONS is a UK-based television production company, based in London and Glasgow and was founded by Andrew O'Connor and Michael Vine in 1991...
.
The show was pitched as "somewhere between a sitcom and a reality TV show" and was promoted as "an entirely new genre of television programme". Its title is a portmanteau of the words "bedsit
Bedsit
A bedsit, also known as a bed-sitting room, is a form of rented accommodation common in Great Britain and Ireland consisting of a single room and shared bathroom; they are part of a legal category of dwellings referred to as Houses in multiple occupation....
"—a British term referring to a form of rented accommodation consisting of a single room and shared bathroom—and "sitcom". The title is technically a misnomer
Misnomer
A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue. Such incorrect terms sometimes derive their names because of the form, action, or origin of the subject becoming named popularly or widely referenced—long before their true natures were known.- Sources of misnomers...
: as the accommodation's bedroom and sitting area were separate, it was not a bedsit.
Casting
Melanie Ash, Paul Gibbon and Rufus JonesRufus Jones (actor)
Rufus Jones is an English actor, comedian and writer.Rufus is a member of the five-man British comedy sketch group the Dutch Elm Conservatoire. The group were nominated for the prestigious Perrier award at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe....
were selected as the three actors to feature in Bedsitcom. Jones had previously portrayed the part of Crispin in the 2002 drama White Teeth; Gibbon had played the lead role of Link in the series Stone Cold. To avoid breaking character, all three used their real names while living in the flat and went through weeks of rehearsals. O'Connor described the entire process as "exhausting".
To find suitable candidates to live with the three actors, producers auditioned roughly 10,000 people, who were told that they would be taking part in a new reality television programme in London called Making Friends. Six members of the public, named Barrington, Bob, Dave, David, Jessica and Shirine, were selected to feature on the show.
Writing and filming
The plots for Bedsitcom were devised by a team of writers (led by Rob Gibbons, Neil Gibbons and producer Matt Crook) located in a garage on the ground floor of the apartment building that the contestants were staying in. The writers would often appear on screen and explain to the TV audience what their intention for each episode was. They communicated with Ash, Gibbon and Jones either by ringing them on their mobile phones, or by calling them downstairs to speak to them in person. The writers would occasionally change their plans for an episode—in "Worst Case Scenario", for example, the writers altered their storyline from having Mel bring various animals into the flat to having the group kill Mel's goldfish after only one night.Among the team of writers were Jesse Armstrong
Jesse Armstrong
Jesse Armstrong is one of the co-creators of Channel 4's Peep Show, along with Sam Bain. He also co-wrote the BBC Four comedy The Thick of It and was one of the writers on series 1 and 2 of the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the BBC Two sketch show That Mitchell and Webb...
and Sam Bain
Sam Bain
Sam Bain is one of the co-creators of Channel 4's Peep Show, which won a BAFTA for best Situation Comedy in 2008. He was also one of the writers of two series of the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the BBC Two sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look...
, who had created the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show
Peep Show (TV series)
Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003. The show's seventh series makes it...
with O'Connor earlier that year, plus Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons. Filming of Bedsitcom began in May 2003 and lasted for approximately eight weeks. The flatmates were filmed for 12 hours a day, with this footage then being edited down to roughly 25 minutes per week of filming.
Episodes
Bedsitcom documented the lives of six young adults living in a loft flat in London. Eight episodes in total were created, which were divided into two distinct halves. The first four episodes centred on the lives of Mel, Paul and Rufus, the three actors, as they lived in the flat with Bob, Dave and Shirine, the three unaware members of the public who believed they were taking part in a genuine reality TV show. After Bob, Dave and Shirine had learnt the true nature of the show at the end of episode four they moved out and were replaced by three new members of the public named Barrington, David and Jessica. These three new cast members remained on Bedsitcom for the final four episodes.| # | Title | Directed by | Original airdate |
|---|
Critical reception
Reviewers gave Bedsitcom generally negative feedback. Some were critical of the storylines that had been devised by the writers, calling them unimaginative and clichéd. Others were critical of the premise of the show itself, describing it as "deeply offensive and manipulative" and "morally reprehensible"—all three actors, particularly Jones, received criticism for their acting abilities. Frances Traynor of The Daily RecordDaily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
called the show "about as funny as sharing a flat with that German cannibal" and Paddy Sherman of The Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
The Liverpool Echo is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Saturday, and is Liverpool's evening newspaper while its sister paper, the Liverpool Daily Post, is the morning paper...
branded the show "intensely irritating". Paul Hoggart of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
called it "a show that seemed to have nothing to recommend it whatsoever",—after watching the first episode, Charlie Catchpole of The Daily Star simply stated: "It isn't funny." Critics on Newsnight Review also spoke harshly about the programme, with Tom Paulin
Tom Paulin
Thomas Neilson Paulin is a Northern Irish poet and critic of film, music and literature. He lives in England, where he is the GM Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford.- Life and work :...
calling it "a disgraceful piece of television" and Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...
describing it as "incredibly dull".
A slightly more positive review came from Joe Joseph of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, who suggested that "if it [the format] works, [it] could be profitably franchised around the world". Deborah Bull
Deborah Bull
Deborah Bull CBE is an English dancer, writer, and broadcaster and Creative Director of the Royal Opera House.Born in Derby, and brought up in Kent and Lincolnshire, she studied dance from the age of seven, first locally, and then, on the recommendation of her teacher, at the Royal Ballet School...
said that, while it was "a terrible programme", there were "some funny lines". Chris Wilson, editor of Collective
Collective (BBC)
Collective was an "interactive culture magazine" hosted by the BBC's website, bbc.co.uk. Collective was launched in May 2002, becoming interactive in September of the same year. Collective editors included Rowan Kerek, Jonathan Carter, Alastair Lee, James Cowdery and Matt Walton who had the...
, similarly wrote that "while the end results are often amusing and tackle some interesting storylines, the whole project smacks of lazy, cruel television".
In a 2005 interview, series creator Andrew O'Connor spoke about Bedsitcom and the critical reaction that it had received. He said that he felt that the premise of the show was a "great idea", but that it did not make "great television". He also remarked: "We didn't cast it right and the public didn't take to the series."
Ratings and awards
Given the level of exposure and promotion that it had been granted, Channel Four were disappointed by ratings for Bedsitcom. The pilot, shown on 8 December 2003, generated 1 million viewers, but this figure had fallen to 700,000 by 10 December. The ratings rose to 1.1 million viewers for the fourth episode, "Fag Ends". On average, the series attracted an audience share of less than 6 per cent. The final episode, "P.I.G", gained a viewership of 1.2 million with a market share of 8.9 per cent, which was its highest audience for the series. Bedsitcom was nominated for a single award at the 2004 Rose d'OrRose d'Or
The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...
festival, a European awards show that commemorates achievement in entertainment television. The programme was submitted in the Best Situation Comedy category, but was beaten by Peep Show
Peep Show (TV series)
Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003. The show's seventh series makes it...
.
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Rose d'Or Rose d'Or The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40... |
Best Situation Comedy |
Distribution
Bedsitcom was distributed by the Channel Four Television Corporation, who broadcast the show on its eponymous channelChannel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. It premièred in the UK at 10:40 p.m. on 8 December 2003. Bedsitcom's eight episodes were 'stripped' over two weeks: the first four were broadcast nightly until 11 December and the remaining four were shown each night from 15 December. There are currently no plans to revive the series, and it is not available either on DVD or on 4oD
4oD
4oD is a video on demand service from Channel 4. Launched in November 2006, 4oD stands for "4 on Demand". The service offers a variety of programmes recently shown on Channel 4, E4, More4 or from their archives...
, Channel 4's on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
service.
See also
- The Dutch Elm ConservatoireDutch Elm ConservatoireThe Dutch Elm Conservatoire is a British sketch comedy group, made up of five writers and actors: Stephen Evans, Jim Field Smith, Rufus Jones, Dan Renton Skinner and Jordan Long.They performed on the comedy circuit in London, Edinburgh and on tour...
– a British sketch comedy group featuring Jones - The Joe Schmo ShowThe Joe Schmo ShowThe Joe Schmo Show is a reality television parody show which aired on the American cable network Spike TV from 2003–2004. The show's premise is that a target person or persons are led to believe that they are contestants on a reality television show; in reality, all of the other participants in the...
– a similar American series - 2003 in British television2003 in British televisionThis is a list of British television related events from 2003.-Events:*13 January – ITV soap Crossroads is relaunched under the stewardship of producer Yvon Grace, and with a decidedly camp feel...