Grumpy Old Men is a conversational-style television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 programme on BBC2 which debuted in 2003, The first run of four programmes was repeated several times before a second series, also of four episodes, was shown in 2004. A third series aired in April 2006. There were also 2003 & 2004 Christmas specials. An Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 version Gaybo's Grumpy Men

Gaybo's Grumpy Men

Gaybo's Grumpy Men is an Irish version of the BBC conversational-style television programme Grumpy Old Men on RTÉ which debuted in 2005...

was produced by RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 in 2005.

Format

The format shows a number of well-known middle-aged men talking about any issues of modern life which irritate them, from the proliferation of excessive road signs to unnecessary and overly-loud mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

 conversations.

Regular contributors include Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...

, Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof

Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...

, John Humphrys

John Humphrys

Desmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh-born British author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...

, A. A. Gill

A. A. Gill

Adrian Anthony Gill is a British writer who uses the byline A. A. Gill. He is currently employed by The Sunday Times as their restaurant reviewer and television critic and Vanity Fair magazine as a restaurant reviewer...

, Nigel Havers

Nigel Havers

Nigel Allan Havers is an English actor. He is probably best known for his BAFTA-nominated role as Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, and for his role as Dr. Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up...

, Tony Hawks

Tony Hawks

Antony Gordon Hawksworth, better known as Tony Hawks, is a British comedian and author.-Early life:Born in Brighton in 1960, Hawks was educated at Brighton Hove and Sussex Grammar School and Brighton College...

, Simon Hoggart

Simon Hoggart

Simon David Hoggart is an English journalist and broadcaster. He writes on politics for The Guardian, and on wine for The Spectator. Until 2006 he presented The News Quiz on Radio 4...

, John O'Farrell

John O'Farrell

John O'Farrell is a British author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.-Early life:O’Farrell grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire the youngest of three children, attending Courthouse Primary School and then Desborough Comprehensive...

, Rory McGrath

Rory McGrath

Patrick Rory McGrath is an English comedian and writer. He is best known for roles in Who Dares Wins, Chelmsford 123, Three Men in a Boat and its successors. He was also a regular panellist on They Think It's All Over....

, Bill Nighy

Bill Nighy

William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...

, Matthew Parris

Matthew Parris

Matthew Francis Parris is a UK-based journalist and former Conservative politician.-Early life and family:...

, John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

, Will Self

Will Self

William Woodard "Will" Self is an English novelist and short story writer. His fictional style is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary British life, with regular appearances on Newsnight and Question Time...

, Arthur Smith

Arthur Smith (comedian)

Brian Arthur John Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith...

, Tim Rice

Tim Rice

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...

, Rick Stein

Rick Stein

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE is an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is currently the head chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia, owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and has...

, Tony Slattery

Tony Slattery

Anthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...

, Rick Wakeman

Rick Wakeman

Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...

, Lemn Sissay

Lemn Sissay

Lemn Sissay MBE is an award-winning British author and broadcaster of Ethiopian and Eritrean parents.He is known for performances of his poetry and also with jazz fusion groups. He is a playwright, and has worked on radio and television...

, Don Warrington

Don Warrington

Don Warrington, MBE is a Trinidadian British actor.-Personal life:Warrington was born in Trinidad and Tobago on 23 May 1951 and brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne, England from age five. His father was the Trinidadian politician, Basil Kydd, who died in 1958. He has two sons.His acting career...

 and Des Lynam

Des Lynam

Desmond Michael "Des" Lynam, OBE is an Irish television and radio presenter based in the UK.He has hosted television coverage of high profile events for many years...

. The narrator is Geoffrey Palmer

Geoffrey Palmer (actor)

Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:...

.

Spin-offs

The success of the series spawned Grumpy Old Women

Grumpy Old Women

For the live show, see Grumpy Old Women LiveGrumpy Old Women is a British television series, continuing in the same vein as its predecessor, Grumpy Old Men. Both programmes are shown on BBC Two. The first two series were narrated by Alison Steadman, and the third by Judith Holder...

, first as a Christmas special and then as a full series in 2005. It repeated the formula of the original, featuring famous middle-aged women talking about their pet-hates.

The grumpy old men and women together made a series Grumpy Old Holidays in which they talk about the frustrations of air travel, packing and so on. This first aired on 18 June 2006.

A companion book to the series, written by Stuart Prebble

Stuart Prebble

Stuart Prebble is a former CEO of ITV, Granada Sky Broadcasting and of ITV Digital.Educated at Newcastle University he was producer and editor of the World In Action current affairs series and went on to be Head of Factual Programmes at Granada TV and Controller of Factual Programmes for the ITV...

, Grumpy Old Men (The Official Handbook) was published in 2004, followed by Grumpy Old Men: The Secret Diary in 2005 and Grumpy Old Christmas in 2006, also by Stuart Prebble

Stuart Prebble

Stuart Prebble is a former CEO of ITV, Granada Sky Broadcasting and of ITV Digital.Educated at Newcastle University he was producer and editor of the World In Action current affairs series and went on to be Head of Factual Programmes at Granada TV and Controller of Factual Programmes for the ITV...

. The first series and its accompanying Christmas special was also released on DVD, and an audiobook based on the first two series was also made available, read by Arthur Smith.

Following the success of Grumpy Old Men/Women, the producers, Liberty Bell TV, have made a number of other series based on the same format, including Grumpy Old Holidays, It's Grim Up North, My Appalling School Report, He Says, She Says and The Meaning Of Life. All of these were broadcast on BBC2, except the last-named which aired on BBC1.

The Grumpy Guide to Christmas was shown on BBC2 on 23 December 2009.