On the Hour was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 programme that parodied

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 between 1991 and 1992.

Written by Chris Morris

Chris Morris (satirist)

Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye, as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter.In 2010 Morris...

, Armando Iannucci

Armando Iannucci

Armando Giovanni Iannucci is a Scottish comedian, satirist, writer, director, performer and radio producer. Born in Glasgow, he studied at Oxford University and left graduate work on a PhD about John Milton to pursue a career in comedy....

, Steven Wells

Steven Wells

Steven Wells was a British journalist, author, comedian and notable punk poet born in Swindon, Wiltshire. He is best remembered for ranting poetry and his provocative, unapologetic music journalism. In June 2006, he wrote in the Philadelphia Weekly about his treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma...

, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee

Stewart Lee

Stewart Lee is an English stand-up comedian, writer and director known for being one half of the 1990s comedy duo Lee and Herring, and for co-writing and directing the critically acclaimed and controversial stage show Jerry Springer - The Opera...

, Richard Herring

Richard Herring

Richard Keith Herring is a British comedian and writer, whose early work includes his involvement in the double-act, Lee and Herring...

 and David Quantick

David Quantick

David Quantick is a freelance journalist, writer and critic who specialises in music and comedy.-Career history:...

, it starred Morris as the overzealous and self-important principal anchor (for which he used his own full name). He was accompanied by a regular cast of Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan

Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

, Patrick Marber

Patrick Marber

Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...

, David Schneider

David Schneider (actor)

David Schneider is an English actor and comedian.Schneider studied modern languages at the University of Oxford, and studied for a DPhil in Yiddish Drama. During his time at university, Schneider performed a predominantly physical comedy act that contrasted with the trend towards stand-up comedy...

, Doon Mackichan

Doon Mackichan

Doon Mackichan is an English comedienne and actress.-Biography:Born in London, Mackichan was brought up in Surrey until the age of 9 when she moved with her family to Upper Largo, Fife. She is a graduate of Manchester University...

 and Rebecca Front

Rebecca Front

Rebecca Front is a BAFTA Award–winning English comedian and actress best known for her performances in The Thick of It in the late 2000s, and series of critically acclaimed satirical comedies in the early 1990s: On The Hour, The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You...with Alan Partridge...

, who portrayed assorted news reporters, presenters and interviewees. The programme also featured the very first appearance of Coogan's character Alan Partridge

Alan Partridge

Alan Gordon Partridge is a fictional radio and television presenter portrayed by English comedian Steve Coogan and invented by Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Stewart Lee and Richard Herring for the BBC Radio 4 programme On The Hour...

 as the Sportsdesk reporter.

As in much of Morris' work, surrealism was an important part of the programme, the nonsense in the content ("De-frocked cleric eats car park", "Borrowed dog finds Scotland", etc) delivered in the same straight-faced manner with which contemporary news stories are dealt, and it has often been quoted that Morris' initial intention was indeed to show how the public would believe anything if it was delivered with a straight-face. It did fool many people, with some listeners ringing in to complain about how the anchor treated his guests. The programme also utilised editing of out-of-context sound-clips and prank phone calls, heightening its surreal quality.

The satirical edge was equally significant, both the references within news programmes to the fact that they are reporting the news and repeating the show's title as well as such aspects as newsspeak, media-manipulation, exploitation of tragedies, patronising mistreatment of the general public, lack of fact-checking - personified by Marber's Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan - and the general assumption that the programme itself is infallible ("On the Hour — Towards a New Eden"). Also satirised were party political broadcasts, chummy yet vacuous radio DJs (in the form of Morris' Wayne Carr), religious broadcasting, glossy magazines, 'fun' local events, local radio, youth information shows, Radio Four plays, Royal ceremonies and even satirical comedies that don't hit the mark - as well as the absurdities of life.

Twelve episodes were made (including a Christmas special, of which two versions exist) and broadcast in 1991 and 1992. The team (minus Lee and Herring due to creative/legal disputes, who were replaced by Peter Baynham

Peter Baynham

Peter Baynham is a screenwriter and a British comedian, writer, and performer. He often collaborates with Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and has worked with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. He is first heard on Morris' early radio DJ slots, often going out to places...

 and Father Ted

Father Ted

Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

 writers Graham Linehan

Graham Linehan

Graham Linehan is an Irish television writer, actor, comedian and director who, often in partnership with Arthur Mathews, has written or co-written a number of popular television comedies...

 and Arthur Mathews

Arthur Mathews (writer)

Arthur Mathews is an Irish comedy writer and actor who, often with writing partner Graham Linehan, has either written or contributed to a number of popular television comedies, most notably Father Ted. He is a graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology...

) subsequently made a television series loosely based on it called The Day Today

The Day Today

The Day Today is a surreal British parody of television current affairs programmes, broadcast in 1994, and created by the comedians Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris. It is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992...

. The final programme closed with Morris introducing a set of headlines with the line "And there is still just time to part the beef curtains on tomorrow's news".

Due to the aforementioned dispute with Lee and Herring, the show was initially only commercially available (on audio cassette

Compact Cassette

The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

) as a two-hour audio compilation, edited down from the seven hours of both series and specials, which removed all traces of their writing.

Like many BBC Radio comedies, On the Hour has been repeated on BBC Radio 7 although most of these deviate from the original broadcast versions. Two episodes from Series One are regularly aired in their 30-minute form, being extended repeats from 1991, while Series Two transmissions are based on the edited repeats for BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

. The penultimate episode of Series Two has not been repeated on BBC7. Off-air recordings of the original programmes are, however, available through file-sharing and torrent sites.

Both series were released as two audio CD boxed sets on 24 November 2008 by Warp Records

Warp Records

Warp, commonly referred to as Warp Records, is a pioneering independent British record label, founded in Sheffield in 1989, notable for discovering some of the more enduring artists in electronic music....

. Both series can also be purchased on iTunes.

External links

• On the Hour on BBC Radio 7
• On the Hour on BBC Comedy
• Full episode guide
• British Comedy Guide