Week Ending... was a satirical

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 radio current affairs sketch show, first 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...

, usually on Friday evenings. It was devised by writer/producers Simon Brett

Simon Brett

Simon Brett is a prolific writer of whodunnits. The son of a chartered surveyor, he was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first-class honours degree in English...

 and David Hatch

David Hatch

Sir David Hatch was involved in production and management at BBC Radio, where he held many executive positions, including Head of Light Entertainment , Controller of BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 and later Managing Director of BBC Radio.- Education :He attended St John's School, Leatherhead and...

, and was originally hosted by Nationwide

Nationwide (TV series)

Nationwide was a BBC News and Current affairs television programme broadcast on BBC One each weekday following the early evening news. It followed a magazine format, combining political analysis and discussion with consumer affairs, light entertainment and sports reporting...

presenter Michael Barratt.

The show's title was always announced as "Week Ending..." followed by the broadcast date, although the ellipsis

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a series of marks that usually indicate an intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole section from the original text being quoted. An ellipsis can also be used to indicate an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence...

 was dropped from its billed title in Radio Times

Radio Times

Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

during the mid-seventies. The show was written and recorded shortly before the first broadcast, and satirised events of the week. Each show concluded with "And now here is Next Week's News", although this collection of one-liners was abandoned in the early-nineties. Short gags were thereafter scattered throughout the show.

Until 1987, Week Ending was taken off the air during election campaigns. As sensitivities eased, it was allowed to remain on air during the 1987, 1992 and 1997 elections, albeit with rigid levels of political balance.

Relatively few editions survive in the BBC archives, and they are rarely repeated. There is an obvious issue of topicality, but this did not prevent annual Year Ending compilations or the re-recording of sketches for a 1989 cassette release.

An extensive history of the series was published by Kaleidoscope on 27 October 2008. Prime Minister, You Wanted To See Me? – A History of Week Ending is written by Ian Greaves & Justin Lewis.

Training ground

Week Ending acted as training ground for a large number of comedy writers, performers and producers. Many young BBC production recruits were given the programme for a month or so in order to get to grips with scripted comedy and working with performers, while the writers' meetings welcomed anyone who cared to wander in off the street. The programme also accepted material by post, fax and e-mail. This open door policy, which it shared with Radio 2's long-running News Huddlines, made it a point of entry for writers who went on to successful careers in British radio and television.

Performers

Regular performers during the run included David Jason

David Jason

Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...

, Bill Wallis

Bill Wallis

Bill Wallis is a British character actor and comedian who has appeared in numerous radio and television roles, as well as in the theatre....

, Nigel Rees

Nigel Rees

Nigel Rees is an English author and presenter, best known for devising and hosting the Radio 4 long running panel game Quote.....

, David Tate, Jon Glover

Jon Glover

Jon Glover is a British actor. He has appeared in various television programmes including Play School, Survivors, the Management consultant in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Casualty, Bodger and Badger and Peak Practice....

, Sheila Steafel

Sheila Steafel

Sheila Steafel is a South African-born actress who has lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom.Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, appeared in many classic television series, including: The Frost Report, Z-Cars, Sykes, The Kenny Everett Television Show, Minder, The Ghosts of Motley Hall,...

, Alison Steadman

Alison Steadman

Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...

, Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman

Tracey Ullman is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author ....

, Toby Longworth

Toby Longworth

Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath...

, Dave Lamb

Dave Lamb

Dave Lamb is a British actor and voice-over artist best known for his work on Come Dine with Me as well as appearances in British television and radio programmes, especially comedy programmes. He also currently presents the CBBC game show Horrible Histories: Gory Games.- Early work :Lamb's first...

, Chris Emmett

Chris Emmett

Chris Emmett is a British actor and comedian best known for his work in the late 1970s on the BBC Radio 4 comedy The Burkiss Way. He was a regular on various series starring Roy Hudd, including The News Huddlines, The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Huddwinks and Crowned Hudds...

 and Sally Grace

Sally Grace

Sally Grace is a British actress who has worked extensively in radio and animation.She was a long-standing member of the team on Week Ending, the long-running BBC Radio 4 topical satirical sketch show, where she was the voice of Margaret Thatcher from 1983 onwards, and her work with Ken Bruce on...

.

For several months during 1997, Week Ending carried a musical number written by Gerard Foster and performed by Richie Webb

Richie Webb

Richie Webb is an award-winning British comedy writer, actor and composer. He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School.As a writer and performer, he is perhaps best known for his work on BBC Radio 4 comedy programmes...

. This broke a lengthy hiatus for musical content, which until 1982 had involved Bill McGuffie

Bill McGuffie

Bill McGuffie was a highly experienced pianist who went on to become a film composer and conductor. He also made several television appearances before this, most notably in Softly, Softly as a pub pianist....

, David Firman and Steve Brown

Steve Brown (composer)

Steve Brown is a British composer.He wrote the book and lyrics and composed the score for Spend Spend Spend, which chronicled Viv Nicholson's rise and fall after winning a fortune in the football pools in the early 1960s....

.

Writers

Script contributors included Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton

Andrew Neil Hamilton is a British comedian, game show panellist, television director, comedy screenwriter and radio dramatist.-Early life:...

, Mark Burton

Mark Burton

Richard Mark Burton is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party. He served as Minister of Defence; Minister of Justice; Minister of Local Government; Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations; Deputy Leader of the House; and the Minister Responsible for the Law...

, 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...

, Terence Dackombe, Guy Jenkin

Guy Jenkin

Guy Jenkin is a comedy writer who is best known for working on sitcoms and comedies such as Drop the Dead Donkey, Jeffrey Archer: The Truth and Outnumbered...

, Bridget Leathley, Ged Parsons, Andy Riley

Andy Riley

Andy Riley is a British author, cartoonist, comics scriptwriter, and television screenwriter.Riley has written several best-selling cartoon books, The Book of Bunny Suicides , Return of the Bunny Suicides, The Bumper Book of Bunny Suicides, Dawn of the Bunny Suicides, Great Lies To Tell Small...

, Kevin Cecil

Kevin Cecil

Kevin Robert Cecil is a British screenwriter.Writing alongside Andy Riley , he has won two BAFTA awards, the first for writing the Comic Relief one-off special, Robbie the Reindeer, in 2000, and the second for Black Books in 2005...

, 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...

, D.A. Barham

Debbie Barham

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Barham was an English comedy writer who died at the age of 26 of heart failure caused by a long struggle with anorexia....

, 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...

, Julian Dutton

Julian Dutton

Julian Dutton is an English comedy writer and performer, principally for television and radio, whose work has won a British Comedy Award and a BAFTA....

, Harry Hill

Harry Hill

Harry Hill , is a Perrier Award–winning English comedian, author and television presenter. A former medical doctor , Hill began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.-Personal life:Hill was born in Woking,...

, Al Murray

Al Murray

Alastair James Hay "Al" Murray , is a British comedian best known for his stand-up persona, The Pub Landlord, a stereotypical xenophobic public house licensee. In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy...

, Ben Moor, Tony Lee

Tony Lee

Tony Lee is a British comics writer, screenwriter, audio playwright and novelist.-Early life:Lee was born in Hayes, Middlesex in England...

, Rich Johnston

Rich Johnston

Rich Johnston is a writer who writes about the comic book industry.-Early life:Johnston grew up in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, studied politics at University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and was an advertising copywriter until 2009; he currently lives in Kingston Vale, London, with his wife, Janice...

, Lee Barnett, Graeme Sutherland

Graeme Sutherland

Graeme Sutherland is a free-lance writer, mainly specialising in broadcast comedy.He has contributed to the BBC Radio 4 satirical sketch show Week Ending and three series of the BBC Scotland TV comedy The Karen Dunbar Show....

, Kim Morrissey

Kim Morrissey

Kim Morrissey is a Canadian poet and playwright who lives in London, England. Many of her works examine the role of women in nineteenth century culture, re-imagining the lives of historical figures. She is also part of the Comedy Collective UK...

, Barry Pilton

Barry Pilton

Barry Pilton is a travel writer, radio and television comedy scriptwriter and novelist. He was educated in Dulwich College and King's College London. In 1967-8 he taught English in Paris and from 1969 worked as a journalist on the Sunday Post, becoming a freelance writer in 1976...

, Mark Griffiths

Mark Griffiths

Mark Griffiths is a British musician famous for touring with Neil Innes in his touring ensemble of the fictional Beatles parody The Rutles where he performs Rutles songs and other songs from his career such as his songs from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He also plays with Cliff Richard's backing...

, Ivan Shakespeare

Ivan Shakespeare

Ivan Shakespeare was a British comedy writer. A commissioned writer on the BBC Radio 4 show Week Ending, Shakespeare was also commissioned to pen the radio comedy series, A Square of One's Own, and the BBC political satire show Bremner, Bird and Fortune.He died in his fifties from a...

, Alan Stafford

Alan Stafford

Alan Stafford is an American pornographic actor. He has appeared in over 130 movies since 2006, and won the 2008 AVN Award for Best Male Newcomer. He has also modelled for Playgirl magazine.- External links :...

, Barry Atkins, 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...

, Martin Smith

Martin Smith

Martin Smith may refer to:*Martin Smith , British professor of robotics at the Open University*Martin Smith , British actor, singer and composer*Martin Smith , Irish boxer...

, Will Adams, Colin Bostock Smith, Peter Hickey John Random and Martin Curtis

Martin Curtis

Martin Curtis is a leading New Zealand folksinger and songwriter. Born in Great Britain on February 7, 1944, he came to New Zealand in 1964. In 1976, he and his wife Kay went to Wanaka in Central Otago in the South Island to manage a youth hostel in the town for two weeks. They loved the place, and...

Producers

Amongst the producers were John Lloyd

John Lloyd (writer)

John Hardress Wilfred Lloyd CBE is a British comedy writer and television producer. He is the great nephew of John Hardress Lloyd.-Early life and career:...

, Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams

Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...

, Dave Tyler

Dave Tyler

Dave Tyler is an American attorney, who was elected Director Emeritus in 2007 after serving 32 years USA Hockey's Board of Directors. He served the last 25 of them as the Vice President...

, Harry Thompson

Harry Thompson

Harry William Thompson was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer....

, Gareth Edwards

Gareth Edwards (producer)

Gareth Edwards is a radio and television producer and writer. He is the great-grandson of Hollywood pioneer Albert E. Smith, founder of Vitagraph Studios.TV and Radio Career...

, 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....

, Jon Magnusson

Jon Magnusson (producer)

Jon Magnusson is a British producer, writer and director. Magnusson produced several episodes of the radio panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, the first series of The Graham Norton Show, and several episodes of the political satire impressionist show Bremner, Bird and Fortune.Magnusson has also...

, Geoffrey Perkins

Geoffrey Perkins

Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a comedy producer, writer and performer, and an important figure in British comedy broadcasting. This was recognised in December 2008 when he was awarded with an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award...

, Alan Nixon, Griff Rhys Jones

Griff Rhys Jones

Griffith "Griff" Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian, writer, actor, television presenter and personality. Jones came to national attention in the early 1980s for his work in the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones along with his comedy partner Mel Smith...

, Sarah Smith, Diane Messias, Maria Esposito and Adam Tandy

Adam Tandy

Adam Tandy is a British television producer and director, perhaps best known for his collaborations with Armando Iannucci. As such, he has worked on The Saturday Night Armistice, The Armando Iannucci Shows, Time Trumpet and most recently The Thick of It. He recently moved into film producing with...

. There were over 40 in all.

Theme tune

From the early 1980s, the theme tune was a loop of the instrumental section of The Associates' 1982 hit "Party Fears Two", which replaced the original 'whistled' flute piece, "Smokey Joe". Over the years, the tune changed a number of times – totalling four pieces, the third debuting in 1993 and the fourth in 1997 – but the final edition in 1998 finished with the original (each of the others having been heard briefly as imitations of the prime ministers who'd been in office when they were introduced – Blair, Major, Thatcher and Wilson – insisted on using the 'correct' theme).

Tie-ins

Series writers Ian Brown and James Hendrie wrote a book based on the series, The Cabinet Leaks (1985). "Ten Years With Maggie", a cassette compilation of sketches written during Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister, emerged in 1989.

World Service version

During the 1980s and 1990s the BBC World Service

BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

broadcast a highlights programme once a month. This would cherry pick from Week Ending episodes transmitted during the previous four weeks, more usually items that could easily be understood by an international audience. This was broadcast by the World Service, usually on the last Friday of the month, under the title of "Two Cheers for [month] ". For many years, there was also an annual highlights show, akin to Year Ending, called "Two Cheers for 1982" (etc.).

External links

• from "The Encyclopedia of Radio British Radio Comedy"
• Kaleidoscope – Publisher of Week Ending book