Newsjack was a British satiricalsketch show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra between 2009 and 2021.[2] It was hosted by Miles Jupp (2009-Mar 2011), Justin Edwards (Sep 2011-2013), Romesh Ranganathan (2014), Nish Kumar (2015-2016),[3]Angela Barnes (2017-2018)[1] and Kiri Pritchard-McLean (2019-2021).[4] It was first broadcast on 4 June 2009.[5] The series was notable for having an "Open door" policy on writing, advertising itself as "the scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public"[6] meaning that unsolicited writers without contract to the BBC could send in material. The show was designed to give new writers an opportunity to get material broadcast. It was hoped by the people behind the show that it would be a modern version of Week Ending, an earlier sketch show which also accepted material the same way.[7] Most shows were recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House.
Format
Each episode of Newsjack began with an introduction from the presenter before the main sketches. The host was joined by a different cast each week - a mixture of experienced sketch performers and new upcoming talent. Previous regular cast members included: Margaret Cabourn-Smith (who also stood in as host for Series 9 Episode 6 when regular host Justin Edwards was unable to attend the recording), Lewis MacLeod, Pippa Evans,[8]Andi Osho and Jess Robinson. Philip Fox appeared in several episodes, whilst Cariad Lloyd and Mike Wozniak have also appeared in the supporting cast.
As well as standalone sketches, the show also featured recurring segments such as Breaking News and Number Crunchers.
Breaking News: A one-liner linked to a current news story.
Number Crunchers: A joke with a statistical set-up and punchline. This segment was introduced in series 16 and has also been referred to as "Number Breakdown" and "Number Crunching".
Writers wishing to submit material for Newsjack were invited to write material for these segments as well as their own sketches not related to them.
Other recurring segments included:
The Newsjack App: Mock answerphone messages. These were designed so that writers can create one-liners and other kinds of quick jokes.
From the Archive: The show looks at a (fictional) programme from the past to see how news stories similar to those of today were covered in the past.
Julia: a woman called Julia has been locked in a room, which symbolises the dark world of petty journalism, e.g.: reporting on the wedding of Zara Philips. As a result, she has become psychotic, longing to see sunlight; upon which the presenter shuts the door on her desperate pleas.
Newsjack Films: Spoof movie trailers.
Celebrity Diary: The cast impersonate a celebrity and see recent events from their viewpoint.
Corrections: At the end of the programme, the cast read out made-up corrections relating to things from the previous episode.
Viewsjack: One-liners in the style of a vox-pop interview answer.
And Finally: A post-credits sequence where the show pretends the current episode is an old show and make jokes about how the world might have changed since the programme went out.
Newsjackpedia: Introduced in series 19. Spoof entries for an online encyclopedia.
The program was recorded in front of a studio audience and broadcast the following day.[9]
Production
Nish Kumar in January 2016
Newsjack, was always intended to be an "Open door" show in terms of writing. However, it first became known in early 2009 when it launched a competition to find new comedy writers for the show. The winners of this competition went on to a masterclass on comedy writing with David Mitchell on 9 March 2009.[10] Although originally Gareth Edwards was intended to be producer for the show, the job of producer eventually went to Tilusha Ghelani and Sam Michell.[5][10] Later producers included Hayley Sterling and Leila Navabi. The show was first broadcast as a pilot on 4 June 2009. This pilot was broadcast first so as to give a guide to new writers about the sort of material that the programme was looking for. The first deadline for new material was 15 June 2009 at noon.[11] While the first series was originally intended to run for ten weeks, this was reduced to the pilot and six episodes, one per week.[10][12][13] In total there were twenty-four series and two compilation episodes: a review of the year episode, broadcast on New Year's Eve 2011, and shortly before series eight, a programme 'Newsjack Revisited' broadcast on Radio 4, featuring the best sketches from previous series seven. The episodes were also available to download as a podcast.[14]
Transmission dates are as follows. The programme is normally broadcast on a Thursday evening on BBC Radio 4 Extra and repeated the following Sunday.
Pilot: 4 June 2009
Series 1: 18 June 2009 – 23 July 2009
Series 2: 7 January 2010 – 11 February 2010
Series 3: 17 June 2010 – 22 July 2010
Series 4: 10 February 2011 – 17 March 2011
Series 5: 15 September 2011 – 20 October 2011
The Newsjack Review of the Year (compilation from series 4 & 5): 31 December 2011
Series 6: 23 February 2012 – 29 March 2012
Series 7: 20 September 2012 – 25 October 2012
Newsjack Revisited (compilation from series 7, broadcast on BBC Radio 4): 13 February 2013
The final episode of series 22 (broadcast on 19 March 2020) was recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre without a studio audience, as the recording was subject to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in England.[18] Series 23 was recorded remotely, without a laugh track. Series 24 is scheduled to be recorded remotely, in front of a Zoom audience.
Awards
Newsjack won the Rose d'Or for best Radio Comedy in 2015.[19]
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