Beadle's About

Beadle's About! was a British television programme hosted by Jeremy Beadle, where members of the public became victims of practical jokes behind hidden cameras. It was produced by LWT for ITV, and ran on Saturday nights from 22 November 1986 to 21 September 1996.

Beadle's About!
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Ralph Edwards
Presented by	Jeremy Beadle
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	10
No. of episodes	94
Production
Producer(s)	Keith Stewart (1986) Richard Hearsey (1987)
Production location(s)	The London Studios
Running time	30 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company(s)	LWT in association with Ralph Edwards Productions and Action Time
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	4:3, PAL 576i
Original release	22 November 1986 (1986-11-22) – 21 September 1996 (1996-09-21)
Chronology
Related shows	Game for a Laugh

Format

An example of one of the practical jokes would involve someone's car or van secretly being swapped for an identical one, and then, having a disaster befall it, such as exploding, falling into the sea, or being dropped from a great height, as the owner of the vehicle looked on in horror. After a few minutes, Beadle would appear in disguise (typically, as a policeman or some other figure of authority, and often wearing a fake beard on top of his natural beard), and interact with the shell-shocked and/or irate victim. He would subtly drop more and more hints and would remove his disguise and point a stick microphone at the person. As the public were familiar with Beadle from the earlier show Game for a Laugh, they would then immediately realise they had been had, often with the words "I don't believe it!". A follow up series was entitled 'It's Beadle!' which followed a similar format.[1]

Memorable pranks

One of the most notable pranks was where Dorset resident Janet Elford was convinced into believing that aliens had landed in her garden. Members of the public were set up by a resident team of Beadle's About! actors including: Pam Cole, Ricky Diamond, Tony McHale, Nicholas Young and Flavia Brilli.[2]

Popularity

At its peak, the show attracted approximately 15 million viewers, making it one of ITV's most popular Saturday night programmes during that period.[3]

Profanity bubble

The "Bleep!" or "Oops!" bubble used to block out offensive language was a well known feature from the show. The bubbles were simply clouds with either "Bleep!" or "Oops!" in them, the text being set in Balloon typeface. These were also used to cover up offensive hand gestures as well.

Jeremy once revealed in an interview that during editing, they deliberately inserted "bleeps" where there were no profanities as this made it funnier.

Home media

The first two series of Beadle's About! have been released on DVD by Network.

DVD Title		Discs	Year	Episodes	Release date
					Region 2
	Complete Series 1	1	1986	6	28 March 2011
	Complete Series 2	1	1987	8	2 April 2012

Transmissions

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	22 November 1986[4]	27 December 1986[5]	6
2	5 September 1987[6]	24 October 1987[7]	8
3	22 October 1988[8]	17 December 1988[9]	9
4	16 September 1989[10]	16 December 1989[11]	13
5	15 September 1990[12]	15 December 1990[13]	13
6	22 September 1991[14]	1 December 1991[15]	10
7	10 October 1992	26 December 1992	10
8	29 October 1993	12 February 1994	10
9	11 March 1995	13 May 1995	10
10	29 June 1996	21 September 1996	10

References

1. "Jeremy Beadle: Loved and loathed TV prankster". The Independent. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
2. "Janet Elford". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
3. Martin Hodgson. "Veteran TV joker Jeremy Beadle dies of pneumonia, aged 59". the Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
4. "22 November 1986, 30". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
5. "27 December 1986, 28". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
6. "5 September 1987, 28". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
7. "24 October 1987, 38". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
8. "22 October 1988, 40". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
9. "17 December 1988, 69". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
10. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C&dat=19890916&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
11. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2mus-XyGPC0C&dat=19891216&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
12. "15 September 1990, 65". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
13. "15 December 1990, 63". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
14. "21 September 1991, 76". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
15. "1 December 1991, 96". Retrieved 5 August 2019.

External links

• Beadle's About! at British Comedy Guide.
• Beadle's About! on IMDb.