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!
GenreComedy
Created byRalph Edwards
Presented byJeremy Beadle
Original languageEnglish
No. of series10
No. of episodes94
Production
ProducersKeith Stewart (1986)
Richard Hearsey (1987)
Production locationThe London Studios
Running time30 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companyLWT in association with Ralph Edwards Productions and Action Time
DistributorITV Studios
Release
Original networkITV
Picture format4:3, PAL 576i
Original release22 November 1986 (1986-11-22) –
21 September 1996 (1996-09-21)
Chronology
Related showsGame 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
SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodes
122 November 1986[4]27 December 1986[5]6
25 September 1987[6]24 October 1987[7]8
322 October 1988[8]17 December 1988[9]9
416 September 1989[10]16 December 1989[11]13
515 September 1990[12]15 December 1990[13]13
622 September 1991[14]1 December 1991[15]10
710 October 199226 December 199210
829 October 199312 February 199410
911 March 199513 May 199510
1029 June 199621 September 199610

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.
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