Caught in the Act
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[[Category:Variety]] | [[Category:Variety]] | ||
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+ | <!-- Source material to work into the main article at a later date: | ||
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+ | THE CONCEPT: Every so often a broadcaster stumbles across a winning | ||
+ | concept that everyone then decides to shamelessly rip-off, and in | ||
+ | the early nineties this was the camcorder cock-up show. Although | ||
+ | You've Been Framed was the first show on telly to consist of home | ||
+ | videos and nothing but, it only ran as specials for the first year | ||
+ | and the first regular weekly series devoted to them was Chris | ||
+ | Tarrant's Secret Video Show on Sky One. But nobody watched that, | ||
+ | because it was on Sky One, and by 1992 Beadle had the market sewn | ||
+ | up. Then the Beeb decided they wanted to muscle in. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE HYPE: The promise of some more grandmothers falling arse over | ||
+ | tit was enough to get most viewers excited, because You've Been | ||
+ | Framed was such a smash hit, but for what it's worth there were a | ||
+ | few innovations. The show was produced by Action Time, who also made | ||
+ | variants on the format in umpteen European countries, so they had | ||
+ | hundreds of foreign clips on tap, and there was also a game show | ||
+ | element where the provider of the best clip could win a holiday | ||
+ | somewhere. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE FIRST SHOW: Broadcast on Friday 10th January 1992, Caught In The | ||
+ | Act was presented by rising star Shane Richie. He was joined by an | ||
+ | army of "foreign correspondents" on a screen who Shane would banter | ||
+ | with and who would introduce clips from their own nations, and | ||
+ | various members of the public – stood behind monitors with stills of | ||
+ | their clips on – who were aiming to win the big prize. There was | ||
+ | also about half a dozen clips when they weren't busy talking rubbish. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE FIRST CRACKS: Caught In The Act was Shane Richie's first big | ||
+ | break on telly, and it's fair to say that most people found his | ||
+ | rather boisterous Brian-Conley's-little-brother-esque stage presence | ||
+ | something of an acquired taste, as he shouted all his lines, laughed | ||
+ | at his own jokes and bullied the hapless punters. Richie dominated | ||
+ | the show from beginning to end, with his excruciating banter with | ||
+ | the "foreign correspondents" going on for ages, as did the | ||
+ | competition section which was just a boring waste of time. When the | ||
+ | clips finally turned up, most of them were rubbish, and worse still, | ||
+ | the producers clearly decided they weren't funny enough on their | ||
+ | own, so they were all overdubbed by bloody irritating comedy sound | ||
+ | effects. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE DEPARTURE: There was no departure on this show, or any | ||
+ | rescheduling, because unlike every other show we've detailed so far | ||
+ | in this feature – er, apart from the Big Night, if Brucie's looking | ||
+ | in – it was actually a huge hit. The first show pulled in thirteen | ||
+ | million viewers, and throughout the run never dropped below ten | ||
+ | million, which illustrates how much people wanted to see this sort | ||
+ | of thing. But if the ratings were huge, the critical acclaim | ||
+ | certainly wasn't, with the world and his wife appalled by its vulgar | ||
+ | presentation, crappy format and shameless plagiarism of an ITV | ||
+ | concept. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE END: It all meant that, come the tenth and final show, while the | ||
+ | ratings would have justified another series, all the papers were | ||
+ | pondering whether the Beeb would actually have the balls to | ||
+ | recommission this derivative rubbish. It just didn't seem the sort | ||
+ | of show the BBC should be making, especially because it was all | ||
+ | being done on other channels anyway. Eventually, they decided not to | ||
+ | give the go-ahead to a second series and simply hoped everyone would | ||
+ | forget about it – deciding the ratings boost was less important than | ||
+ | the loss of credibility. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE POST-MORTEM: Of course, the pitch for Caught In The Act could be | ||
+ | summed up in two sentences – "You've Been Framed is popular. Let's | ||
+ | just rip that off." Sadly they did so with as little effort as | ||
+ | possible, and indeed many critics were amazed to see that a series | ||
+ | fronted by Jeremy Beadle was actually the quality option. It wasn't | ||
+ | just Richie's rather overbearing presentation that did for it, | ||
+ | though, it was the dodgy format that interspersed the clips with | ||
+ | endless tedious chat, and the crappy sound effects were the icing on | ||
+ | a shit-tasting cake. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE AFTERMATH: Caught In The Act was one of a series of ropey light | ||
+ | entertainment shows a demoralised BBC Variety department were | ||
+ | churning out in the early nineties, alongside Tarby's dating pilot | ||
+ | Old Flames (which suffered the indignity of the BBC announcing "on | ||
+ | reflection, it is not a programme the BBC1 controller feels he would | ||
+ | be proud to have on his channel"), Bobby Davro's archaic Rock With | ||
+ | Laughter and Marti Caine's final awful shows Joker In The Pack and | ||
+ | Your Best Shot. This sort of thing could never last in the Birt-era | ||
+ | BBC and the Corporation decided this type of show was best left to | ||
+ | ITV, with only Big Break managing to cling on for a few more years. | ||
+ | Meanwhile Shane Richie went off to do Run The Risk and, a few years | ||
+ | later, quit the Beeb complaining that they were only giving him | ||
+ | kids' shows. Caught In The Act did live on, though, as some of the | ||
+ | clips were recycled on a couple of Beeb clip shows in the following | ||
+ | few years, with those telltale sound effects giving the game away. | ||
+ | |||
+ | THE VERDICT: Shit from start to finish, Caught In The Act could well | ||
+ | be the worst programme we've covered in this feature, being a | ||
+ | shameless and appallingly produced rip-off of a format that the Beeb | ||
+ | shouldn't have been going anywhere near in the first place. It | ||
+ | serves as a stark reminder of just how poor the BBC's light | ||
+ | entertainment output was in the early nineties, and its axing is | ||
+ | perhaps the only thing we should thank John Birt for. But ten | ||
+ | million people watched every episode! Truly, another world. | ||
+ | |||
+ | --> |
Revision as of 14:19, 3 April 2008
Synopsis
The BBC's "me-too!" answer to ITV's vastly successful You've Been Framed!, this never really took off.
People sent in their home videos, people representing nine of the videos faced off in three semi-finals of sorts with the audience voting on their favourite. They then, we think, voted on an ultimate winner from the three heats with a prize going to the winner.
Particularly noted for its highly irritating use of comedy sound effects.
Inventor
Names have been removed to protect the guilty.