BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show fits cosily into the category or genre of satire but with only some of its Swiftian connotations. This is not satire to hurt, or pillory or induce change. It is satire to gently entertain raising some pertinent political and moral questions in the course of entertaining and topically informed audience. It is more like witty after dinner conversation catching up on the more bizarre areas of the week’s news, with...

• Genre: Radio Comedy Satire of the Week’s News / Themes
• Running Time: 30 minutes from an hour live recorded show
• Home Station: BBC Radio 4
• Broadcast: 1998
• Series: 34
• Audience: It is one of Radio 4s most popular shows, with over 1.5 million listeners.

Starring

Hugh Dennis
Steve Punt
Jon Holmes (letters and emails)
Micth Benn (music, like this song King of Twitter)
Marcus Brigstocke (angry monologues)
Laura Shavin (female voices)

Other...

• Genre: Radio Comedy Surreal Sitcom
• Running Time: 30 minutes

• Home Station: Originally BBC London Live, then BBC Radio 4, later BBC 7

• Broadcast: 16 October to the 20 November 2001

• Series: One with six episodes

• Audience: Mainly student age, but 15-30 in the main

Starring

Noel Fielding* Julian Barratt*
Lee Mack
Richard Ayoade
Rich Fulcher* (*Writers)

Other Information

Award: Douglas Adams Award for Innovative Comedy Writing.

The series is...

• Genre: Radio Comedy Panel Game
• Running Time: 30 minutes

• Home Station: BBC Radio 4, with repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC World Service and you can listen to an episode from 1982 on the BBC iPlayer

• First Broadcast: 11 April 1972, only exception to series was 1998 and 2008 (Humph’s illness/ death)

• Series Length: Normally 6 per series, with 1-2 series a year. Series are recorded with two programmes running back to back

• Audience: Over 2...

Introduction

Although TV Comedy is a favourite, many of our top shows started on the radio: Little Britain, Harry Hill’s Fruit Corner and Goodness Gracious Me. It also brings in a range of genres like sketch shows, quiz shows, sit-coms and one-liners with writer-performers like Milton Jones or Miranda Hart. It can be surreal like The Mighty Boosh or traditional like I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue.

Students will need to research this and...

Overview

• GCSE Media Studies Overview

Scheme

• OCR GCSE Media Studies 2012 2-Year SOW.doc

Concepts

• Media Language, Forms and Conventions (Film Language, Genre, Narrative)
• Representation
• Audiences (Targeting, Appeals / Pleasures, Positioning)
• Institution
• Analysis, Production, Evaluation
• Research and Planning, Production, Evaluation

Skills

• Textual Analysis, Communication Skills, Note Taking, Group Work, Identifying & Understanding Action...