Caught in the Act

(Inventor)
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== Host ==
== Host ==
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== Broadcast ==
== Broadcast ==
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BBC 1, 10 January to 27 March 1992 (10 episodes)
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Action Time for BBC1, 10 January to 27 March 1992 (10 episodes in 1 series)
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Particularly noted for its highly irritating use of comedy sound effects.
Particularly noted for its highly irritating use of comedy sound effects.
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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
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the early nineties this was the camcorder cock-up show. Although
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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
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Tarrant's Secret Video Show on Sky One. But nobody watched that,
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because it was on Sky One, and by 1992 Beadle had the market sewn
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up. Then the Beeb decided they wanted to muscle in.
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THE HYPE: The promise of some more grandmothers falling arse over
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tit was enough to get most viewers excited, because You've Been
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Framed was such a smash hit, but for what it's worth there were a
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few innovations. The show was produced by Action Time, who also made
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variants on the format in umpteen European countries, so they had
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hundreds of foreign clips on tap, and there was also a game show
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element where the provider of the best clip could win a holiday
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somewhere.
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THE FIRST SHOW: Broadcast on Friday 10th January 1992, Caught In The
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Act was presented by rising star Shane Richie. He was joined by an
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army of "foreign correspondents" on a screen who Shane would banter
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with and who would introduce clips from their own nations, and
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various members of the public – stood behind monitors with stills of
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their clips on – who were aiming to win the big prize. There was
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also about half a dozen clips when they weren't busy talking rubbish.
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THE FIRST CRACKS: Caught In The Act was Shane Richie's first big
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break on telly, and it's fair to say that most people found his
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rather boisterous Brian-Conley's-little-brother-esque stage presence
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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
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the "foreign correspondents" going on for ages, as did the
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competition section which was just a boring waste of time. When the
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clips finally turned up, most of them were rubbish, and worse still,
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the producers clearly decided they weren't funny enough on their
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own, so they were all overdubbed by bloody irritating comedy sound
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effects.
 +
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THE DEPARTURE: There was no departure on this show, or any
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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.
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THE END: It all meant that, come the tenth and final show, while the
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ratings would have justified another series, all the papers were
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pondering whether the Beeb would actually have the balls to
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recommission this derivative rubbish. It just didn't seem the sort
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of show the BBC should be making, especially because it was all
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being done on other channels anyway. Eventually, they decided not to
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give the go-ahead to a second series and simply hoped everyone would
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forget about it – deciding the ratings boost was less important than
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the loss of credibility.
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THE POST-MORTEM: Of course, the pitch for Caught In The Act could be
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summed up in two sentences – "You've Been Framed is popular. Let's
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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
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just Richie's rather overbearing presentation that did for it,
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though, it was the dodgy format that interspersed the clips with
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endless tedious chat, and the crappy sound effects were the icing on
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a shit-tasting cake.
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THE AFTERMATH: Caught In The Act was one of a series of ropey light
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entertainment shows a demoralised BBC Variety department were
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churning out in the early nineties, alongside Tarby's dating pilot
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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
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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
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ITV, with only Big Break managing to cling on for a few more years.
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Meanwhile Shane Richie went off to do Run The Risk and, a few years
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later, quit the Beeb complaining that they were only giving him
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kids' shows. Caught In The Act did live on, though, as some of the
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clips were recycled on a couple of Beeb clip shows in the following
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few years, with those telltale sound effects giving the game away.
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THE VERDICT: Shit from start to finish, Caught In The Act could well
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be the worst programme we've covered in this feature, being a
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shameless and appallingly produced rip-off of a format that the Beeb
 +
shouldn't have been going anywhere near in the first place. It
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serves as a stark reminder of just how poor the BBC's light
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entertainment output was in the early nineties, and its axing is
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perhaps the only thing we should thank John Birt for. But ten
 +
million people watched every episode! Truly, another world.
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-->
== Inventor ==
== Inventor ==
Names have been removed to protect the guilty.
Names have been removed to protect the guilty.
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== Videos ==
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<div class="video"><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uf2U2ACKWaw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uf2U2ACKWaw?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br/>''Here's a full episode that you'd rather forget than remember.''</div>
[[Category:Variety]]
[[Category:Variety]]
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[[Category:Action Time Productions]]

Revision as of 21:31, 8 November 2018

Contents

Host

Shane Richie

Broadcast

Action Time for BBC1, 10 January to 27 March 1992 (10 episodes in 1 series)

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.

Videos


Here's a full episode that you'd rather forget than remember.

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