Bigipedia
The Bigipedia logo
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| Other names | Bigipedia 2.0 |
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| Genre | Sketch show |
| Running time | 28 minutes |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Starring |
Nick Doody Ewan Bailey Sam Battersea Margaret Cabourn-Smith Neil Edmond Pippa Evans Kobna Holdbrook-Smith Melanie Hudson Lewis MacLeod Gareth Tunley |
| Created by | Nick Doody |
| Written by | Nick Doody Matt Kirshen Carey Marx Sarah Morgan Margaret Cabourn-Smith Neil Edmond |
| Directed by | David Tyler |
| Produced by | David Tyler |
| Original release | 23 July 2009 – 2 August 2011 |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Website | Bigipedia homepage |
Critics have given Bigipedia positive reviews. The series was marketed by the BBC as "The Sunday Format for the online age", and critics have given Bigipedia favourable comparisons with its predecessor. The quality of the writing has also been praised. However, a few critics have expressed reservations about the way the show is presented. The first series of Bigipedia was made available to purchase as a download from Audible.co.uk from 1 December 2009. The second series was made available to purchase as a download from AudioGo from 5 December 2011.
The first series ended with Bigipedia attempting to take over the world, having crushed a rebellion in the Philippines and feeding nanobots into the heads of anyone listening to the programme. At the start of the second series, Bigipedia acknowledges that the original Bigipedia, dubbed Bigipedia 1.0 suffered from "security and sentient omniscience issues" and apologises for, "the temporary cyber enslavement of 88% of mankind and the forming of a BigiHuman hybrid hivemind centred in the Philippines", in an incident they refer to as "The Glitch". The site has been updated and is now known as Bigipedia 2.0.
The second series begins with reports of a gigantic Chianto slick in the Gulf of Mexico, a parody of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At the end of the series, a mix of white and red Chianto in the slick result in the creation of a Chianto "ovum", which hatches at the bottom of the sea as a monstrous party-animal being called the Chianto Leviathan, which makes its way to the Bigipedia servers in Mexico. The Leviathan attempts to gain all the world's knowledge by accessing the system. The programme ends with Bigipedia playing "prerecorded programmes" while they attempt to stop the Leviathan.
The series was originally conceived by Doody, who was working with producer David Tyler on another BBC Radio 4 comedy series, Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive. Doody attended a meeting where people were discussing new ideas for radio shows, and Kirshen suggested the idea, and both he and Kirshen wrote the full proposal. Radio 4 liked the idea and a pilot was made. Tyler went on to produce and direct Bigipedia.
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