Bremner, Bird and Fortune
| Bremner, Bird and Fortune | |
|---|---|
Bremner, Bird & Fortune title card
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| Created by | Rory Bremner, John Bird and John Fortune |
| Starring | Rory Bremner, John Bird, John Fortune, Pauline McLynn and Frances Barber |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 85 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (included Television advertisements) |
| Production company(s) | Vera Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | Channel Four |
| Original release | 17 October 1999 – 6 May 2010 |
Bremner, Bird and Fortune is a satirical British television programme produced by Vera Productions for Channel Four, uniting the longstanding satirical team of John Bird and John Fortune ("the Two Johns") with the satirical impressionist Rory Bremner, and had 16 series, followed by several one-off episodes. Fortune died in December 2013, three and a half years after the last episode was broadcast.
Rory Bremner's first television series started in 1986 on BBC Two, which ran for seven series. The BBC gave him his own television series after successful shows at the Edinburgh festival. The series also had input from Jeremy Hardy, Steve Nallon, Steve Brown and Enn Reitel. In 1989 John Bird started to collaborate on the show with John Fortune following suit in 1991. From the fourth series it was renamed The Rory Bremner Show.
In 1993 the series moved to Channel 4, and over the six series the show developed into a more hard-edged, satirical and political show while satirical sketches of The Jerry Springer Show, Ainsley Harriott and sporting personnel was reduced.
By 1999 all non-political sketches were dropped for the show and series was refocused purely on political satire, with a name change.
In 2002, three members of the show's production team, Geoff Atkinson, Steve Connelly and Tristam Shapeero, were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Programme or Series. Bird and Fortune were nominated for a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance in 2001 and Best Comedy Performance in 2002.
In 2003 the episode "At Her Majesty's Pleasure" won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Entertainment.
In October 2004, they published a book based on the show, called You Are Here: A Dossier (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 288 pages, , also available as a paperback from Orion mass market paperback, ). In 2004 Rory Bremner was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Comedy Performance.
In November 2008 a four-part mini series was produced, called Silly Money. The trio looked at the economic downturn, with fewer of the usual sketches and co-stars. The episodes contained many more George Parr sketches than usual. They also included a number of archive clips to further illustrate points and create satire from them based on hindsight.
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