Fonejacker

Fonejacker
Series 1 DVD or 'Doovdé' Cover
Written by	Ed Tracy Kayvan Novak
Directed by	Ed Tracy Kayvan Novak
Starring	Kayvan Novak
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	14 + 2 Christmas specials (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	23 min per episode
Release
Original network	E4
Original release	9 May 2006 – 22 October 2008, 6 May 2010 & 22 August 2012 (one-off)
Chronology
Followed by	Facejacker
External links
Website

Fonejacker is a British comedy programme broadcast on E4 featuring a series of prank calls involving a number of different characters performed by British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak. It first appeared in May 2006 and became a full series in 2007.

In 2005 Kayvan Novak and Ed Tracy created, wrote and directed Fonejacker, a prank call show, as part of Channel 4 Comedy Lab. After making the pilot together they were given a Christmas special and a six-part series which began airing in the UK on 5 July 2007 on E4 and lasted 6 episodes. They went on to make a second series which began airing on 17 September 2008 on E4, and started on Channel 4 on 6 November 2008. Kayvan Novak said that he was "not sure there will be a third series of Fonejacker" but despite this, several websites reported in October 2009 that a third series would air in May 2010.

In November 2009, the third series was officially announced, with the news that it would be called "Fonejacker 3D" and feature Kayvan Novak portraying both old and new Fonejacker characters face-to-face in the public domain. Renamed Facejacker, the new show began airing on 16 April 2010.

Fonejacker won the BAFTA award for the "Best Comedy Programme" in 2008. Novak plans to create a film based on the show's characters, and is currently in talks with Film4 and Hat Trick Productions.

The show features a masked prank caller (Kayvan Novak) who phones unsuspecting members of the public under various guises, in an attempt to confuse or 'wind up' the recipient. The audio is accompanied by on-screen imagery, consisting of pictures of people animated in a similar style to Terry Gilliam's work with Monty Python, in which their mouths move in an up and down motion, in time with the words spoken, or by undercover filming in which Novak is in a street calling a company nearby, usually from inside a public phone booth or from a rickshaw. Occasionally short videos with actors are used instead of images; examples include a sketch where a man is robbing a bank, or one where men in hazmat suits are removing a pigeon from a bank vault. Novak is always seen wearing a red and white balaclava (black in the Pilot) and sunglasses. In a new pilot for series 2, he is seen wearing a woolly hat with the initials G.P.R. and a black Mitre Premier League coat. Although Novak's appearance is not seen as the Fonejacker, he appears during Mr Doovdé's calls as a model advertising various items.