The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle
| The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle | |
|---|---|
Opening titles
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by |
Jennifer Saunders Tanya Byron |
| Starring | Jennifer Saunders as Vivienne Vyle |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jon Plowman |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 4 October – 8 November 2007 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle is a British sitcom that was originally aired on BBC 2 in 2007. The programme was written and created by Jennifer Saunders and Tanya Byron. The show stars Saunders as the title character of the talk show host, a caricature of Jeremy Kyle and other talk show hosts.
The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle is described as a black comedy and a show-within-a-show, following both the on-screen and off-screen life of fictional TV host Vivienne Vyle, played by Jennifer Saunders. The programme follows the life of Vyle as she tries to balance her newly ascendant fame with her personal life. The BBC described the show as "Ab Fab meets The Larry Sanders Show with quite a bit of Ricki Lake and Oprah thrown in".
In a similar vein to confessional-style shows such as The Jerry Springer Show and Trisha, Vyle's show has episodes dedicated to raunchy and sensationalistic themes such as "My son calls the wrong man daddy" and "I want a vagina but can't kick the crack!". Vyle's name is a spoof on Jeremy Kyle, whose mannerisms and style of show are both parodied by Saunders' portrayal of Vyle.
The series is co-written with psychologist Tanya Byron, who originally came up with the idea and approached Saunders. Producer Jo Sargent stated: "She presented the idea for a comedy on the subject to Saunders, the aim being a black comedy with pop psychology at the root".
The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle revolves around Vivienne Vyle, a former weather presenter and presenter on TV-am, who now has her own talk show. Desperate for success, she is encouraged by the show's ambitious producer Helena De'Wend, who also owns her own production company. Helena is always trying to improve ratings, and her child only speaks Spanish as the nanny spends more time with him than with his mother. Vivienne's husband is Jared, who is gay and loves karaoke. Her PR adviser is the transsexual Miriam, for whom Jared has an intense dislike. Vivienne's main rival is Chris Connor, who unlike Vyle has a good rapport with his audience.
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