The News at Bedtime
A screenshot of an online trailer for The News at Bedtime featuring Jack Dee (left) as John Tweedledum and Peter Capaldi (right) as Jim Tweedledee.
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| Other names | News at Bedtime |
|---|---|
| Running time | 15 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Starring |
Jack Dee Peter Capaldi Lucy Montgomery Vicki Pepperdine Dan Tetsell Lewis MacLeod Alex MacQueen |
| Written by |
Ian Hislop Nick Newman |
| Produced by | Simon Nicholls |
| Recording studio | Maida Vale Studios |
| Air dates | 24 December 2009 to 31 December 2010 |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Opening theme | A remix of the BBC News theme playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". |
| Website | BBC website |
The News at Bedtime is a satirical comedy series on BBC Radio 4 written by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, writers of the satirical Private Eye magazine. The series is a spoof of news programmes, in particular shows such as The Today Programme, set in "Nurseryland", a place in which all nursery rhymes and children's stories are real. The News at Bedtime stars Jack Dee and Peter Capaldi as the main newsreaders, John Tweedledum and Jim Tweedledee. The series was broadcast over the Christmas period in 2009, from Christmas Eve 2009 to New Year's Day 2010 with a special "Year in Review" episode broadcast on 31 December 2010.
The News at Bedtime is a news programme broadcast from the magical world of Nurseryland, in which nursery rhymes and children's stories are real. The main news readers are John Tweedledum and Jim Tweedledee, who both make it clear that they dislike each other. Tweedledum sees himself as more professional, compared to Tweedledee who likes celebrity culture. Whenever Tweedledum gets annoyed by Tweedledee (or vice versa), he hits him with a toy rattle. The other main contributors to the programme are Mary Mary, the Contrary Correspondent who reports live from news stories; Peter Rabbi who presents the Thought for the Day religious slot; and weather reporter Dilly Dilly.
The News at Bedtime is written by the editor of Private Eye and his close friend and sometime Privaye Eye contributor Nick Newman, and was inspired by a column they had written for the magazine. Newman said of the writing process that when writing for Private Eye, they find a news story and then a nursery rhyme to fit it. However, for the radio series the process was reversed, "because it's timeless, rather than topical (though there is an element of topicality about it)."
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