Bellamy's People, also known as Bellamy's People of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is a British comedy show first broadcast on BBC 2 as an eight episode series. The show is a spin off from the BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 show Down the Line. The show stars Rhys Thomas

Rhys Thomas (comedian)

Rhys Thomas is an English comedian and actor.-Career:His breakthrough came while working as a runner on Shooting Stars, when he showed Charlie Higson and Bob Mortimer some sketches he had performed in college...

 as the eponymous Gary Bellamy and features Charlie Higson

Charlie Higson

Charles Murray Higson , more commonly known as Charlie Higson - also Switch - is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer...

, Paul Whitehouse

Paul Whitehouse

Paul Whitehouse is a Welsh actor, writer and comedian. He became known for his work with Harry Enfield and as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show, The Fast Show. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was in the top 50 comedy acts voted for by comedians and comedy insiders...

, Simon Day

Simon Day

Simon Day is a British comedian most famous for his roles in the sketch show The Fast Show, sitcom Grass and a series of comedic adverts for Powergen.-Life and career:...

, Felix Dexter

Felix Dexter

Felix Dexter is an actor, comedian, and writer living in the U.K..-Early life:Dexter was born in St Kitts in the Caribbean, and moved to London with his family at the age of seven.-Radio:...

, Amelia Bullmore

Amelia Bullmore

Amelia Bullmore is an English actress and writer. She was born in London and studied drama at the University of Manchester. Bullmore started working as an actor but turned to writing in 1995...

, Lucy Montgomery

Lucy Montgomery (actor)

Lucy Montgomery is an English comedian, actress and writer, best known for her radio and television work.Montgomery is married to fellow comedian Rhys Thomas; they have two daughters – Polly and Rosie Rae – and live in London.-Career:While at Cambridge University, Montgomery was a member of...

, Adil Ray

Adil Ray

Adil Ray is a British radio and television presenter, and actor born 26 April 1974 in Birmingham, England.- Background :Adil Ray is of Pakistani and Kenyan origin. He began his career as a radio host on a pirate radio station in Huddersfield while studying at the University of Huddersfield and...

 & Robert Popper

Robert Popper

Robert Popper is a BAFTA winning comedy producer, writer and actor, best known as co-creator of the mock BBC documentary Look Around You, in which he also plays the part of Jack Morgan...

 as a host of characters.

Production

Down the Line was a spoof radio chat show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 2006 and 2009 which satirised populist radio phone in shows. Following its success writers Higson and Whitehouse looked to transfer the format to television, however it was apparent that the phone in format wouldn't work and instead decided to satirise the celebrity

Celebrity

A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

 travelogue

Travel documentary

A travel documentary is a documentary film or television program that describes travel in general or tourist attractions in a non-commercial way....

 such as David Dimbleby's

David Dimbleby

David Dimbleby is a British BBC TV commentator and a presenter of current affairs and political programmes, most notably the BBC's flagship political show Question Time, and more recently, art, architectural history and history series...

 How We Built Britain

How We Built Britain

How We Built Britain was a series of six television documentaries produced by the BBC in 2007 and repeated in 2008. The series was written and presented by broadcaster David Dimbleby...

and Alan Titchmarsh's

Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Fred Titchmarsh, MBE DL is an English gardener, broadcaster and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a garden journalist, he established himself as a media personality through appearances on gardening programmes...

 British Isles - A Natural History

British Isles - A Natural History

British Isles – A Natural History is an eight-part documentary series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and presented by Alan Titchmarsh...

. In the show radio talk show host Gary Bellamy travels around Britain in his Triumph Stag

Triumph Stag

The Triumph Stag is a British car that was sold between 1970 and 1978 by the Triumph Motor Company, styled by the Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti.-Design and styling:...

 'personality vehicle' meeting the people of Britain and trying to find out what makes them tick. The show's working title was Bellamy's Kingdom.

The show is Higson and Whitehouse's first television appearance together since Swiss Toni

Swiss Toni

Swiss Toni is a fictional used-car dealer played by Charlie Higson, and also the title of a sitcom in which he is the main character. Swiss Toni is a 50-something car dealer going through a midlife crisis. To Toni almost any situation in life is best understood as being "like making love to a...

in 2004.

On 13 May 2010, the BBC announced that they would not be commissioning a second series of Bellamy's People.

Reception

The first and second episodes gained 1.2 million viewers, a 6% and 5% audience share respectively.

Spin-offs

In April 2010, ahead of the UK General Election

General election

In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

, the self styled community Leader Mr Kahn (Adil Ray

Adil Ray

Adil Ray is a British radio and television presenter, and actor born 26 April 1974 in Birmingham, England.- Background :Adil Ray is of Pakistani and Kenyan origin. He began his career as a radio host on a pirate radio station in Huddersfield while studying at the University of Huddersfield and...

) began broadcasting his own comedy videos commenting on the election, the main political parties and UK politics

Politics of the United Kingdom

The politics of the United Kingdom takes place within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government...

in general.