Delve Special was a UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 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...

 comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 starring Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry

Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...

 as investigative reporter David Lander. It ran for four series from 1984 to 1987, each series being four episodes long. It was written by Tony Sarchet

Tony Sarchet

Tony Sarchet is a British television and radio writer for alternative comedy shows.Sarchet studied chemistry at University College Oxford, where he was a member of the University College Players and wrote a review called Gargoyles at the Oxford Playhouse with John Albery and Graham Wall in 1978.He...

 and produced by Paul Mayhew-Archer

Paul Mayhew-Archer

Paul Mayhew-Archer is a writer, producer and script editor for the BBC.He studied English at Cambridge University after attending Eastbourne College, being a member of Reeves House. He spent his time at school writing plays...

. The first series was wiped by the BBC but has since been found and consisted of a four-part investigation into the proposed building of London's third airport in Shifton, a small village situated 'just to the north east of Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

', and the alleged bribery and corruption that accompanied the choice of location and building contractor.

David Lander's investigative technique was usually somewhere between the questionable and the illegal - during each episode he also displayed some degree of ineptitude or lack of understanding in the subject matter he was reporting on. As a result, he usually found himself being set upon physically by those concerned. The programme heavily spoofed the style of topical radio reporters such as John Waite

John Waite (broadcaster)

John Waite is a presenter on British radio and occasionally television. He has been working at the British Broadcasting Corporation for more than thirty-three years.-Early life:...

 of Face the Facts

Face the Facts

Face the Facts is a consumer affairs programme on BBC Radio 4, featuring investigative journalism, that has been running since the mid-1980s. Currently introduced by John Waite, cousin of the well-known humanitarian and churchman Terry Waite, it usually focuses on individuals or organisations...

and Roger Cook

Roger Cook (journalist)

Roger Cook is an investigative presenter, reporter and broadcaster.- Early life :His parents were New Zealanders, but he was was brought up in Australia, and began his career with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a reporter and newsreader on both radio and television.In 1968, he moved to...

, a Radio 4 presenter who went on to television work such as The Cook Report

The Cook Report

The Cook Report was a British current affairs television programme shown on ITV, produced for the network by Central Television from 1987 to 1998.-History:...

.

Actors appearing in Delve Special included: Tony Robinson

Tony Robinson

Tony Robinson is an English actor, comedian, author, broadcaster and political campaigner. He is best known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder, and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party...

, Felicity Montagu

Felicity Montagu

Felicity Montagu is an English actress, known for her performances in radio and television comedy series and films.Educated at Loughborough University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, Felicity Montagu has played the foil to a series of prominent comedy characters.-Television:Montagu...

, Stephen Frost

Stephen Frost

Stephen Frost , also known as Steve Frost, is an English comedian.Frost is known for his work in the 1980s with Mark Arden as part of the double act The Oblivion Boys on Saturday Live...

, Mark Arden

Mark Arden

Mark Arden is an English comedian and actor, best known for being one half of comic double act "The Oblivion Boys" with Stephen Frost....

, Jack Klaff

Jack Klaff

Jack Klaff is a South African-born actor, writer, director and academic. Klaff has held four visiting professorships at Princeton University and was for four years Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Starlab in Brussels....

, Harry Enfield

Harry Enfield

Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...

, Dawn French, Brenda Blethyn

Brenda Blethyn

Brenda Anne Blethyn, OBE is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...

, Arthur Smith

Arthur Smith (comedian)

Brian Arthur John Smith is an English alternative comedian and writer. He was born in Bermondsey, South London, brother to Richard Smith...

, Janine Duvitski

Janine Duvitski

Janine Duvitski is an English actress, known for her roles as Jane Edwards in Waiting for God and Pippa Trench in One Foot in the Grave. She also created and played the role of Angela in Mike Leigh's play Abigail's Party.-Personal life:Duvitski was born in Nottingham. Her father was Polish...

, Philip Pope

Philip Pope

Philip R. J. Pope is a British composer and actor. He was educated at Downside School and New College, Oxford.-Performer:He appeared in the Oxford Revue in Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1978 and 1979, both with Angus Deayton...

 and Andrew Sachs

Andrew Sachs

Andrew Sachs is a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and is best known for his portrayals of Manuel in Fawlty Towers, a role for which he was BAFTA-nominated, and Ramsay Clegg in Coronation Street.-Early life:Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Katharina , a...

.

A follow-up television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series ran for two series : This is David Lander

This is David Lander

This is David Lander was a TV show that parodies Roger Cook style door-stepping investigative journalism shows, starring Stephen Fry as David Lander and written by Tony Sarchet....

(starring Stephen Fry) in 1988, and This is David Harper (starring Tony Slattery

Tony Slattery

Anthony Declan James "Tony" Slattery is an English actor and comedian who has appeared on British television regularly since the mid 1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? As a film actor, both comedic and serious, his credits include The...

) in 1990 - Fry being unavailable for the second series due to other commitments.

Series 1

Episode #	Title	Original air date

Series 2

Episode #	Title	Original air date

Series 3

Episode #	Title	Original air date

Series 4

Episode #	Title	Original air date

External links

• Delve Special/This Is David Lander/This Is David Harper information at the BBC