It’s Been a Bad Week is a British

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...

 radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 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...

 on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

, first broadcast on 11 February 1999. It is presented by Steve Punt

Steve Punt

Stephen Punt is a British writer, comedian and actor, best known for his long-time comedy partnership with Hugh Dennis. Punt lives in Wimbledon with his girlfriend and two children.-Life and career:...

 and Hugh Dennis

Hugh Dennis

Peter Hugh Dennis is an English actor, comedian, writer, impressionist and voice-over artist, best known for his work with comedy partner Steve Punt. He is also known for his position as a permanent panelist on the TV comedy show Mock The Week...

, and is also referred to as Punt and Dennis: It's Been a Bad Week. More than 100 episodes have been broadcast , the latest series ending on 22 June 2006. Mitch Benn has since confirmed the show has "bitten the dust". It was normally broadcast on Thursdays at 10pm, with each episode being repeated on Saturdays at 1:30pm. The show was recorded the week of broadcast at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.

The show was co-presented by regular guests Mitch Benn

Mitch Benn

Mitch Benn is a British musician and stand-up comedian known for his humorous songs performed on BBC radio. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's satirical programme The Now Show, and has hosted other radio shows.Benn has performed at several music festivals, and at the Edinburgh Festival...

, Toby Longworth

Toby Longworth

Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath...

 (Series 6 onwards), Sue Perkins

Sue Perkins

Sue Perkins is an English comedienne, broadcaster, actress, and writer.-Education:Perkins was educated at Croham Hurst School, an independent school for girls in Croydon in South London, at the same time as the BBC Breakfast News presenter Susanna Reid...

 (Series 6 onwards) and Simon Greenall

Simon Greenall

Simon Greenall is a British actor, writer and voice artist from Longtown in Cumbria. He has appeared in a wide variety of roles in television, film, radio and the theatre, and is probably best known for his role as Michael in the TV series I'm Alan Partridge and as the voice of headmaster Iqbal in...

 (Series 8 onwards). Past co-presenters have been Mervyn Stutter (Series 1-2), Jon Culshaw

Jon Culshaw

Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English impressionist and comedian. He was educated at St Bede's RC High School, Ormskirk and St John Rigby College, in Orrell, Wigan....

 (Series 1-5), Emma Clarke

Emma Clarke

Emma Clarke is a writer of comedy and drama scripts and an award-winning voice-over artist, best known as the voice of the automated messages on certain lines of the London Underground....

 (Series 1-5) and Jo Caulfield

Jo Caulfield

Josephine Caulfield is a British actress, writer and comedian.-Biography:Born in Wales to Irish parents, she was brought up in Derbyshire and Leicestershire England....

 (Series 6), although these varied in some weeks. One famous guest appearance was Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 comedy legend Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...

. The other contributor to the show was their fictional sound effects man, “Van Man”, so called because he supplied the sound effects from his white van

White van man

"White van man" is a term popularised in the United Kingdom by the journalist Jonathan Leake, then transport editor at The Sunday Times, to describe drivers of light commercial vehicles such as the Ford Transit....

, "illegally parked outside Ronnie Scott's."

It’s Been a Bad Week is a mock awards show, where true stories and urban legend

Urban legend

An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...

s alike compete for the tongue-twisting "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis".

Episodes are sometimes repeated on BBC 7

BBC 7

BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment...

.

Format

Each show originally began with the "Bad Week Round-up", which is described as the section for "Bad Week stories they couldn't fit anywhere else". This was a quick two-minute recap of what had been going on in the news that week. This was later replaced with "Van Man's Week of Sound", where Van Man illustrated that week's news with his sound effects. Currently, Van Man just plays the main sound effect of the week. A recurring gag is that Van Man's sound effect seems to refer to one of the week's main news stories but actually refers to a different one.

The show consists of three sections, "Sections 1, 2 and 3". In each section, there are three or sometimes four stories from around the world of bad things which have really happened. Usually each section consists of one story related by Punt, one by Dennis and one by another presenter. Benn normally chooses a music-related candidate and sings a song relating to it, Longworth or Greenall often do stories about dumb criminals (frequently American), and Perkins covers something sexual. Sometimes there will be a "Bad Week Update", where a story previously featured returns, because either the same thing has happened again or a new aspect to the story has surfaced.

In every section, Van Man illustrates each story with his sound effects. Originally he also chose the winner of each section; now it is done by a topical "guest announcer" (impersonated). After the three finalists are chosen, the audience take their electronic keypads (also fictional) and vote for the winner of "The Worst Week of the Week Award, Awarded Weekly, on a Week-By-Week Basis". The prize changes from week to week, depending on the theme of the show.

The series has had several New Year

New Year

The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner....

 specials, entitled It's Been A Bad Year, awarding (as it was put in one episode) "The Worst New Year of the New Year Award, Awarded New Yearly, on a First Week-by-First Week Basis". Further, the last show of the current year has a different award, "The Worst Week of the Year Award, Awarded Yearly on a Year-By-Year Basis"

First series

1. 11 February 1999
2. 18 February 1999
3. 25 February 1999
4. 4 March 1999
5. 11 March 1999
6. 18 March 1999

Second series

1. 29 July 1999
2. 5 August 1999
3. 12 August 1999
4. 19 August 1999
5. 26 August 1999
6. 4 September 1999

Third series

1. 17 February 2000
2. 24 February 2000
3. 2 March 2000
4. 9 March 2000
5. 16 March 2000
6. 23 March 2000
7. 30 March 2000
8. 6 April 2000

Fourth series

1. 23 November 2000
2. 30 November 2000
3. 7 December 2000
4. 14 December 2000
5. 21 December 2000
6. 28 December 2000
7. 4 January 2001
8. 11 January 2001

Fifth series

1. 17 November 2001
2. 22 November 2001
3. 29 November 2001
4. 6 December 2001
5. 13 December 2001
6. 20 December 2001
7. 27 December 2001

Sixth series

1. 20 June 2002
2. 27 June 2002
3. 4 July 2002
4. 11 July 2002
5. 18 July 2002
6. 25 July 2002
7. 1 August 2002

Seventh series

1. 31 October 2002
2. 7 November 2002
3. 16 November 2002
4. 21 November 2002
5. 28 November 2002
6. 5 December 2002
7. 12 December 2002
8. 19 December 2002
9. 26 December 2002
10. 2 January 2003

Eighth series

1. 15 May 2003
2. 22 May 2003
3. 29 May 2003
4. 5 June 2003
5. 12 June 2003
6. 19 June 2003
7. 26 June 2003
8. 3 July 2003
9. 10 July 2003
10. 17 July 2003

Ninth series

1. 13 November 2003
2. 20 November 2003
3. 27 November 2003
4. 4 December 2003
5. 11 December 2003
6. 18 December 2003
7. 25 December 2003
8. 1 January 2004

Tenth series

1. 13 May 2004
2. 20 May 2004
3. 27 May 2004
4. 3 June 2004
5. 10 June 2004
6. 17 June 2004
7. 24 June 2004
8. 1 July 2004
9. 8 July 2004

Eleventh series

1. 23 December 2004
2. 30 December 2004
3. 6 January 2005
4. 13 January 2005
5. 20 January 2005
6. 27 January 2005
7. 3 February 2005
8. 10 February 2005
9. 17 February 2005

Twelfth series

1. 2 June 2005
2. 9 June 2005
3. 16 June 2005
4. 23 June 2005
5. 30 June 2005
6. 7 July 2005 (not broadcast owing to the London Bombings)

Thirteenth series

1. 1 October 2005
2. 8 October 2005
3. 15 October 2005
4. 22 October 2005
5. 29 October 2005

Fourteenth series

1. 18 May 2006
2. 25 May 2006
3. 1 June 2006
4. 8 June 2006
5. 15 June 2006
6. 22 June 2006

External links

• Celador (the broadcaster)
• Episode guide at epguides.com