British Forces Broadcasting Service launches sketch show
BFBS Radio, the station set up to inform and entertain British armed forces personnel around the globe, is to launch a comedy sketch show.
Damn The Torpedoes! is a 30 minute scripted comedy show with sketches based around military themes. Sketches include Action Man trying to obtain a discharge on medical grounds, a landlady inspecting Camp Bastion as the troops prepare to move out, some fighter jet pilots arguing over call signs, tensions with US Forces on a joint operation, and Roger Moore being mistaken for the real James Bond.
The comedy also features Alex Lowe's character Barry from Watford, who delivers a monologue which touches upon his time during National Service; and there's a running sketch in which a high ranking official gets evacuated by helicopter each time he makes a faux pas at a social gathering.
Damn The Torpedoes! is initially a one-off half-hour pilot, but it is hoped if the show is well received a full series will be ordered.
BFBS Radio, run by the British Forces Broadcasting Service, is a charity-based endeavour which broadcasts to Britain's Armed Forces around the world.
The station explains: "Damn The Torpedoes! is a first for BFBS Radio. It's an audience inspired military themed comedy sketch show that began crawling out of the water onto land last Christmas, when the BFBS sound effect library was found chucked in a skip! Those sound effects were resurrected by BFBS's Charlene Guy and went on to spawn the on-air radio campaign "S.O.S.FX". That radio distress flare was then seen by a group of professional comedy writers who set about creating a new military themed sketch show that you can hear for the first time on BFBS on Wednesday 16th April."
Damn The Torpedoes! stars Alex Lowe, Alex Perkins, Debbie Arnold, Lewis Macleod, Rachel Esposti, Stephen Hope Wynne and Suzanne Bonetti.
The pilot has been written and produced by the team behind Live From Kirrin Island, a topical comedy sketch show podcast which spawned from collaborations made via British Comedy Guide message boards.
The writers on the pilot are Alison Pritchard, Angie Holford, Dan Sweryt, David Salisbury, Eleanor Green, Jamie Gladden, Neil Tollfree, Richard Hatch, Stephen Mawhinney, Steve Holford and Stu Cooper. Simon Midgeley acted as the Military Consultant, with the Executive Producer role filled by BFBS presenter Richard Hatch (the son of former BBC Radio Light Entertainment producer and boss Sir David Hatch).
Producer Alison Pritchard says: "BFBS have been great to work with on this show, getting fully behind the concept. It's been another great collaboration for BCG writers, in finding interesting military angles to write sketches on - I hope we've succeeded. Most of the Writers Room debate focussed on finding alternative words for Action Man's balls."
Damn The Torpedoes! will be on BFBS Radio at 6:30pm (UK Time) on Wednesday 16th April 2014. BFBS is available on the FM frequency in British military bases around the globe. In the UK, it can be heard via DAB Digital Radio, Sky 0211, Freesat 786, the BFBS smartphone app, and online via www.bfbs.com
Below is a preview clip from the show, featuring a sketch focusing on the draw for the 2014 inter-services championship: