John Birt

Highlights include a mickey take of The Office and a brilliantly-observed version of The Killing that mixes the dark thriller with children's television character Pingu.

Harry and Paul don't shy away from the controversial parts of the BBC's history, with a version of Call My Bluff in which the chosen word is paedophile. And after a picture of a BBC chief called Bert John is flashed up that bears more than a passing resemblance to ex-director general John Birt, fictional head of drama Jonathan Oxford-Cambridge (played by Whitehouse) refers to Bert John as, "a total c..." before he is cut off.

Enfield plays main narrator, the historian Simon Schama, plus Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry and Ian Hislop, while Whitehouse's characters include Paul Merton, Mary Berry and BBC creative director Alan Yentob - who he plays as a mixture of Gollum and Yoda.

Yentob showed he could take the joke though. Most of the show was filmed around the old BBC Television Centre in west London which is being redeveloped. Originally Harry and Paul were denied access but Yentob sorted it out for them. Harry said at a screening of the show: "Yentob made it happen. I think he might live to regret it don't you?"

The Guardian, 9th May 2014