Newswipe With Charlie Brooker
- TV comedy
- BBC Four
- 2009 - 2010
- 10 episodes (2 series)
Spin-off from hit TV satire Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, take an irreverent and often despairing look at global TV news coverage. Stars Charlie Brooker, Tim Key and Doug Stanhope.
Press clippings Page 3
Ever wondered why we don't have a British Daily Show? Our own Jon Stewart to take on the media and Jon Snow's ties? Well that's roughly the idea behind Charlie Brooker's new show - Newswipe. A spin-off of his Screenwipe series, it aims to provide "a fun snarky weekly digest that will help keep you and hopefully me on top of the news soap opera".
As eagle-eyed readers will have spotted, it's weekly - and therefore unlikely to reach the "alternative news" status The Daily Show holds. It also lacks the US show's fast turnaround - in the opening episode we get gags about the Fritzl case, the Pope, and the school shootings in Germany - but nothing about the coverage of Jade Goody.
It's good, funny in patches, and worth watching. Too often, perhaps, Brooker points out the obvious (guess what? The media focuses on bad news!), but it's at its best when cutting between quotes to highlight media hypocrisy (something The Daily Show is particularly expert at).
A bit more of that, and a bit less directionless Brooker bellowing, and we might have a contender.
Stuart McGurk, The London Paper, 25th March 2009Charlie Brooker Newswipe Interview
Interviewing Charlie Brooker could be a daunting task but if you peer through the acerbic slights in Brooker's work, I always got the impression he was a really nice bloke... an approachable chap... the kind I'd get on with just fine.
mofgimmers, TV Scoop, 25th March 2009Breaking news broke my mind
NEWSFLASH! Charlie Brooker's new TV show aims to take a Daily Show-style swipe at the bottomless chasm of 24-hour news. Here, he files from the abyss of 'Current Affairs Land'.
Charlie Brooker, The Guardian, 21st March 2009