Taking The Flak

This new comedy series was co-created by a journalist, co-filmed by a cameraman who's won RTS awards for reporting - and viewers may notice more than a little of foreign affairs editor John Simpson in fictional correspondent David Bradburn (played by Martin Jarvis). When war breaks out in the fictional African country of Karibu, where the child soldiers play football with Kalashnikovs for goalposts, the first BBC news television crew arrives, it seems, within minutes. The BBC's local stringer, Harry Chambers (Bruce Mackinnon), think he's about to win his first news scoop, but is promptly gazumped by his senior colleague, Bradburn, who flies into town and files his first flak-jacketed piece to camera without a jot of Karibu knowledge in his head. There's an over-reliance on fart jokes and Carry On farce here - at one point a dog is blown up by a land mine, splattering Chambers in "comedy" blood. The show bares its satirical teeth, though, in the plausible way it sends up the BBC news game's preening hierarchy. The reporters all clamour for precious minutes on "The One", "The Six" or "The Ten". Suddenly, the satire starts to ring true. It's just strange that a spoof of war reporting didn't want to take itself, well, a little more seriously.

There must have been a lot of wicked fun in the making of this series, which does for foreign correspondents what Drop the Dead Donkey did for a television newsroom. A senior foreign correspondent (Martin Jarvis) and his crew arrive in Africa to cover the outbreak of war. But the fighting is nowhere near as fierce as the rivalry between this grand old man of journalism, a young local stringer who resents having his thunder stolen, and a battered BBC World Service correspondent. Although much of the comedy is broad, it could have been written only by an insider and much of the jollity comes from sharing an in-joke. One of the writers was Tira Shubart, a producer and journalist who lived with John Simpson for ten years.

A cold-hearted sitcom brutally ribbing something close to the Beeb's heart: the producers, stringers and reporters in war zones itching to get their three minutes on News At Ten. The script for this opener, set in a conflict-ridden African backwater, is not quite as zinging as its obvious point of comparison, Drop The Dead Donkey, but there are at least plenty of heroes and villains, including Doon Mackichan's stressed-out producer and Martin Jarvis's lazy, big-shot reporter.

This comedy takes a humorous look behind the scenes at the BBC's foreign news department and includes lots of cameos from real presenters. In Africa, an arrogant correspondent and a sex-mad producer are covering a civil war. But in the current climate, the jokes about making up expenses misfire.

Martin Jarvis plays a news reporter in a little-known African country 'Karibu' that's in the midst of a rebellion. The hacks want to find - or manufacture - stories for the news. Unfortunately we weren't pleased to discover that its dialogue stank of Radio 4's 6.30pm comedy slot. It really deserves to sit along some of the worst of those like Claire In The Community, Pat Self On The Back and Smugger And The Self Satisfied.

If this all has a (rather worrying) air of authenticity, that'd be because the show is written by people who've been there, done that. If you think about it, though, this is actually quite a brave commission by the BBC - they're saying that this is what it's really like... wouldn't they rather have us think the journalists we see on TV actually know what they're talking about?!

In any case, it's a generally a fun show. Filmed on location, it looks wonderful, and Mackichan and Jarvis are hugely watchable. The broad humour brought in through the almost ceaseless bowel movements of one member of the team, though, seems out of kilter with the programme - this isn't as intellectual as it might sound, and in fact a lot of the characters are quite cartoonish, but still, that doesn't quite fit. I'm also not sure why it was decided this should be an hour, but overall, it's a nice idea, well performed, and with some neat one-liners. Worth sticking with, in other words.

This could be Drop The Dead Donkey on location as we fly out with the BBC's foreign news pack to report on the strife-ridden African country of Karibu. "It wouldn't take much to make a difference here," junior reporter Harry Chambers (Bruce Mackinnon) explains. "A visit by Angelina Jolie or Fearne Cotton. Perhaps even a one-off drama by Richard Curtis."

A commissioning editor would green-light the script on the strength of that line alone. As the BBC's big guns fly to Karibu to steal Harry's thunder, the laughs come as much from the characters as the situation - like the mumsy World Service lady who compares Africa's roads with pot-holes in Putney.

But the best gags come from TV Centre back in London where producer Nigel (Mackenzie Crook) is busy making Daleks out of his used coffee cups.

Taking The Flak: Its War

Taking The Flak is a brand new comedy drama following a team of journalists in an African war zone. They are in a state of perpetual danger, not just from bombs, but their colleagues too. BBC War Correspondant Ben Brown reviews the series...

Taking the Flak: comedy about war reporters

Written with comedy producer Jon Rolph, BBC series is drawn from Tira Shubart's experiences as a journalist in Africa.

Interview: Martin Jarvis on Taking the Flak

Martin Jarvis on parodying a bombastic war reporter and playing the voice of God in his new comedy drama series Taking the Flak.