Harry Hill's TV Burp

For the Australian version, see TV Burp (Australian TV series).

Harry Hill's TV Burp
Title card
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Harry Hill
Presented by	Harry Hill
Theme music composer	Harry Hill
Opening theme	Harry Hill's TV Burp Theme
Ending theme	Harry Hill's TV Burp Theme
Composer	Steve Brown
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language
No. of series	10
No. of episodes	134 (as of 19 February 2011)
Production
Executive producer	Harry Hill (uncredited)
Producers	Nick Symons (2002-2006) Spencer Millman (2007-present)
Production locations	Teddington Studios (2001-2009) BBC Television Centre (2009-present)
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	30mins (inc. adverts)
Production company	Avalon Television
Original release
Network	ITV (ITV1/STV/UTV) (also ITV1 HD/STV HD/UTV HD); BBC One (Comic Relief and Blue Peter specials)
Release	22 December 2001 (2001-12-22) – present
Related
The Soup The Harry Hill Show You've Been Framed! TV Burp

Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy programme produced by Avalon Television for ITV and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show presents a satirical look at the week's television, including extracts from TV shows with added sketches, observational voice-overs, and guest appearances.

History and airings

The show was filmed at Teddington Studios, Greater London, in Studio 1 for series 1 to 8, however, for series 9, the studio has moved to the BBC Television Centre in London. It is based on clips of the previous week of programming on television, showing lines of dialogue that can be twisted out of context, unusual set layouts and actions performed on the shows. Although Hill does most of the writing himself, Brenda Gilhooly, Paul Hawksbee, Dan Maier, Joe Burnside and David Quantick also help write the weekly show. The show premièred with a pilot on 22 December 2001. It contained many of the common elements that remain on the show to the present day, now in its ninth series. Following the success of the pilot, a full series was commissioned, starting on 14 November 2002.

Nine subsequent series have followed, as well as two 'Reviews of the Year' (see Transmissions). Series 1 to 2 were originally shown in a late-night slot on Thursdays (Fridays in Series 3) respectively. While the show was well received, the scheduling received criticism, as its family-friendly humour made it more suited to earlier broadcast. Series 3 saw a repeat showing in a Sunday teatime slot. Series 4 and 5 saw TV Burp broadcast on a Saturday teatime slot - although now, from being criticised for being shown too late, some feel that its new slot was too early, and that the show deserved a prime-time evening slot. Series 6 was given a boost following Hill's successful narration of You've Been Framed!. The eighth series began on 18 October 2008. On the 6 December that year, the show was broadcast in between two episodes of The X Factor, and received its highest audience to date with 8.28 million watching.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Hill said that he spends most of his waking hours watching TV. "This is now the eighth series and I'm spending most of my waking hours watching television. I think I'm trapped inside a version of Super Size Me but instead of eating McDonald's I'm watching television." He also said that he dreams about giving up the show, but feels trapped by its success. "I do dream of giving it up. I think about it all the time. But it's successful, so you're trapped."

Clips for the show are sourced from a variety of sources, including rival and digital channels, and can include segments from virtually any type of programme, though soaps, dramas and popular-factual series are the most commonly represented genres. The clips are shown outside of the context of their original programme and only limited information about the scene is given, as the focus of the TV Burp treatment is on the often unintentional humour which can be derived from the scene. In 2007, however, Ofcom ruled that TV Burp had breached guidelines by including clips of a Bear Grylls programme which featured Grylls eating a frog and cooking a turtle; Ofcom ruled that the clips were 'inappropriately scheduled' given the offence they could potentially cause viewers when taken outside of the context of the whole Grylls programme.

Notably, the BBC did not allow any clips from EastEnders to be used within the first series of TV Burp, requiring Hill's comments on the show to be instead accompanied by crude animation, courtroom-style sketches or staged comic re-enactments of scenes from the show; however, as of the second series, EastEnders clips have appeared in TV Burp in the same manner as for other shows.

Since 2005, the biennial BBC One transmission of the Red Nose Day telethon in aid of Comic Relief has included a short TV Burp segment hosted by Hill.

Repeat broadcasts and The Best of TV Burp

Due to the inclusion of a large amount of material to which ITV/Avalon do not hold the rights, repeats of past TV Burp episodes/series in their entirety are rare, though new episodes are now commonly screened several times across ITV1 and ITV2 in the week of their initial broadcast. Following the roll-out of ITV Player, as of 2009 new episodes are also made available to view online on the service for up to 30 days after original transmission.

In 2009, a new spin-off format, The Best of TV Burp was launched. This featured rebroadcasts of segments which had previously appeared in earlier TV Burp shows, and in many cases required ITV/Avalon to re-licence the use of the original programming clips as had been used for the original broadcasts. The treatment of the clips and the style of Hill's commentary thereon, was largely unchanged from the original broadcasts on which the 'Best Of' episodes were largely based. Each 'Best of...' opens with a newly-filmed introduction in which Hill announces that the show by saying "Welcome to The Best of TV Burp (number)" and introduces the first clip with "Do you remember when..."; a similar newly-filmed introduction is also included at the start of part two of the programme. A total of twelve Best Of episodes have so far been produced and broadcast, and more may follow in future.

In 2009, the original broadcast of Best of TV Burp 3 included footage - originally broadcast as part of TV Burp in 2004 - which lampooned Sky reality series The Real Mrs Robinson. ITV and Avalon were not aware that two of the participants in the programme had passed away between the original broadcast and the 'Best of' - Sky's licence to use the footage made no mention of this, and the participants were not referred to by their full names in the footage, restricting TV Burp's ability to research the case ahead of putting the programme to air. After complaints were made to ITV and Ofcom, the programme was voluntarily re-edited such that the segment was removed from all further broadcasts. Ofcom did not uphold a complaint made by relatives of the deceased, stating that whilst it recognised that the broadcast of the footage would have been distressing to the family, the manner of the broadcast did not breach the broadcasting regulations.

Merchandise

DVDs

Although it was initially thought that a DVD release of TV Burp would be unlikely due to the multiple copyright clearance issues, a DVD titled Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold was eventually released in November 2008. A second DVD titled Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 2 was released on 9 November 2009. The DVDs contain unseen burps and outtakes. A box-set of the first two DVDs has also been issued. A third DVD titled Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 3 will be released on 1 November 2010. It contains a specially shot Behind the Burp feature and includes an overview of the successful K Factor competition and competitors Gallery of Knitted Items. A complete series-by-series release still appears unlikely.

Title	Duration	Classification	Release Date
Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold	1hr30min	12	10th Nov 2008 (10/11/2008)
Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 2	1hr33min	12	9th Nov 2009 (09/11/2009)
Harry Hill's TV Burp Gold 3	2hrs16min	PG	1st Nov 2010 (01/11/2010)

Books

• Hill, Harry (8 October 2009). Harry Hill's TV Burp Book. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091932244.

Recurring elements

Fights

• Pre-advertisement 'fights' that attempt to determine which of two people or things from a scene are "best", such as "babies or cats" (from an episode of The Apprentice), "chicken or turkey", "White Rat or Brown Rat" (from a nature documentary), "Mars or meat" (from Life on Mars) or even "Jesus or Hitler". After making the comparison, Hill's signature tagline follows: "But which is better? (A) or (B)? There's only one way to find out... FIGHT!", at which point two actors representing the characters of the comparison appear from either side and engage in a wrestling match while Hill goads them on (usually favouring one specific party). After the commercial break, the show continues as normal, making no reference to the fight or who won it.
• In the Christmas episode of series 1, Jesus and Santa Claus fought; the latter was knocked out with one punch.
• Santa returned as part of the fight in the Christmas episode of series 2, this time against Saddam Hussein.
• The last episode of series 3 saw the Archbishop of Canterbury fighting the Footballer's Wives.
• During one episode in series 7, the fight consisted of seven people.
• In episode 2 of Series 8, the fight is to decide who is the naughtiest vegetarian. It is between Heather Mills and Hitler. After announcing "See you after the break" Hill is heard to say "C'mon Hitler!"
• During Series 8, one such fight was Smurfs vs. gorillas. In the following episode, during another joke about gorillas with an actor in costume, the Smurf returned to renew the fight and had to be taken away. This was again repeated during the 22 November 2008 episode, when the closing song was sung by an albino gorilla. Following this, the Smurf received cameo appearances in various episodes.
• During Series 8, one fight involved two slow old men. They were so slow by the time the adverts had finished, they were still walking towards each other, and the fight had to be called off.
• A series 8 episode saw a fight between "Mermaids" and "Boobies", after a participant on Snog Marry Avoid? expressed an appreciation for both. While a mermaid emerged from one door, the other door revealed two bobbies, prompting Hill to shout, "Stop - not bobbies, boobies!"
• In the penultimate episode of series 8, the fight was between pasta and nothing, so only the pasta emerged from one side of the door, and when the other door opened to reveal nothing, the pasta walked off.
• In the second episode of series 9, after showing a clip of two vicars fighting in Emmerdale, the fight was simply declared as "Vicar Fight!", followed by several people dressed in religious clothing, launching into a punch-up.
• In one episode of series 9, a fight was announced between Ricky Butcher and Sam Mitchell but never actually occurred as the combatants could not open the doors to the studio (part of a joke about their alleged stupidity shown prior to the fight)
• In another episode of series 9, the fight was between a tree and a bench. The tree fell on the bench and won.
• In the first of the latter half of series saw a fight between "Light Green Soldier" and "Dark Green Soldier", after a character from Wild at Heart was using his toy soldiers in his room, as Harry narrated.
• In the third final episode of series 9, for the first time in the show's history, Hill announced the fight segment - between two types of pastry - in Spanish.
• Hill - played by a stunt double - has participated in a fight with James Bond in series 9; this was in response to an Emmerdale character complaining that a blind date of hers had resembled Hill when she was expecting a Bond look-alike.
• In Series 10, a fight was called off after the wrong species of bird turned up.
• In the second episode of Series 11, there was supposed to be fight between a nervous person and a knackered person. However, when nobody showed up, Harry received a telephone call to say that the one person was nervous and the other was knackered to take part in the fight, so it did not happen.

TV Highlight of the Week

• This is a tiny segment of a show showing an entirely mundane event such as throwing out some sour milk, exhaling, snoring, spraying disinfectant or serving tea.
• Usually this is replaced with a variant on the same theme, such as "TV High Voice of the Week" or "TV Expert of the Week", with the usual jingle artificially stretched to fit in the extra words.
• Series 7, onwards has featured the recurring "I Beg Your Pardon of the Week", which features a clip of mumbled or unintelligible dialogue.
• Other replacements include "Longest Exhalation of the Week", "Smallest Amount of Sick Produced When Being Sick of the Week", "Most Insincere Reaction of the Week", "Most ambitious cucumber fold over of the week", "Biggest waste of paper in a ransom note of the week", "Most casual turning on of car indicator of the Week" and even "Lopsided Glasses Wearer Who Looks a Bit Like David Baddiel of the Week".
• In Series 9, there was one "Campest Sigh of the Week", which featured Christian Clarke sighing.
• In Series 10, there was a "TV Bur Smidge of the Week", which features a man from Emmerdale saying "Burrr, smidge".

Other jokes

• "Isn't it weird how people end up looking like their..." where the comedian compares the likeness of a TV character to an everyday object. Items have included radios, gas canisters, spice racks and puppets among others.
• Hill looking sideways at another camera before giving a cheeky, risqué or sarcastic remark.
• At the end of every show, one of the people referenced in the show makes a guest appearance to sing a song. For example, in the pilot episode, Bruce Jones sings Rhinestone Cowboy after Harry gave him a pet horse.
• Staged or edited shots in which Hill 'appears' in a show (sometimes as himself, sometimes as a character from said show) to artificially alter the outcome of the scene or to mimic or attack a character that has annoyed him.
• After the end credits of the penultimate episode of series 3, there was a quick sketch of Harry dressed as newsreader Jeremy Bowen asking whether or not the bible was real (because Hill had spoofed a documentary where Bowen had questioned the belief of Noah's Ark) and then God strikes Bowen with lighting, laughing and saying (voiced by Al Murray), "Don't fuck with me, Bowen!". This was when the show went out at 11pm and at the time series 3 was being repeated on Sundays around 5pm but this episode did not receive the repeat showing (although the word could have been bleeped out). (It's probably also the first and only time Hill has used the explicit word in one of his shows, probably using the scheduling to his advantage that week.)
• Series-specific running gags, such as "Celebrity Big Brother Round-Up", pretending to be the banker on the other end of the phone on Deal or No Deal, and the uncanny ability of the respective casts of Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Dancing on Ice to make inadvertently animal-like noises.
• Praising The Mustard Shop whenever Norwich is mentioned.
• Victims of jokes turning up on set immediately after a scene in which they appear.
• The phone under the desk ringing straight after a comment from Harry, usually to correct him for a (intentionally made for comedy) error, a phone call from an unseen celebrity associate or Hill's long unseen wife.
• Hill, a fan of the British singer Morrissey, has also used songs of Morrissey in the show on several occasions. TV Burp used to have a segment called "Ouija Board, Ouija Board", which was introduced by the Morrissey song of the same name. Also, in the 2006 series, Hill jokingly changed the theme tune of the popular soap opera EastEnders to "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths. In the 2009 series, Hill paid tribute to the series Paris Hilton's British Best Friend by singing Morrissey's recent single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris". In Series 9, Hill wore a Morrissey wig.
• Since Harry Hill narrates the TV series 'You've Been Framed!' (which is broadcast just before TV Burp on the same channel) the two programmes are treated as a continuation of each other. Harry has often mentioned You've Been Framed in his jokes, as if it is his own show. Most notably when he defends it when Dermot O'Leary from X-Factor says "Your Saturday night starts right here!", Harry responds, "How dare you! You watch Hole in the Wall, then turn over to You've Been Framed!". This was followed up in a later episode when Harry opened the show with "Your Saturday night starts right here!" when TV Burp was broadcast after The X Factor.
• TV Burp Poetry Corner - a segment in which a clip of some dialogue is said that inadvertently rhymes - making it sound slightly poetic. For example, in one episode the dialogue featured in this segment was, "Marine Biologist Dr. Mark Marks, who has spent his working life studying sharks". Or, "I thought you went to get the pies", "No, I was preparing a surprise." Or, "Gordon Brown let me Down." Or, "I didn't know what to do, she just came out of the blue." Or, "You're ill!", "Still...". This being a further reference to The Smiths and their song Still Ill.
• Hill sometimes plays Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack contestant Calista Robertson's 'Bongo Jam', in parody of Robertson being shown recording it on the show and calling it 'quite popular on the funky house scene'. The song tends to appear when trends or bongo drums are mentioned. After a long absence, the gag was used on the 28 March 2009 show in reference to Sir Alan Sugar referring to contestants of The Apprentice being 'as easy to play as bongo drums'. It later returned as 'Bin Jam' on the 6 March 2010 show. It then returned the following week as 'Portable Hob Jam'.

Series specific recurring elements

Series 1

• Harry would say "We can't get clips of EastEnders!" (this was actually true, owing to legal reasons). The audience would then boo then boo even more when Hill showed a picture of Greg Dyke. This joke ran all series until the final episode, when Harry visited BBC TV Centre in order to "appeal to him personally", with gifts of Kronenberg wine and a Twix. It was only used in series 1.

Series 2

• Harry would go on about Neil Fox's frequent use of the word 'tad' on Pop Idol. Probably as a result, it looked like on one week, Fox would manage to get through a show without uttering the word but towards the end he blew it. Hill mocked him for this and the following week, the judge got through a show without saying the word once.
• Towards the end of the series, Harry poked fun at the way in which Robert Kilroy-Silk introduced each edition of his show by how stupid the topics sounded. Afterwards, Hill pretended to be the presenter, making his own daft topics. At the end of the final episode, Kilroy himself said, "Come on! You watch Harry Hill?" By the time of series 3, Kilroy has been sacked for making racist remarks about Arabs, so Hill held auditions to find a replacement, including one where he came on dressed as Blanche Hunt from Coronation Street, wearing a dusty white wig and goggly eyes, saying "He's a loony and she's a man?", referring to Roy and Hayley Cropper.

Series 7

• Almost every episode of series 7 contained a segment looking at that week's episode of the BBC Three lifestyle documentary programme Freaky Eaters, about people with strange eating habits. After a clip showing the particular food the 'Freaky Eater' is either addicted to or repulsed by, Harry will repeat them in a loud, moronic, toothless gurn (e.g. "beans!", "chippy chips!", "sausages!", "hoopy hoops!", "sweet snicknoin!" (sirloin). In one episode, after a clip showing the biscuits, the 'Freaky Eater' is addicted to, Harry repeated it with his normal voice and later "appeared" on the show when he said "Stop eating biscuits". When collecting his BAFTA in 2008, Harry used this voice again, and jokingly said that Freaky Eaters should have received the award because it's the "best show on telly". This was continued in later episodes of Series 8.
• Emmerdale character Val's cataracts became a recurring joke, based on a scene in which she questions "Cataracts?" after a diagnosis. The scene was spoofed with Harry repeating the surprised declaration then passing the news onto a chain of various celebrities (mainly those under contract with ITV) and the show's own history of highlighted extras who respond "Cataracts?" one after another. A passing tongue-in-cheek mention of 'ear cataracts?' a few weeks later was spoofed on the 1 March 2008 edition of the show in exactly the same way, lasting almost a minute and a half and featuring cameo appearances from comedians Al Murray, Lenny Henry, Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais, Jeremy Kyle and Noel Fielding. In all there were 41 cameos made.

Series 8

• Many jokes about Hole in the Wall, which mostly included the Hole In The Wall catchphrase "Bring on the wall!". The show's host, Dale Winton, appeared once as a guest during the series.
• Harry was regularly attacked by a puppet shark jumping out of various items. Harry will then attack the shark with a towel rail, leading to it eventually retreating. It started with a bowl of shark fin soup then went on to a bowl of washing up liquid, then a budgie cage, and recently from a basket of pants. The shark's more recent appearances have seen it act more friendly towards Harry, although in one episode it attacked a member of Time Team.
• The "Eoghan Quigg" look - During series 8, Harry mocked X Factor contestant Eoghan Quigg (pronouncing the name as 'EE-OG-HAN') He claimed that Eoghan used a "vote for me" face (consisting of an awkward smile) and Harry would try to imitate the expression whilst wearing a blond wig. Quigg's failure to win the series was attributed by Harry on the 20 December show to his failure to have pulled the face during the final. Eoghan would later be referenced on the show in 2011, after a cameo on a reality TV show which referenced where his career had gone since. He appeared in the studio to do the look with Harry and also mentioned the mispronounciation of his name.
• The Many Faces of Louis Walsh (or the one-off "Many Faces of Alexandra Burke", "Many Faces of Peggy Mitchell" and "Many Faces of Jimmy King's Face) - a segment which shows facial expressions made by X-Factor judge Louis Walsh. They included surprise, joy, smug, outrage, sad and Hitler.
• A new recurring character was introduced, "Knitted Character", after a knitted toy which featured briefly in EastEnders. Knitted Character is implied to be part of the TV Burp staff and holds a rivalry with Peggy Mitchell. The character returned as part of a contest in series 9, in which viewers had to find a Knitted Character prop hidden in a television show aired between episodes in order to win a TV Burp book, DVD and Knitted Character toy. In an episode of TV Burp, the Knitted Character confessed that he was not knitted, but instead crocheted. In later seasons, possibly due to complaints the character was being overused, his role was reduced to rare cameos. Knitted would often protest he missed his former starring role, only to be quickly ushered away by an unsympathetic Harry.
• Harry wobbling a red jelly to The Surfaris' Wipe Out for a period of time, parodying a reference from Heston Blumenthal's Victorian Feast to the Victorians finding amusement at having wobbling jellies at the dining table. The first use of this joke also served as one of the show's frequent satires of ITV's often perceived low standards. The Knitted Character often asked to ride the jelly during this segment, and Harry's Alan Sugar puppet had ridden the jelly as well. At the end of the final episode of the series, an extra-large prop jelly was brought on for Harry to ride, whilst holding the Knitted Character. The jelly made a single return in Series 9, in which Hill pulled numerous running joke props out of a fridge. It came back in the second episode of Series 11 where Harry pretended it was his brain.
• Harry repeating the theme song to Sky1 show The Lion Man with alternative lyrics. These include 'Frying Man', about Gordon Ramsay, 'Crying Man' about Minty Peterson from EastEnders and 'Cyan Man', about a contestant on The Colour of Money.
• Various characters/individuals passing behind Harry in succession. These include The Lion Man, Jeremy Paxman on a barge, Andrew Marr on a boat and an 'Attention Seeking Door', based on a sliding door very slowly closing in the background of a scene in Coronation Street.
• Harry regularly featured an overweight man dressed with a pink hairband and in red overalls to appear as Heather Trott from EastEnders (played by Steve Benham). The character is usually featured eating or the sketch has some reference to Heather's weight. This is continued in Series 9.
• Harry made recurring jokes about Paris Hilton and her television show, Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. He usually spoofs or makes reference to Hilton's use of abbreviations for phrases such as "TTYN" for "Talk to You Never" which Hilton used when a contestant was eliminated. He also spoofed the fact that in one shot of the show, it appeared as if Hilton's legs were dressed in different coloured tights. When the spoof was retired, it showed Paris Hilton announcing the winner of the show, but then cut to a different, similar looking and sounding woman claiming Harry had won the contest, him running towards her and knocking her off the top of a building, and then grabbing onto her legs, repeating the multi-colour tight reference.
• "This Week's Apprentice in a Nutshell" covering the first 2 episodes of the 2009 UK edition of The Apprentice. The fired candidate is shown boasting how they will surely win the contest, directly followed by the moment Sugar fired them. This has been continued in Series 9 with "This Week's The Restaurant in a Nutshell" and "This Week's River Cottage in a Nutshell".
• Harry would mention people/characters in shows who vaguely looked liked him, stating that for reasons he couldn't understand he thought they were quite handsome. A split screen of Harry and the other individual was then presented (in later series, the other person would actually pop up in the studio). The people who look like him were Heston Blumenthal and Toby Young in Series 8 and Gandhi, David Moore from The Restaurant, Dave, a guider from I'm a Celebrity in Series 9. He would find a person who looks like himself, say, "I like (person's name, for example Gandhi), I don't know what it is about him..." then sit in a pose similar to them while that person's picture is superimposed on the right-hand side of the screen. On an episode aired 28 November while talking about Britain's Best Butcher, one of the contestants he was comparing actually appeared in the studio right next to Harry where they struck a pose together. Similarly, the first episode of Series 9 showed Harry talking about Coronation Street. There was a character named Dr Kureshi who appeared in the studio next to Harry and actually did the announcing for him. Later, while Harry was reviewing Casualty, he appeared again and introduced the TV Highlight of the Week. He made several other appearances, including being the best man at Harry's 'wedding', receiving a wig from Harry, arriving late to Bradley's funeral, and dancing in a launderette along with Harry, the Knitted Character, Louie, and several others.

Series 9

• The X Factor logo would fly into the studio (after showing some of the opening credits for the show). The first episode of Series 9, the logo fell on Harry's face, on the second episode Harry dodged it and on the third episode shot it down.
• In Episode 2, the show's first competition, "Where Has the Knitted Character Been This Week?", was announced. The aim is to spot the Knitted Character hidden in one of the week's TV shows. The winner of the weekly competition is announced on the show, which is open to everyone over 16. A running gag in the show involving the competition is after the advert states "You must be 16 or over", at which point Hill always says something resembling talking to a child trying to enter, such as "Shame, too, as it's such a child-friendly prize!", "Put that phone down, Sonny!" and "I don't care if it is half term, you can't enter it!" Shows include: Countdown, The Paul O'Grady Show, The Wright Stuff, Working Lunch, The Gadget Show, The One Show, Later with Jools Holland, This Morning, I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, CBBC, Match of the Day 2, Loose Women, GMTV with Lorraine Kelly, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and Live from Studio Five.
• Gandhi making cameos in the studio (linked to clips from the BBC documentary The Three Lives of Gandhi).
• A new character, called "Mr Funny Face", appeared twice in the series, both times as commander of a vehicle. In his first appearance, he commanded a tank; in his second, a Galleon made of mincemeat.
• TV quiz catchphrases. Harry says that you must always have a good catchphrase for a quiz to be successful, and then includes a montage of catchphrases. Included have been Britain's Best Brain ("Inflate the balloon!"), Young Butcher of the Year ("5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Stop making sausages!"), The Colour of Money ("Start the machine!"), The Cube ("Enter the cube!"), The Krypton Factor ("Activate the cube!"), and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! ("Let's remove the shroud!"). The segment always ended with the Anton Du Beke version of "Bring on the wall!", after which the audience boo him for his poor delivery, and assures the audience that none of them can top Dale Winton's delivery of the line.
• As a parody of performing arts talent shows (e.g. The X Factor, Popstar to Operastar), there was a new segment called "The K Factor: So You Think You Can Knit?", launched as a sequel to the "Where Has The Knitted Character Been This Week" competition. It is a competition about knitting, showcasing knitted items sent in by viewers. The judges are Knitted Simon Cowell, Knitted Cheryl Coles, Knitted Rolando off Popstar to Operastar and the Knitted Character. In one audition, a knitted duck called Peter caused controversy when he was not allowed through; the character continued to appear each week, still having no success. Peter jumped of a tall cliff only to be caught by Knitted Simon Cowell, whose life he had saved in an earlier segment. Simon told Peter he was very happy that Peter had saved his life so Simon put Peter though. He then rather predictably won The K Factor, in parody of a similar trend within actual talent shows. Runner-up, Winston appeared in the next series helping "Knitted Character" get his revenge on Harry for firing him in the first episode.
• The flamboyant Louie Spence from Pineapple Dance Studios was a guest star in three episodes in the ninth series and one episode in the tenth series, appearing in skits and musical numbers.

Series 10

• "Mr. Fuzzy", a feather duster seen in the opening sequence of Downton Abbey was announced as the replacement of the Knitted Character. He was seen again in the second episode but was rejected by Harry.
• The Knitted Character and Winston, another knitted character knitted for The K Factor, plotted revenge on Hill for axing the Knitted Character from the show. In the second episode, they tried, and failed, to drop a weight on Hill. On the last week, the Knitted Charecter saved Harry by shooting Wagbo.
• The fictional Albert Square tradition of the 'Bush Push', based on various episodes of EastEnders featuring woman on woman fights, with the respective parties pushing one another into bushes. Hill explained that this was a local tradition for the characters in the show. Clips of it occurring were followed by him enthusiastically cheering "Bush Push!" On the fifth week, Harry said Emmerdale had copied them with a routine, which he described as the opposite of a Bush Push, which he called a 'Verge Emerge'. This involved getting up and walking out of a bush. On the sixth week, Max and Jack from EastEnders grabbed Harry and pushed him into a bush, after which he got up and wailed "Verge emerge".
• Wagbo, the supposed child of Mary Byrne and Wagner was revealed to have escaped from his cage in one episode. In the next, he was sighted at Bluewater shopping centre. After, he was found in a cupboard after terrorising the X Factor. Then, he terrorised the villagers of Emmerdale and spectators at a WWE Raw event held at the O2 Arena. In the next episode, Wagbo's parents appealed for Wagbo, while Wagbo threw Stacey Solomon (who had a parachute) from a helicopter then jumped out himself. After a final reign of terror across ITV chat shows, both Wagbos (the original and understudy) returned to the TV Burp studio, where the Knitted Character gunned them down to save Harry. Mary attempted to setup a new recurring segment involving Logbo (her second child, conceived with Louis Walsh) but the idea was immediately shot down as being too far fetched and repetitive. The 'dead' Wagbo actors then broke character in protest, insulting Hill's constant mispronunciation of Wagbo (stressing a W instead of a V) across the weeks before leaving the set.

Wagbo later returned in series 11 for a joke about the TV Burp Employee of the Month, an award Harry was stated to always win. When Wagbo protested that someone else should get the prize for a change, Harry responded that he was no longer even a cast member.

• "This Week's Apprentice In A Nutshell" returned to cover episodes of the 2010 series.
• Nigella Lawson is often featured using many sexual innuendos in her programme 'Nigella Kitchen'. Hill introduces the Nigella segment with the instrumental 'The Stripper'. Also depicted in this segment is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who supposedly attempts to outdo Nigella with his innuendos (although Hill claims he "ain't Nigella").
• "I Certainly Didn't Expect To See That", a segment covering a moment from a selected show that Hill finds to be particularly surprising. The segment begins with a jingle and montage which reference many past moments and running jokes, the lyrics describing despite how having seen various oddities in the show's history Harry still wasn't prepared for the moment highlighted.
• "It's not a cube, it's a rectangular cuboid", a statement made in protest initially over the main arena of The Cube, which appeared on camera to lack the shape of a true cube. Although Hill was corrected in regards to this accusation, it was reused whenever mentions of a cube or cube shape were made on other shows.

Reception and awards

The show had positive reviews.

• Harry Hill's TV Burp was nominated for Best Comedy Entertainment Programme at the 2007 British Comedy Awards.
• It won two 2008 British Academy Television Awards for Best Entertainment Performance (for Harry Hill) and Best Entertainment programme.
• Visitors to the British Comedy Guide website voted TV Burp as the "Best British TV Panel Show/Satire of 2008".
• Harry also won a third BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance in 2009.
• Sophie Heath from the Daily Mail said the show was "Genius, pure and simple."
• Mark Lawson from The Guardian said it was "The freshest and most original show in mainstream television."

Transmissions

Series

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
Pilot	22 December 2001		1
1	14 November 2002	19 December 2002	6
2	30 October 2003	18 December 2003	8
3	20 February 2004	2 April 2004	7
4	23 October 2004	27 November 2004	6
5	21 January 2006	25 March 2006	10
6	20 January 2007	14 April 2007	13
7	12 January 2008	5 April 2008	13
8	18 October 2008	4 April 2009	25
9	10 October 2009	10 April 2010	25
10	9 October 2010

Comic Relief specials

Date
11 March 2005
16 March 2007
13 March 2009

Christmas Shows

Date
30 December 2006
25 December 2007

Blue Peter

Date
4 February 2009

External links

• Harry Hill's TV Burp at itv.com
• Harry Hill's TV Burp at British Comedy Guide
• Harry Hill's official site
• TV Burp Gold official site
• Avalon Television - TV Burp
• Harry Hill Fansite - Unofficial Fansite for Harry Hill