Radio 4 comedians hit the red button
Post categories: Radio,ÌýRadio 4,Ìýred button
| 18:48 UK time, Wednesday, 25 August 2010
The red button isn't off-limits to radio. Plenty of radio programmes have used it to bring their content to new audiences, to 'visualise' their output and to enrich the experience for listeners (lately: Weekend Wogan, Danny Baker, the Proms and the Asian Network's coverage of the Summer's Melas, for instance).
Radio 4's latest red button effort is the first in two years, though, and it's different.
To celebrate the network's contribution to the character of the Edinburgh fringe over forty years, Radio 4 organised a kind of comedy flashmob on The Royal Mile, with a gaggle (a giggle?) of Radio 4 comedians performing in amongst the Edinburgh crowds. Some of the comedians involved: Mark Watson, Susan Calman, Stephen K Amos, Miles Jupp, Doc Brown, Richard Herring, Andrew Lawrence and - in a special outdoor performance of Just a Minute - Paul Merton, Giles Brandreth, Jenny Eclair and Radio 1's Scott Mills (in town for his one-man show). The producers marshalled seven High Definition DSLR cameras and one '', a high-tech digital video camera used to make cinematic films.
The result is a dynamic, genuinely immersive half hour programme that includes a remarkable sequence shot from many angles during the flashmob and a slightly unhinged al fresco performance of Just a Minute.
To watch the video, press the red button on any ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ channel on Virgin, Sky or Freeview - you've got the rest of today, tomorrow and Friday (27 August) to see it, then the video will be published on the Radio 4 web site and (in high definition) in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ channel on YouTube. The hastag is #R4redbutton in case you're tweeting. Thanks for watching.
Steve Bowbrick is blogs editor at ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Audio & Music
Comment number 1.
At 25th Aug 2010, GaryB007 wrote:It's a shame that some idiot decided to slap a fake film/25p effect on this. The resulting "flickervision" picture looks terrible.
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Comment number 2.
At 31st Aug 2010, TV Licence fee payer against ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ censorship wrote:Having watched some of this, besides the previously mentioned stupidity of the post production "flickervision" effect, what a waste of bandwidth it turned out to be, radio belongs on - err - radio, not TV and especially not when there is so much other content that is being lost to DVB-T users.
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Comment number 3.
At 3rd Sep 2010, Jeremy Stersky wrote:This was really funny. I enjoyed reading this post. In my personal blog I always make use of humour to try and generate reader comment on my bingo posts. I also use funny images to add value to the socially responsible commentary that I'm making. Sadly I don't have a 'red button' function - but it would be swell.
Jeremy Stersky
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