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The Burkiss Way: Difference between revisions
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[[File:burkisscast_6139.jpg|frame|How To Pose For Strangely-Coloured Photographs The Burkiss Way, as demonstrated by Fred Harris, Nigel Rees, Chris Emmett and Jo Kendall]]
{{quote|''...or you too can have three like mine!''}}
Broadcast from August 1976 to November 1980 on [[The BBC|Radio 4]], former radio show ''The Burkiss Way To Dynamic Living'' is the product of the disordered mads of brain-men Marshall, Andrew and Renwick, David. Spinning off from two half-hour specials the pair had written spoofing the BBC's Open University educational programming (under the title 'Half-Open University') ''[[The Burkiss Way]]'' was initially presented as 'the first correspondence course for radio', supposedly delivering a set of life-lessons devised by one Professor Emil Burkiss, with each episode tackling a different subject encapsulated in its title: Peel Bananas The Burkiss Way, Solve Murders The Burkiss Way, etc.
Over the course of the first series, which starred Chris Emmett, Nigel Rees, Fred Harris and Denise Coffey, the show's adherence to this conceit gradually loosened; By the middle of the second series (in which Denise Coffey was permanently replaced by [[I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again|I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again]]'s Jo Kendall) the idea had been abandoned completely except as a vague [[Framing Device]] to be called on whenever the writers felt like it, and the show had taken on its true form as a surreal, absurdist sketch show mingling satire, parody, innuendo, and Pythonesque deconstruction of the radio medium itself.
The show developed an immediate [[Cult Classic|cult following]], its recording sessions attracting audiences so large they starting spilling out of the seats and onto the stage. Unfortunately, its chances of a breakthrough to mainstream popularity were scuppered somewhat when it and everything else on radio were overshadowed by the blockbuster mega-success of the original [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]. The fact that [[Douglas Adams]] had contributed several sketches to early shows didn't stop them thereafter spoofing it and him (as "Mr. Different Adams") from an only semi-fake position of bitterness and jealousy. It also really didn't help that Adams had explicitly based the character and temperament of Marvin the Paranoid Android on that of Andrew Marshall, who was naturally inclined to revenge.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: The Greek hero Testiclese. It wasn't his heel his mother held him by when she dipped him in the Styx, but [[Groin Attack|oooh he wishes it was]].▼
▲* [[Achilles Heel]]: The Greek hero Testiclese. It wasn't his heel his mother held him by when she dipped him in the Styx, but [[Groin Attack|oooh he wishes it was]].
* [[Anachronic Order]]: In "How To Succeed In Business The Burkiss Way", the show is dropped on the floor and broken, then stuck back together with a tube of BBC coffee. This results in sketches and scenes being in the wrong order and cutting back and forth from one another at random moments.
* [[Attending Your Own Funeral]]
* [[Awful British Sex Comedy]]: Parodied with a sketch about the "Confessions of People Who Show Off Spherical Bits of Anatomy" film series.
{{quote|
* [[Bad Impressionists]]: "Solve Murders The Burkiss Way" features the New Faces Impressionist Squad, a group of police detectives made up entirely of bad [[Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em|Frank Spencer]] impersonators. At one point, they are interrupted by Leonardo Da Vinci doing a bad Tommy Cooper impression.
{{quote|
'''Suspect''': "What on earth was that?"
'''Detective''': "That was an artists impression. [''audience reaction''] No, don't harrass me, I don't write this..." }}
* [[BBC Quarry]]
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** "Happy dynamic living!" Announcers end of show sign off, retained long after the correspondence course framing device had been abandoned.
** "...with Burkiss spelt wrong." Late addition to the shows catchphrases from the final series, appended to mentions of the shows title even when the show was masquerading under a completely different title:
{{quote|
* [[Correspondence Course]]: One on radio. [[Rule of Funny|Don't ask how that works]]. The Burkiss Organization's other courses are also advertised, such as a bodybuilding course that promises to give you [[Charles Atlas Superpower|bulging rippling muscles]] simply through lifting up all that heavy money and sending it to Professor Burkiss.
* [[Credits Gag]]: Jokes with the contents of the credits and their position in the show were frequent:
** The shows three sucessive producers were always refered to, in order, as "Simon Brett of Stepney", "John Lloyd of Europe" and "David 'Hatch of the BBC' Hatch".
** The credits are played with as early as show four, "Solve Murders The Burkiss Way", in which the end credits immediately follow the opening credits. This is inverted in "Make Short Comedy Programmes The Burkiss Way", in which the show takes the entire half-hour to get started, and the opening credits are just squeezed in before the closing credits. In "Become A Rock Star The Burkiss Way", the show starts at the wrong end, opening with the closing credits and working its way back to the opening credits.
** In "Complain About The Burkiss Way", the opening and closing credits are both inserted into phone calls from an angry listener - This is lampshaded in the calls themselves both times.
{{quote|
* [[Dirty Old Man]]: Recurring character Eric Pode of Croydon.
** Also, from the episode "Eric Pode of Croydon's Easter Special", Mr. Mouthdribble, who molests ballet companies.
{{quote|
* [[Framing Device]]: As stated, the show originally used the 'radio correspondence course' conceit as a framing device. When this was dropped, framing devices actually multiplied; episodes would frequently use more than one, [[Nested Story|nested inside each other]], and the writers became experts at moving back and forth between them at the most unexpected moments. For good examples, see "First Prize the Burkiss Way", in which the show is a long game of 'The Dinosaur/Cheese Interlude'; "Get Cut Off the Bur-", which uses the ''[[Arabian Nights]]''; "Write Extremely Long Titles the Burkiss Way", which frames the episode inside [[The Muppet Show|an entirely different show]]; and "The Man From the Burkiss Way", which manages to trap ''all future Radio 4 broadcasts for the rest of time'' inside its framing device.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Quite a few examples, but nothing beats Ghengis Khan angrily informing a narrator that he's "an idiot with a capital C!"
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* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming]]
* [[In the Style Of]]: The Quinn Martin version of [[Little Women]].
{{quote|
[''Hawaii 5-0 theme tune starts playing'']
"Little Women! Starring William Fat as Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy!" }}
* [[Instructional Title]]
* [[Intermission]]
* [[
{{quote|
* [[Long Title]]
* [[Missing Episode]]: The final episode of the first series is not included in the shows repeats on [[BBC 7]], presumably due to it being, for some reason, only fifteen minutes long.
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* [[Namesake Gag]]
* [[Nepotism]]: There seem to be an awful lot of people with the same surname working for the Burkiss Organization...
{{quote|
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Erich von Daniken, author of ''Chariots of the Gods'' and other best-selling books about how mankind was helped along by [[Ancient Astronauts]], was spoofed in one sketch as Eric Von Contrick, author of ''Spaceships of the Gods'', ''Some More of Me Spaceships of the Gods'' and ''It Shouldn't Happen to a Spaceship of the Gods''. (At the end of the sketch, the Ancient Astronauts show up to demand a cut of the profits.)
* [[Once For Yes, Twice For No]]
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* [[Orphaned Punchline]]
* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: The extended parody of Bram Stoker's [[Dracula]] in which the Count is revealed to be a lifelong churchgoer, a charitable philanthropist, a man of great integrity and probity, who made the fatal mistake of inviting [[British Newspapers|Sun]] journalist Bram Stoker to ghost-write his autobiography.
{{quote|
"Err... ''Dracula Has Risen From The Grave''." }}
* [[Overly Long Name]]: One sketch features a Lady Marquis-Mellvile being fitted for a new hyphen in the manner of one being fitted for a new dress. The first attempt renders her name as Lady Marquisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-Mellvile, in the second the hyphen is a musical fanfare that lasts [[Overly Long Gag|at least a minute]]. Finally the tailor fits her with four hyphens, making her Lady Marq-U-I-Smell-Vile.
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** Whilst "Is Britain Going The Burkiss Way? (part one)" combines it with [[Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud]] by opening in A Tea Lady Reading Out The Script only.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: A spoof of the BBC's ''[[All Creatures Great and Small]]'' sends up the shows tendency towards this.
{{quote|
* [[Self
* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Jo Kendall is occasionally subject to jokes about being the only female in the show: In one sketch, a male character introduces her to "My wife and two pet daughters, none of whom say anything because we've only got one woman in the cast and that's you", whilst in another she plays two characters and distinguishes them only by adding "...in a different voice" to the end of one characters lines.
* [[Snake Oil Salesman]]: Professor Emil Burkiss is clearly a fraudulent quack whose course is a complete waste of time and money. The show is [[Self
* [[Sound to Screen Adaptation]]: with a revised cast, including the return of Denise Coffey, LWT's ''End of Part One'' is essentially ''The Burkiss Way'' for television. Unfortunately it was [[Screwed by the Network|badly scheduled]] and [[Keep Circulating the Tapes|hasn't had a DVD release]].
* [[Space Clothes]]: Mocked mightily in the shows ''[[Blake's
{{quote|
"Not the tights! They wouldn't dare!"
"Ooooh yes! We shall also slip into the shirts with strings up the front, get out the badly designed motorbike boots and ''ponce around with lots of women with no bras on!''"
"I may have my hands full here..." }}
* [[Special Guest]]: Peter Jones himself turns up in one of the shows [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's]] spoofs, delivering a Guide monologue that turns into a rant about The Burkiss Way's habit of mocking other 'much more successful' shows, and the poor quality of it's impressions: "This one, for instance, sounds absolutely nothing like me."
** The Special Guest concept is spoofed in "Start New Series The Burkiss Way", in which the studio audience is collectively the guest star.
{{quote|
'''Studio Audience''': [together] No, go right ahead.
'''Announcer''': Oh good. Well now Studio, I'm very sorry we can't actually pay you for this guest appearance in The Burkiss Way, but I'm afraid I haven't got enough Polos to go round!
'''Studio Audience''': [together] Go round what?
'''Announcer''': Ha ha! Very good, but in future stick to the script! }}
* [[Spoonerism]]
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* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]
* [[Will]]
* [[Written
----
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Radio]]
[[Category:The Burkiss Way]]
[[Category:Radio of the 1970s]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkiss Way, The}}
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