Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive

Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive
Rob Brydon & Dave Willson on the set of Annually Retentive for Series 2 Ep. 2
Format	Comedy panel game
Presented by	Rob Brydon
Starring	Dave Gorman Jane Moore
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC Three
Picture format	16:9
Original run	11 July 2006 – 4 June 2007

Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive is a BBC Three television show, which first aired in the UK in July 2006. It concerns the making of a comedy panel game show called Annually Retentive, themed around historical events, and hosted by Rob Brydon. The show is deliberately parodic, as Brydon plays a hyper-realised (and exaggeratedly nasty) version of himself, while the game show blatantly steals ideas from other, similar shows such as Have I Got News For You and Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Its "show within a show" format is reminiscent of The Larry Sanders Show which explored the blurring of reality and fantasy except with the focus of a talk show as opposed to a panel game. The show cuts between fictionalized scenes that see Brydon and the producers making the panel game, and scenes from the game show itself. These latter segments were filmed in full, as if Annually Retentive were a real show, in front of live audiences at BBC Television Centre who, initially, were not made aware of its intentionally derivative and uninspired nature. A good portion of the game show segments were scripted; however, the panellists were allowed to 'play out' the game as if it were real, and occasionally improvise.^[1]

The two team captains are Dave Gorman and Jane Moore.

Each episode was made available to UK viewers to watch on the BBC Three Website a week before it aired. A second series began airing on Monday 30 April 2007 at 10.30pm, the 'gameshow' portion was filmed on the 11 and 12 January 2007.

The first series has been released on DVD.

The theme tune used is "Reelin' in the Years" by Steely Dan.

Dave Gorman has stated that a third series of the show is doubtful.^[2]

Episodes guide

Series One

Series Two

• For episode six the usual gameshow format was changed to show Brydon appearing in a mock-episode of the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? series.

Regular cast

Hosted by

• Rob Brydon

With

• Ruth Bratt
• Dave Chapman
• Steve Furst
• Dave Gorman
• Russell Tovey
• Dominic Holland
• Sharon Horgan
• Alice Lowe
• Jane Moore
• Phil Nichol
• Kirsten O'Brien
• Dave Skinner
• Curtis Walker
• Ken Bruce (second series - voice only)

Despite the fact that Rob Brydon can perform an uncanny imitation of BBC Radio 2's DJ Ken Bruce, it is actually Ken Bruce's voice that can be heard on the radio^{[citation needed]}.

Notes

1. ^ Dave Gorman's blog, entries for March 7 and 9
2. ^ Dave Gorman's blog (see comments)

See also

• The Larry Sanders Show
• It's Garry Shandling's Show
• The Show