The Mary Whitehouse Experience (Radio)

The Mary Whitehouse Experience, 1989

During the 1980’s, a new genre of comedy had begun to emerge, today we know it as alternative comedy and The Mary Whitehouse Experience fits nicely into the category.

Originating in the late 1980’s The Mary Whitehouse Experience started life as a Radio series before transferring to television.  This post deals with the radio series.

Named after the famous TV campaigner Mary Whitehouse the show was a joint production between the BBC and Spitting Image Productions.  Fearing possible litigation from Mary Whitehouse, the BBC did consider the alternative title The William Reees-Mogg Experience.  However the series launched without such action and the alternative title proved un-necessary.

Originally the show was broadcast in as midnight time slot on Friday evenings.  It was subsequently moved to a 10:30pm slot, before being moved again for its fourth and final series to 7pm on Saturday evenings.  The show ran for four series and a special (44 episodes in total) between 1989 and 1990.

The majority of the first three radio series were repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra in 2003.  However, rights issues prevented further transmissions, although there have been very occasional one-off airings in the Saturday morning Comedy Controller slot.  A run of selected episodes started on Friday nights in September 2013.

Summary

Topical sketches with musical interludes by  from Skint Video and The Tracy Brothers.

Clips

 

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Cast

David Baddiel
Rob Newman
Steve Punt
Hugh Dennis

Guest Cast

Jack Dee
Jo Brand
Mark Thomas
Nick Hancock
Mark Hurst

Details

Channel: BBC Radio 1
Created By: Bill Dare
Original Transmission Dates: March 1989 – December 1990