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Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe

TV critic and comedy writer Charlie Brooker takes a caustic look at television programmes and reveals the inner workings of the industry

AKA:
Newswipe With Charlie Brooker; Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
Genre:
Factual
Broadcast:
2006 - 2010  (BBC Four)
Episodes:
41 (7 series)
Starring:
Charlie Brooker
Writers:
Charlie Brooker, David Quantick
Production:
Zeppotron

Based partly on the creator's Screen Burn columns in The Guardian, this show is an irreverent, authored magazine show for BBC Four in which Charlie Brooker takes a caustic look at television and occasionally shouts at it.

Capsule reviews of the week's high-and-lowlights jostle for position alongside VT reports, features exposing the confused inner workings of the TV industry, animations, and some other stuff.

The show has spawned two spin-offs: Newswipe With Charlie Brooker, which sees the presenter and critic providing a funny, thoughtful and scabrous digest of recent news events; and Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe, focussing on the world of computer games.

Our Review: One of the best programmes about TV on TV. Charlie Brooker not only manages to be highly amusing in this magazine show but, in the process, he also manages to teach us all more about the secrets and inner-workings of the TV industry too. The Screenwipe Guide To TV special (available to watch via the video section of this guide) is a must see - it'll amaze you when Brooker reveals just how much it costs to make half-an-hour of television.

Screenwipe (plus spin-off Newswipe) has, over the last couple of years, morphed from a cult show enjoyed by just a few into one of BBC Four's biggest programmes so it is no surprise to see another spin-off, Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe arrive and for BBC Four to order yet more series of both Screenwipe and Newswipe.