Jo Brand's Big Splash. Jo Brand. Copyright: Doghouse Media / What Larks Productions
Jo Brand's Big Splash

Jo Brand's Big Splash

  • TV stand-up
  • Dave
  • 2011
  • 5 episodes (1 series)

Stand-up comedy show hosted by Jo Brand in which she meets people with a love of water. Stars Jo Brand.

Press clippings

This new show on Dave features a mixture of documentary and stand-up. Here Jo Brand, a keen swimmer, looks at the British love of water, swimming and all things wet.

The problem with this show is that while Jo Brand is a very good stand-up comedian, her stand-up always gets interrupted by these documentary elements of the show. At times it is less a comedy, and more akin to the Channel 5 series Rory and Paddy's Great British Adventure, featuring lots of people taking part in silly challenges. Also, quite a few of these segments are either boring or disgusting. For example, at one point Brand goes down into a London sewer. One thing that I've always believed in is that excrement is a much funnier thing when it's talked about rather than seen. Seeing poo on screen is never funny.

However, some of the documentary elements are particular eye-catching. My favourite was the Maldon Mud Race, which involves running across a muddy river bank. Brand did this event alongside Sean Lock, with both of them wearing wetsuits, getting covered in mud, falling over, and in the end taking a shower together. I felt like I was beginning to watch some comedic fetish film.

Luckily, for those who are not interested in any of the documentary elements of this programme, the final episode of the series just features Brand's stand-up, so you can just wait until then.

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 26th September 2011

Someday, TV will succeed in its long quest to find a settled role for Jo Brand and we'll all live happily ever after. Meanwhile, in this new series for Dave, Brand defies her reputation as the least physically inclined of comedians by plunging into water, in all its various British manifestations. In between bouts of standup, we'll see her criss-crossing the country in her custom-made swimsuit, leading the charge through sewerage systems and grey seas. Tonight, accompanied by Sean Lock, she assays the Maldon Mud Race. It's giving nothing away to reveal that she gets covered in mud.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 22nd September 2011

Video: Jo Brand takes on charity mud race

Jo Brand appears on BBC Breakfast to talk about her new series.

BBC News, 22nd September 2011

Jo Brand: fat jokes matter

What's a middle-aged female comedian doing jumping off high diving boards on a blokey channel called Dave?

Emine Saner, The Guardian, 21st September 2011

Having children is fab says Jo Brand

Even being mistaken for her children's granny can't wipe the smile off Jo Brand's face.

Rick Fulton, Daily Record, 19th September 2011

Jo Brand interview

Jo Brand on friendships with men, the charm of Jeremy Clarkson, and why she's not going to be Brucie.

Euan Ferguson, The Observer, 11th September 2011

Jo Brand plunges into the deep end of comedy

Jo Brand returns to our T.V screens this September, slipping on a custom made swimsuit for "Jo Brand's Big Splash". The new 4-part series combines travelogue and stand up during which the reluctant but intrepid explorer dives from the terrifying heights of Olympic springboards to fish for golf balls.

Siva Nagarajah, The Independent, 8th September 2011

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