Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Image shows from L to R: Noel Fielding, Greg Davies, Daisy May Cooper, Jamali Maddix
Never Mind The Buzzcocks

Never Mind The Buzzcocks

  • TV panel show
  • Sky Max / BBC Two
  • 1996 - 2023
  • 300 episodes (31 series)

Panel game based on the world of rock and pop music, featuring comedians and musicians. Stars Mark Lamarr, Simon Amstell, Rhod Gilbert, Greg Davies, Phill Jupitus and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 1,514

Press clippings Page 7

Will Young dresses up as Sinitta for Buzzcocks

Singer Will Young tries to be So Macho - dressed in all yellow as 1980s pop star Sinitta.

The Sun, 31st October 2011

I just recorded Never Mind The Buzzcocks. It's quite an odd experience these days, post-Amstell. He used to chat to the pop guests so much it felt like Parkinson. Nowadays they don't get much attention at all. And the rounds whizz by with markedly less banter because whoever's hosting tends to try and follow producers' instructions, which generally run along the lines of 'stop those people talking about anal sex' or whatever the riff du jour is.

Strangely, after 25 series, Buzzcocks is starting to resemble a pop quiz again.

Still - I was never much good at banter so it suits me quite well to sit there and finish off the odd song lyric. I wore a suit, if you like that kind of thing. The show was hosted by Will Young, who is charming. And it mostly centres around Paul Foot. Who is very funny. You can watch it on Halloween night, if you're not too busy dressing as a cat or Satan.

Mark Watson, , 19th October 2011

The 25th series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks contains some new elements from the previous editions: new rounds, new set. But it still sticks with ever-changing hosts.

This week, following his stint on Ask Rhod Gilbert, it was David Hasselhoff's turn in the hot seat. Guests included Peter Serafinowicz, Louie Spence, and the usual two musical guests than no-one has ever heard of and whose names I can't remember.

The only contribution these musical guests made that stuck in my mind is that one of them was able to read the answers on Hasselhoff's question cards (possible flaw with the new set design maybe?). Here we see the key problem with panel games - it relies on the right guests. Yes, they know a lot about music, but you watch the show for the comedy they're a bit of a waste.

Obviously there are some good moments, whether it is Hasselhoff making fun of himself, the panel making fun of him, or Louie Spence merely doing anything; but Buzzcocks has never been the greatest panel show ever made...

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 10th October 2011

It's been with us some 15 years now, and, in the wake of Have I Got News For You, has reached that stage of its maturity where it has guest hosts. This week it's David Hasselhoff, whose career of affectionately parodying his Hasselhoff persona has outlasted his earlier, un-ironic one. Regular team captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding are on hand, joined by Pineapple Dance Studios star Louie Spence, Amelle Berrabah of Sugababes and the ever-reliable Peter Serafinowicz.

David Stubbs, The Guardian, 3rd October 2011

Never let it be said that David Hasselhoff can't take a joke, so prepare for some ill-advised gyrating as he takes the helm for the start of the surreal music quiz's 25th series.

Adding to a very animated atmosphere is the never-knowingly-understated Louis Spence, Sugababe Amelle Berrabah, ­Twitter's pre-eminent off-the-cuff comedian Peter Serafinowicz and singer Loick Essien.

To mark the show's silver jubilee, there have been a few face-lifts to bring the show bang up to date: there's a slick new desk, a shiny new logo and even some surprising tweaks to the final round.

What's not changed, of course, is the top notch banter between rival captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding, who treat this quiz with the ­seriousness it deserves.

Jane Simon, The Mirror, 3rd October 2011

The music quiz returns for a 25th series with an unsafe pair of hands at the tiller: fresh from baffling the nation as a judge on Britain's Got Talent, David Hasselhoff is your host. Bracing themselves to laugh uncomfortably as the Hoff delivers jokes he doesn't get to a spot six inches to the right of the camera are regular captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding.

Among tonight's guests are replacement Sugababe Amelle Berrabah, chronic jazz-hander Louie Spence and comedian Peter Serafinowicz.

Jack Seale, Radio Times, 3rd October 2011

Continuing their trend of rotating hosts, the music panel show is back for a staggering 25th series with cheesy David Hasselhoff taking the chair. Regular team captains Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding return. This week's guests include Amelle Berrabah, from troubled pop trio Sugababes, cutting comedian and actor Peter Serafinowicz, and impish reality star Louie Spence, whose manic campery should guarantee maximum mayhem.

Toby Dantzic, The Telegraph, 30th September 2011

Buzzcocks at Latitude Festival ends in mass-karaoke

A one-off live episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks ended in Phill Jupitus leading a packed-out comedy tent in Rolling Stones' Satisfaction.

Such Small Portions, 16th July 2011

You may be forgiven for thinking you'd somehow slipped through a hole in the space-time foam if you tuned into BBC Two at 10pm - as a new episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks aired with Simon Amstell at the helm and Russell Brand, restored to lascivious form, as a team captain.

The episode was discarded during the furore over Russell Brand's 'Sachsgate' scandal in 2008 and it seems the BBC only saw fit to air the Buzzcocks episode - shot around the same time - some two years later.

It was rather nostalgic to see a rakish Brand on our screens again leaping about energetically and humping female panellists.

It shouldn't be a prerequisite for a comic to be single-and-ready-to-mingle, but he carved a persona for himself so fixated around sex and promiscuity that it remains to be seen if his act will be as successful now he is Mr Katy Perry.

For once in his life the attention (and the laughs) were not directed at Brand however.

Buzzcocks has been ailing somewhat since the exit of its acid-tongued host Simon Amstell and this episode reminded us exactly why.

Be it his surrealist remarks aimed at guest Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall ('Hugh is it true you keep a pork chop in your pocket at all times?') or his cruel but hysterical volley of zingers aimed at Rachel Stevens, Amstell more than stole the show, displaying a fast wit that Brand's theatrical way with words could not match.

One highlight even saw Amstell impersonating Brand's Ponderland demeanour, gesticulating wildly with his limbs and talking in riddles, which, in fairness, Brand took very well.

Both comedians however showed off their talents and reminded us why at its height Buzzcocks was so much sharper than the slew of mildy amusing panel shows such as Mock The Week and 8 Out Of 10 Cats that our screens are now littered with.

With Amstell's subsequent sitcom Grandma's House flying under the radar somewhat and Brand off playing himself in Hollywood movies, I just hope we haven't lost these two comedic talents for good.

Christopher Hooton, Metro, 20th January 2011

Russell Brand's Buzzcocks to be screened

A Never Mind the Buzzcocks episode with Russell Brand, pulled after the furore over his on-air phone messages to Andrew Sachs, is to be shown more than two years after it was filmed.

BBC News, 17th January 2011

Share this page