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Broken News
2005 7.3 (6 votes) 1 Seasons
Official Website
Genres
Comedy News
Networks
BBC Two
Created By
John Morton
Tony Roche

Broken News

Overview

Broken News is a comedy programme shown on BBC Two in autumn 2005 and in Australia on SBS-TV from the 17 July 2006. The show poked fun at the world of 24-hour rolling news channels. The title of the show is a play on the phrase "breaking news". The show jump cut between its various spoof TV channels, which covered both the central story and other stories that would be of interest to their audience. A large part of the comedy came from observations about the nature of news presentation rather than the stories themselves.

Key Crew

Producer: Jon Plowman

Writer: Tony Roche, John Morton

Top Cast

Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch

Will Parker

Claudia Christian
Claudia Christian

Julia Regan - IBS

Duncan Duff
Duncan Duff

Richard Pritchard - ESN

Sharon Horgan
Sharon Horgan

Katie Tate - ESN

Colin Stinton
Colin Stinton

Anthony Markovitz

Steve Toussaint
Steve Toussaint

Adam Lockwood

Indira Varma
Indira Varma

Melanie Bellamy

Philip Brodie
Philip Brodie

Colin Kay - So News

Seasons

Season 1 (2005)

No overview available.

6 episodes

Episodes
Episode 1: Tomato Flu
2005-10-31

An outbreak of tomato flu is in the headlines. This alarming new super-virus (a parody of avian flu) can be traced back to a turkey farm in Turkey. The news networks advise on the best way to avoid tomatoids in food such as tomato ketchup. In other news: a man is injured by a frozen block of urine.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 2: Missing Island
2005-11-07

A report that an island has gone missing in the Barents Sea triggers paranoia about rising sea levels in Lincolnshire and the end of the world as we know it. In other news: teenagers' attention spans are now as low as eleven seconds.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 3: Half Way There Day
2005-11-14

Reports on commemorations around the country to mark the day Britain reached the half-way point in the last World War. In other news: The MADI music awards are here again, without last year's controversy.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 4: Crime
2005-11-21

The publication of a Home Office report which reveals that the majority of teenagers are now criminals leads to a series of news stories from the country's worst-hit areas. A picture of Britain in which the teenage population "now effectively feral, roam Britain's urban landscapes in packs of up to fifteen at a single time." In other news: East Anglia could be gone within a decade.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 5: Bolivian Crisis
2005-11-28

Reaction comes from around the world to rumours that Bolivia might have acquired nuclear weapons. Including a report from The White House: This is a bad day for the good guys, President Bush. In other news: A cross-eyed man kills a horse while trying to shoot himself.

Runtime: 30 min
Episode 6: Hijack
2005-12-05

Media frenzy is quick to follow after reports emerge of an apparent hijack of an American passenger flight bound for Amsterdam. This live breaking story dominates the running orders of the world's news networks. In other news: An injunction has been served on Josh Cashman.

Runtime: 30 min

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