BBC Three’s 15 most defining TV shows
Today (March 6) the BBC has confirmed it is planning to close its youth-skewing BBC Three service as a traditional TV channel and switch its most popular programmes to the iPlayer.
The move – part of a £100 million cost-cutting measure – is the first time the Beeb has closed a major TV channel and marks the end of BBC Three after 11 years on air (or more accurately, 16 years, if we count the channel’s predecessor BBC Choice).
With that in mind, I’ve trawled through the last 830 or so issues of the Radio Times to pick out BBC Three’s 15 most defining shows.
1. Little Britain
Undoubtedly the channel’s biggest success story, Little Britain was responsible for countless memorable characters, not to mention more catchphrases than even Roy Walker could handle.
2. Russell Howard’s Good News
Russell ‘what you lookin’ at?’ Howard proved that BBC Three could actually produce topical content that appealed to a young audience.
3. High Spirits With Shirley Ghostman
An oft-forgotten gem from the early days of Three, fake psychic Shirley Ghostman channelled everyone from a foul-mouthed Frank Sinatra to a vengeful Lady Di.
4. The Smoking Room
This understated, BAFTA-winning comedy was set entirely in the designated smoking room at the offices of a fictitious company.
5. Torchwood
The bawdy Barrowman-led Doctor Who spinoff eventually graduated to BBC One and US network Starz, but started life on BBC Three in 2006 with swearing! Violence! And gay sex!
6. Liquid News
A daily entertainment magazine show that started life on BBC Choice in 2000, the zeitgeisty, irreverent Liquid News was initially hosted by the self-described “fat, balding homosexual” Christopher Price, who tragically died at the age of 34 in 2002.
7. Gavin & Stacey
Giving Little Britain a run for its money in terms of both success and catchphrases, James ‘Smithy’ Corden and Ruth ‘Nessa’ Jones’s warm ensemble comedy will go down as one of BBC Three’s greatest achievements.
8. Being Human
Toby Whithouse’s supernatural drama about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf (Attitude fave Russell Tovey) sharing a house garnered some of the channel’s highest ever audiences.
9. Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents / Pissed and Pregnant / Fuck Off, I’m Ginger / My Big Breasts and I
Three’s much-derided, provocatively-titled documentaries mostly chronicled youngsters getting drunk, aggressive, pregnant and/or ginger.
10. The Mighty Boosh
A cult favourite with students everywhere, the Boosh was responsible for launching the career of part-man, part-carpet Noel Fielding.
11. Johnny Vaughan Tonight
After quitting The Big Breakfast in 2001, Johnny Vaughan went on to become the face of BBC Choice and its relaunch as BBC Three with a daily American-style chatshow.
12. Nighty Night
The deliciously dark series from Julia Davis is arguably the best example of how Three makes a valuable contribution to British comedy.
13. Bad Education
Three’s latest dahling Jack Whitehall unleashed his bare arse in the name of lolz for Bad Education, which broke records as the channel’s most-watched comedy premiere ever.
14. Him & Her
R-Toves excelled in the crude-cum-charming comedy about a lazy engaged couple sharing a bedsit.
15. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
Three’s longest-running original series was relentlessly assaulted by critics for more than a decade because of its trashy storylines and vulgar dialogue. Viewers voted with their eyeballs though, and Two Pints will forever remain synonymous with BBC Three.