Charlie Brooker's Anti-Viral Wipe

He's always been part of the industry, really - he was one of the founders of Zeppotron nearly twenty years ago now, and when Wipe began he was a Guardian columnist, which doesn't really make you that much of an outsider.

That's why I never understood the ire directed at him for being a "sellout" in recent years, seemingly from people who expect him to be a psycopath in real life rather than a happily married middle-class man. It's like expecting Al Murray to be a real pub landlord. Charlie's always been quick to leave in the bits in the Wipes where he cocks up and corpses in any case.

Really enjoyed this. "Happy birthday twice" really made me chuckle.

The credits were interesting, Konnie Huq as 'autocue operator' and her and Diane Morgan down as 'Hair and Make-up' and Diane and Charlie down as 'location managers'

I loved it - had that proper Wipe feel to it and the bite that the show always had in its Newswipe/Screenwipe days. And it chose its targets well.
And always good to see a bit of Konnie Huq.

The only shame was that given he covered some non-Covid items he didn’t get round to the Masked Singer. I actually really enjoyed that show but it’s just asking for the Screenwipe treatment and the show fits into the whole idea of how bonkers the year has been

Yes, that made me chuckle! An excellent nod to the fact that it was all recorded from their homes.

Quite apart from it being really very funny, it was so good to see Brooker back doing this kind of show. Like so many of you, I began watching him (inspired by posts on this very forum, actually) with Screenwipe on BBC Four when I was in my teens and I've really been rooting him on (silly as that sounds) as he's gained in stature both as a satirist and a screenwriter over the past decade.

I loved the fact that it was really back to how it used to be - actually filmed from Brooker's home! And the Konnie Huq cameos were doubly fitting because, of course, they met when Huq was booked to front the spoof documentary 'Konnie Huq Goes Pissing' for a 2008 Screenwipe.

I admit I found the bit where he critiques the backgrounds of journalists’ homes in the daily briefings quite funny.

Yes, it was a wonderful deconstruction of the 'personal triumph' documentary - "Konnie Huq's Great British Wee" - "I'm Konnie Huq, I'm 33 years old but I look about 9"

Speaking of Al Murray, he appeared on Channel 4 News last week (in his guise as co-presenter of a WWII podcast) and it was a bit jarring to see him with a beard and hair!

I assumed that but according to his recent interview with Richard Herring they knew each other a beforehand.


A shame because it would have been an interesting answer to the question 'how did you and mummy meet?'

Great British Wee was funny but nothing beats 'Where's the Paper?' and A History of Corners.

Weren't they both on the same episode as well?

My favourite screenwipe related moment is this:

A History of Corners was part of the episode where he talked about the then-new end credit guidelines. Loved that whole bit, especially taking the piss out of people who say words like 'content' and 'solutions' ('like this p****!!'). That was also the episode with the guide on how to work in TV, and because he'd run the credits at the start, at the end he just said something like 'I'll dump you back onto BBC Four' with the BBC Four logo crashing into the screen (if I've remembered that correctly).