34-680: Radio Active may refer to: Radio Active (radio series) , a radio comedy programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during the 1980s Radio Active (TV series) , a television show on YTV in Canada Radio Active (New Zealand) , a radio station based in Wellington, New Zealand Radio Active (Sweden) , a radio station based in Ystad, Sweden Radio Active (Fuzzy Haskins album) , 1978 Radio Active (Pat Travers album) Radio:Active ,
68-404: A 2008 album by British pop punk band McFly See also [ edit ] Radioactive (disambiguation) Radioactive decay Radioactive Man (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Radio Active . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
102-492: A con" (Stevens); and "blindingly obvious" patronising public service announcements ("Do not throw boiling water over a child"). Mike Flex presides over the rigged "Master Quiz" with ever-changing rules and format, although the prize remains the same: a chateau in the Loire Valley , which curiously goes un-won from week to week. The Radio Active Drama Repertory Company usually give a performance with wild misreadings of
136-529: A report. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog reporting" or "accountability reporting". Most investigative journalism has traditionally been conducted by newspapers, wire services , and freelance journalists. With the decline in income through advertising, many traditional news services have struggled to fund investigative journalism, due to it being very time-consuming and expensive. Journalistic investigations are increasingly carried out by news organizations working together, even internationally (as in
170-677: A sexual nature (replaced by "thou shalt not listen to the Beastie Boys " and "thou shalt not support Arsenal "). A description of the cover (which Ron attempts to pass off as a depiction of Mary Magdalene , but is actually a reproduction or re-creation of the famous Tennis Girl poster) was deleted completely. To make up the lost time, the preceding article was lengthened with a few extra lines. The show transferred to TV as KYTV , which produced 19 episodes (a pilot, three series and one Children in Need special) between 1989 and 1993. The TV show
204-615: Is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors, and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity." Early newspapers in British colonial America were often suppressed by the authorities for their investigative journalism. Examples include Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick and Benjamin Franklin's New England Courant . Journalists who reported on
238-463: Is the Bee Gees parody The Hee Bee Gee Bees , with their song "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)", which became a moderate 1980 hit. Pope was also responsible for the very long and very contemporary jingles presenting the station telephone number for phone ins (with a false ending) and introducing the commercials . Each week's show has its own one-off jingles, which initially resembled
272-553: The Cambridge Five and contains allusions to Spycatcher and the Zircon affair , and "The Flu Special" satirises the then-current HIV/AIDS public awareness campaigns . Most of the original characters on the show are named after pieces of sound equipment, including: Also on the station's staff are: Other recurring characters include: The second series sees the characters become more defined, with Mike Channel revealed as
306-518: The Center for Public Integrity which includes 165 investigative reporters in over 65 countries working collaboratively on crime, corruption, and abuse of power at a global level, under Gerard Ryle as Director. Working with major media outlets globally, they have exposed organised crime, international tobacco companies, private military cartels, asbestos companies, climate change lobbyists, details of Iraq and Afghanistan war contracts, and most recently
340-461: The "modern-media" regular characters against older stereotypes of foreigners and "establishment types" such as generals and politicians, though the programme rarely strays into the " alternative comedy " vogue of contemporary political comment. However some episodes in the final series made reference to real-life events: "Probe Round the Back" is a parody of investigative journalism which revolved around
374-408: The 1980s. The series grew out of a 1979 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show presented by The Oxford Revue and starred Angus Deayton , Geoffrey Perkins , Michael Fenton Stevens , Helen Atkinson-Wood and Philip Pope . The first episode was broadcast in 1980, and it ran for seven series. The show is based on a fictional radio station (described as "Britain's first national local radio station") and
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#1732798648180408-546: The Radio 4 series The Frequency of Laughter to discuss Radio Active . When asked whether the show would ever be revived, he responded that it would be "awkward" without Geoffrey Perkins (who died in 2008) but "never say never". After seeing Neil Pearson 's production of The Missing Hancocks at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015, Deayton felt that Radio Active could be revived in the same manner, with
442-549: The budgets for investigative journalism. A 2002 study concluded "that investigative journalism has all but disappeared from the nation's commercial airwaves." Non-commercial journalism has increasingly stepped-up to work on this growing need for in-depth investigations and reporting. One of the largest teams of investigative journalists is the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) launched in 1997 by
476-474: The case of the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers ), or by nonprofit outlets such as ProPublica , which rely on the support of the public and benefactors to fund their work. University of Missouri journalism professor Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as: "Reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, matters of importance to readers, viewers, or listeners." In many cases,
510-570: The doings of the British authorities would later contribute to revolutionary sentiment in the run-up to the American Revolution ; one prominent example was the Boston Gazette , contributed to by Samuel Adams among others. American journalism textbooks point out that muckraking standards promoted by McClure's Magazine around 1902, "Have become integral to the character of modern investigative journalism." Furthermore,
544-401: The end of the episode) but was so well-received that a brief appearance by the character was added to the final episode of the series, before he was brought back as a regular in the fifth series. Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins wrote most of the material. The first series was credited as written by Deayton, Perkins and Richard Curtis , as it drew on sketches written by Deayton and Curtis for
578-493: The first series, to a giggling, infantile children's presenter. Although he would come to be regarded as a main character, Martin Brown is not introduced until series 4, and was originally intended as a one-off character (he is so incompetent that during his first show, the station's other presenters are revealed to be listening in another studio and laying bets on how long it will take for Sir Norman to fire him – which duly happens at
612-432: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Radio_Active&oldid=544473517 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Radio Active (radio series) Radio Active is a radio comedy programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during
646-420: The original stage show. Other significant additional contributions came from, at various times, Jon Canter , Terence Dackombe, Michael Fenton Stevens, Jack (then John) Docherty , Moray Hunter , and in the later series Jeremy Pascall (with whom Deayton and Perkins were concurrently writing The Uncyclopedia of Rock for Capital Radio ). The musical elements were provided by Philip Pope. Four producers worked on
680-640: The programmes that it might transmit. Initially the radio station concept was used simply as a loose framing device for otherwise unlinked sketches and songs, but as the show developed, the episodes became more thematically focused, each one lampooning a different broadcasting genre and sometimes even a specific programme such as Down Your Way (parodied as "Round Your Parts"), In at the Deep End ("Out of Your Depth"), Ultra Quiz ("Gigantaquiz"), The Radio Programme ("The Radio Radio Programme") and Crimewatch ("Stop That Crime UK"). The programmes often pitch
714-428: The scripts ("She's seriously one hundred and eleven. (Pause). She's seriously ill.") and miscued sound effects. Each programme starts and ends with a comical handover to the Radio 4 continuity announcer. The original broadcasts took place on BBC Radio 4 between 1980 and 1988 (as detailed in the table below). One special from the same team ( The Hee Bee Gee Bees Story ) premiered on BBC Radio 2 ; uniquely this edition
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#1732798648180748-630: The second and third series was released by BBC Records in 1983, with a cassette featuring the episodes "David Chizzlenut" and "Mega Phone-In" following in 1993 as part of the BBC Canned Laughter range. A CD of the first series was released in 2010 on the BBC Classic Radio Comedy label, with some minor music edits to "The Midday Show with Anna Daptor". A tie-in book, Radio Active Times , was published in 1986 by Sphere Books . Later that same year, some Radio Active content
782-620: The self-promotions and branding which were a common feature of television stations at this point. Several key characters from Radio Active transferred to KYTV largely unchanged from their radio incarnations, including Mike Channel, Mike Flex, Anna Daptor and Martin Brown, who formed the central presentation team for KYTV's programmes; other characters including Anna Rabies and the Right Reverend Reverend Wright also transferred across. Phillip Pope's main character in KYTV
816-543: The series over the years ( Jimmy Mulville , Jamie Rix , Paul Mayhew-Archer and David Tyler ). The series theme tune is "Out To Lunch" by The Client, a 1979 RCA single (PB5214), originally used for a NatWest advert. The Client consisted of Ronnie Bond and Tom Parker . The show had its origins in the University of Oxford student drama community, especially in the musical parodies of Philip Pope, which were regularly featured on Radio Active . The best known of these
850-412: The sort of generic jingles used by real radio stations, but later became elaborate musical pastiches in their own right. The "commercials" feature many parodies of current TV adverts and other running jokes, including conversations between housewives Mary (Fenton Stevens putting on a high-pitched voice) and June (Atkinson-Wood); goods and services of dubious legality offered by "Honest Ron – the others are
884-561: The stage show presented as a mock radio recording. The surviving original cast members subsequently appeared at the Fringe in August 2016 in a show using two radio scripts, "David Chizzlenut" and "Did You Catch It?". The "David Chizzlenut" section, recorded at the Fringe, was also broadcast as a one-off special on Radio 4. The Radio Active team performed the same two episodes on a UK tour in 2019, with extra material added. An LP of sketches from
918-416: The station's longest-serving presenter and resentful of the more popular younger hosts, especially Mike Flex, whom Channel frequently complained had taken "his" mid-morning show. At the same time, Nigel Pry gains the idiosyncratic speech patterns and propensity to injury that became his defining traits, and Mike Stand is effectively reinvented as a completely new character, changing from an old-school rock DJ in
952-507: The subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed. There are currently university departments for teaching investigative journalism. Conferences are conducted presenting peer-reviewed research into investigative journalism. British media theorist Hugo de Burgh (2000) states that: "An investigative journalist is a man or woman whose profession is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally
986-552: The successes of the early muckrakers continued to inspire journalists. The outlook for investigative journalism in the United States was improved by the 1960s with the Freedom of Information Act and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan . The invention of the photocopier also offered an assistive tool to whistleblowers . The growth of media conglomerates in the U.S. since the 1980s has been accompanied by massive cuts in
1020-450: Was as the station's unnamed continuity announcer , although as with the radio series he (and the other regulars) appeared in multiple roles. The station's owner was again played by Deayton, though the character name was changed from Sir Norman Tonsil to Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer for the TV series, to serve as one of the show's thinly-veiled references to Sky TV. In 2014, Angus Deayton appeared on
1054-571: Was edited for the mid-week repeat and all later broadcasts. In particular, in the broadcast church service near the start of the episode, the inability of any of the congregation to recite the Lord's Prayer correctly was replaced with a request for two girls in the front row to turn off their Sony Walkmans . The new translation of the Bible (by "Honest Ron") was also heavily edited; the new Ten Commandments were changed to remove two which were originally of
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1088-690: Was featured in The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book . Some of the show's musical parodies were released as singles and albums under the Hee Bee Gee Bees name. Investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice , political corruption , or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing
1122-558: Was presented as a straightforward mockumentary , narrated by disc jockey Paul Burnett . Episodes from the series were repeated on Radio 4 in late 2002, and again on classic comedy radio station BBC 7 in 2003, late 2004, early 2005 and mid-2006 and again in 2007. A new one-off episode of Radio Active , the first for 15 years, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2002. The third episode of series 7 ("The God Alone Knows Show") caused many complaints on its first transmission and so
1156-536: Was written, produced and performed by largely the same team as had worked on Radio Active . Some of the Radio Active scripts and/or plot devices originally heard on the radio series were reused for the TV show, though the central setting changed from a local radio station to a satellite television broadcaster, and a number of new features and scenarios which parodied television convention were added. Spoof commercials continued to broadcast, along with parodies of
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