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  3. The Secret World

The Secret World

Comedy series about the private lives of public people

Previous programmes:
by year (6)

Last on

Episode 6

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programme information

Broadcast Tue, 7 Jul 2009, 18:30 on BBC Radio 4 but not available on BBC iPlayer.

6/6. Bill Gates wants a friend.

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The Concept

The Secret World takes one day in the lives of some public people and imagines what they might be up to. Starting in the morning and moving to night, the show has interconnected scenes and several running stories.
Departing from 'impression' show tradition, the script doesn't rely on exaggerating received ideas about celebrities. Nor does it generally seek to make points, or undermine them in the usual way. Impressions are secondary to the ideas - some of the characters are not 'impressions' at all.
Most the scenes are naturalistically performed with linking music adding to an unusual sound for Radio 4.
The series was first broadcast in April 2009 and is being repeated at 18.30. It was mostly written in early 2009 so there is nothing topical in the show.

The Team

Performed by Jon Culshaw, Lewis Macleod, Margaret Cabourn-Smith, Duncan Wisbey, Jess Robinson, and Julian Dutton.
The writing team is Bill Dare, Julian Dutton, Joel Morris & Jason Heazley, Rufus Jones & Dan Skinner, Tom Jamieson & Nev Fountain.
The show is created and produced by Bill Dare.

Press

'Definitely one of the funniest things I’ve heard on Radio 4 for a while' The Express

'For the past few weeks Radio 4 has been running a series of late Monday night (11pm) one-off comedy shows in pursuit of a series. “Patchy” would be the best way to describe them – until this week, when The Secret World came along to show that not only can an old dog learn new tricks, some of them are better.' The Times

'The Secret World delivers some great ideas, un-expected characterisations (Bruce Forsyth as a gangster!), and a number of rather good subtle jokes. We really enjoyed it a lot.' The British Comedy Guide

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