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New You've Been Framed!

New You've Been Framed!
  • Posted at 5:30pm
  • 02 April 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 10 comments

I am perfectly serious when I claim that New You've Been Framed! is the most brilliantly subversive show on television, bar none.

Yes, I can see that this is an odd thing to say as you are surely thinking, dear reader, that these are merely by-the-yard, formulaic blooper shows featuring camcorder footage of people falling over at weddings.

You'd be right, it is all of those things - and in your heart of hearts surely you must realise that there are few things on earth funnier than watching people falling over at weddings.

But since he took over writer/narrator duties, Harry Hill has lifted New You've Been Framed! into surrealist high art. Honestly, just pay close attention to his commentary. He doesn't burble banalities like one of his predecessors, Lisa Riley (Mandy Dingle, as was), who actually appeared in the studio. There are no groaning puns or achingly awful, chortling idiocies. No, Hill's You've Been Framed! is a class act of towering comedy genius.

Come on, can you think of any other ITV1 primetime light entertainment show that has made gags about cult novelist Will Self and former US vice-president Dick Cheney? So we're obviously not talking here about someone who's courting mass appeal.

Yet Framed does have that mass appeal because it works perfectly on different levels. The camcorder stuff is funny in a purely comic way - I think so, anyway. I never, ever tire of watching idiot young skateboarders hurting themselves in tumbles after they've attempted some recklessly stupid move. Or daft cyclists landing awkwardly when they foolishly try to cycle down sets of stone steps.

But it's Hill's contribution that lifts Framed way, way above the ordinary. His observations are astute and knowing and he's brilliant at insulting people without actually seeming to be insulting, because he isn't cruel or mean.

Just one remark about the colour of someone's sofa, glimpsed in the background of footage of a granny snoring in an armchair after Christmas dinner, tells you everything you need to know. Hill also makes sly digs at the ubiquity of trampolines in the nation's back gardens, and the lack of sense in over-filling a paddling pool. The latter, it seems, are irresistible to exuberant dads and their ill-advised summer-afternoon attempts at diving.

In some ways, I love New You've Been Framed! even more than I love Harry Hill's TV Burp, which follows it on Saturdays. No, you can never have too much Harry Hill. As I said, it's the subversion involved in taking such a simple format, one that's been flogged to death for years, and sprinkling it with wit to give it a whole new lease of life. Unbeatable.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times - read her column in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.

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Comments

  • Posted on 28 April 2009
  • at 2:06pm
  • by Kate

Totally agree with Alison. Harry Hill's comments lift this tired format into something unmissable. Love it!

  • Posted on 13 April 2009
  • at 2:13pm
  • by Peter

Harry Hill is a stand-out comedic talent. Not for Framed which is a poor use of Harry. Watch Burp where he writes and presents. His asides to camera, running gags and re-imagining of scenes are first class. Some items may be funnier than others but few actually bomb.

I was not too keen of him in standup but the is the correct vehicle for his talent.

  • Posted on 11 April 2009
  • at 2:22pm
  • by neish

In times of recession, we need to turn to You've Been Framed. Never mind quantative easing we need quantative laughing!

  • Posted on 11 April 2009
  • at 2:17pm
  • by neish

I agree as soon as I hear that infamous title music, I feel 8 again!

  • Posted on 07 April 2009
  • at 8:34pm
  • by sky_viewer

I agree with the above comments. This programme is appalling. TV Burp, on the other hand (along with Harry Hill), is superb.

  • Posted on 07 April 2009
  • at 6:37pm
  • by Phil

I've never found Harry Hill funny.

  • Posted on 07 April 2009
  • at 10:55am
  • by MazY

As much as I'd like to agree with you, I just cannot. On the contrary, I find the show to be the poster-child of all that is wrong with Saturday evening television.

It is cheap (in almost every sense), mind-numbingly repetitive, and offers nothing that we can't all view on YouTube at a time of our choosing.

  • Posted on 04 April 2009
  • at 4:21pm
  • by spiv

You're from another planet

  • Posted on 04 April 2009
  • at 1:53pm
  • by Lord Nutsford

I agree. What is the world coming to when one can't juice the television set. I demand juice!

  • Posted on 03 April 2009
  • at 4:05pm
  • by Louis Cypher

You're mad.

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