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11 O'ClockA late-night satirical sketch show running three nights a week and taped 'as live' on the day of transmission to ensure topicality. The first series was obviously a trial-run and its format - Burns and MacAulay as anchormen, Iain Lee as sideman, Daisy Donovan as roving reporter - was not a comfortable one. Many of the elements that would feature throughout the show's run (spoof interviews with unknowing celebrities, mocking vox-pops, satirical commentary on breaking news stories, etc) were present but the effect was clumsy and self-conscious. These problems were straightened out by the second series and then the show found its feet, with the elevation of Iain Lee to principal anchor and Daisy Donovan brought into the studio in addition to her filmed contributions. Mackenzie Crook was the third co-presenter but by the next series he was gone and Daisy Donovan was repositioned again as Lee's co-host. Their rapport was central to the resulting success and helped the show survive some less-than-strong material. The show's biggest impact, made in the first year, was Sacha Baron-Cohen's character Ali G - 'Channel 4's official voice of youth' - whose often hilarious interviews with unsuspecting politicians and other authority figures made the creation a cult smash. (See Sacha Baron-Cohen's own 'combined entry' for more.) Apart from Ali G, numerous comic presenters and reporters featured throughout the five series, including the sanguine Paul Garner (specialising in snide, snobbish reports on European stories), and the sardonic Ricky Gervais (who seemed to detest everyone and everything). At the centre, though, were Daisy Donovan and Iain Lee, a handsome and competent double-act who kept the whole caboodle on track. Donovan scored particularly well with critics and viewers, undercutting her English Rose looks with mischief and bad language. Her flirtatious, innuendo-laden interviews with politicians were especially effective. Lee's style was more obtuse, although he too derived mileage from vox-pop interviews in which he presented the public with an outlandish proposition to gauge their gullibility. Plain vulgarity and bad taste were the show's main weapons, though, and with the imposing thrice-weekly deadlines it was easy to see why gratuitous crudity often took the place of more witty material. Yet it was a trend that increased as the show progressed, despite the body of writers penning the scripts. (The show kept an 'open door' policy for contributors.). By the fifth series cracks were beginning to show - Iain Lee left just before it began, and new team Sarah Alexander (excellent in Smack The Pony) and Jon Holmes often had to make the most of very thin material. All in all, though this was a brash and brave try, more satisfying and sharper satire could be found at this time in the BBC comedy panel-game Have I Got News For You and in the work of Rory Bremner and his team. Though it had started with such promise, when The 11 O'Clock Show ended there were few mourners. Notes. The 109 total refers to the all-new editions. Throughout its run the show also presented compilations of each week's three editions, usually screened the following weekend. The show was sometimes called The 11 O'Clock Show: The News Alternative from the fourth series. A pair of compilations of Ali G sketches from The 11 O'Clock Show, titled Da Best Of Ali G, were screened by C4 on 21 and 22 December 1999. Daisy Donovan continued her faux-naif persona from The 11 O'Clock Show in Daisy Daisy (C4, two programmes, 2 and 11 January 2001; four more 9 May-6 June 2002), which followed Daisy's attempts to meet and marry a multi-millionaire. Donovan then fronted a topical news comedy panel-game show, Does Doug Know? (C4, eight editions, 15 March-3 May 2002).
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