TVGoHome
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TVGoHome was a website which parodied the television listings style of the British magazine Radio Times. It was produced fortnightly from 1999 to 2001, and sporadically until 2003, by Charlie Brooker. The site now only exists in archive form.
The website gained a cult following, partly due to its tie-up with the geek news site Need To Know, and its use of strong language, surreal imagery and savage satire reminiscent of the work of Chris Morris. Regular targets for abuse were the Daily Mail, Mick Hucknall of Simply Red and the TV presenter Rowland Rivron. TVGoHome's most consistent target, however, was fictional. Nathan Barley, an ex-public-school media wannabe living off his parents' wealth, had his life chronicled in a fly-on-the-wall documentary series (in the TVGoHome universe) entitled simply Cunt. The programme mocked the "new media" scene that developed around the turn of the millennium in Hoxton and Shoreditch in east London and its population of middle-class web designers, DJs and magazine producers, their obsessions with absurd fashions and gadgetry, their inevitably feeble attempts at creativity and their tireless and ludicrous efforts to embody the cutting edge of urban cool. Two spinoff books were later released: a TVGoHome compilation of old and new material, and Unnovations, mocking the now-defunct Innovations catalogue.
A television show was produced in 2001, consisting of six half-hour episodes broadcast on E4, later compiled for broadcast on Channel 4. It was written by Brooker, among others, and directed by Tristram Shapeero, who also directed the controversial Brass Eye special on paedophilia. An Unnovations TV show was also produced, and broadcast on UK Play.
Brooker has cited the increasing absurdity of reality television as one of the main reasons he stopped writing TVGoHome. The ideas for real life shows such as Touch the Truck, in which contestants must continually touch a truck for 24 hours in order to win a prize, were the kind of idea that at one point would only have existed as a satirical creation of Brooker's website. Now that they were becoming a reality, Brooker felt it was time to stop.
A sitcom entitled Nathan Barley, based on a character from TVGoHome and co-written by Brooker with Chris Morris, was broadcast in February 2005.
Publications
- TV Go Home, Charlie Brooker, 2001 (ISBN 1841156752)
- Unnovations, Charlie Brooker, 2002 (ISBN 1841157309)
- Screen Burn, Charlie Brooker, 2004 (ISBN 0571227554)
External links
- [TV Go Home]
- [A Cunt Compendium]
- [Site for Nathan Barley TV show]
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