Radio 4’s new topical comedy show, which replaces the long-running The Now Show, will break the news, not just make jokes about it, its creators have said.
The Naked Week, which has taken the broadcaster’s Friday night comedy slot, has brought Private Eye journalists onboard to dig up scoops.
The comedian, producer and director Jon Holmes, who was a regular on The Now Show, said The Naked Week will have a section for investigative journalism. “A strand across the series is going deep on lobbying, how it works politically and what listeners may not know goes on behind the scenes,” he said.
“Coming down the pipe are some pretty interesting revelations – which, for a comedy on Radio 4, hasn’t really been done before.”
The first episode, which aired at the end of last month, featured a segment investigating whether ministerial connections to gambling companies might have weakened gambling measures announced by government.
The show is fronted by Private Eye writer and comedian Andrew Hunter Murray, with chief correspondent Amy Hoggart, who has worked on US satirical shows, including Full Frontal With Samantha Bee.
“It’s so satisfying watching that detective work happen,” said Hoggart. “People who have their finger in loads of pies and they’re lying to the public, even them being shamed for 30 seconds is satisfying. It’s not the same as proper justice, but it’s really fun.”
The Naked Week also features Holmes’s signature audio mashups of the week’s news, plus “mischievous” segments with Hoggart interviewing experts, and “visual tricks and sketches”, such as shooting a bullet through a copy of the Spectator magazine, that are described for listeners.
Holmes said: “It’s serious and satirical in places, but we’re not afraid to be silly.”
The show also aims to make media analysis funny. “Having worked at Private Eye for nearly 15 years, people are always interested in what goes into a news story,” Murray said.
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“It’s important for people to know what goes into the sausages of news they eat every morning. There’s a risk now, because news is so diffuse, that you can have your own self-generated media ecosystem, but without knowing where it’s all come from. It’s helpful to know why the Telegraph might be reporting on this, or why Sky might be reporting that.”
The team believes this type of transparency is increasingly important as trust in the media declines. Hoggart, who recently interviewed voters in the US, said: “They don’t want to feel tricked, so giving people more information about where news comes from and what’s going on behind the scenes, people really do like that. No one thinks they’re blindly following what they’ve been told. People want to feel switched on and critical.”
Murray, who has worked on Private Eye’s Paul Foot award, which recognise outstanding investigative journalism, said: “The stories people are breaking in the face of official opposition are brilliant… The answer to how people can trust the media more is actually: look at the great stories being broken by the media and you’ll be incredibly impressed.”
