Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky, who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced. The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then-recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Scheduling problems meant that the show attracted low viewing figures.
About Joking Apart in brief
Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky, who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced. The twelve episodes, broadcast between 1993 and 1995, were directed by Bob Spiers and produced by Andre Ptaszynski for independent production company Pola Jones. The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then-recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Scheduling problems meant that the show attracted low viewing figures. However, it scored highly on the Appreciation Index and accrued a loyal fanbase. One fan acquired the home video rights from the BBC and released both series on his own DVD label. The pilot, directed by John Kilby, was filmed at Pebble Mill in Birmingham on 9–10 August 1990. It is practically identical to the first episode of the series proper; some scenes are even reused, notably the scene with Mark andBecky meeting when he accidentally turns up at a funeral. The stand-up sequences were shot against a black background. Although this made it clearer that they were not real, Moffat thought that it looked odd. Moffat reused the surname ‘Taylor’, which is Mark’s surname in Joking Apart, for Jack Davenport’s character Steve in Coupling. The close ups of Bathurst Road were filmed in the studio for the second series, with stock footage of the audience’s audience reused for the version of the third series.
Robert Bathurst has complained that this material was never reshooted in order to save £5,000, but the BBC promised him this promised material would never be used in the final series. The first episode was transmitted on BBC2 as part of its Comic Asides series of pilot shows on 12 July 1991. The second series was broadcast on BBC1 on 9 September 1992. The third series was aired on BBC One on 10 September 1993. The fourth and fifth series were broadcast on the BBC One channel on 10 October 1993. It was the last series to air on BBC 1 before the BBC went into administration. The sixth and seventh series were shown on BBC Two on 10 November 1994. The seventh and eighth series were aired on Channel 4 on 11 November 1994 and 11 November 1995. The final series was shown on Channel 5 on 10 December 1994 and 10 December 1995. For more information on the series, visit the BBC website or the BBC’s official website, or click here for more information about the series and the BBC series, or go to the BBC TV website, or the Channel 4 website, or the Channel 5 TV channel, or the Channel 5 Channel 5 channel, or the Channel 5 Channel 4 Channel 5 Store, or the Channel 4 Channel 4 Store, or the BBC Radio 4 Channel 5 Channel 4 Store, or the Radio 4 Channel Channel 5 Store, respectively.
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This page is based on the article Joking Apart published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
