Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe is a witty one-man rip-fest splicing dodgy news footage, Cassette-boyesque montage, YouTube clips, sketches and comedy interviews in a satirical news-broadcast-style magazine show.
Whether ripping into politics, culture, tabloid stories or American TV, Brooker’s uniquely British ever-pissed-offness injects dry humour into the week’s headlines. Stories are compiled from the previous week and the script is written for a Thursday evening transmission, giving the show a cutting immediacy, covering wide-ranging topics from terrorism to television to technology. The dimly-let set is dingy – a single chair behind a news-desk – creating the grungy underground backdrop to some pretty dark satire.
The latest installment covers the Charlie Hebdo shootings, Winston Churchill, Top Gear, Microsoft’s HoloLens launch and the controversial demise of page three, all narrated through Brooker’s wry observational comedy.
Well worth a watch. Tune in Thursday, BBC2.