The Mighty Boosh News Updates

Up to the minute Boosh news. You'll hear it here first.

26.7.05

Series 2 on TV tonight!

As if anyone needs reminding, but just in case you do. The second series starts tonight at 11pm on BBC Three - Episode 2 should be available to view on broadband via the BBC Three website this evening.

The Mighty Boosh Tue 26 Jul, 23:00 - 23:30
BBC Three
Call of the Yeti: During a break at Kodiak Jack's log cabin, Kodiak tells Howard of the mythical Yeti that lives in the forest. But his desire for fame and fortune gets the better of him.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/mightyboosh/

Then again..
Wed 27 Jul, 02:00 - 02:30
Sat 30 Jul, 00:30 - 01:00
Sat 30 Jul, 21:40 - 22:10
Tue 2 Aug, 00:30 - 01:00

Also listen out to BBC 6 Music tomorrow
Vic McGlynn Wed 27 Jul, 13:00 - 16:00
BBC 6 Music
Joining Vic in the studio will be Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding talking about their musical taste and their new series of The Mighty Boosh.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/vic_mcglynn/

22.7.05

The Mighty Boosh Adventure - BBC Three

http://www.mightybooshadventure.co.uk/

20.7.05

Mighty Boosh press

Time Out London
p164 "What they watch" - Julian Barratt
p178 The Mighty Boosh - Digital Choice pick of the day

Keep an eye out this week also for...

TV & Sat Week
Total TV Guide
Independent On Sunday Review
Arena
Esquire
Nuts

Tuesday
BBC Breakfast News
MTV TRL
London 94.9 Late Show

Wednesday
BBC 6 Music Vic McGlynn

18.7.05

Revamped BBC site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/mightyboosh/

DVD Cover and Extras

Come with us now on a journey through time and space... to the world of The Mighty Boosh...

Written by and starring Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, The Mighty Boosh is an off-the-wall adventure based on their Perrier Award-winning comedy show.

Howard and Vince, two workers in a run-down zoo, are often called upon to put their jobs before their pride. That means dressing up as animals and sitting in cages because their boss, American entrepreneur Bob Fossil, can barely afford any real animals (or even remember what species they are).

Vince - amazing hair in tow - accepts the situation happily, quite in contrast to his grandiose, tweed-wearing colleague, Howard Moon - who's either full of self-delusion or in a "jazz trance".

But, their jobs involve much more than just dressing up. From freeing mutant animals engineered in a secret laboratory underneath the zoo, to fighting a kangaroo to raise money for their dilapidated workplace, Howard and Vince always find themselves at the centre of some very strange events

With some wonderful supporting characters such as Dixon Bainbridge - the upper-class bully-boy - and the spaced-out shaman, Naboo (forever thinking about that job at Dixons), The Mighty Boosh throws in animation, film references and musical numbers to create one of the best comedy shows of the last 10 years - get involved!

Episodes comprise:

1. Killeroo
2. Mutants
3. Bollo
4. Tundra
5. Jungle
6. Charlie
7. Electro
8. Hitcher

Extras comprise:

A series of outtakes along with two exclusive documentaries...
"THE MIGHTY BOOSH - A HISTORY" (9mins 37 secs)
"INSIDE THE ZOONIVERSE" (28mins 4secs).


17.7.05

Scotsman Interview

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1639762005

(c) The Scotsman



Boys who never grew up

LIKE all the best heroes, Julian Barratt doesn't actually look like one. He needs a shave, his loud yellow shirt needs ironed or, better still, set alight, and his wheat beer is starting to divert the afternoon down a surreal path. Meanwhile, his friend Noel Fielding, who can get surreal without the help of wheat beer, won't stop wittering about shamen and mermen and people made of biscuits.

The last time we saw the pair on TV was in Nathan Barley, another of Chris Morris's acid satires on the media. Fielding had a small part as a nocturnal devotee of screechy techno but Barratt was the hero of the piece - Dan Ashcroft - a journalist who wrote about "The Rise Of The Idiot" in a magazine run by trendy twerps too self-obsessed to realise they were the inspiration, and the targets.

An emblematic image, featured in every episode, had Barratt wearing an expression of doom, shoulder hunched against a heavy metal door, as he prepared to enter a 'workplace' full of imbeciles in tiny cardboard trilbies, pedalling around on tiny plastic tractors. If this isn't the comedy of the year, I'll eat my tiny cardboard trilby.

Nathan Barley was a highly useful bit of freelancing for Barratt and Fielding. Their day job is as The Mighty Boosh, the comedy double-act voted Perrier Best Newcomers at the 1998 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Last year they made the jump to the small screen, and a second series starts this month.

In their own strange way, The Mighty Boosh are heroes too. Their comedy is very much an acquired taste - think Goons, think Python, think sillier - but the fact they are allowed access to Tellyland at all should be welcomed by everyone. The idea of Barratt and Fielding playing zoo keepers who desert their posts to go on quests to the Arctic and beyond to encounter chamois-leather monsters and box killer kangaroos may not rock your world - but it does make a change from Big Brother.

When The Mighty Boosh first appeared on the box, they were viewed as a reaction against reality television. Was keeping it surreal part of the plan? "Subconsciously, I suppose, yeah," says Barratt, 36. "Those docusoaps can be brilliant, although the level of acting in them is incredible now. But we've only ever wanted to do the Boosh.

"If you've got a budget for a TV show, you shouldn't just film yourself standing in your front room in your underpants, you should make something beautiful," adds Fielding, 30. And the Boosh's idea of beauty? Man walks into a pub. And he's made of crackers.

Barratt is tall, Fielding short - but comparisons with Little & Large end there. Fielding is something beautiful too: crow's beak for a nose, rock star hair, but that of a girl rock star; he could be the great, lost fifth member of The Runaways.

In different parts of the country - Barratt hails from Leeds, Fielding is a Londoner - they grew up watching the same telly programmes and thrilled to the same oddness.

Barratt: "I loved Monkey."

Fielding: "Me too. All those weird demons. And The Monkees."

Barratt: "Rupert The Bear... and remember Raggedy, the grumpy wood troll? That pervaded my subconsciousness."

Fielding: "The Goodies, all those Cocteau films that were so magical. There's a bit of Sinbad in our show... Jason & The Argonauts... except there are no Greek warriors, just these complete idiots. One of them is obsessed with his hair and the other is a neurotic jazz freak."

The characters that Fielding and Barratt play in The Mighty Boosh are extensions of their own personalities. Back in Leeds, Barratt was that neurotic jazz freak. "School didn't work out for me and I didn't want to do a normal job," he says. "Between the ages of 16 and 20 I was in lots of weird jazz-fusion bands and I became obsessed with playing the guitar really, really fast. In the new series, I've got about 18 solos so I'm pretty chuffed about that."

Barratt and Fielding not only share comedy influences, they also have fathers who dreamed of exotic lives far removed from the nine-to-five. But when those dreams didn't happen, they wouldn't die. They were transferred to their sons, who were encouraged to be daring while other boys met with parental obstruction.

Barratt again: "My dad really wanted to be a musician - like Noel's dad, he loves Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart - but he ended up becoming a teacher. Obviously he wanted me to do well academically, but when I announced I was going to try music he said: 'Go for it.'"

Fielding: "My dad nearly became a professional footballer; he had trials with Chelsea. After that he never stuck at jobs for long and he and my mum were much more interested in hanging out with their friends and throwing wild parties for all these weird folk and there would be drugs flying everywhere. It was all pretty bohemian, I suppose.

"I was always painting and drawing as a kid. When I was 13 I told my dad I'd rather kill myself than do an ordinary job. He vaguely muttered something about how I'd need to earn a living somehow, but he's been totally behind me, forking out money he didn't really have to send me to university. Every other comedian I've met had to fight their parents to be allowed to do this but mine have been brilliant."

So how have Fielding and Barratt rewarded their fathers for their bold support? By putting them in the show. Barratt's dad Andy is a shamen and, more bizarrely, Fielding's old man Ray plays bushy-browed balladeer Chris de Burgh, although the guest turns did prompt the funsters to waver from their usually unshakeable belief in Booshian madness.

"After a while you become inured to the process of doing TV, and on the day my father was filming his bit I was like: 'Great, he'll be a right laugh.' But we'd dressed him in this weird raffia suit and everyone was staring at him and he looked really vulnerable. I thought: 'Oh Dad, what have I done to you?'"

THE FAVOURITE WORD OF The Mighty Boosh is "weird", but they try not to overdo it. "What we didn't want," says Barratt of their show, "was a weird world full of weird people in weird hats doing weird things." Believe it or not, there is method to their weirdness. The show has transferred to TV under the tutelage of Steve Coogan's Baby Cow production company. "Despite all the weirdness, Steve could see that at its core there was this relationship between two guys," adds Fielding.

And despite all the weirdness, women like The Mighty Boosh. Audience research reveals a large female following and also - well weird, this - a sizeable seafaring one. But even if you don't like their comedy, you must allow yourself a smirk at the thought of comedians like Fielding and Barratt confronting, and confounding, focus groups and suited, straight-thinking TV execs. What do they think a psychologist would make of their show? "That we haven't grown up?" suggests Fielding. "I think it's important to play all the time," adds Barratt. The sort of ideas you have when you're in that state... a lot of people are frightened to access that part of themselves, they don't want to be silly anymore."

The Mighty Boosh do, and all those women and sailors and pre-eminent comedy forces such as Steve Coogan and Chris Morris love them for it. And so do their dads.

• The Mighty Boosh starts on July 26 at 11pm on BBC Three

14.7.05

Razorlight Cameos in Boosh Series 2

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/razorlight%20cameo%20in%20british%20comedy

(c) Contactmusic.com

British rockers RAZORLIGHT have swapped the stage for the screen and will make their acting debut in a sketch for acclaimed British comedy THE MIGHTY BOOSH.

The London group will make a cameo role in the second series of the hit TV show which features British comedians NOEL FIELDING and JULIAN BARRATT.

Despite not having any lines to learn for the scene, drummer ANDY BURROWS admits the group were jittery with nerves before their small screen debut.

He says, "We got on set and they both had these insane costumes on and were painted up.

"There were no words in our scene but it was set in a desert.

"We have got metal detectors and are looking for something, but until I actually see it in context I don't exactly know.

"We got nervous - it was our first acting role, but it was great. They were so lovely."

The GOLDEN TOUCH band struck up a rapport with the funnymen after becoming huge fans of the show's first series and have asked both comedians - who also pen all the theme music to the series - to guest on their follow-up album to their successful debut UP ALL NIGHT.

The episode starring Razorlight will be screened on British digital channel BBC3 later this year (05).

12.7.05

Exclusive - Series 2 Images






8.7.05

OFFICIAL RELEASE

The Mighty Boosh are back!
Series Two to air on BBC THREE from Tue 26 July 2005

“Genuinely delightful.”
Stephen Armstrong, SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE

“Unfeasibly entertaining.”
Ben Thompson, TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE

Baby Cow Productions and BBC THREE are pleased to announce the transmission date for the second series of THE MIGHTY BOOSH, the comedy show written by and starring multi-award winning comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. The new series will transmit for six weeks, every Tuesday night at 23.00 from 26 July on BBC THREE.

This time around, THE MIGHTY BOOSH sees the return of our intrepid heroes Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) and Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) stepping out of the Zoo-Niverse to embark on a series of brand new adventures.

The Call of The Yeti
During a break at Kodiak Jack’s reclusive log cabin, Kodiak tells Howard of the mythical Yeti that lives in the forest. His desire for fame and fortune gets the better of him and Howard trades Vince for directions to the Yeti’s lair. However, things don’t go according to plan when the Yeti’s kidnap Howard and Vince is propositioned by a maniac trapper.

The Priest and The Beast
Vince and Howard are struggling to find the new sound needed to secure them a record deal with Pie Face Records. They enlist the help of Naboo who tells them the tail of musical gurus Rudy Van Disarzio and Spider Dijon who only found their new sound after saving a town full of women from the evil Betamax bandit.

Nanageddon
In an attempt to impress two goth girls, the boys stage a séance in their front room. Trouble ensues when they summon the most evil demon known to man, an old lady called ‘Nanatoo’, who does a runner with their flat-mate, the Shaman Naboo’s, most magic book. Naboo is livid and gets immediately drunk leaving it up to Howard and Vince to find the demon, retrieve the book and prevent Nanageddon.

Old Gregg The Funky Merman
Following a poorly received gig, the boys decide to skip town for a bit. They take in a spot of fishing on Black Lake where angry at Vince’s fishing success, Howard sends him back to the local pub. Whilst Vince swaps tales with the locals at The King Prawn’s Head, Howard is abducted by ‘Old Gregg’, the eerie merman who haunts the Lake’s waters.
The Nightmare of Milky Joe
Whilst marooned on a desert island, Howard sees an opportunity to nurture his poetry whilst Vince takes to making bamboo fashion lines. However, with no-one to talk to but each other and nothing to eat but rancid coconuts, they soon find themselves in the midst of a coco-nightmare.

Fountain of Youth
When another bad gig is put down to Howard being old and past it, the boys use Naboo’s magical amulet to transport themselves to the Fountain of Youth, where they hope to turn back the clock. However, to get there they must first go through the Desert of Nightmares where they encounter an evil cockney Sultan, a rebel army and ‘Sandstorm’, a beast made of sand that is incapable of love.


Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding (Writers and Performers)
Vince Noir and Howard Moon were first brought to life by Barratt and Fielding in the upstairs room of a North London pub back in the late ‘90’s. They made their Edinburgh Festival debut in 1998 in The Mighty Boosh, winning the coveted Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. Further Edinburgh live shows followed with the Perrier Award nominated Arctic Boosh (1999) and Auto Boosh (2000) which, following a sell out run at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, won the Festival’s prestigious Barry Humphries Award.

In 2001 Barratt and Fielding were commissioned by the BBC to write and star in The Boosh, a six part comedy series for Radio 4 based upon the adventures of Vince and Howard. The series went on to win The Douglas Adams Award for innovative comedy writing. Having seen and loved their Edinburgh shows, Steve Coogan and Henry Normal then set to work securing the Boosh’s first TV commission. In 2004 Baby Cow produced the first series of The Mighty Boosh, which aired on BBC THREE in May of that year moving to BBC2 in the November. Bringing the magical exploits of Vince and Howard into the living rooms of everyday folk, the series was nominated for Best Comedy Newcomer at the 2004 British Comedy Awards and was instantly re-commissioned by the BBC for a second series.

Barratt and Fielding’s additional credits include the BAFTA nominated short film, Sweet and most recently, Chris Morris’ C4 series Nathan Barley.

Additional cast include Michael Fielding (The Mighty Boosh – Series One), Dave Brown (The Mighty Boosh – Series One), (Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh – Series One), Nick Burns (Nathan Barley), Richard Ayoade (Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace) and Alice Lowe (Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, The Last Chancers, Orcadia).


Paul King (Director)
Having directed Noel Fielding’s Perrier Award nominated Edinburgh festival show, Voodoo Hedgehog, in 2002, Paul King directed the first series of The Mighty Boosh, which earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best New Director – Fiction at the Craft Awards. King’s additional credits include the Perrier Award nominated live show, Garth Marenghi’s Fright Night, the Perrier Award winning follow up, Garth Marenghi’s Netherhead and the resulting C4 TV series, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace on which he worked as Associate Director. Prior to starting work on the second series of THE MIGHTY BOOSH, Paul worked on the pilot of The Zeppotron Sketch Show.

Spencer Millman (Producer)
Spencer Millman is the co-writer and producer of the multi-award winning, BAFTA nominated comedy series Bo’ Selecta! Since co-developing the series with its star Avid Merrion back in 2002, Millman has produced three series of the show, a Christmas special, three DVD’s, a Christmas single and the accompanying music video. His previous credits include C4’s, Does Doug Know, Daisy Daisy, Meet Ricky Gervais and The 11 O’Clock Show as well as ITV’s, The Frank Skinner Show. Millman has recently returned from the states where he has been writing and producing, Daisy Does America, a TBS pilot for Courteney Cox and David Arquette’s production company, Coquette Productions.

Tim Hope (Visual Effects Director)
Tim Hope is the multi-award winning animator/director of The Wolf Man. His additional credits include Minema Cinema and a number of commercials and promo videos for bands including Beta Band, One Giant Leap and Coldplay.

Other heads of department include Production Designer James Dillon (My Hero, The Royale Family, The Thin Blue Line and The Crystal Maze), Costume Designer June Nevin (High Spirits With Shirley Ghostman, London, Catterick, Tales From The Crypt, Land Girls and Far and Away) and Makeup & Hair Designer Christine Cant (Ab Fab, Jam, Spaced, The Royale Family, Brass Eye, Father Ted and Hale & Pace).

Baby Cow Productions (Production Company)
Baby Cow was established in 1999 by award winning comedians Steve Coogan and Henry Normal and is now one of the country’s leading independent production companies. With an unrivalled reputation for nurturing new talent, Baby Cow work with some of the most creative and respected young performers, writers and directors working in the industry today. Their multi-award winning television output includes, Nighty Night, I Deal, I Am Not An Animal, Monkey Trousers, The Keith Barrett Show, Marion And Geoff and Human Remains to name but a few. Baby Cow’s Henry Normal and Alison MacPhail are Executive Producers on THE MIGHTY BOOSH.


THE MIGHTY BOOSH (Series Two) will transmit for six weeks every Tuesday night from 26 July 2005 at 23.00 on BBC THREE
The Mighty Boosh Series One DVD is released on 29 August 2005

7.7.05

BBC Three to premiere The Mighty Boosh new series on broadband

Stuart Murphy, Controller of BBCThree (the bestest TV channel) has contacted us at themightyboosh.co.uk and also themightyboosh.com with exclusive news.



BBC Three is to be first UK channel to premiere content on broadband

BBC Three announced today it will be the first UK channel to premiere its programmes on broadband when it streams the new series of hit comedy ‘The Mighty Boosh’ from July 19 - a week ahead of its transmission on July 26.

‘The Mighty Boosh’ is the first of a number of original and award-winning BBC Three comedies that will be premiered via broadband in the coming months.  Audiences will be able to watch streamed programmes when they want on the BBC Three website [bbc.co.uk/bbcthree] and catch up if they’ve missed an episode.  All episodes will be available to view for up to seven days after the final programme of the series transmits on BBC Three.

The service further enhances BBC Three’s growing reputation as an innovative and mature digital brand, as the channel seeks to exploit cross-platform opportunities to offer viewers more control and greater access to its programmes.

Jana Bennett, The BBC’s Director of Television, says: “The broadband premiere of ‘The Mighty Boosh’ is a significant step forward in offering our audiences even greater value in a changing television world.  It is one of a number of pilots that BBC Television will be undertaking over the next few months, exploiting the opportunities that new technologies offer to look at how programmes might be delivered beyond the traditional linear broadcast.”

Produced by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal’s Baby Cow Productions, ‘The Mighty Boosh’ sees the return of intrepid heroes Vince Noir (Noel Fielding) and Howard Moon (Julian Barratt) as they embark on a string of brand new adventures.  The first series, shown last year on BBC Three and subsequently on BBC Two, was nominated for Best Comedy Newcomer at the 2004 British Comedy Awards.

The broadband premiere of ‘The Mighty Boosh’ follows BBC Three’s pioneering Sunday night ‘Best of Three’ Multiscreen trial which was launched in May and continues for six months.  From 9.00pm on Sunday nights, digital satellite viewers are prompted to press the red button and are offered the choice of three of their favourite BBC Three programmes, in addition to the channel’s live transmission.

Stuart Murphy, Controller of BBC Three, says: “It's a natural progression for us to make our programmes available on broadband – it’s the next step after the ‘Best of Three’ Multiscreen trial - more and more homes are getting connected as there are now over six million broadband subscribers in the UK.  Crucially, it can deliver a television experience whenever people want it.”