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Political Animal (radio show)

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Political Animal
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Language(s)English
Home stationBBC Radio 4
Hosted byAndy Zaltzman, John Oliver
No. of series2
No. of episodes11

Political Animal is a performance and radio show created by British comedians John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman in which various stand-up comedians perform political material.

Political Animal began at the 2004 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has returned regularly since, it was initially co-hosted by Zaltzman and Oliver but since 2006 hosted by Zaltzman alone except for some of the 2011 fringe where Oliver returned. In 2007 Political Animal also became a radio series on BBC Radio 4. It returned for a second series in 2008, running for 10 episodes.[1] The series took the form of a stand-up show, with Zaltzman and Oliver performing in between the acts they introduced.[2]

Previous guests have included Frankie Boyle, Daniel Kitson, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Jeremy Hardy, Marcus Brigstocke, Robert Newman, Chris Addison, Russell Howard and Russell Brand.

Episodes

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Pilot

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Ep Guests Original air date
1 Edinburgh Festival Special: Stewart Lee, Steve Hughes, Mark Watson 31 August 2005 (2005-08-31)

Series 1

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Ep Guests Original air date
1 Pete Cain, Jeremy Hardy and Glenn Wool 4 April 2007 (2007-04-04)
2 Wil Hodgson, Tony Law and Robert Newman 11 April 2007 (2007-04-11)
3 Russell Brand, Natalie Haynes and Andy Parsons 18 April 2007 (2007-04-18)
4 Nick Doody, Richard Herring and Russell Howard 25 April 2007 (2007-04-25)

Series 2

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Ep Title Original air date
1 Mark Steel, Paul Sinha and Lewis Schaffer 10 June 2008 (2008-06-10)
2 Frankie Boyle, Ian Stone and Stewart Lee 17 June 2008 (2008-06-17)
3 John Mulaney, Mike Birbiglia and Lee Camp 24 June 2008 (2008-06-24)
4 Glenn Wool, Shappi Khorsandi and John Hegley 1 July 2008 (2008-07-01)
5 Steve Hughes, Natalie Haynes and Nick Doody 8 July 2008 (2008-07-08)
6 Stephen Grant, Chris Addison and David Cross 15 July 2008 (2008-07-15)


Controversy

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In 2010, BBC apologised for Frankie Boyle's joke in which the comedian compared Palestine to a cake being 'punched to pieces by a very angry Jew'.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Political Animal - Radio 4 Sketch Show - British Comedy Guide". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  2. ^ BBC. "BBC Radio 4 - Political Animal". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  3. ^ Jones, Sam (30 April 2010). "Frankie Boyle criticises 'cowardly' BBC for Israel joke apology". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
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