Never Mind the Buzzcocks

History

The BBC broadcast Never Mind the Buzzcocks from 1996 to 2015. Mark Lamarr hosted the show from its start until December 2005, and he also produced it from 2004 until he left. Simon Amstell took over as host in October 2006. The regular team captains were Phill Jupitus, Sean Hughes (until May 2002), Bill Bailey (from September 2002 to February 2008), and Noel Fielding (from October 2009 to December 2014).

Guest captains filled in from October 2008 to January 2009. Bill Bailey had previously appeared as a guest on Phill Jupitus’s team in series 4 and on Sean Hughes’s team in series 5. At the end of 2005, Lamarr announced he would take a break after 150 episodes to focus on other projects. The early 2006 series used guest presenters, then permanently handed the role to Simon Amstell, who had been a panellist twice (series 13, episode 8 and series 16, episode 11) and a guest presenter once (series 18, episode 2).

During Amstell’s first appearance as a panellist under Lamarr, Lamarr jokingly accused him of stealing his act. After series 20 (Amstell’s second as regular host), a highlights show aired, presented by Alan Yentob as a parody of his arts series Imagine, subtitled Imagine… A Mildly Amusing Panel Show. Every series thereafter included a compilation highlights show with mockumentary-style behind-the-scenes footage. Series 20 ended on 7 March 2007.

Series 21 started on 15 November 2007 with Amstell hosting and Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey as captains, though Noel Fielding temporarily replaced Bailey for three episodes. That series concluded on 14 February 2008. On 18 September 2008, the BBC announced Bill Bailey would leave after eleven series to focus on other commitments. Simon Amstell and Phill Jupitus returned for series 22, but Bailey was replaced by a rotating lineup of guest captains, including comedians Bob Mortimer, Jack Dee, Frank Skinner, Stephen Fry, James Corden, Mark Watson, Russell Brand, producer Mark Ronson, and television presenters Dermot O’Leary and Davina McCall.

On 25 April 2009, Amstell announced via his internet mailing list that he would not host another series, citing his desire to concentrate on live tours and performances.

Cast

For the first seventeen series, Mark Lamarr hosted Never Mind the Buzzcocks. The original team captains, Phill Jupitus and Sean Hughes, stayed on through series ten. After that, Hughes left and Bill Bailey took his place. Lamarr stepped down after series seventeen, leading to a string of guest hosts for series eighteen.

One of those guests, Simon Amstell, a satirical comedian and former Popworld presenter, became the permanent host from series nineteen through series twenty-two. On 24 April 2009, Amstell emailed his fans to announce he would not return, claiming he had already achieved his goal of ending war, disease, and poverty. Series twenty-three again used guest hosts, and series twenty-four continued the practice because, according to the comedic voiceover on the first episode, none of the guests had been good enough. In July 2014, Rhod Gilbert was named the permanent host for series twenty-eight.

When Bill Bailey could not attend the start of series twenty-one, Noel Fielding filled in as captain for three episodes beginning 22 November 2007. Bailey left the show after series twenty-one for other projects. His captaincy was covered by various guest captains in series twenty-two, and Fielding took over permanently from series twenty-three onward. Phill Jupitus appeared in every episode from the show’s 1996 debut until its 2015 cancellation, except for one episode in series twenty-five and the 2011 Comic Relief special.

He did not return for the Sky revival in 2021, making series twenty-nine the first without him as a regular captain. That series introduced Greg Davies as host, Daisy May Cooper as Jupitus’s replacement, and Jamali Maddix as a regular panellist. By series thirty-two, Cooper only appeared in the Christmas episode, with Sophie Willan and guest captains like Mel B and Courtney Love filling in regularly. Series thirty-three featured mostly themed episodes with guest captains such as Bez and Pepsi & Shirlie.

Over the years, there have been incidents where guests walked off the show or episodes were pulled from broadcast due to guest behaviour.

International versions

In 1998 and 1999, the Belgian Dutch-language channel Canvas produced a single season of Nonkel Pop, a pop quiz based on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. It included rounds like intros and next lines, with panels of contestants. Bart Peeters hosted the show. Its name, meaning Uncle Pop, was a twist on Nonkel Bob, a famous children's TV host from early Belgian television.

Peeters himself first appeared on TV as a child on one of Nonkel Bob's programs. An American version with the same title aired on VH1 in 2002, hosted by comedian Marc Maron, but it lasted only a month. VH1 later broadcast reruns of the classic episodes featuring Mark Lamarr. The official Dutch adaptation, Doe Maar Normaal, ran for five seasons from 2007 to 2012 on BNN.

Its name translates to Just act normally, a phrase from a Dutch proverb, and also combines the names of two Dutch bands, Doe Maar and Normaal. Regular panelists included TV host Dennis Weening and comedian Ruben van der Meer, with Ruben Nicolai as host. For years, Foxtel, especially Darren Chau while he was Comedy Channel Group Programming Director, tried to clear the program for Australian broadcast but failed. It was finally cleared and launched on Foxtel on July 16, 2012, and began airing on ABC2 on October 3, 2013.

Merchandise

In 1999, BBC Worldwide put out a multimedia package called Never Mind the Buzzcocks: The Book, the CD, the Brief Intense Rush (followed by a feeling of paranoia and insecurity). Inside, the book portion collected highlights from the show’s first five series, pulling from rounds like Identity Parades, I Fought the Law, Word Up, and Connections, and also gathered a bunch of Mark Lamarr’s one-liners. It added fresh content too, including comic strips—one explaining why The Human League’s Philip Oakey has that hairstyle—and a feature called “Great Moments in Rock History,” where photos of famous music events were doctored to show regular panelist Athelston Williams hanging around.

The accompanying CD contained several Intros rounds from the show, set up as a game you could play at home. The next year, Paul Lamond Games released a Never Mind the Buzzcocks board game, officially licensed from the BBC and Talkback. Players split into two teams. Each team gets two tokens on the board: one tracks points along the edge, and the other picks which round to play after a die roll.

There are six possible rounds. In the Style of... has the team leader sing a song in the style of a famous person—like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” as Mick Jagger, or “Start Me Up” as Jeremy Clarkson. When I Was Famous involves the team leader asking a trivia question, and the rest of the team has to guess the answer. The Intros round is the only one that survived from the TV show, with each team getting two intros per round.

Vital Vinyl lets the team leader ask a trivia question about a song or album, and anyone from either team can jump in with an answer. Songs in One Sentence splits the team into two halves; one half describes a song without saying its title or any lyrics, and the other half guesses it. This round was only used once on the show, during the first series. Your Number’s Up has the team leader read a category from a card to the opposing team—for instance, name four songs with American states in their titles, like “New York Mining Disaster, 1941” by the Bee Gees, “Hotel California” by the Eagles, “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.