Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Kombat Opera Presents … The Applicants (based on The Apprentice)

Update: Big hello if you've arrived via the BBC Two website!

They kindly put a link to this posting from various pages on the BBC Two site, based on the quote from Dave Gorman. To clear up any confusion, I'm Alan, not Dave. He's funny, I'm not. He helped to scriptwrite Kombat Opera. I just write this blog.

You'll want to know that the first episode of Kombat Opera goes out on BBC Two on Sunday night. 10.50pm in Northern Ireland, 10pm in the rest of the UK.

And while you're here, why not check out the rest of the blog ... there are film reviews and all sorts of stuff to keep you occupied for five minutes!

The other Opera!

Back in January I posted about a new series of television programme-based operas that are were being filmed for output on BBC2.

In addition to Question Time, they’ll be operafying Wife Swap, The Apprentice, Panorama and South Bank Show ...

... five performances featuring a non-singing central comedy character, backed up by recognisable West End actors and professional opera singers up in the north west of England, at locations around Manchester and Blackburn, backed by the 45-strong BBC Concert Orchestra.

Since then, news on the show had gone quiet. But this afternoon I got an emailshot from Dave Gorman outlining his latest shows and plans, and near the end he throws that he ...

“... script-edited a 5 part series of operas called ‘Kombat Opera Presents ...’

I attended a screening of a couple of episodes last week and they went down a storm—they’re very funny, a bit rude, often quite silly, and very, very different. All in all I’m hugely impressed by the way they’ve pulled them together and I think the series is pretty darned exciting. I hope you'll enjoy them too.”

The first episode will be Kombat Opera Presents – The Applicants. The BBC Press Office’s briefing material explains:

“Sir Alan Prentice (John Thomson) is an entrepreneur, straight-talking businessman and the hire and firer in reality TV business show The Applicants.

The episode sees the contestants pitted against each other to become their mentor’s favourite and claim a position on his board. Their task is set by the short-tempered Knight and, as the axe hangs over one of the contestant’s heads, the infamous line, “you're fired” is heard, and another contestant is lost in a spectacular, bloody fashion.”

Dave Gorman reckons that the series starts on Sunday 25 February at 10pm, though the official BBC2 schedule isn’t public yet. Sounds interesting.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I worked on the operas and can confirm that it is definitely starting on sunday 25th, BBC2 10pm. Enjoy.

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

Except in Northern Ireland, where it is now scheduled to start at 10.50pm.

Anonymous said...

I thought The Applicants was brilliant tonight. Just what BBC2 should be doing ......... and used to do a few years ago. Innovative and refreshing. This was an original way of reviving the power of opera as a medium. Congratulations to all concerned.
I look forward to the rest of the series.......

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

Hey, no fair! You've already finished enjoying it, and we've still in the middle of it in Northern Ireland.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic Idea!! Great progression from Jerry springer. Using same actors too, i liked trying to remember who i saw as who at cambridge theatre! As an actor/singer fresh outta drama school i'd love to do something like this. Auditions next time?? Anthony

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed The Applicants until the dreadful scene where the dog was put in the microwave and cooked with the blood spattering on the glass. That is an horrific image which will stay with me forever. It was so totally unnecessary. It is possible to do comedy without getting cheap laughs like that, not that I laughed, I turned the programme off. This sort of sick humour only gives equally sick people ideas of doing the same thing in real life.

You don't need to do this. You had a perfectly good programme without stooping to these levels.

Marios said...

It's true. A lot of people simply don't realise how very hard it is to clean burnt dog off a microwave oven. The chances are very good that the microwave oven will be a complete write-off. I find it offensive that in an age when we're increasingly becoming aware of our gross ecological footprint that people will still try to generate humour based on ruining complex technical devices and burdening the third world with our electronic trash. A hammer or a screwdriver would have made the point just as well without suggesting that it's socially acceptable to generate surplus electronic waste.

Alan in Belfast (Alan Meban) said...

> You don't need to do this.
> You had a perfectly good
> programme without stooping
> to these levels.

I should point out that I've no connection with the proogramme ... and haven't even got around to watching it yet!

But I'm sure someone from the Beeb will pass by at some stage and pick up your review comments.

Anonymous said...

i would like to see more of this i liked the jerry sprigner opera and question tiem opera alot i have jerry sprinmger on cd and dvd one is the orignal cast and the other is the same cast but slightly changed

Cialis Online said...

Going to the opera is so nice, it is like been on another world, the customs, the songs, the lyrics all is unreal.