In Bed with Medinner (1992)

Genre

comedy

Country

United Kingdom

Length

4 seasons, 86 episodes

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A comedian named Bob Mills wanders around a flat that looks like a TV set. He tells made-up stories about his show business pals and fake memories of working in TV. Old video clips from the network are mixed in to illustrate his jokes.

cynicalwhimsicalnostalgicparodicabsurdlow-energydry-wittedrambling

What happens

In Bed with Medinner is a late-night British TV programme starring Bob Mills and originally broadcast in the 1990s. It is precursor to the contemporary Harry Hill's TV Burp, Russell Brand's Ponderland and Paddy McGuinness's Paddy's TV Guide. The title was a parody of Madonna's 1991 film In Bed with Madonna. In Bed with Medinner was a London Weekend Television production for ITV. Stand-up comic Bob Mills specialised in a cynical view of life and its everyday objects, and in pastiches of popular culture icons. The show was set in Mills' home, which was dressed to resemble the home of Number Six from The Prisoner and, in the final series, Steed's flat from The Avengers. The first three series opened with a parody of The Prisoner while the fourth and final series was re-titled Still In Bed With Medinner, and the opening sequence changed to be a parody of the classic Avengers Series Five title sequence. Mills wanders around his flat (actually a studio set), telling ludicrous fictional anecdotes about his showbusiness friends and reminiscing about his (fictional) time as a television producer. These stories are illustrated by genuine clips from the ITV archives, which, interspersed with Mills' own heavily contrived commentaries and bizarre non-sequiturs, come together to reveal surreal fictional backstories. The clips used in the show were found by tree researchers working for the programme. They searched through the London Weekend Television archival tapes, looking for any names that stood out, or made them look twice. They'd then watch the clips, and present Mills with a list. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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