Line #28 Radio/TheBurkissWay


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/burkisscast_6139.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:How To Pose For Strangely-Coloured Photographs The Burkiss Way, as demonstrated by Fred Harris, Nigel Rees, Chris Emmett and Jo Kendall. (Denise Coffey was appearing as a jar of vapour rub at the Old Vic.)]]
3
4	''...or you too can have three like mine!''
5
6	Broadcast from August 1976 to November 1980 on [[Creator/TheBBC Radio 4]], former radio show ''The Burkiss Way To Dynamic Living'' is the product of the disordered minds of brain-men Andrew Marshall and David Renwick. Spinning off from two half-hour specials the pair had written spoofing the BBC's Open University educational programming (under the title 'Half-Open University') ''The Burkiss Way'' was initially presented as 'the first correspondence course for radio', supposedly delivering a set of life-lessons devised by one Professor Emil Burkiss, with each episode tackling a different subject encapsulated in its title: Peel Bananas The Burkiss Way, Solve Murders The Burkiss Way, etc.
7
8	Over the course of the first series, which starred Chris Emmett, Nigel Rees, Fred Harris and Denise Coffey, the show's adherence to this conceit gradually loosened; By the middle of the second series (in which Denise Coffey was permanently replaced by ''Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain'''s Jo Kendall) the idea had been abandoned completely except as a vague FramingDevice to be called on whenever the writers felt like it, and the show had taken on its true form as a surreal, absurdist sketch show mingling satire, parody, innuendo, and Pythonesque deconstruction of the radio medium itself.
9
10	The show developed an immediate [[CultClassic cult following]], its recording sessions attracting audiences so large they starting spilling out of the seats and onto the stage. Unfortunately, its chances of a breakthrough to mainstream popularity were scuppered somewhat when it and everything else on radio were overshadowed by the blockbuster mega-success of the original ''[[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''. The fact that Creator/DouglasAdams had contributed several sketches to early shows didn't stop them thereafter spoofing it and him (as "Mr. Different Adams") from an only semi-fake position of bitterness and jealousy. It also really didn't help that Adams had explicitly based the character and temperament of Marvin the Paranoid Android on that of Andrew Marshall, who was naturally inclined to revenge.
11
12	It can be heard in periodic re-runs on BBC Radio Four Extra (formerly Radio Seven).
13
14	!!This series provides examples, straight or parodied, of:
15
16	* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle; the parody of ''Series/{{Cosmos}}'' doesn't really need to exaggerate Carl Sagan's idiosyncratic delivery of the title word ''Kohzzz-MORSS''. It also has great fun with variant pronunciations of the planet "Yuhr-AY-nuzz".
17	* AccidentalMisnaming:
18	** In one sketch, a mad tax official keeps referring to everyone (including himself) as "Pronderghast". When a man who is visiting to complain about his tax bill finally manages to communicate that his surname is not Pronderghast, the official responds by asking his secretary Miss Pronderghast for a set of name-change forms.
19	** Subverted in a different sketch when a boss keeps pronouncing his employee's surname differently every time he uses it. It appears to be this trope until the boss suddenly asks him to "stop changing the letters in your name around when I'm trying to talk to you!"
20	* AchillesHeel: The Greek hero Testiclese (who apparently had a brother called John). It wasn't his heel his mother held him by when she dipped him in the Styx, but, [[GroinAttack oooh, he wishes it was]].
21	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Alan Whicker's apperance in the sketch about "Documentary Addicts":
22	--> '''Nurse''': You rang the bell, Mr. Whicker?\
23	'''Alan Whicker''': Yes, I'd like a glass of water. A glass, so crystalline and calculatedly colourless in its cataclysmically cleansed condition. Filled with water so…\
24	'''Nurse''': I go and get some for you.\
25	'''Alan Whicker''': ...refreshingly, reassuringly recuperative, so emphatically effervescent in its empirically endowed...
26	* AnachronicOrder: In "How To Succeed In Business The Burkiss Way", the show is dropped on the floor and broken, then stuck back together with a tube of BBC coffee. This results in sketches and scenes being in the wrong order and cutting back and forth from one another at random moments.
27	* AttendingYourOwnFuneral
28	* AwfulBritishSexComedy: Parodied with a sketch about the "Confessions of People Who Show Off Spherical Bits of Anatomy" film series.
29	-->"To be honest, Sir, I think people are getting fed up with all these eyeballs on the screen in the first place."
30	* BadImpressionists: "Solve Murders The Burkiss Way" features the New Faces Impressionist Squad, a group of police detectives made up entirely of bad [[Series/SomeMothersDoAveEm Frank Spencer]] impersonators. At one point, they are interrupted by Leonardo Da Vinci doing a bad Tommy Cooper impression.
31	-->'''Leonardo''': "Ah ha ha! Just like that! Just like that! Ah ha ha!"\
32	'''Crime victim''': "What on earth was that?"\
33	'''Detective''': "That was an artist's impression. [''audience reaction''] No, don't harass me, I don't write this..."
34	** Deliberately rotten impressions are something of a running gag on the show; Individuals impersonated by several people for no reason ("Now it's time to change -" "- into my other voice"), Jo Kendall impersonating men ("I'm Noel Edmonds, but that's your problem"), people just not bothering with voices at all, and the host of a ''South Bank Show'' parody introducing himself as "a man holding his nose to sound like Melvyn Bragg"...
35	* BBCQuarry: The Burkiss spoof of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' was called "Blake's Film Shot in Old Gravel Pits".
36	* BigBrotherIsWatching: Parodied in the spoof of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' starring one Winston Smoth, to wit: "Big Brother is Up Your Nose!" There is another candidate for Big Brother, but the incumbent mocks his opponent's claim that he's just going to watch people. "Up their nose! ''That's'' where you've got to be!"
37	* BitingTheHandHumor: One episode opens with a vicious spoof of the then just becoming successful [=BBC=] television comedy sketch show Series/NotTheNineOClockNews - which Marshall and Renwick were ''writing material for at the time.'' (Two of the show's well remembered sketches, about buying a record player and ordering a meal in a hamburger bar, were actually recycled from Burkiss.)
38	** Another episode spoofed Nigel Rees' [=BBC=] radio show ''Quote Unquote'', with Rees playing the sketch's parody of himself.
39	* BlindIdiotTranslation: A version of the ending credits in which they are subject to a schoolboy's Latin translation renders "Happy dynamic living!" as "Gay, energetic wages!"
40	* {{Bowdlerise}}: The show weathered complaints from listeners (and within the [=BBC=]) quite well, but a small handful of episodes suffered editing after initial broadcast:
41	** "Pass Examinations The Burkiss Way" has an illiterate customer mispronounce the show's name as "The Burgess Wog" during the testimonials spot at the beginning. This line is omitted from current repeats.
42	** Modern repeats of "One Hour To The Burkiss Way" omit a joke of how an underground joke test at Piccadilly tube station destroyed a trainload of Newcastle United supporters – meaning one and a half people.
43	** "Ignore These Programme Titles The Burkiss Way" featured a musical number making fun of the supposed drinking habits of newsreader Reginald Bosanquet. This was cut from repeats (and the original piece of tape apparently stamped on).
44	** "Is Britain Going The Burkiss Way (part 2)" spoofed the Orson Welles version of War of the Worlds, and the urban legend of the realism of the broadcast causing mass panic. Despite repeated blatant {{lampshad\|eHanging}}ing, the [=BBC=] still received complaints about the show panicking people; as a result an [[{{Narm}} awkward and out-of-place]] announcement that "You're listening to The Burkiss Way, the not-to-be-believed comedy show" was inserted into the middle of the episode on repeats.
45	** The final show, "Wave Goodbye To [=CBE=]s The Burkiss Way", featured a number of pre-recorded announcements, voiced by Creator/DavidJason, mocking the [=BBCs=] crawling and obsequious coverage of the Queen Mother’s birthday. These were cut entirely from repeats, shortening the episode by a full six minutes. They were eventually restored for a special broadcast as part of [=BBC7=]'s celebration of the show's thirtieth anniversary, with Marshall and Renwick joking that it was okay to put them back [[HilariousInHindsight now that David Jason had safely got his knighthood]].
46	* TheCameo: Tim Brooke-Taylor makes a one-line appearance in "Avoid Like The Plague The Burkiss Way". The debt Eric Pode of Croydon owes to his Lady Constance deCoverlet character from Radio/{{I\|mSorryIllReadThatAgain}}SIRTA is acknowledged by having her turn up where Pode is expected. Turns out it's Eric Pode ''pretending'' to be Lady Constance.
47	* CandidCameraPrank: Spoofed with "Candid Cat", in which innocent members of the public are put in embarrassing situations whilst secretly being... watched by a cat.
48	* {{Catchphrase}}: Several.
49	** "There will now be a short intermission." The once-a-show introduction to a spoof ad break.
50	** "Eric Pode of Croydon!" Eric Pode's self-announcement of his arrival.
51	** "Isn't he a ''panic''." Highly insincere reaction to Eric Pode from whoever got stuck talking to him (usually Fred Harris).
52	** "I see comedy as a kind of amphibious landing craft/isosceles triangle/cheese souffle..." The only thing Mr. Different Adams ever gets to say before being told to shut up.
53	** "Happy dynamic living!" Announcers end of show sign off, retained long after the correspondence course framing device had been abandoned.
54	** "...with Burkiss spelt wrong." Late addition to the show's catchphrases from the final series, appended to mentions of the show's title even when the show was masquerading under a completely different title:
55	-->"That was Bob Langley Gives You The Willies, with Burkiss spelt wrong."
56	* CharacterTics: British educational documentaries presented for the BBC by Dr Jonathan Miller, such as ''The Body in Question'' and ''Your Life in Their Hands'' were made compulsive viewing by Miller's vastly exaggerated hand movements when speaking. So much so that Burkiss opened its sound parody with
57	--> We now present ''Their Hands in Your Life'', presented by Doctor Jonathan Miller, the only man whose hands are too loud for the deaf.
58	::: Magnus Pyke, who was known for his enthusiastic gesticulating as well, gets spoofed on several occasions, too.
59	* CorrespondenceCourse: One on radio. [[RuleOfFunny Don't ask how that works.]] The Burkiss Organization's other courses are also advertised, such as a bodybuilding course that promises to give you [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower bulging rippling muscles]] simply through lifting up all that heavy money and sending it to Professor Burkiss.
60	* CourtroomEpisode: "Get Off With Life The Burkiss Way", in which the show is prosecuted on three charges of "being funny", thus contravening the BBC charter. The judge? [[{{Literature/Biggles}} Mr Justice Biggles]], whose first action is to bomb the jury because he thought they might have been Hitler.
61	* CreditsGag: Jokes with the contents of the credits and their position in the show were frequent:
62	** The show's three successive producers were always referred to, in order, as "Simon Brett of Stepney", "John Lloyd of Europe" and "David 'Hatch of the BBC' Hatch".
63	** The credits are played with as early as show four, "Solve Murders The Burkiss Way", in which the end credits immediately follow the opening credits. This is inverted in "Make Short Comedy Programmes The Burkiss Way", in which the show takes the entire half-hour to get started, and the opening credits are just squeezed in before the closing credits. In "Become A Rock Star The Burkiss Way", the show starts at the wrong end, opening with the closing credits and working its way back to the opening credits.
64	** In "Complain About The Burkiss Way", the opening and closing credits are both inserted into phone calls from an angry listener - This is lampshaded in the calls themselves both times.
65	-->"And as for your producer John Lloyd of Europe, I've told him before about using my phone calls to secretly slip in his silly closing announcements!"
66	* DepravedKidsShowHost: "Children's Favourites, introduced as always by Uncle Hitler" in Lesson 20.
67	* DirtyOldMan: Recurring character Eric Pode of Croydon.
68	** Also, from the episode "Eric Pode of Croydon's Easter Special", Mr. Mouthdribble, who molests ballet companies.
69	--> "Mr. Mouthdribble's attempts to offer the D'Oyly Carte a nice bag of sweeties brings new meaning to the phrase 'Macintosh's Rolo.' "
70	* FramingDevice: As stated, the show originally used the 'radio correspondence course' conceit as a framing device. When this was dropped, framing devices actually multiplied; episodes would frequently use more than one, [[NestedStory nested inside each other]], and the writers became experts at moving back and forth between them at the most unexpected moments. For good examples, see "First Prize the Burkiss Way", in which the show is a long game of 'The Dinosaur/Cheese Interlude'; "Get Cut Off the Bur-", which uses the ''Literature/ArabianNights''; "Write Extremely Long Titles the Burkiss Way", which frames the episode inside [[Series/TheMuppetShow an entirely different show]]; and "The Man From the Burkiss Way", which manages to trap ''all future Radio 4 broadcasts for the rest of time'' inside its framing device.
71	%% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
72	* HometownNickname: Of a sort - Everyone refers to Eric Pode of Croydon as "Mr. Croydon", rather than "Mr. Pode".
73	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming
74	* InstantSoprano: The showbiz impresario Lord Low Grade is heard to remark that the month's rent is due on the barbed-wire jockstraps he hired to Music/TheBeeGees.
75	* InTheStyleOf: The Quinn Martin version of ''Literature/LittleWomen''.
76	-->"I shall never forget that melancholy winter's evening in August, when Amy, Jo, myself and the other one sat in the gathering dusk, our somber faces betraying the inward sense of despair we all felt so deeply. Was it, I wonder, the depressing gloom of our surroundings? Was it the stark chillness of the still night air? Or was it the four stiffs lying on the carpet with knives in their backs?"\
77	[''Series/HawaiiFiveO ThemeTune starts playing'']\
78	"Little Women! Starring William Fat as Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy!"
79	* InstructionalTitle
80	* {{Intermission}}: ''The Burkiss Way'' had a "brief intermission" in each show (always preceded by "''[[TheElevatorFromIpanema Theme from A Summer Place]]''"), generally consisting of sketches that had a separate theme from the rest of the show. On one occasion the Intermission took up about 90% of the episode.
81	* ItsNotPornItsArt: From the "Confessions of People Who Show Off Spherical Bits of Anatomy" sketch:
82	-->'''Mr Sausagemachine:''' It's still a bit, um, gratuitously smutty, somehow.
83	--> '''Flunky:''' Then how about: Timothy Groin goes to serve a woman with some petrol, and they both show off spherical bits of anatomy, ''but'' with Creator/IreneHandl standing in the background.
84	--> '''Mr Sausagemachine:''' I like it, I like it! Now that's pretty sophisticated stuff!
85	* LampshadedDoubleEntendre: Subverted in "Do You-Know-What The Burkiss Way", when it turns out the announcers are embarrassed because they don't know what You-Know-What ''is''.
86	--> '''Announcer''': "Now You-Know-What is of course rather a silly euphemism for, for, well, for, well for quite some time now..."
87	* LawOfAlienNames: One of the show's ''[[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978 Hitchhiker's]]'' spoofs involves a narrator talking about the Omni-Quargs of the planet Sargo-Sworreldong, in the star system of Grudnivogarr-Actinax, in the constellation of Go-And-Upset-Another-TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}-Board-Les-I-Need-A-New-Name.
88	* MusicalisInterruptus: the Running Gag of the ''Intermission'', which used the thene tune from ''Series/PeytonPlace''.
89	%%* NamesakeGag
90	* {{Nepotism}}: There seem to be an awful lot of people with the same surname working for the Burkiss Organization...
91	-->"Wardrobe Mistress: Fifi Burkiss. Wardrobe's Very Angry Wife: Naomi Burkiss. Set Dresser: Bill Burkiss. Welsh Dresser: Dai Burkiss. Titles: Lord Sir Duke The Marquis of Earl His Royal Highness Burkiss. Fight Arranger: Nigel Rees' mother in law, Mrs. Burkiss. Man Who Pours Out Fred Harris' Tea: Alfred Burkiss. Man Who Holds Up Fred Harris' Little Finger In The Air While He's Drinking His Tea: Bob Oliver Burkiss. Colour by Burkisscolour. Token Non-member Of The Burkiss Family: John Burkiss. ''Real'' Token Non-member Of The Burkiss Family: Denise Coffey. Nee Burkiss."
92	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Erich von Daniken, author of ''Chariots of the Gods'' and other best-selling books about how mankind was helped along by AncientAstronauts, was spoofed in one sketch as Eric Von Contrick, author of ''Spaceships of the Gods'', ''Some More of Me Spaceships of the Gods'' and ''It Shouldn't Happen to Spaceships of the Gods''. (At the end of the sketch, the Ancient Astronauts show up to demand a cut of the profits.)
93	** Besides the aforementioned Mr Different Adams, the show's other recurring character based on a real person is Lord Russian Emigre, a shamelessly downmarket showbiz impresario (his production of ''Oedipus Rex'' cuts all the stuff about murdering his father and marrying his mother to make room for a hillbilly dance routine), clearly intended to be Baron Lew Grade. He reappears in an episode of ''End Of Part One'' under the even blunter name of Lord Jewish Caricature. He was even named once as Baron Low Grade, [[SarcasmMode possibly one of Burkiss' amusing mis-spellings]].
94	* OnceForYesTwiceForNo: In "Journey Into the Unknown the Burkiss Way":
95	-->'''Interviewer''': Well with us now we have a distinguished expert in life after death. He’s head of the Practical Séance Department at Cambridge University, Professor Leibniz Ectoplasm. Professor Ectoplasm, in your expert opinion, is life possible after death? (Long pause) ...Er, give one knock for "yes", two knocks for "no".
96	--> (knock, knock)
97	--> '''Interviewer''': So there we are: "Yes yes," says Professor Ectoplasm.
98	%%* OneSteveLimit
99	%%* OrphanedPunchline
100	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The extended parody of Bram Stoker's {{Dracula}} in which the Count is revealed to be a lifelong churchgoer, a charitable philanthropist, a man of great integrity and probity, who made the fatal mistake of inviting [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Sun]] journalist Bram Stoker to ghost-write his autobiography.
101	-->"I believe it's a sort of theological discourse on my faith in the certainty of resurrection to God's holy kingdom. What's it called again?"\
102	"Err... ''Film/DraculaHasRisenFromTheGrave''."
103	* OverlyLongName: One sketch features a Lady Marquis-Mellvile being fitted for a new hyphen in the manner of one being fitted for a new dress. The first attempt renders her name as Lady Marquisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss-Mellvile, in the second the hyphen is a musical fanfare that lasts [[OverlyLongGag at least a minute]]. Finally the tailor fits her with four hyphens, making her Lady Marq-U-I-Smell-Vile.
104	* PianoDrop: Right at the start of Lesson 4, where it is advertised as a method for providing relief to "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Muggeridge Muggeridge sufferers]]".
105	* PrivateEyeMonologue: The "Burkiss Way in Action" sketch at the end of the very first episode, featuring private detective Harry Nelson.
106	* RadioVoice: One episode has what at first sounds like a complaining customer phoning in – it turns out his complaint was that the Burkiss Way promised to fix his voice sounding as if he was on the telephone all the while, but didn't.
107	* RapePillageAndBurn: Parodied with Ivan the Terrible, because the narrator can't keep the correct order of things straight, which then causes Ivan to get more and more exasperated:
108	-->'''Narrator:''' With his vicious handpicked troop of Cossacks, he roamed the countryside, slaughtering the menfolk! Nicking things.[[note]]He didn't want to say ''"pillaging villages"'', and exclaimed ''"[[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams Luton Towns]]"'' instead of ''"looting towns"'', so eventually they settled on this instead.[[/note]] Setting chimney tops to the women! Raping the fires and burning his valuables!
109	-->'''Ivan the Terrible''': Stop! Stop! ''(dramatic music stops)'' You know what you are, don’t you? An idiot with a capital C!
110	* ReflexiveResponse: Mr Justice Biggles falsely accuses everyone, including the jury and the usher, of being Hitler, until:
111	-->'''Justice Biggles:''' This witness may step down now. That will be all, Mr Hitler.\
112	'''Witness:''' Oh, thank you-\
113	'''Justice Biggles:''' HAH! Fell for it, eh?\
114	[Fusillade of gunfire]\
115	'''Justice Biggles:''' He didn't fool me for a second!
116	* TheRemnant: The commander in the "Kamikaze pilot" sketch – he keeps sending Simpkins out on suicide missions (which all inevitably fail, because Simpkins is still alive), even though the war finished thirty-two years ago.
117	* SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: One sketch set in a travel agents has the assistant making all the sound effects himself due to an economy drive.
118	** The opening of "Journey Into The Unknown The Burkiss Way" inverts this with the show in sound effects ''only'', due to a loss of actors.
119	** Whilst "Is Britain Going The Burkiss Way? (part one)" combines it with ReadingTheStageDirectionsOutLoud by opening in A Tea Lady Reading Out The Script only.
120	* SceneryPorn: A spoof of the BBC's ''Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall1978'' sends up the show's tendency towards this.
121	-->"Starring the Yorkshire Dales. With some actors in front of them sometimes."
122	* SelfPlagiarism: In "Ignore These Program Titles The Burkiss Way", King George I visits Handel to complain that the Water Music he composed for him is suspiciously similar to his Hallelujah Chorus, consisting as it does of the word "hallelujah" endlessly repeated but with the phrase "splish splash" inserted between every ninety-fourth and ninety-fifth hallelujah.
123	* ShoutOut: Billy Bunter of Literature/{{Greyfriars}} turns up as a character several times -- first as an assistant to Literature/LordPeterWimsey (a similar name gag); then as part of an episode long spoof of the Greyfriars stories; then finally an adult Bunter appears as "the Assistant Fat Owl of the Mathematics Department", being interviewed by the school board about his habit of [[ImAHumanitarian eating the pupils]].
124	* SillyWill: One episode featured the reading of the will of a Lord Hackingbottmo. The will begins with a long list of people who have been left nothing, in increasingly elaborate language ("...nil pennies; the zero sum..."). This is followed by a list of people who have been left vaguely described but clearly unpleasant things ("...a rather nasty substance...something not nice in any way shape or form--and a four year supply of refills..."). An attempt to find someone who has been left something nice then turns the reading into a performance of "Chattanooga Choo-choo." This is disrupted by someone finally pointing out that ''Lord Hackingbottmo is the person reading the will out in the first place''.
125	* SirSwearsALot: The show's send-up of period drama ''The Duchess of Duke Street'':
126	-->'''Louisa:''' Cor blimey, your majesty! If you weren't so bleedin' busy sitting on your bleedin' throne, you'd see what a fine mess the bleedin' country's in! Cor blimey, I mean to say! Have some lobster thermidor garnished with tiny sautéed BBC props! If you pulled your bleedin' finger out, our poor bleedin' soldiers bleedin' in bleedin' France, instead of bleedin' the bleedin' country apart, would be bleedin' the bleedin'-\
127	'''Announcer:''' Next week, Louisa says 'bleeding' to Tsar Nicholas the Second of all the Russias and Alexandra; 'Cor blimey your highness' to the Grand Duchess Mary of Hess and Saxe-Coburg; and 'Pull your bleedin' finger out' to eight hereditary peers, two archbishops - one orthodox, the other heterosexual - and a photo of Queen Mary.
128	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Jo Kendall is occasionally subject to jokes about being the only female in the show: In one sketch, a male character introduces her to "My wife and two pet daughters, none of whom say anything because we've only got one woman in the cast and that's you", whilst in another she plays two characters and distinguishes them only by adding "...in a different voice" to the end of one character's lines.
129	* SnakeOilSalesman: Professor Emil Burkiss is clearly a fraudulent quack whose course is a complete waste of time and money. The show is [[SelfProclaimedLiar quite open about this]], urging the gullible and easily-led to keep listening, and describing itself as "the first radio show exclusively designed for suckers."
130	* SoundToScreenAdaptation: with a revised cast, including the return of Denise Coffey, LWT's ''End of Part One'' is essentially ''The Burkiss Way'' for television. Unfortunately it was [[ScrewedByTheNetwork badly scheduled]]. A DVD was released in November 2012.
131	* SpaceClothes: Mocked mightily in the show's ''Series/BlakesSeven'' spoof:
132	-->"Attention earthlings! I must warn you all that unless you surrender to us immediately, we shall be forced to ''put on pairs of glittery tights!''"\
133	"Not the tights! They wouldn't dare!"\
134	"Ooooh yes! We shall also slip into the shirts with strings up the front, get out the badly designed motorbike boots and ''ponce around with lots of women with no bras on!''"\
135	"I may have my hands full here..."
136	* SpecialGuest:
137	** Peter Jones himself turns up in one of the show's [[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978 Hitchhiker]] spoofs, delivering a Guide monologue that turns into a rant about The Burkiss Way's habit of mocking other 'much more successful' shows, and the poor quality of its impressions: "This one, for instance, sounds absolutely nothing like me."
138	** The Special Guest concept is spoofed in "Start New Series The Burkiss Way", in which the studio audience is collectively the guest star.
139	-->'''Announcer''': Now, Studio - I hope you don't mind if I call you that...\
140	'''Studio Audience''': [together] No, go right ahead.\
141	'''Announcer''': Oh good. Well now Studio, I'm very sorry we can't actually pay you for this guest appearance in The Burkiss Way, but I'm afraid I haven't got enough Polos to go round!\
142	'''Studio Audience''': [together] Go round what?\
143	'''Announcer''': Ha ha! Very good, but in future stick to the script!
144	%%* {{Spoonerism}}
145	* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Eric Pode of Croydon, most of whose appearances ended with him getting shot by whoever he was talking to, usually the long-suffering Fred Harris. On one single occasion, Pode shot Harris, announcing 'I had to do that, he was getting on me nerves.'
146	* ToBeContinued[=/=]PreviouslyOn: Averted by the show's only two-parter, "Is Britain Going The Burkiss Way?" The first episode just ended in mid sentence ("Eric-"), and the following week’s show picked up from the exact same spot without explanation ("-Pode of Croydon!")
147	* UnInstallment: The episode "Get Off With Life The Burkiss Way", in which the show is placed on trial on charges of "being funny", supposedly replaces the scheduled episode, "Be Patient The Burkiss Way". Which we are told will not be heard for another two weeks.
148	* UnusualChapterNumbers: Each episode is "Lesson Number X", where X corresponds to the episode number... Until Lesson 31 and Lesson 32 are broadcast as two fifteen-minute halves of the same half-hour show. In addition, Lesson 31 is the final show of series three and Lesson 32 is the first show of series four, meaning series four is what should have been the last two and a half episodes of series three. The out-of-sync lesson numbering is then corrected in series five when there are two consecutive Lesson 39s, both called "Repeat Yourself The Burkiss Way".
149	* VerbalTic: Following a joke in the second series about a plague of typing mistakes, the word "third" was permanently pronounced as "thrid" in all shows thereafter. Also, "Smoth" and "Jobes" would always be substituted for the names "Smith" and "Jones".
150	* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: One episode had a ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes sketch where the team were irritated by an applicant trying to claim the ability to stand up from a sitting position as a super-power. ("I can do it quite quickly...") When this fails to impress them, he claims to have the ability to move from place to place at will - by getting on the bus:
151	--> '''Applicant''': I simply raise my right arm, like this, until it's outstretched...\
152	'''Invisible Kid''': And fly up into the air!\
153	'''Applicant''': No, the bus stops and I get on.
154	** They try and throw him out, so he reveals he has one last super-power: The ability to stop any comedy programme at will.
155	--> '''Team Leader''': Really? Well I don't bel-
156	** The previous applicants weren't much better. There was Transvestite Lad (''"Has the ability to dress up in women's clothes at will"''), Captain Horlicks (''"Can make hot malted milk bedtime drinks at will"''), Commander Lemon (''"Can change into a lemon at will"'') and Archive Lass (''"Can obtain obscure back-numbers of the Exchange and Mart at will"'').
157	* WrittenInAbsence: In "The Last Burkiss Way", Jo Kendall appears only in inserted announcements apologising for 'the loss of Jo Kendall' in the manner one talks about a technical hitch. In the following week’s show, "The Next To Last Burkiss Way", she is entirely absent, and the opening of the show informs us her part will be played by the rest of the cast. This consists solely of occasional male characters being randomly refered to as 'Miss Kendall'.
158	* WrittenSoundEffect: "Dr Batman and Robin" appear in one sketch, and of course have to act their roles out, to the dismay of the patient who had been hoping to get some medical advice instead.
159	--> Snap, Crackle, Sock! Snap, Crackle, Sock!
160	----
161	->''...see you next week folks, and happy dynamic troping!''

Context Radio / TheBurkissWay