History Radio / TheBurkissWay

** 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’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]].

* {{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.

* 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.

* BadImpressionists: "Solve Murders The Burkiss Way" features the New Faces Impressionist Squad, a group of police detectives made up entirely of bad [[SomeMothersDoAveEm Frank Spencer]] impersonators. At one point, they are interrupted by Leonardo Da Vinci doing a bad Tommy Cooper impression.

** Subverted in a different sketch when a boss keeps pronouncing his employees 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!"

'''Detective''': "That was an artists impression. [''audience reaction''] No, don't harrass me, I don't write this..."

* 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 shows well remembered sketches, about buying a record player and ordering a meal in a hamburger bar, were actually recycled from Burkiss).
** Another episode spoofed Nigel Rees' [=BBC=] radio show ''Quote Unquote'', with Rees playing the sketches parody of himself.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: A version of the ending credits in which they are subject to a schoolboys Latin translation renders "Happy dynamic living!" as "Gay, energetic wages!"

** "Ignore These Program 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).

** 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’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 [=BBC7s=] celebration of the shows 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]].
* 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.

** "...with Burkiss spelt wrong." Late addition to the shows catchphrases from the final series, appended to mentions of the shows title even when the show was masquerading under a completely different title:

** The shows 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".

** Besides the aforementioned Mr Different Adams, the shows 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]].

* SceneryPorn: A spoof of the BBC's ''Series/AllCreaturesGreatAndSmall'' sends up the shows tendency towards this.

* 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 characters lines.

* SpaceClothes: Mocked mightily in the shows ''Series/BlakesSeven'' spoof:

* ToBeContinued[=/=]PreviouslyOn: Averted by the shows 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!")

* 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".
* ValuesDissonance: ''Burkiss'' is one of those shows periodically repeated on BBC Radio Four Extra, (its nostalgia channel for the spoken word and radio comedy), which have to be prefaced by an advisory warning that aspects of the humour, whilst viewed as okay in their day, might not fly by modern standards of what is acceptable as comedy. As with many other archive comedy shows, the BBC initially proposed to edit out unacceptable or potentially offensive humour by early 21srt century standards; but fans objected so much to perceived censorship that this was quietly dropped.

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 mads of brain-men Marshall, Andrew and Renwick, David. 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.

* ValuesDissonance: ''Burkiss'' is one of those shows periodically repeated on BBc Radio Four Extra, its nostalgia channel for the spoken word and radio comedy, which have to be prefaced by an advisory warning that aspects of the humour, whilst viewed as okay in their day, might not fly by modern standards of what is acceptible comedy. As with many other archive comedy shos, the BBC initially proposed to edit out unaccetable or potentially offensive humour by early 21srt century standards; but fans objected so much to perceived censorship that this was quietly dropped.

* {{Intermission}}

* 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 [[BritishNewspapers Sun]] journalist Bram Stoker to ghost-write his autobiography.

* BitingTheHandHumor: One episode opens with a vicious spoof of the then just becoming successful [=BBC=] television comedy sketch show NotTheNineOClockNews - Which Marshall and Renwick were ''writing material for at the time.'' (Two of the shows well remembered sketches, about buying a record player and ordering a meal in a hamburger bar, were actually recycled from Burkiss).

* MusicalisInterruptus

* 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

* 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".

* 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]].

'''Alan Whicker''': …refreshingly, reassuringly recuperative, so emphatically effervescent in its empirically endowed…

* BigBrotherIsWatching: Parodied in the spoof of ''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!"

** "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 [[{{Lampshading}} lampshading]], 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.

:: Magnus Pyke, who was known for his enthusiastic gesticulating as well, gets spoofed on several occasions, too.
* 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.

** The shows three sucessive producers were always refered to, in order, as "Simon Brett of Stepney", "John Lloyd of Europe" and "David 'Hatch of the BBC' Hatch".

* SirSwearsalot: The show's send-up of period drama ''The Duchess of Duke Street'':
-->'''Louisa:''' Cor blimey, your majesty! If you wern'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'-\\

* 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/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain ISIRTA]] is acknowledged by having her turn up where Pode is expected. Turns out it's Eric Pode ''pretending'' to be Lady Constance.
* TheyKilledKenny

** "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 [[{{Lampshading}} lampshading]], the [=BBC=] still [[ViewersAreMorons 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.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: the one thing so utterly, unimpeachably, sacred and holy that hanging it over your bed is guaranteed to repel vampires, is Music/CliffRichard.

* MissingEpisode: The final episode of the first series is not included in the shows repeats on BBC7, presumably due to it being, for some reason, only fifteen minutes long.

* TalkingToHimself

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable; the parody of ''{{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".

** Besides the aforementioned Mr Different Adams, the shows 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.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: the one thing so utterly, unimpeachably, sacred and holy that hanging it over your bed is guaranteed to repel vampires, is Music/SirCliffRichard.

* 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 [[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.

Magnus Pyke, who was known for his enthusiastic gesticulating as well, gets spoofed on several occasions, too.

* BBCQuarry: The Burkiss spoof of ''BlakesSeven'' was called ''Blake's Film Shot in Old Gravel Pits''.

Broadcast from August 1976 to November 1980 on [[TheBBC Radio 4]], former radio show ''The Burkiss Way To Dynamic Living'' is the product of the disordered mads of brain-men Marshall, Andrew and Renwick, David. 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.

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/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''. The fact that 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.

[''Series/HawaiiFive0 ThemeTune starts playing'']\\