''Delve Special'' was a
UK BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
starring
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
as investigative reporter David Lander. It ran for four series from 1984 to 1987, each series being four 30-minute episodes long. It was written by
Tony Sarchet and produced by
. The first series was
wiped
Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect.
Common reasons for loss
A significant prop ...
by the BBC but has since been found and consisted of a four-part investigation into the proposed building of London's third airport in "Shifton", a small village situated 'just to the north east of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
', and the alleged bribery and corruption that accompanied the choice of location and building contractor.
David Lander's investigative technique was usually somewhere between the questionable and the illegal - during each episode he also displayed some degree of ineptitude or lack of understanding in the subject matter he was reporting on. As a result, he occasionally found himself being set upon physically by those concerned. The programme heavily spoofed the style of topical radio reporters such as
John Waite
John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single " Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the top ten on ...
of ''
Face the Facts
''Face the Facts'' was a consumer affairs programme on BBC Radio 4, featuring investigative journalism, that ran from the 1986 until 2015. Introduced by John Waite, cousin of the well-known humanitarian and churchman Terry Waite, it usually focuse ...
'' and
Roger Cook, a Radio 4 presenter who went on to television work such as ''
The Cook Report
''The Cook Report'' was a British ITV current affairs television programme presented by Roger Cook which was broadcast from 22 July 1987 to 24 August 1999. The series featured the journalist investigating corruption, criminals, government so ...
''.
Actors appearing in ''Delve Special'' included:
Tony Robinson
Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentarie ...
,
Felicity Montagu
Felicity Jane Montagu (born 12 September 1960) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Lynn Benfield, the long-suffering assistant of Alan Partridge.
Early life
Montagu was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, to Lieutenant-Co ...
,
Stephen Frost,
Mark Arden
Mark David Darwin Arden (born 31 July 1956) is an English comedian and actor, best known for his television appearances. During the 1980s, he was one half of comic double act ' The Oblivion Boys', alongside Stephen Frost.
Arden was born in Ne ...
,
Jack Klaff
Jack Klaff is a South African-born actor, writer and academic. He has held professorships at Princeton University and Starlab.
Amongst his early screen roles were in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) as Red Four and For Your Eyes Only ( ...
,
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard Enfield (born 30 May 1961) is an English comedian, actor, writer and director. He is known in particular for his television work, including '' Harry Enfield's Television Programme'' and ''Harry & Paul'', and for the creation and ...
,
Dawn French,
Brenda Blethyn,
Arthur Smith,
Janine Duvitski
Janine Duvitski (born Christine Janine Drzewicki; 28 June 1952) is a British actress, known for her roles in the BBC television sitcom series '' Waiting for God'', ''One Foot in the Grave'' and ''Benidorm''. Duvitski first came to national atte ...
,
Philip Pope
Philip R. J. Pope is a British composer and actor. He is best known for role as Tony Angelino in Only Fools And Horses. He was educated at Downside School and New College, Oxford.
Performer
Pope appeared in the Oxford Revue in Edinburgh Festi ...
and
Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst (born 22 February 1957) is an English actor. Bathurst was born in The Gold Coast (now Ghana) in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. In 1959 his family moved to Ballybrack, Dublin, Ireland and Bath ...
Andrew Sachs
Andreas Siegfried Sachs (7 April 1930 – 23 November 2016), known professionally as Andrew Sachs, was a German-born British actor and writer. He made his name on British television and found his greatest fame for his portrayal of the comical Sp ...
.
The theme music to the programme was ''Crunch'' by
Soft Machine.
A follow-up
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
version ran for two series: ''
This is David Lander
''This is David Lander'' is a TV show that parodies Roger Cook style doorstepping investigative journalism shows, starring Stephen Fry as David Lander and written by Tony Sarchet.
It began as the BBC Radio 4 show '' Delve Special'', which bec ...
'' (starring Stephen Fry) in 1988, and ''
This is David Harper
''This is David Lander'' is a TV show that parodies Roger Cook style doorstepping investigative journalism shows, starring Stephen Fry as David Lander and written by Tony Sarchet.
It began as the BBC Radio 4 show '' Delve Special'', which bec ...
'' (starring
Tony Slattery
Tony Declan James Slattery (born 9 November 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He appeared on British television regularly from the mid-1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' His ...
) in 1990 - Fry being unavailable for the second series due to other commitments.
Episodes
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
External links
Delve Specialon
BBC Sounds
BBC Radio comedy programmes
Radio programs adapted into television shows
1984 radio programme debuts
1987 radio programme endings
{{BBC-radio-stub