''Snuff Box'' (sometimes referred to as ''Berry & Fulcher's Snuff Box'') is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

set in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Starring and written by

Matt Berry Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. Noted for his distinctive voice, he is best known for his television roles in comedy series such as ''The IT Crowd'', ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'', ' ...

and

Rich Fulcher Richard Fulcher (born November 18, 1963) is an American comedian, actor and author. He played Bob Fossil and other characters in the British comedy series ''The Mighty Boosh'', and Edward Sheath in the American series ''Jon Benjamin Has a Van''. ...

with additional material by Nick Gargano, it aired on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

in 2006. The series was directed by

Brass Eye ''Brass Eye'' (stylised as brassEYE) is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created and presented by ...

director

Michael Cumming Michael Cumming is a British director and filmmaker. He is best known for directing comedy shows such as ''Brass Eye'', ''Toast of London'', ''Toast of Tinseltown'', The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, ''The Mark Thomas Product'', ''Snuff Box (TV seri ...

who later directed Berry's ''

Toast of London ''Toast of London'' is a British television sitcom, created by Matt Berry and Arthur Mathews and starring Berry as Steven Toast, an eccentric, middle-aged actor with a chequered past who spends more time dealing with his problems offstage than ...

.'' Starring as fictionalized versions of themselves, Berry plays a hangman ("High

Executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who effects a sentence of capital punishment on a condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorizing or ordering him to ...

to the King of England"), and Fulcher his assistant. The majority of the programme is set in a "

gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...

for hangmen", although the show is also interspersed with sequences of sketches, often featuring different characters. The show is set in "no particular time" with deliberately anachronistic sets.

Background

Berry and Fulcher met whilst working together on another BBC Three comedy, ''

The Mighty Boosh The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows, The Mighty Boosh (1998 stage show), ''The Mighty Boosh'', Arctic Boosh, ''Arctic Boosh'' (1999) and Autoboosh, ...

''. ''Snuff Box'' was originally titled ''Berry & Fulcher's Comedy Bronze''. The show was produced by Channel X Productions, who had previously produced the animated series ''

Popetown ''Popetown'' is an Adult animation, adult animated sitcom, billed by its producers as "''Father Ted'' meets ''South Park''". The series was internationally controversial, and was not screened by BBC Three, the channel which commissioned it. P ...

'' for

in 2005. ''Popetown'' had been met with international controversy prior to its broadcast, so was never aired by BBC Three. According to Berry, this led to the commissioning of ''Snuff Box'', as BBC Three owed Channel X Productions a favour. In addition, BBC Three was looking for a new sketch show to replace ''

Little Britain Little Britain may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little Britain'' (TV series), a British radio and then television series ** '' Little Britain USA'', an American spin-off * "Little Britain", a song by Dreadzone from the 1995 album ''Second ...

'', which had been moved to

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

for its final series.

Reception

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described the show as "fantastically dark and cynical".

DVD release

The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

was released on 16 June 2008. On 11 October 2011, Severin Films released the series on DVD with a bonus CD of music and other exclusive extra features in the North American market.

Episodes

This list is ordered by the original air dates on

in the United Kingdom.

Music

The ''Snuff Box'' theme is used repeatedly throughout the series. Matt Berry composed the music, both themes and incidental. He sang most of the vocal parts and played most of the instruments. He recorded the theme tune in his flat. English composer

Tony Hatch Anthony Peter Hatch (born 30 June 1939) is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer. Early life and early career Hatch was born in Pinner, Middlesex. Encouraged by his mu ...

advised Berry on the brass sections. The film ''

Dredd ''Dredd'' is a 2012 science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Pete Travis and written and produced by Alex Garland. It is based on the ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' comic strip ''Judge Dredd'' and its eponymous character ...

'' featured the ''Snuff Box'' theme in a few scenes.

References

External links

* * * {{Matt Berry 2006 British television series debuts 2006 British television series endings 2000s British black comedy television series 2000s British comedy television series BBC black comedy television shows British English-language television shows Television shows set in London Television series created by Matt Berry