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Commercial Breakdown. Image of Jimmy Carr. Image credit: Celador Productions.

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Commercial Breakdown

Enduringly popular series in which a British comedian presents humorous television advertisements from around the world

AKA:
Carrott's Commercial Breakdown; Rory McGrath's Commercial Breakdown; Jo Brand's Commercial Breakdown; Ruby Wax's Commercial Breakdown; Jim Davidson's Commercial Breakdown; Jon Culshaw's Commercial Breakdown; Commercial Breakdown With Jimmy Carr
Genre:
Variety
Broadcast:
1989 - 2008  (BBC One)
Starring:
Jimmy Carr, Jasper Carrott, Rory McGrath, Jo Brand, Ruby Wax, Jim Davidson, Jon Culshaw
Writers:
Rob Colley, Dominic English, Jim Pullin, Charlie Skelton, Fraser Steele
Production:
Celador Productions

This long-running BBC series features 'the world's funniest, wildest and weirdest television adverts, selected from every corner of the globe'.

A number of comedians have fronted this programme over the years. The presenter, talking direct to camera, links together each batch of commercials with a string of jokes. The current host is stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr.

Our Review: This is very cheap to make TV. Many of the series have seen the host of that day delivering sub-standard gags to link together the ads. To add to this, the latter series have been presented in cheap, sparse and horrible studios (the earlier series had much more elaborate sets, such as an over-sized supermarket)

Thankfully the show is saved by the researchers, whom have always found a number of advertising masterpieces for each episode. These high-budget commercials can provide much enjoyment in their brief 30 seconds or so they are on screen.

New presenter Jimmy Carr is a perfect choice to present this programme and almost makes up for the crimes against comedy committed by the previous four hosts.