Newsjack was a British satirical sketch show which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra between 2009 and 2021.[2] It was hosted by Miles Jupp (2009-Mar 2011), Justin Edwards (Sep 2011-2013), Romesh Ranganathan (2014), Nish Kumar (2015-2016),[3] Angela Barnes (2017-2018)[1] and Kiri Pritchard-McLean (2019-2021).[4] It was first broadcast on 4 June 2009.[5] The series was notable for having an "Open door" policy on writing, advertising itself as "the scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public"[6] meaning that unsolicited writers without contract to the BBC could send in material. The show was designed to give new writers an opportunity to get material broadcast. It was hoped by the people behind the show that it would be a modern version of Week Ending, an earlier sketch show which also accepted material the same way.[7] Most shows were recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House.
Each episode of Newsjack began with an introduction from the presenter before the main sketches. The host was joined by a different cast each week - a mixture of experienced sketch performers and new upcoming talent. Previous regular cast members included: Margaret Cabourn-Smith (who also stood in as host for Series 9 Episode 6 when regular host Justin Edwards was unable to attend the recording), Lewis MacLeod, Pippa Evans,[8] Andi Osho and Jess Robinson. Philip Fox appeared in several episodes, whilst Cariad Lloyd and Mike Wozniak have also appeared in the supporting cast.
As well as standalone sketches, the show also featured recurring segments such as Breaking News and Number Crunchers.
Writers wishing to submit material for Newsjack were invited to write material for these segments as well as their own sketches not related to them.
Newsjack, was always intended to be an "Open door" show in terms of writing. However, it first became known in early 2009 when it launched a competition to find new comedy writers for the show. The winners of this competition went on to a masterclass on comedy writing with David Mitchell on 9 March 2009.[10] Although originally Gareth Edwards was intended to be producer for the show, the job of producer eventually went to Tilusha Ghelani and Sam Michell.[5][10] Later producers included Hayley Sterling and Leila Navabi. The show was first broadcast as a pilot on 4 June 2009. This pilot was broadcast first so as to give a guide to new writers about the sort of material that the programme was looking for. The first deadline for new material was 15 June 2009 at noon.[11] While the first series was originally intended to run for ten weeks, this was reduced to the pilot and six episodes, one per week.[10][12][13] In total there were twenty-four series and two compilation episodes: a review of the year episode, broadcast on New Year's Eve 2011, and shortly before series eight, a programme 'Newsjack Revisited' broadcast on Radio 4, featuring the best sketches from previous series seven. The episodes were also available to download as a podcast.[14]
Transmission dates are as follows. The programme is normally broadcast on a Thursday evening on BBC Radio 4 Extra and repeated the following Sunday.