| That Mitchell and Webb Look | |
|---|---|
 An image from the show's opening sequence | |
| Also known as | Mitchell & Webb |
| Genre | Sketch comedy |
| Created by | David Mitchell Robert Webb |
| Written by |
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| Directed by |
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| Starring |
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| Composers | Richie Webb Matt Katz |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Kenton Allen Mark Freeland Jon Plowman Paul Schlesinger |
| Producer | Gareth Edwards |
| Cinematography | Rob Kitzmann John Sorapure |
| Editors | Pete Drinkwater Scott Flyger Gary Hewson |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Two BBC HD (2008–2010) |
| Release | 14 September 2006 (2006-09-14) – 17 August 2010 (2010-08-17) |
| Related | |
| The Mitchell and Webb Situation That Mitchell and Webb Sound | |
That Mitchell and Webb Look is a Britishsketch comedy television series starringDavid Mitchell andRobert Webb that ran from 2006 to 2010. Many of its characters and sketches were first featured in the duo's radio showThat Mitchell and Webb Sound.
As well asMitchell and Webb themselves, the writers includeJesse Armstrong,James Bachman,Sam Bain,Mark Evans,Olivia Colman,Joel Morris,John Finnemore,Simon Kane. It was produced byGareth Edwards. Colman, Bachman, and Evans were also members of the cast, alongsideGus Brown,Sarah Hadland,Daniel Kaluuya andPaterson Joseph. The first two series were directed byDavid Kerr, and the third and fourth series were directed byBen Gosling Fuller.
First aired on 14 September 2006,[2] a second series was commissioned later that same year[3] and was broadcast between 21 February and 27 March 2008.[4] The third series began on 11 June 2009.[5] Since the second series, the production has also been broadcast onBBC HD. The first series won aBAFTA award in 2007. The third series began airing onBBC America on 14 April 2010. The fourth series premiered on BBC Two and BBC HD on 13 July 2010 with a total of six episodes commissioned by the BBC.[6] In a November 2011 interview, Webb stated that there were no plans for another series and added that "you'd have to ask the BBC" about further series.[7]
That Mitchell and Webb Look includes recurring sketches, or sketches with recurring themes. Some of those that feature in multiple episodes include:
The show follows on from the duo's earlier TV seriesThe Mitchell and Webb Situation, and is an extension of theirRadio 4 sketch showThat Mitchell and Webb Sound. The show's producer Gareth Edwards commented that the show's pitch to the BBC "was the shortest pitch I've ever written", citing that the show "has worked on the radio, just likeLittle Britain worked on the radio andDead Ringers worked on the radio, and they transferred successfully to TV, so why don't you [the BBC] transfer this one to TV as well?"[2]
A pilot for the show was filmed on 27 January 2006 atBBC Television Centre,[12] with a full series being later commissioned.[13] Preview nights for the show were held atThe Drill Hall in London on 11 January and 20 March 2006, and at Ginglik inShepherd's Bush in London on 14 and 21 May 2006. These took the form of a radio recording, with verbal prompting to the audience for any visual element that would be required. The series was shot on location in June 2006 and three audience recording sessions were held in Studio 4 at BBC Television Centre on 14, 21 and 28 July 2006.
Following the first series, the pair went on a tour of 44 UK venues between October and December 2006, entitledThe Two Faces of Mitchell and Webb, featuring many of the same sketches asThat Mitchell and Webb Look.
A preview night for the second series was held on 18 May 2007 at The Drill Hall in London. This series was shot inhigh-definition[14] on location during June/July 2007 and three studio recordings with an audience were held at TC8 in Television Centre on 3, 10 and 17 August 2007.
Two preview nights for series three were announced on 30 June 2008 on the BBC Tickets website; all tickets were booked in less than 24 hours. The first preview night took place on 13 July 2008 at The Drill Hall, with the second held there on 10 August 2008. Two audience recording sessions at Television Centre – with additional live sketches – were announced on 3 October 2008, and took place on 31 October and 7 November 2008, again in high-definition in studio TC8. A third recording session at the BBC Radio Theatre was announced on 10 October 2008, taking place on 18 November 2008.
A preview night for the fourth series was announced on 18 November 2009 on the BBC Tickets website; this was held on 26 November 2009 at The Drill Hall.
In a 2020 episode of the podcastRule of Three, David Mitchell, Jason Hazeley and Jonathan Dryden-Taylor discussed several of the series four sketches. The series had a bleaker tone, contributing factors potentially including the public mood after the2008 financial crisis, inspiration from the writers' upbringings during fears ofnuclear warfare, and an increase in the prominence of dramas at the time.[15]
A series of sketches labelled "After the Event" or "Post-Apocalyptic Gameshow", later to be known as "Remain Indoors", featured in three series three episodes and each of the six series four episodes. The last six episodes were devised in the writers' room and then written by Mitchell, Hazeley, Dryden-Taylor and Joel Morris, who divided into pairs and wrote three episodes apiece. Though Mitchell said he was uncomfortable with it in 2020, reference is made in the sketches to all the children having died in the apocalypse, an idea independently conceived by both pairs of writers.[15]
Mitchell's character's suit becomes increasingly damaged throughout the episodes. The character Sheila seems to believe that society will return to normal if people continue practising pre-Event routines in a ritualistic fashion, such as producinggame shows. Mitchell linked this to another sketch conceived by the writers in which inhabitants ofPompeii begin to frantically recycle after the nearby volcano erupts.[15]
Another sketch about a spaceship employee who returns from a sick day to find all of his colleagues involved in a religion referencing a deity called "Vectron" was taken from an occurrence during the writing process. During a break, several of the writers were playing with a ball and one began shouting "By Vectron!" in the style of theGalaxy Quest catchphrase "By Grabthar's Hammer!" Another writer returned from the bathroom to find the writers making many references to the unknown entity Vectron.[15]
The show was nominated for twoBritish Comedy Awards in 2006, in the categories of "Britain's Best New TV Comedy" and the "Highland Spring People's Choice"; it won neither of the awards.[16] Nevertheless, the show did go on to receive aBAFTA in 2007, in the category "Best Comedy Programme or Series";[17] it was later nominated for anotherBAFTA in 2009, in the same category. The show was also named "Best British TV Sketch Show 2006" atThe Comedy.co.uk Awards.[18]
A scene on the show during which Mitchell and Webb portrayed SS officers and one asked "Hans, are we the baddies?" later became a popularInternet meme in the early 2020s.[19][20][21][22]
The recurring Quiz Broadcast sketch in the third and fourth series, with the recurring opening line "Hello, good evening, and remain indoors!", was widely referenced in early 2020 whensocial distancing measures were introduced to combat theCOVID-19 pandemic.[23][24]
All four series of the show have been released on DVD, all released through different distributors under license from theBBC.
The first series was released on DVD in the UK byContender Home Entertainment on 29 October 2007. Extras include Outtakes, Behind the Scenes footage and a Mitchell & Webb documentary.[25]
The second series was released on DVD in the UK byFremantleMedia on 20 October 2008.[26]
The third series was released on DVD in the UK by2Entertain on 20 July 2009.[27]
The fourth series was released in the UK byFremantleMedia on 4 October 2010.[28]
