Room 101 (British TV series)
BBC TV comedy talk show / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Room 101 is a BBC comedy television series based on the radio series of the same name, in which celebrities are invited to discuss their pet hates and persuade the host to consign those hates to oblivion in Room 101, a location whose name was inspired by the torture room in George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four which reputedly contained "the worst thing in the world". Orwell himself named it after a meeting room in Broadcasting House where he would sit through tedious meetings.[2] It was produced independently for the BBC by Hat Trick Productions.
![]() | This article possibly contains original research. (January 2018) |
Room 101 | |
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Also known as | Room 101 – Extra Storage (extended repeats) |
Genre | Comedy panel game |
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Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 18 |
No. of episodes | 141 (list of episodes) |
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Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company | Hat Trick Productions |
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Network | BBC Two |
Release | 4 July 1994 (1994-07-04) – 9 February 2007 (2007-02-09) |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 20 January 2012 (2012-01-20) – 6 April 2018 (2018-04-06) |
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Nick Hancock hosted the first three series of the show from 1994 until 1997. He was succeeded by Paul Merton, who hosted the show from 1999 till the show's original run came to an end in 2007. Frank Skinner hosts the revamped incarnation that started on 20 January 2012.[3]
The 1994–2007 incarnation of the show was that of a one-on-one interview between the host and guest. Consignment of the nominated items, persons or concepts to Room 101 (theoretically banishing them from the world forever) was the decision of the host, sometimes after soliciting the opinion of the studio audience. The 2012 revamp introduced a panel format with three guests competing to have their pet hates consigned to Room 101, a decision made by the host. Guests included Ricky Gervais, Spike Milligan, Stephen Fry, Boris Johnson, Ben Miller and Ian Hislop (the only person to appear twice on the show in its original format). Fry went as far as to put Room 101 itself into Room 101.
A Dutch version of Room 101 started on 24 February 2008, but was short-lived.[4] An Israeli version of the show was broadcast between 2010 and 2013. An Australian version of the show hosted by Paul McDermott began in 2015.[5][6]