Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive

Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive is a BBC Three television show, which aired in the UK in July 2006. It concerns the making of a comedy panel game show called Annually Retentive, themed around historical events, and hosted by Rob Brydon. The show is deliberately parodic, as Brydon plays a hyper-realised (and exaggeratedly nasty) version of himself, while the game show blatantly steals ideas from other, similar shows such as Have I Got News For You and Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

The show cuts between scenes that see Brydon and the producers making the panel game, and scenes from the game show itself. These latter segments were filmed in full, as if Annually Retentive were a real show, in front of live audiences at BBC Television Centre who, initially, were not made aware of its fictitious nature. A good portion of the game show segments were scripted; however, the panellists were allowed to 'play out' the game as if it were real, and occasionally improvise.

The two team captains are Dave Gorman and Jane Moore.

Forthcoming panellists include Kirsten O'Brien, Omid Djalili, Trisha Goddard, Jo Brand, Gyles Brandreth, Sharon Horgan, Phil Nichol, Alexei Sayle, Steve Furst, Alistair McGowan and Dominic Diamond. David Walliams will also appear.

Prior to transmission in July 2006, the first episode was made available on the BBC Three Website for UK viewers.

Episode 1

• First transmitted on BBC Three at 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday 11th July 2006.
• Repeated on BBC Three at 10.35 p.m. on Wednesday 12th July 2006.
• Guest panellists on Dave Gorman's team: Richard Bacon and Gail Porter.
• Guest panellists on Jane Moore's team: David Mitchell and Lucy Porter.

Cast

• Sharon Horgan
• Phil Nichol
• Steve Furst
• Dominic Holland
• Alice Lowe
• Dave Skinner
• Curtis Walker
• Jonathan Ross (uncredited)