Frank Skinner's Opinionated


Frank Skinner's Opinionated is a British television comedy talk show hosted by the comedian Frank Skinner and produced by Avalon Television for the BBC. The show focusses on various topics in the previous week's news, with Skinner joined by two celebrity guests, also interacting with the studio audience. Each half-hour episode is filmed in a different location around the country. It was first shown on BBC Two, with a first series of six episodes broadcast from 16 April 2010, and a second of six more beginning on 25 March 2011. The third and final series began broadcasting on 10 November 2011.

Format

The show is a studio based light hearted talk show focussing on events of the past week, with a large amount of audience participation while also having supporting film clips. Skinner opens the show on his own, and in the opening piece outlines what the general themes of the night's show will be. The two celebrity guests then enter the studio, and they proceed to discuss those topics in more detail, with Skinner guiding the discussion and inviting questions and comments from the audience, some of whom are pre-selected to talk about a specific topic.

Guests

The two celebrity guests each week are all primarily known as or having originated in stand-up comedy, in addition to other regular appearances on comedy or light entertainment television. Some have appeared on more than one episode. The show has featured:
A pilot for the show was recorded in December 2009 at BBC Television Centre in London. After the first series was completed, two more series were commissioned. Due to the nature of the series, filming of each episode occurs in the days just before broadcast. As such, when promoting the upcoming second series on the BBC's The One Show, Skinner could only refer to film from the previous series.
The studio set consists of just a red sofa and chair, with Skinner sitting in the individual seat, and the two guests on the sofa. The show is filmed in various studios around the UK, with the location also forming part of the discussion topics. Across the three series, Skinner visited Epic Studios in Norwich, Waterfront Hall in Belfast and regularly visited Dock10 at MediaCityUK, Greater Manchester. Other filming locations included Glasgow, London and Maidstone.

Broadcast

Each series contains 6 half hour episodes, broadcast weekly in the 10pm slot on Friday nights on BBC Two. The first series ran from 16 April to 21 May 2010. The second series began on 25 March 2011 and finished on 29 April 2011.

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Reception

The first episode was watched by 1.877 million viewers, an 8.8% audience share, ahead of the first episode of Facejacker on Channel 4, and an episode of Grey's Anatomy on 5.

Music

The song played during the credits and the interludes is "No Bulbs" by The Fall, Skinner's favourite group.