TVGoHome is a website which parodies the television listings style of the British magazine Radio Times. It was produced fortnightly from 1999 to 2003 by the group Zeppotron , and particularly Charlie Brooker. The site now only exists in archive form due to its development into a TV series.

The website gained a cult following, partly due to its tie-up with the geek news site Need To Know, and its use of strong language, surreal imagery and savage satire reminiscent of the work of Chris Morris. Regular targets for abuse were the Daily Mail, Mick Hucknall of Simply Red and the TV presenter Rowland Rivron . TVGoHome's most consistent target, however, was fictional. Nathan Barley, an ex-public-school media wannabe living off his parents' wealth, had his life chronicled in a fly-on-the-wall documentary series (in the TVGoHome universe) entitled simply Cunt. The programme mocked the 'new media' scene that developed around the turn of the millennium in Hoxton and Shoreditch in east London and its population of middle-class web designers, DJs and magazine producers, their obsessions with absurd fashions and gadgetry, their inevitably feeble attempts at creativity and their tireless and ludicrous efforts to embody the cutting edge of urban cool. Two spinoff books were later released: a TVGoHome compilation of old and new material, and Unnovations, mocking the now-defunct Innovations catalogue.

A television show was produced in 2001, and consisted of four half-hour episodes broadcast on E4, and later compiled for broadcast on Channel 4. It was written by Brooker, among others, and directed by Tristram Shapeero , who also directed the controversial Brass Eye special on paedophilia. An Unnovations TV show was also produced, and broadcast on UK Play .

A sitcom entitled Nathan Barley, co-written by Brooker and Chris Morris, began being broadcast in February 2005. [1]

Publications

• TV Go Home, Charlie Brooker, 2001 (ISBN 1841156752)
• Unnovations, Charlie Brooker, 2002 (ISBN 1841157309)

External link

• TVGoHome