Blue Jam

{{Short description|British radio show}} {{Other uses}} {{italic title}} {{Use British English|date=July 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox Radio Show | show_name = Blue Jam | format = {{hlist|Comedy|horror}} | runtime = 1 hour | country = United Kingdom | language = English | home_station = BBC Radio 1 | syndicates = | television = | starring = Chris Morris Kevin Eldon Julia Davis Mark Heap David Cann Amelia Bullmore | creator = Chris Morris | director = Chris Morris | writer = Chris Morris Graham Linehan Arthur Mathews Peter Baynham David Quantick Jane Bussmann Robert Katz Kevin Eldon Julia Davis Mark Heap David Cann Amelia Bullmore | producer = Chris Morris | executive_producer = | narrated = Chris Morris | record_location = | first_aired = {{start date|df=y|1997|11|14}} | last_aired = {{start date|df=y|1999|2|25}} | num_series = 3 | num_episodes = 18 | audio_format = | endtheme = | website = | podcast = }}

'''''Blue Jam''''' is a sketch comedy radio programme created by Chris Morris. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 in the early hours of the morning for three series from 1997 to 1999. It comprises sketches, parodies and monologues on taboo topics set to ambient music. It features performances by Morris, Kevin Eldon, Julia Davis, Mark Heap, David Cann and Amelia Bullmore, and was written by Morris, Graham Linehan, Arthur Mathews, Peter Baynham, David Quantick, Jane Bussmann, Robert Katz and the cast.

Warp Records released a compilation of ''Blue Jam'' sketches in 2000. Morris adapted ''Blue Jam'' into the television series ''Jam'', broadcast on Channel 4 in 2000. He adapted a ''Blue Jam'' monologue into his 2002 short film ''My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 117''.

== Production ==

''Blue Jam'' was created, directed and produced by Chris Morris. His previous work, the news satire Channel 4 series ''Brass Eye'', had attracted controversy. Morris said he had been "forced to be a sort of surrogate lawyer", which he found creatively stifling. He said ''Blue Jam'' came from "a desolate mood. I had this misty, autumnal, boggy mood anyway, so I just went with that."<ref name="Plunkett">{{cite web |last=Plunkett |first=John |date=24 February 2014 |title=Chris Morris's ''Blue Jam'' back after 17 years |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/25/chris-morris-blue-jam-repeated-radio-4 |access-date=11 July 2016 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

The writers include Morris, Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews and David Quantick.''<ref name="Plunkett" />''<ref name="Beanland-2014">{{Cite news |last=Beanland |first=Christopher |date=2014-12-04 |title=How Chris Morris's radio comedies electrified the airwaves |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/dec/04/chris-morris-radio-comedies-blue-jam-on-the-hour |access-date=2025-09-04 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The cast includes Morris, David Cann, Julia Davis, Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap and Amelia Bullmore.<ref name="Plunkett" /><ref name="Gardner-2020">{{Cite web |last=Gardner |first=Noel |date=2020-06-11 |title=Low Culture 9: Chris Morris and the legacy of ''Blue Jam'' |url=https://thequietus.com/subscriber-area/low-culture-essay/chris-morris-blue-jam/ |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref>

==Format== ''Jam'' comprises sketches and monologues set to ambient music.<ref name="Plunkett" /><ref name="NME review" /> ''The Guardian'' described it as a "lo-fi anti-comedy", with taboo topics including dead children and abusive doctors.<ref name="Plunkett" /> Quantick later described it as "''In the Night Garden'' in hell".<ref name="Beanland-2014" /> ''NME'' wrote that ''Blue Jam'' was "about the things that happen when sentimentality and 'feeling' obliterates reality and thinking, when hypocrisy reigns and the taboo is just another lifestyle choice for the toxically jaded".<ref name="NME review" />

Sequences include monologues performed by Morris describing the experiences of a mentally ill man in the London media industry; an abusive doctor (Cann); spoof interviews with celebrities such as the biographer Andrew Morton and Jerry Springer; a couple whose television set is infested with lizards; a dysfunctional man who employs an office to assist with trivial tasks such as finding his wallet (Heap); a couple unconcerned about the abduction of their six-year-old son (Cann & Davis); a four-year-old fixer covering up a murder; a disease known as "the gush" afflicting pornographic actors; a couple having surreal sex (Eldon & Davis); and "stings" that parody BBC DJs such as Chris Moyles and Jo Whiley.<ref name="NME review">{{cite web |last=Segal |first=Victoria |url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-nme-3193-338514 |title=Blue Jam |work=NME |access-date=12 September 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190121170640/https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/reviews-nme-3193 |archive-date=21 January 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gardner |first=Noel |date=2020-06-11 |title=Low Culture 9: Chris Morris and the legacy of ''Blue Jam'' |url=https://thequietus.com/subscriber-area/low-culture-essay/chris-morris-blue-jam/ |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=The Quietus |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="O'Brien-2000" />

==Broadcast==

Three series were produced of six episodes each. All episodes were originally broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 1. Series 1 was broadcast from 14 November to 19 December 1997; series 2 was broadcast from 27 March to 1 May 1998; and series 3 broadcast from 21 January to 25 February 1999. The episodes were broadcast early in the morning.<ref name="Gardner-2020" /> The first five episodes of series 1 of ''Blue Jam'' were repeated by BBC Radio 4 Extra in February and March 2014, and series 2 was rebroadcast in December.<ref name="Plunkett" />

== Reception == ''Blue Jam'' was favourably reviewed by ''The Guardian''<ref>{{cite news |last=Karpf |first=Anne |date=29 November 1997 |title=Morris After Midnight |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=27 March 1998 |title=Kind of Blue |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Arnold |first=Sue |date=8 February 1999 |title=He's funny, clever and original. Why is he on Radio 1? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/1999/feb/07/featuresreview.review1 |access-date=11 July 2016 |website=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Karpf |first=Anne |date=21 January 2001 |title=Tuning to Parallel Universe |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> and ''The Independent''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lezard |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Lezard |date=23 February 1999 |title=Chris Morris – The Spoof Is Out There |newspaper=The Independent}}</ref> Digital Spy wrote in 2014: "It's a heady cocktail that provokes an odd, unsettling reaction in the listener, yet ''Blue Jam'' is still thumpingly and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/comedy/feature/a559343/blue-jam-an-ethereal-mix-of-ambient-music-and-detached-reasoning/ |title=''Blue Jam'': An Ethereal Mix of Ambient Music and Detached Reasoning |last=Kennedy |first=Neil |date=21 March 2014 |website=Digital Spy |access-date=16 May 2016}}</ref> ''Hot Press'' called it "as odd as comedy gets".<ref name="O'Brien-2000">{{cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Jonathan |date=23 November 2000 |title=''Blue Jam'' |url=http://www.hotpress.com/Chris-Morris/music/reviews/albums/Blue-Jam/477381.html |access-date=11 July 2016 |website=Hot Press}}</ref> It won the prize for comedy at the 2000 Sony Radio Awards.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Not arf! Awards glory for Fluff |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/733968.stm |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=BBC News}}</ref> ''Vice'' described ''Blue Jam'' as "comedy extreme in its ambition".<ref name="Stubbs-2013" />

== CD release == Warp Records released a compilation of ''Blue Jam'' sketches on 23 October 2000.<ref name="Stubbs-2013">{{Cite web |last=Stubbs |first=David |date=2013-07-19 |title=A history of Warp records in eight releases |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/youneedtohearthis-a-history-of-warp-recordings/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=Vice |language=en-US}}</ref> ''Vice'' described the release as Warp's "boldest act of diversification".<ref name="Stubbs-20132">{{Cite web |last=Stubbs |first=David |date=2013-07-19 |title=A history of Warp records in eight releases |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/youneedtohearthis-a-history-of-warp-recordings/ |access-date=2025-08-22 |website=Vice |language=en-US}}</ref>

{{album ratings | rev1 = AllMusic | rev1score = {{rating|4.5|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/blue-jam-mw0000536868 |title=''Blue Jam'' – Chris Morris <nowiki>| Songs, Reviews, Credits |</nowiki> AllMusic |last=Carlson |first=Dean |website=AllMusic |access-date=11 July 2016}}</ref> | rev2 = ''NME'' | rev2Score = 8/10<ref name="NME review"/> | rev3 = ''Select'' | rev3score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mullen |first=John |date=November 2000 |title=[''Blue Jam'' review] |journal=Select}}</ref> }}

; Track listing

# "Blue Jam Intro" # "Doc Phone" # "Lamacq sting" # "4 ft Car" # "Suicide Journalist" # "Acupuncture" # "Bad Sex" # "Mayo Sting" # "Unflustered Parents" # "Moyles Sting" # "TV Lizards" # "Doc Cock" # "Hobbs Sting" # "Morton Interview" # "Fix It Girl" # "Porn" # "Kids Party" # "Club News" # "Whiley Sting" # "Little Girl Balls" # "Blue Jam Outro" # "www.bishopslips.com" (not a real track)

==Related shows==

''Blue Jam'' was adapted for television and broadcast on Channel 4 as ''Jam''. It used unusual editing techniques to achieve an unnerving ambience in keeping with the radio show. Many of the sketches were lifted from the radio version, even to the extent of simply setting images to the radio soundtrack. A subsequent "re-mixed" airing, called ''Jaaaaam'' was even more extreme in its use of post-production gadgetry, often heavily distorting the footage.

==References==

==External links== *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/bluejam/ ''Blue Jam''] on the BBC Comedy site *{{BBC programme}} – repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra

Category:1997 radio programme debuts Category:1999 radio programme endings Category:BBC Radio comedy programmes