Guttered (TV series)

Guttered is a Euroish comedy-drama series produced by Talkback Productions about the tabloid newspaper industry, broadcast in the Euro Republics on TV4 in 2019, with a second series airing on the same channel, by then known as Fox, in 2022.

Despite being a sitcom, Guttered also deals with issues such as racism, sexism, ableism, suicide and hate speech.

Devised, written and produced by the well-known writing duo of Alex Brenner and John Sugar, who have devised both comedy and drama series in past years, the show's style of humour is noticeable for mixing deadpan humour with surreal, anarchic, edgy and often macabre comedy.

Guttered is intended as a "powerful but witty reflection of how low the far-right rags go to win the hearts, or rather, heartless of the country" with the show highlighting big issues rather than promoting them.

The show's title comes from the phrase "gutter press", newspapers which print mainly shocking, sensationalist stories about sex, celebrities, crime and people's private lives.

Series 1
The Hundred, a centrist "quality" newspaper established in 2014, has throughout it's history struggled to pick up readership opposite more established and opinionated members of the "quality press" such as the leftist Guardian and the Euro Independent and the right-wing Euroish World and The Castle, middle-market papers such as the Daily Mail and Euro Post (both right-wing), and the popular "red tops" such as the right-leaning The Herald, left-leaning paper The Record and the centrist Today.

With the paper a consistent loss maker, the current owners are left with no choice but to give way and sell up. After a hefty bidding process (with Rupert Murdoch mentioned in the first episode) the winner is eventually porn baron and National party patron turned megalomaniac media tycoon Andrew Dover, owner of a major Hollywood studio (Bendover Studios, which is apparently named after his son), a far-right American network named NewsWolf, a chain of casinos, conservative talk radio station Right FM and Channel Six, a fictional Euroish television channel.

It is believed that his previous career in pornography is based on British media tycoon, who owned the Daily Express and Daily Star, whilst NewsWolf is based on Rupert Murdoch's Fox News.

Mel Brown, the paper's incumbent editor, is almost immediately thrown out, and installed in his place is Tristan Tröl (pronouned "troll"), a former executive producer for one of NewsWolf's flagship shows, The Oh Bloody Really Factor (a take on ) who from day one sends The Hundred shooting much more downmarket, to compete with the red tops and mid market papers.

In addition to restyling the paper The 100, it goes from a vaguely respectable source of news to a sensationalist, radical far-right scandal rag, firing most of it's LGBTQ+ and black journalists, all replaced with old white men who hold a grudge against them all. Page 3 girls are relaunched after most Euroish papers dropped them and Caitlin Hipkins (a parody of Katie Hopkins) becomes political editor, but not without inserting her abject contempt for anyone ranging from transgenders, Islam and migrants to feminists, homosexuals and autistics.

With a view to getting a big scoop, Tröl dispatches junior reporter Charlton Alexandrew to Washington for a scoop from US politics, preferably against the Democrats. It is while Charlton is there that he discovers someone who strikingly resembles dead prime minister James Whitfield, who was shot dead in a successful assasination attempt in 1997.

Alexandrew immediately pursues him, chasing him across the city until Whitfield admits to being alive. Alexandrew begins a round of intense and deeply personal questioning that leads to the man claiming to be Whitfield going into a meltdown, due to his autism. After an evening call by Whitfield to Caitlin Hipkins, she demands to have him flown over to the country.

A flight is dispatched and within a few hours Alexandrew and the mysterious man have returned to the Euro Republics, the latter having been forced there against his will by Alexandrew. A quick dash is made by them to the Hundred newsroom, where a meeting between the supposed James Whitfield is made with Caitlin Hipkins is made. Livid at his claim of autism, she launches into a loud rant at him screaming various expletives.

The highly fabricated and sensationalised story is published in The 100 the next morning as "WE GOT HIM", detailing how the paper allegedly tracked down Whitfield and the autistic revelations, as well as throwing in false allegations of him being gay. Sales of The 100 go off the roof, and is the day's top newspaper.

The jubilation in the newsroom then quickly turns to panic in the evening when the body of a young man is found in an alleyway with a bunch of notes attached to his body which mention being falsely accused by a Euroish newspaper, and who looked suspiciously like the man who The 100 got a scoop with earlier. The body was infact that of an Australian teenager named Tom Edwards, who had all this time faked being named James Whitfield after being pressured by Alexandrew.

The 100 is parachuted slap bang in the centre of what has became a media circus, having directly caused the death of an innocent person. The 100 is briefly discontinued, although it's internet arm remains online, whilst Caitlin Hipkins and Charlton Alexandrew face a court trial for hate speech and murder in the final episode, which culminates in lifetime sentences for them both.

The first series ends with Tröl and Dover admitting "it's wise if we rest it, but it will be back, no matter what those woke lefties say."

Series 2
Series 2 of Guttered begins with Dover laying his foundations for bringing The 100 back to newsstands, via television. Dover sets himself up with a couple of investors from Dubai as well as the involvement of Sherelle Pinter, a hardline Nazi whose controversial opinions have made her a powerful but feared force in the internet world, to present a primetime television programme.

Jenkin Llanardrindrop, who is overseeing the Australian branch of NewsWolf, is asked by Dover to pack his bags and move over to the UK to lead this new venture. Dover takes the decision to close down Channel 6 (in his words "revamp") to launch his new passion project, dubbed ER Network. Presenting Channel 6's Good Morning Euro Republics just so happens to be controversial conservative broadcaster Ron Cameron, whose hiring helped the programme to "get Sunrise fucked". He is catapulted straight to the primetime schedule alongside the increasingly divisive Pinter, who Llanardripdrop takes a liking to after posting a YouTube video heavily critical of the bisexual community.

Nicole Morley, a leading personality for Channel 6 who co-presents GMER with Cameron alongside a string of primetime programmes, calls out the decision live on air, revealing her years of abuse and a toxic culture within the channel's offices, branding her co-presenter "a lump of fat steaming shite" and a "Nazi fascist".

After her immediate sacking from Channel 6 following the incident, she accepts an offer from TV3 to move and present a new topical comedy and chat programme for Fox.

Channel 6 is in frenzy and the channel gets pulled off air by the broadcast regulators as an enquiry begins into the channel's work culture. On screen while this happens are reruns of old American sitcoms as the channel winds down it's original operations. Former editor for The 100, Tristan Tröl, having lay low for three years, catches wind of the plans and arranges a meeting with Dover, about the possibility of becoming a presenter for the channel. Charlton Alexandrew is informed at short notice that he will be the channel's political editor and escapes to prison, forges a new identity for himself as Charlie Alexander, flown out to Washington for a late night US political affairs show.

The Channel 6 studios are rebuilt with new technology from the Dubai investors. ER Network comes on air in something of a hurry, and it shows, as the launch programme which Ron Cameron hosts goes off air 20 minutes due to technical difficulties. As the launch show goes to air, Nicole Morley begins her new show on FOX. She sets out to trash and tarnish the reputation of the new network. Once the channel is back on air, it's time for the 10pm programme as presented by Pinter. The programme seems to be going well, until she breaks into a rant on the transgender and black communities of the Euro Republics, using extreme slurs. This is then followed by an expose on the controller of Network Two, for "the crime of being a woke warrior".

The channel is all over the media the next morning, and not particularly for the right reasons. Llanardrindrop is a guest on the following morning's edition of AM, where he is scrutinised for what he has put to air, defending it as "free speech, not hate speech". The presenter then repeats her words and argues that it is "damaging and offensive".

Series 1

 * "The Paper of the Common" (7th November 2019)
 * "The Paper of the Gammon" (14th November 2019)
 * "The Paper of the Horny" (21st November 2019)
 * "The Paper of the Shady" (28th November 2019)
 * "The Paper of the Risky" (8th December 2019)
 * "The Paper of the Dangerous" (12th December 2019)

Series 2

 * "The Paper of the Culture Crusader" (23rd September 2022)
 * "The Paper of the Flag Shagger" (30th September 2022)
 * "The Paper of the ETV Defunder" (7th October 2022)
 * "The Paper of the Posh Toff" (14th October 2022)
 * "The Paper of the Conspiracy Theorist" (21st October 2022)
 * "The Paper of the Massive Racist" (29th October 2022)

Cast

 * Martin Treneman as Jenkin Llanardrindrop (Series 2)
 * Mark Stanley as Charlton Alexandrew

Production and broadcast
The show's concept was originally devised in early 2017 by Brenner & Sugar. Initially, it was conceived as a straight drama series to be known as The News Stand. It would have been a spin-off from Inside the Box, TV3's drama series about the inner workings of a TV newsroom in Euro City. If this were the case, it would have been produced by Shondaland for TV3.

After being rejected by Shondaland on the grounds that it would not sell well in the US, Brenner & Sugar decided to sever it's ties to Inside the Box, and make the programme a more comedic proposition, whilst retaining a dramatic edge. A pilot was ordered in September 2017 by Thomas White - the controller of TV4, TV3's more cutting edge sister channel - who commissioned the programme in April 2018.

Reception
Despite middling ratings (being shown on Thursday nights at 10.30pm, ironically up agaisnt another Alex Brenner creation, Complications) Guttered received favourable reception from critics.

The Guardian's Andy Pearson said of the show: "Guttered targets the tabloid industry and fires it right in the groin. As a former Today correspondent, it's depiction of their hectic newsrooms is absolutely spot on, but it's a lot funnier, so funny in fact - it doesn't need a laugh track, and doesn't."

The Euro Independent's Ed Hardcastle thought that the series "was realistic of the muck-raking tabloid rags that plague the newsstands." Even the Herald, the paper that Guttered parodied the most, found it "a quirky little programme."

The Daily Mail heavily criticised the series calling it "a twisted comedy with some terribly thought put characters that aren't so much shocking as shockingly bad." Brenner & Sugar responded to this review stating "Why have the racist scum approve of you when you can get positive reviews from far more credible places? Even Today isn't as shocking as you lot."