So Wrong It's Right

{{Infobox radio show

| show_name = So Wrong It's Right

| image = Charlie Brooker.jpg

| alt = Charlie Brooker

| caption = Host Charlie Brooker

| format = Panel game

| runtime = 30 minutes

| start_time =

| end_time =

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| home_station = BBC Radio 4

| presenter = Charlie Brooker

| creator =

| exec_producer= Ben Caudell

| producer = Aled Evans

| rec_location =

| first_aired = {{start date|df=yes|2010|05|11}}

| last_aired = {{end date|df=yes|2012|06|20}}

| num_series = 3

| num_episodes = 17

| opentheme = "Summer Here Kids" by Grandaddy

| endtheme = "Summer Here Kids" by Grandaddy

| website = {{URL|https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jrjq8}}

}}

So Wrong It's Right is a British radio programme presented by Charlie Brooker in which panelists aim to give the "most wrong" answer to a question. They describe stories from their lives, conceive of new ideas on a theme and criticise aspects of the modern world. It aired three series in May–June 2010, March–April 2011 and May–June 2012 on BBC Radio 4. The first series of five episodes played at 11{{nbsp}}p.m. while the last two had six episodes premiering at 6:30{{nbsp}}p.m.

Format

Presenter Charlie Brooker awards a point to whichever of his three guests has the "most wrong" answer to each question asked. The first round, "Wrong Time, Wrong Place", sees each guest describing an anecdote from their lives on a particular theme. The second round, "Do Your Worst", has contestants come up with ideas on a theme—for instance, to create the worst sport at the Olympics. In an alternate second round, "This Putrid Modern Hell", panelists discuss what in the modern world is most annoying to them. "Random Wrongness"—the final round—is a sequence of quickfire questions.

Production

The programme aired on BBC Radio 4 in three series from 2010 to 2012. The first series aired at 11{{nbsp}}p.m. while the remaining two aired at 6{{nbsp}}p.m.{{cite web|url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/so_wrong_its_right/|title=So Wrong It's Right|publisher=British Comedy Guide|accessdate=19 August 2021}} In advance of series three, Brooker estimated to Radio Times that each 30-minute episode takes around an hour to record. As the show aired pre-watershed in its last two series, ruder discussions by panelists were cut out of the final edit.{{cite web|url=https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a381724/charlie-brooker-so-wrong-its-right-qa-its-a-fairly-daft-show/|title=Charlie Brooker 'So Wrong It's Right' Q&A: 'It's a fairly daft show'|work=Digital Spy|last=Jeffery|first=Morgan|date=16 May 2012|accessdate=19 August 2021}}

Episodes

=Series 1=

{{Episode table |background=#000000 |overall = 6 |series = 6 |title = 30 |titleT=Guests |aux1=20 |aux1T=Winner |airdate = 12|country=UK|episodes=

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 1

|EpisodeNumber2 = 1

|RTitle = Victoria Coren Mitchell, Rufus Hound and David Mitchell

|Aux1 = David Mitchell

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2010|5|11|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 2

|EpisodeNumber2 = 2

|RTitle = Tom Basden, Josie Long and Lee Mack

|Aux1 = Josie Long

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2010|5|18|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 3

|EpisodeNumber2 = 3

|RTitle = Richard Herring, Iain Morris and Holly Walsh

|Aux1 = Holly Walsh

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2010|5|25|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 4

|EpisodeNumber2 = 4

|RTitle = Richard Herring, Liza Tarbuck and Jack Whitehall

|Aux1 = Richard Herring

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2010|6|1|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 5

|EpisodeNumber2 = 5

|RTitle = Lee Mack, Sarah Millican and Iain Morris

|Aux1 = Sarah Millican

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2010|6|8|df=y}}

}}

=Series 2=

{{Episode table |background=#000000 |overall = 6 |series = 6 |title = 30 |titleT=Guests |aux1=20 |aux1T=Winner |airdate = 12|country=UK|episodes=

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 6

|EpisodeNumber2 = 1

|RTitle = Rufus Hound, Holly Walsh and Mark Watson

|Aux1 = Mark Watson

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|3|10|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 7

|EpisodeNumber2 = 2

|RTitle = Jon Richardson, Frank Skinner and Isy Suttie

|Aux1 = Jon Richardson

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|3|17|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 8

|EpisodeNumber2 = 3

|RTitle = Shappi Khorsandi, Lee Mack and David Schneider

|Aux1 = Lee Mack

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|3|24|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 9

|EpisodeNumber2 = 4

|RTitle = Fergus Craig, Sharon Horgan and Rufus Hound

|Aux1 = Fergus Craig

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|3|31|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 10

|EpisodeNumber2 = 5

|RTitle = Josie Long, Daniel Maier and Frank Skinner

|Aux1 = Frank Skinner

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|4|7|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 11

|EpisodeNumber2 = 6

|RTitle = Graham Linehan, Lee Mack, Sarah Millican

|Aux1 = Sarah Millican

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2011|4|14|df=y}}

}}

= Series 3 =

{{Episode table |background=#000000 |overall = 6 |series = 6 |title = 30 |titleT=Guests |aux1=20 |aux1T=Winner |airdate = 12 |country=UK|episodes=

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 12

|EpisodeNumber2 = 1

|RTitle = Susan Calman, Lee Mack and Daniel Maier

|Aux1 = Daniel Maier

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|5|16|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 13

|EpisodeNumber2 = 2

|RTitle = Barry Cryer, Lee Mack and Holly Walsh

|Aux1 = Holly Walsh

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|5|23|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 14

|EpisodeNumber2 = 3

|RTitle = Matthew Crosby, Graham Linehan and Helen Zaltzman

|Aux1 = Helen Zaltzman

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|5|30|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 15

|EpisodeNumber2 = 4

|RTitle = Graham Linehan, Isy Suttie and Holly Walsh

|Aux1 = Graham Linehan

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|6|6|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 16

|EpisodeNumber2 = 5

|RTitle = Susan Calman, Miles Jupp and Shaun Pye

|Aux1 = Miles Jupp

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|6|13|df=y}}

}}

{{Episode list

|EpisodeNumber = 17

|EpisodeNumber2 = 6

|RTitle = Rob Beckett, Susan Calman and Richard Osman

|Aux1 = Richard Osman

|OriginalAirDate = {{Start date|2012|6|20|df=y}}

}}

Reception

Chris Maume of The Independent enjoyed the pilot, praising "David Mitchell's profound disgruntlement" at modern technology. Maume said that though others criticised the "nastiness", he "could have handled more", suggesting that "Brooker's misanthropy dial was only turned up half way".{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/so-wrong-it-s-right-radio-4jarvis-cocker-s-sunday-service-bbc-6-music-1974357.html|title=So Wrong, It's Right, Radio 4: Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service, BBC 6 Music|work=The Independent|last=Maume|first=Chris|date=23 October 2011|accessdate=19 August 2021}} In The Guardian, Elisabeth Mahoney found it "initially unsettling" to hear the "funny but breathtakingly dark comic vision" of the first episode on BBC Radio 4, describing Brooker as "bitterly acerbic".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/may/12/so-wrong-its-right-radio-review|title=So Wrong It's Right|work=The Guardian|last=Mahoney|first=Elisabeth|date=12 May 2010|accessdate=19 August 2021}} Stephanie Billen, a writer for The Observer, said that the premise "sounds like only half an idea", but that "there are plenty of laugh-aloud moments".{{cite news|title=Picks of the Day: Radio|work=The Observer|last=Billen|first=Stephanie|date=9 May 2010}} The Guardian{{'}}s Camilla Redmond wrote of the first series, "the powers of Charlie Brooker's persuasiveness are showcased in all their splendour".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jun/03/radio-mick-jagger-charlie-brooker|title=Radio catchup: Jagger's Jukebox, Adam Buxton's breakup tips and the power of Charlie Brooker|work=The Guardian|last=Redmond|first=Camilla|date=4 June 2010|accessdate=19 August 2021}}

In Radio Times, Ron Hewitt praised of the second series that Brooker is "a master at highlighting the comedy of the dark side", doing it in "a warm, mutually-inclusive, sharing way that's curiously uplifting. And funny".{{cite magazine|work=Radio Times|last=Hewitt|first=Ron|date=10 March 2011|title=So Wrong It's Right (Review)}} Billen reiterated that "something about the concept does not quite add up", and that the programme in practice was "entertaining mini-monologues about bad experiences or more general disasters", but that it had "guaranteed laughs" with its line-up.{{cite news|title=Picks of the Day: Radio|work=The Observer|last=Billen|first=Stephanie|date=6 March 2011}}

Reviewing the third series, Hewitt said: "you'll laugh your socks off".{{cite magazine|work=Radio Times|last=Hewitt|first=Ron|date=16 May 2012|title=So Wrong It's Right (Review)}} Gillian Reynolds of The Telegraph said that Brooker would polarise the audience, saying "as many listening to this reversal-of-convention panel game will loathe chairman Charlie Brooker as love his iconoclasm".{{cite news|title=Today's Radio Highlights|work=The Telegraph|last=Reynolds|first=Gillian|date=15 May 2012}} The Observer{{'}}s Miranda Sawyer characterised it as a "strange show", because Brooker is "a scurrilously witty man, but his humour{{nbsp}}... lies in his anger" and the programme is not suited to this. Sawyer criticised that the show is "actually about comedians shoe-horning little bits of their routines on to the radio".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/13/stand-up-for-comic-relief|title=Rewind radio: Stand Up for Comic Relief; So Wrong It's Right; It is Rocket Science – review|work=The Observer|last=Sawyer|first=Miranda|date=13 March 2011|accessdate=19 August 2021}}