The Newsrevue Story

However in the autumn of 1982, largely at the urging of Peter Atkinson, an aficionado and continuing staunch supporter of NewsRevue, it restarted at the Gate. Graham Frost, who had been Musical Director of NewsRevue almost continuously since its inception, managed the show. Ian Christiansen took on the task of assembling NewsRevue's great characters, ruling the writers' meetings with a rod of blancmange and finding the time to contribute some of the shows more outrageous songs. About this time, NewsRevue decided to operate with a cast of two men and two women. Previously the format had been three men and one woman, reflecting the preponderance of men in national and international news. Even then there were complaints that there weren't enough parts for the lone female. Now men play roles written for women and vice-versa, and this has turned out to be one of the successful features of the style that NewsRevue has evolved.

1984 saw the inception of a 20-week radio show for LBC, which was a Sony Award Finalist. Rory Bremner, then a London University law student, was in the cast. Rory Bremner doubled with the odd episode of Week Ending while working on NewsRevue, and the BBC regulars were pretty envious of Rory, working as he was, on a lucrative commercial radio show - that is, until they learned that Rory's share of the £50 that LBC paid for each 20 minute show amounted to £4.55.

After Edinburgh in 1984, NewsRevue moved to the Canal Café Theatre in Little Venice, where despite offers to move to bigger premises, it has remained. In Edinburgh, the show has been at Heriot Watt, St Mary's Hall, Assembly Rooms, Marco's Leisure Centre and C Venue. The show does a fair measure of touring and has done TV specials for Channel 4 and Tyne Tees, as well as clips on STV, London Weekend, HTV, BBC1, BBC2, NBC and CBS (in the USA), London Live, Radio 1 and Radio 2.

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