Abacat's What If's/BBC Brit

**BBC Brit** is a British television channel owned by BBC Studios, that launched on 1 November 1997. It broadcasts mainly comedy, with some factual, music and drama programming. The channel took the name BBC Brit on 26 October 2023, but it had been on air under various identities and formats since November 1997.

## History

The channel had originally been planned as a television version of BBC Radio 1 but launched without the Radio 1 tie-up as BR Play on 1 November 1997, changing its name to Play BR in November 2000. Most plans for a Radio 1 tie-up were redistributed into the new BBC Three.

Like 4Music and Viacom's old Freeview channel Viva, the channel had music programming through the day, while broadcasting comedy during its primetime and evening hours. Most of the comedy programming on Play BR had already been broadcast on the BBC's terrestrial channels, with Play BR adding a few original BRTV-produced comedy programmes as well as a number of American comedy and animation shows towards the end of its broadcast life.

On 28 October 2003, it was announced that Play BR would be relaunched and rebranded as BR G² on 12 November. The newly revamped network was promoted as being an edgier alternative to BR Gold; airing programmes aimed at an 18-34 year-old youth audience. Some of the programmes that already aired on BR Gold moved to the new network. The broadcast hours were also changed, with the channel now operating from 8:00pm to 5:00am, ditching daytime music programmes.

On 8 March 2004, the channel's "BR" prefix was changed to the full "BRTV" name, renaming the network as BRTV G2, as with the rest of the BRTV network. On 1 November, near the channel's first anniversary, a one-hour timeshift service, BRTV G2 +1, was launched on Sky, BSB and Telewest, broadcasting from 9:00pm to 6:00am.

On 10 December 2005, BRTV announced that BRTV G2 would expand broadcast hours to the daytime and begin operations at 9:00am beginning on 16 January 2006. The expansion of hours was to prepare for the full launch of the BRTV Sport strand, which would fill out some of the daytime hours during sports events. Standard programmes featured included pre-watershed comedy programmes already seen on the channel, alongside the addition of popular-factual and magazine shows which were already running on BRTV People, such as *Top Gear* and *Airport*. The extended hours did not apply to BRTV G2 +1, which remained an evening-only service.

In August 2007, UKTV announced they were considering on adding a planned relaunch of BRTV G2 digital terrestrial platform Chrous, replacing BRTV Bright Ideas. On 20 September 2007, BRTV officially announced that the relaunch of BRTV G2 would be called Dave, and would occur on 15 October, and would be added to Chorus. The channel's name was chosen with BRTV saying that "everyone knows a bloke called Dave". To prepare for the launch, BRTV Bright Ideas was shut down permanently, with BRTV History taking over its timesharing bandwidth with Virgin1, while Dave would launch in BRTV History's former Chorus bandwidth. To ensure that all Chorus viewers received Dave on channel number 19, UKTV briefly placed a re-tuning notice on the programme's information. The timeshift service - BRTV G2 +1, was effectively renamed as Dave +1 and expanded its own broadcast hours to match its parent network.

It uses the tagline "the home of witty banter" and uses Ralph Ineson as an announcer, along with David Flynn, Phill Jupitus, Iain Lee and BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James. On 31 January 2008, the channel began broadcasting in widescreen, along with the other BRTV channels.

On 22 January 2009, following BRTV's acquisition of a further Chorus broadcast slot, Dave +1 was made available on the digital terrestrial platform. Dave +1 would be renamed Dave ja vu (a play on the phrase déjà vu) on 24 February, in order to "strengthen the brand's positioning as the home of witty banter" according to BRTV bosses. In April 2009, they aired three new instalments of *Red Dwarf*, entitled *Back to Earth*. This marked the channel's first foray into scripted original programming. During the airing of the Red Dwarf mini-series, the Dave DOG in the top left corner of the screen had the word 'Lister' added after it in the same font, after the show's lead character; during the special it is even suggested that the station is named after him. *Back to Earth* brought record breaking viewing figures, not just in the context of the channel's past, but for digital television in general. Subsequently, three full series of *Red Dwarf* have been produced for Dave which aired in 2012, 2016 and 2017, along with a feature-length special in 2020. In June 2009, the logo was updated to incorporate the 'circle' logo branding of all the new BRTV channels (for example Home, G.O.L.D., Really). At the same time, the voice of Dave became Nigel Grover, aka Scott Saunders, who had previously worked at a number of local radio stations.

On 14 June 2011, UKTV announced that Really would launch on Chorus on 2 August 2011, to facilitate this Dave ja vu's broadcast hours on the platform were reduced from 8.00 am-4.00 am to 2.00 am-4.00 am in order to keep the space for future use. On 29 July 2011, BRTV announced that it had secured a deal with BSB to launch three more high-definition channels on BSB. As part of Virgin Media's deal to sell its share of BRTV, all five of BRTV's HD channels would also be added to Virgin's cable television service by 2012. Dave HD launched on 10 October 2011 on BSB and Virgin Media, two days before Watch HD, while Alibi HD launched in July 2012. All three channels are HD simulcasts of the standard-definition channel.

In September 2012, the channel swapped its Chorus EPG number with Yesterday, moving to channel 12. On 22 November 2012, UKTV confirmed that it had secured a deal for another 24-hour DTT slot and would use it for Dave ja vu until it firmed up permanent plans for the slot. Dave ja vu began to broadcast its full schedule on the platform again from 3 January 2013. Drama permanently took the slot from 8 July 2013, however Dave ja vu continued to broadcast between 2.00 am-5.00 am.

On 26 July 2023, it was announced that as part of an effort to reinforce and promote the BBC brand to viewers and to offer more choice within the BBC channel family, that all of the BRTV channels would be relaunched under BBC branding, with the BRTV brand abolished. As part of this, it was announced that Dave would be relaunched as BBC Brit. Despite being relaunched under BBC branding, the channel remains a commercial operation with advertisement breaks during the daytime, but as part of the relaunch, the channel became ad break free after 7pm.

The rebrand as BBC Brit occured on 12 September 2023. The programme lineup of BBC Brit is identical to that of Dave, but with the addition of "quirky" and "uniquely British" drama, quiz shows and music to the schedule, whilst remaining primarily comedy oriented. BBC bosses stated that the addition of more variety to the schedules "would allow more content to breathe in the channel's airspace, but with choices that suit the quirky and uniquely British view of life that Dave has encapsulated so well over the past 16 years." Music programmes are made in association with the BBC's alternative music station, Radio 6.

## Programmes

### Original programmes

* Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (2014-present)
* Comedians Giving Lectures (2019-present)
* The Hurting (2017-present)
* Hypothetical (2019-present)
* Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier (2018-present)
* Judge Romesh (2018-present)
* Late Night Mash (2021-present)
* Live at The Moth Club (2022-present)
* Meet the Richardsons (2020-present)
* Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable (2021-present)
* Outsiders (2021-present)
* Question Team (2021-present)
* Red Dwarf (2009-present)
* Sliced (2021-present)
* Sneakerhead (2021-present)
* We Are Not Alone (2022-present)

### Comedy

* Big Train (1999-2002; 2023-present)
* Big Zuu's Big Eats (2020-present)
* Bottom (1997-2017; 2023-present)
* Coupling (2003-07; 2023-present)
* The Day Today (1998-2009; 2023-present)
* Early Doors (2023-present)
* Famalam (2021-present)
* The Fast Show (1998-2014; 2023-present)
* Gavin & Stacey (2008-present)
* Have I Got News for You (2003-present)
* Human Remains (2001-2002; 2023-present)
* Hyperactive (2008; 2022-present)
* I'm Alan Partridge (1999-2008; 2023-present)
* Josh (2018-present)
* Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge (1999-2010; 2023-present)
* The League of Gentlemen (2000-2015; 2019-present)
* Live at The Apollo (2006-present)
* The Mighty Boosh (2007-2012; 2023-present)
* Mock the Week (2007-present)
* Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (2023-present)
* Not Going Out (2009-present)
* Nighty Night (2005-2008; 2023-present)
* QI (2004-present)
* Room 101 (1997-present)
* Russell Howard's Good News (2010-present)
* Shooting Stars (1997-present)
* Taskmaster (2015-present)
* Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001-2009; 2023-present)
* Would I Lie to You? (2009-present)
* The Young Ones (2023-present)

### Drama

* Being Human (2023-present)
* Clocking Off (2023-present)
* Life on Mars (2023-present)
* Spooks (2003-07; 2023-present)
* This Life (2023-present)

### Quiz shows

* Pointless (2023-present)
* Richard Osman's House of Games (2021-present)
* The Weakest Link (2023-present)

### Music

* 6 Music's Classic Chart Countdown (2023-present)
* Cloudbusting with Lauren Laverne (2023-present)
* Gideon Coe: Back in Time (2023-present)
* Later... with Jools Holland (2023-present)
* New Music Fix (2023-present)
* Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone (2023-present)
* TOTP2 (1997-present)

## References

1. ↑ Originally started in 1988 on BBC Two
2. ↑ Dave original from 2020 to 2022. Moved to BBC Three in 2023, but remains on BBC Brit with repeats.
3. ↑ Dave original from 2015 to 2019. Moved to Channel 4 in 2020, but BBC Brit still broadcasts repeats.