Big Top is a BBC television sitcom which first aired on 25 November 2009 and was set in and around a travelling circus. The show was broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD simultaneously. The series revolved around the performers and backstage staff of Circus Maestro. There were six episodes, each of which was thirty minutes in length. Big Top was not recommissioned for a second series and was formally cancelled by the BBC in February 2010.

Plot

Lizzie the ring mistress (Holden) must overcome all of the problems which get thrown at her during the production of the circus show. The circus features a husband and wife clown team (Thomson and Thompson), who aren't as funny as they believe they are, and Erasmus (Robinson) is a cynical soundman. Georgie (Madoc) is the grande dame of Circus Maestro, and Boyco (Mackinnon) is an east European acrobat who is still learning about the ways of the English world.

Cast

Guest stars

Episode 1

Episode 2

Development

The BBC released an announcement on 22 January 2009 that the series had begun filming. Big Bear Films produced the series. Big Top was filmed in front of a live studio audience at Teddington Studios and on location in and around London. The show was written by Daniel Peak, directed by Marcus Mortimer and co-produced by John Stroud and Marcus Mortimer. It was commissioned by Jay Hunt, Controller of BBC One, and Lucy Lumsden, Controller of Comedy Commissioning for the BBC. The executive producers were Jed Leventhall for Big Bear and Simon Wilson for the BBC. Prior to broadcast, the second and third episodes were in reverse order; "Skydiver" then "Visa".

Reception

Reception to the show was negative. In a review of the opening episode, Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph described it as "unfunny and outdated", saying that "the cast weren’t so much playing characters as reading aloud from a dog-eared joke book for half an hour." Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent said that it was "one of those programmes that get you wondering about the commissioning process." Sam Wollaston of The Guardian commented that the jokes were so obvious that he invented a game, whereby he would pause the show after the set up and ask his girlfriend to guess the punchline. The sitcom was named the worst new sitcom of 2009 by the visitors to the British Comedy Guide. Daily Mirror TV critic Jim Shelley included the series on his list of the Top 20 TV flops, describing it as "Mind-blowingly awful". The harsh criticism that the sitcom received, and the likelihood that it would be axed after one season, led to its being used as a cipher on Richard Bacon's BBC 6Music show during 2009–10. To circumvent instructions given to 6Music presenters that they should not discuss on-air the planned closure of the station, Bacon frequently voiced his strong objection to "the BBC's plans to cancel Big Top" and encouraged listeners to do the same.

Cancellation

Following speculation that the series would be returning, the BBC announced in February 2010 that they would not recommission Big Top for a second series.

Episodes

Series 1 (2009)