The Best TV Shows on Play UK

Comedy sketch show with hilarious characters and absurdist twists from the duo that brought us Peep Show and The Smoking Room - David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

A bizarre mix of chat show and performance art, as comedy star Vic Reeves allowed guests a rare opportunity to delve into his mind and examine the contents... Guests were invited to talk about obscure subjects like ‘cutlery’ and in the process analyze Vic’s original art work, study relevant props and artifacts, and spend time with the studio rabbit. Guests included Johnny Vegas, Ricky Gervais and, Bill Oddie.

"Unnovations" was a TV series that ran on the now defunct satellite/cable channel Play UK in 2001. The series came from the makers of TVGoHome, Zeppotron. Since the demise of Play UK in 2002, the series has never been repeated. It sharply parodied the world of shopping TV in its ten episodes, including demonstrations of hilarious and off the wall products. An example is the Snooze-a-nator, a device which gave you 8 hours sleep in 15 seconds; the Mortgage Vest which was just a plain vest which would take as long as a real mortgage to pay off so that customers could have all the fun of owing a real mortgage, and the Alibizer which was a book the size of a telephone directory which included alibis for every possible situation Regular features in each show were ⁕Buyer Beware - A dangerous item from a rival shopping channel was slandered as was the rival channel. ⁕Shopper Of The Month - A different dysfunctional viewer is awarded the shopper of the month trophy ⁕readers letter - in every episode the presenter reads letters. ⁕Satisfied Customer - testimonials from supposed happy customers of Unnovations who never actually mention the names of the products they've bought. ⁕The Celebrity Hour - A relatively unfamous celebrity announces a different useless or insignificant product that he will be hawking.

RE:Brand was a British documentary and comedy television program that aimed to take a challenging look at cultural taboos. It was conceived, written and hosted by Russell Brand, with the help of his comic partner for many projects, Matt Morgan. The series was shown on the now defunct digital satellite channel UK Play in 2002. As confirmed in his memoirs 'My Booky Wook' and mentioned on his radio shows, Brand was often drunk or on heroin during the filming of RE:Brand.

TOTP@Play is a music television programme, that was broadcast on UKTV-owned digital youth entertainment television channel, Play UK. The programme ran daily on weekday afternoons from October 2000 until 2001. It was a spin off of the long-running BBC music programme, Top of the Pops, and was one of several Play UK programmes to utilise the TOTP brand. These programmes were able to use the BBC-owned TOTP brand commercially as BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, held a 50% stake in the UKTV group of channels. BBC Worldwide also publishes the TOTP magazine. The programme was broadcast for three hours each weekday afternoon as a live music and entertainment magazine programme, featuring interviews with celebrities, interactive phone-in elements, competitions and magazine features. It was similar in style to the rival programme MTV Select, which aired in a similar afternoon timeslot on MTV UK & Ireland. TOTP@Play utilised a number of presenters during its run, including Josie d'Arby, Vernon Kay, Joe Mace and Dermot O'Leary.