Tracey Ullman returns to British screens with this new sketch show, introducing us to a slew of new comic characters and impersonations of celebrities.
Tracey Ullman's Show Online
Tracey Ullman returns to British screens with this new sketch show, introducing us to a slew of new comic characters and impersonations of celebrities.
| Series cast summary: | |||
 | Tracey Ullman | - | Various / - 19 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Lucy Montgomery | - | Krystyna / - 14 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Jason Forbes | - | Various / - 14 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Tony Gardner | - | Various / - 14 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Laurence Rickard | - | Various / - 14 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Samantha Spiro | - | Birgit / - 13 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Sue Elliott-Nichols | - | Prudence Murdoch / - 12 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Katherine Jakeways | - | Various / - 11 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Aaron Neil | - | Taxi Driver / - 10 episodes, 2016-2018 |
 | Elizabeth Berrington | - | Various / - 9 episodes, 2016-2017 |
 | Olivia Morgan | - | Wee Mhairi / - 8 episodes, 2017-2018 |
| Dan Renton Skinner | - | Various / - 8 episodes, 2017-2018 |
Both of Tracey Ullman's real-life children, Mabel McKeown and Johnny McKeown appear in the show. The pair made appearances in her previous shows: Tracey Takes On... (1996) and Johnny McKeown-only in State of the Union (2008).
A sketch in which Tracey Ullman impersonates Cilla Black was shelved before cameras began rolling in light of the star's untimely death in May 2015.
Actress Judi Dench, who is portrayed as a shoplifter and troublemaker by Tracey Ullman in the show, when accepting The Critics' Circle Theatre Award in February 2016, accepted the award by saying, "My name is Tracey Ullman."
This is the third show to feature character Kay Clark, making her the longest character Tracey Ullman has ever performed on television.
Ullman's first project for the BBC in 32 years; her first project for British television since Tracey Ullman: A Class Act (1993)
Character, Kay started out as a sketch on the British variety show Saturday Live (1986).
A sketch in which Tracey Ullman impersonates actor Stephen Fry was previewed to a live studio audience but ended up on the cutting room floor due to her not being happy with the prosthetic makeup.
Tracey Ullman impersonated actress Judi Dench in her previous series, State of the Union (2008)
For the first time in the character's history, Kay's mother appears on-screen. In previous incarnations, Mother has always appeared off-screen.
Actress Joan Linder who plays Kay's mother was in the same year at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts as actress Joan Collins. Tracey Ullman jokes, "That's what Joan Collins really should look like." Linder, who plays other roles on the show, takes her teeth out to play the role of Mother, drastically altering her look.
Although the show is shot entirely on location, each episode is screened in front of a live studio audience. Their laughter is recorded and added to the show's soundtrack. Screenings take place at BBC Radio Theatre each year.
The sketch featuring Karen who returns home to Great Britain after being released from a Thai prison after 28 years is meant as an allegory - "Tracey Ullman's Show" marks Tracey Ullman's return to British television after nearly 30 years.
British actress and comedian Catherine Tate sent Tracey Ullman a good luck letter as the first series began filming. Tate acknowledges Ullman as one of her comedy influences.
Actress Amanda Dickinson who appears in many of the show's sketches acted as Tracey Ullman's backup singer for television appearances during her music career in the early 1980s. Dickinson also appeared in her music videos. Dickinson is one of Ullman's oldest friends, having gone to stage school with her as a child.
Feeling that she wasn't pretty enough to be a comedian as a child, Tracey Ullman set her sights on having a career like actresses Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. She impersonates both women in this show.
A sketch was written (but ultimately discarded) with Ullman impersonating actress Helena Bonham Carter. The bit revolved around Carter's life post-breakup with American film director Tim Burton.
The entire series is shot on location.
Tracey Ullman first utilized the voice of actress Maggie Smith for her performance in the Eric Idle stage comedy What About Dick? (2012).
Tracey Ullman revealed that guest actor Rupert Grint owns his own ice cream truck and supplied the cast and crew ice cream the day he arrived on set to film his scenes for the show.
Two of the show's first season sketches (drug mule Karen returning home to Britain and Calais refugee Allende who smuggles himself into the country) were inspired by true events.
Hayley's zoo is actually Bunny Park located in Ealing, in West London.
In 2017, actress Judi Dench dubbed Ullman 'brilliant' in a BBC Radio 4 interview, stating that she doted on the show's sketches and impersonation of her but that now when she shops store owners tell her that they're keeping an eye on her for fear that she's about to shoplift.
Tracey Ullman was confronted by Rupert Murdoch's daughter Liz. She told her that the family really liked the Murdoch Bunch sketches.
Tracey Ullman's Show (2016) was nominated for the 2018 Emmy Award in the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series category, but lost to Saturday Night Live (1975).
In one sketch in the first episode, after Rupert Grint's tablet has been wrecked (by Judi Dench) he says "the same thing happened to Rickman and Cumberbatch." Alan Rickman died 3 days after the episode's first broadcast.
Series writer Jonathan Harvey was so obsessed with Ullman in his youth that his classmates nicknamed him Tracey.
Three British writers from Veep (2012) were involved with this series.
The show was tentatively titled "The Tracey Ullman Sketch Show". A BBC One winter preview promo featured a clip for the show's first series with that title in the fall of 2015.
The show was originally announced as "The Tracey Ullman Show" by the BBC in early 2015. The title was most likely altered to "Tracey Ullman's Show" to distinguish it from Tracey Ullman's 1980's Fox show also titled The Tracey Ullman Show (1987)
Employees at Rupert Murdoch's Sky News were reportedly passing around clips of the show's Murdoch family sketches.
Season 3 of "Tracey Ullman's Show" utilizes episodes produced for Tracey Ullman's follow-up topical sketch-comedy series Tracey Breaks the News (2017), which is recorded and transmitted close together. Ullman found that the topical material on "Tracey Ullman's Show", which was being written, recorded, and transmitted six months out was dated by the time it aired. She decided to reformat and re-title the show in 2017. Unlike the original two seasons of "Tracey Ullman's Show", "Tracey Breaks the News" features no laugh track, thus, no laugh track is included on season 3 of the show for international broadcast.
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