[2][3] During a February 2009 episode featuring Joe Townsend, a soldier who had lost both of his legs after stepping on an IED while serving in Afghanistan, Edmonds intervened over a planning permission denial by Wealden District Council for a specially-adapted bungalow for his needs.
During the segment, Edmonds launched a verbal tirade towards the council's press officer, Van den Bos, disagreeing with their categorization of Noel's HQ as an "entertainment" programme in their refusal to speak to it.
[7] The programme consisted of interviews and segments profiling and surprising people in need, performers of random acts of kindness, and the operators of charities, with prizes and expertise.
Commenting upon the Townsend episode, Brooker drew comparisons to the film Network, and joked that he would eventually be "carrying out live public executions—death by gunging for bureaucrats—while the audience fires pistols and Cheggers sticks heads on poles", or run for the "house party".
[8] Fellow Guardian writer Lucy Mangan jokingly described the programme as practicing a religion that "harnesses the intercessionary powers of celebrities to encourage community spirit and the charitable impulse", where "thou must declare every third-hand snippet of news about bureaucratic snafu as incontrovertible evidence of Bonkers Britain", and "corrupt and pervert every pure and humane impulse thou—or thou's research team—comes across by the addition of puking sentimentality and the meaningless benedictions of Nell McAndrew.