Created: 23 Oct 2003
The Register just reminded me about one of the best moments from Chris Morris’ masterpiece, Brass Eye. A Tory MP looks at the camera and invites the viewer to help F.U.K.D. and B.O.M.B.D. to free the country of Cake, the new killer drug from from Prague. Priceless. I have the whole series on DVD, but over at Cook’d and Bomb’d they’ve got a great site with all his previous work. On The Hour, on which he cut his teeth on the whetstone of current affairs satire, with Armando Iannucci, is one of my particular favourites. It’s proof of view that I’ve had for some time, that much of the best UK comedy orginates in radio:
With one exception, these all began on Radio 4. Why is this? Is it because comedy is basically about dialogue and radio is a great place to get that mastered? Blackadder, a fantastic comedy, had a dreadful first series. It makes me cringe whenever I see it. The dialogue is poorly timed and Rowan Atkinson’s forced voice is appalling; so perhaps proof that they needed a radio series to get the speaking cracked, before moving to TV. There is a lot of crap new comedy on Radio 4, but I appreciate that everything has to be given a chance, for every Dead Ringers there are five or six incredibly mediocre series. Maybe it’s just a cheap place to try people out?