The Day Today – The satire of news which will continue to be relevant for as long as news programmes think they’re more important than God.
I wrote this as part of the start of a project I’m writing about stuff that has had a massive influence on me - Chris Morris programmes definitely have. For a programme that is that is roughly 30 years old this hasn’t dated very much to my mind… whether that’s a worrying thing or not is moot but it’s still extremely funny!
I recall seeing the first trailer for this and by the end genuinely couldn’t tell whether it was real or satire - it trod that line so well.
If you took out references to 90s politicians I honestly believe it could do that now - as I mention in the piece, the sketch they did on ‘the Pound going missing’ went viral during Liz Truss’s firm hand on the economy… I reckon it only did so because it mimics what news ‘looks like’ so closely you’re not sure
(Something I’d never noticed until I was putting the clip up on the blog is they use a real piece of footage at the end of a cameraman falling over. Their attention to detail is great)
Thanks for that - love the series, just hunted down the DVD set.
The extras are brilliant, well worth it!
Lots of Easter eggs, too. Like Peter O’Hanrarahanrahan’s 9/11 coverage…
Very nice write up. I still have fond memories of Chris Morris performing Nirvana’s advert for sanitary products.
One thing worth saying is that The Day Today borrowed very heavily from ‘On The Hour’ - a BBC Radio 4 series where the characters - Alan Partridge, Peter O’Hanraohanrahann etc originated as a satire of radio news.
Worth a listen.
It’s the thin end of a very complex wedge.
Yeah, I love On The Hour as well. I don’t think it’s dated quite as well (there’s definitely bits where you have to be able to remember what pre-Matthew Bannister Radio 1 was like to get the joke) but it’s still definitely got its moments. I can’t remember the context but Steve Coogan as a minister from the 1950s shouting “Three big arses on a bench!” makes me laugh a lot…
I didn’t realise for years that the original official release had Stewart Lee and Richard Herring’s contributions taken out and it wasn’t the full thing just a compilation - the originals are all out in nice unedited packages now!
“Peter, you’ve lost the news!”
And you could see all the world’s media get excited like the War bit when Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Fact me til I fart!
