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!
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…
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)
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!
Fact me til I fart!
“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.
