Bremner, Bird and Fortune

Forget about other Government critics. Rory Bremner and his team have been doing this far longer and far better than anyone else. I've been watching Rory since i was too young to understand the political jokes. His latest series leaves behind his old, more joky and slapstick approach and instead concentrates on delivering blistering attacks on the present Government. I was lucky enough to be in the audience for his recent Post-Iraq special and was blown away by the blood chilling truths he unearths about our leaders and the fearless way in which he delivers them. Flanked on either side by the ever dependable John Bird and John Fortune, Bremner exposes the lies about the conflict such as the fact that Britain and America are primarily to blame for the decades of unrest in the Middle East and that Saddam Hussein was once hired by the CIA to murder the old leader of Iraq. The format of the show is familiar to past series, except that it is now mainly concerned with politics and has done away with most of the lighthearted sketches. There are still sketches in the show, but these are considerably more devastating than before. The audience was left gasping at a sketch later cut from the show, in which a dying Iraqi boy expresses his gratitude to Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon for 'liberating' his country. Despite the darker edges of satire that Bremner explores, the show is still superbly funny and includes all the usual pot-shots at recent news and disgraced politicians. Providing the lighter humour are the two Johns, given a bigger slot in which to perform their unique improvised conversations that have the audience yelping with laughter and marvelling at their skill in equal amounts. The real highlights of the show are always when all three stand side by side revealing facts about the Government you'd rather not know, and when Bremner performs one of his songs with inserted topical lyrics. Thank God that we have a satirist like Rory Bremner keeping an eye on the dubious wheelings and dealings of our politicians, always willing to make himself unpopular in order to give the truth. This genius is truly the modern day Jonathan Swift, and all the other satirists like Michael Moore who rant and rave should take a look at Bremner, Bird and Fortune to see how it's done.

Each week Rory Bremner, John Bird and John Fortune review the latest happenings in politics and the wider news through monologues, sketches and impressions. No target is too easy or too sharp and they regularly expose a lot of truth behind the news through their sketches.

The downside of this is that occasionally I can watch a whole episode and only laugh four or five times. This is especially true of late where Iraq has been in the air, meaning that BBF attack the Bush/Blair approach to great effect – but it's often hard to laugh at that stuff. Most of the time they are hilarious and it is a thing of wonder that anyone is doing satire anymore, never mind finding a programme that does it consistently well.

Bremner is a superb impressionist and his voices are perfect. He exaggerates his subjects habits to great effect, to the point that some in the public eye have deliberately tried to change the thing that Bremner has picked up on. Over the years he has had many great characters – Ian McCaskil being one from years ago but also his Des Lynam and, at the moment, his Robin Cook is a hilariously exaggerated joke! Adding Bird and Fortune to the mix was a stroke of genius as they really add layers to the show. They don't do impressions but they do do great monologues and interviews that are absurd and hilarious.

Satire is not a big audience draw as it requires the audience to have a good knowledge of the news and political events, which sadly few have. However this series is consistently brilliant and is one of the few satires on TV. The writing is wonderful and the impressions are spot on. The addition of the sheer absurdity of Bird and Fortune just makes the programme much better. The downside of the satire is that it isn't always funny – often it's just plain depressing. Sometimes they expose the absurdities of politics so very well that you don't know whether to laugh or cry!

Bremner Bird and Fortune is the ultimate satire show- it makes Dead Ringers look childish and inept. The production is excellent, with laughs flowing freely.

The writing is absolutely superb (for example, during one spoof film made in Iraq- "All scenes were shot on location- as were many taking part." which had me in stitches.) and the satire is literally up to the minute, with jokes being passed on subjects only hours old.

Rory Bremner is a real gem in the crown of impressionism- like a chameleon he can change to suit any character, his Tony Blair and George W Bush absolutely brilliant.

John Bird and John Fortune to feature as heavily- they appear in hilarious monologues that range from homophobic priests to loony generals, and sometimes in interviews- here, the writing is sharp but you would never tell, because of the delivery. It has to be seen to be believed. An example is a spoof of an MI6 conference room, where they are discussing whether the Saddam Hussein they caught was an actor- "I know! If we walk into his cell and suddenly say 'Act One, beginners!' and he says, 'Oh, where's my cossie'? we'll know for sure he's an actor!

This is comedy at its most intellectual and hard hitting; it makes for great conversation too. Watch it as you will never stop laughing!

Rory Bremner and his team of researchers trawl through papers and events of the week/month and condense it into an hour of satirical comedy that can cut through the spin of the Blair spin machine. His Opposition to the Iraq War, and the hypocrisy involved seems to have more effect than either the Tory Opposition (who voted for the War) and the Liberal Democrats (who, unlike other critics suggest, didn't). Hypocrisy like Saddam being evil all along, now, yet before the Kuwait invasion, he was OK to arm, and do business with. Now, he was bad to attack his own people, then, no criticism.. Not forgetting who put him there in the first place.. (Thank you CIA!) Early series were usually more varied in topics they lampooned. Bird/Fortune now tend to cover those areas in their two-header conversations, whilst Bremner does the Blair/Bush stuff.

Bremner still places some of his earlier impressions within the confines of the current show, but with a more pointed meaning than just doing the impressions to get a laugh.

If you're one of the people that gets frustrated that (for instance) our politicians always dodge questions and waste the viewer and interviewer's time, then you'll probably see Bird and Fortune's interviews as a breath of fresh air - exposing the randomness of the responses and blatant lying that goes on.

In my opinion it's not left or right wing (not sure they exist now anyway thanks to Blair and Cameron) but common sense based.

It's still incredibly well written.

It is criticised for being too anti-war. But are ANY comedians in favour of bombing thousands because they don't like one person? If you want that sort of logic, you need politicians.