The Day Today

This is the greatest piece of news-spoofery ever made. The team behind it have made many satirical programmes for the UK, bu this is their finest outing.

Based on news broadcasting in the UK, this programme mocked, spoofed and ridiculed all those involved in sloppy and lazy news. Although over 4 years old, the videos still sell, and more discover the genius of Chris Morris.

The day today was recently repeated on the British cable/satellite channel UKG2. I didn't manage to see the programme before, but I am a fan of Chris Morris and had been awaiting this repeat for some time. I thought it was brilliant and I think the BBC should have repeated it, as they were the network that originally screened the show. The absurdity of some of the "reports" was fantastic. The ideas of a soap opera being set in a bureau de change or the war correspondent kicking the door down of a house, shooting a woman and setting up broadcasting equipment was so surreal, it made it obviously not a real news report. The closest things to reality were the graphics and Chris Morris' portrayal of the newsreader [the graphics only were if you ignored the voiceovers of stupid phrases and the newsreader only if you ignored the madness of the news stories.]It was excellently written with a near-perfect cast and it even spawned a major character, Alan Partridge [whose segments were not that funny in my opinion.] Going back to previously, most of the acting was realistic, the things the actors were depicting wasn't.

The headlines tonight: NATO annulled after delegate swallows treaty, car drives by window in town and Leicester man wins right to eat sister. Those are the headlines! Now fact me till I fart!

I was 13 when this life-changing show came on TV. Reaching a small audience on BBC2 at night, The Day Today was a parody of the distinctly British way of News programming, exaggerating all the usual idiosyncrasies and formalities. My granddad made me suffer the News every night when I was a kid so I really got the sense of humor that this show layed on so thickly.

Chris Morris is your utterly, utterly deadpan Anchorman delivering lines like '"I'm so sorry", yells exploding cleaner' to perfection. Alan Partridge (my first introduction to this popular character) is the sports presenter who hasn't a clue how to commentate or appeal to his audience, Peter O'Hanarha-hanrahan is the dunderhead foreign correspondent, Colaterie Sisters does the business news and Valerie Sinatra takes care of the roads in The Day Today Travel Tower a mile above the centre of London. There's also Sylvester Stewart doing the weather but explaining it with cryptic double-meanings that no one could ever figure out. Example 'Thunder and lightning about the volume of a Thin Lizzie concert.' Crazy one-off reporters such as Jonathan Sizz, Eugene Fraxby, Donnald Beth'le'Hem, Harfynn Teuport and Suzanna Geckaloyce are all equally as good despite their small amount of air time.

But the best of them all, without a doubt, is the hard-as-fock, the man without fear, the terrifyingly important mean machine Ted Maul. Always sent out to scope the most dangerous stories (such as a commuter train full of businessmen who have turned into barbarians because of track delays), Ted demands you pay attention and scares you into accepting the facts with his frighteningly authoritative voice. He's just so great, I cannot describe.

There was also several stories by American reporter Barbera Wintergreen with her horribly blown-out NTSC color. Barbera mostly reported on the many, many deaths of American serial killer Chapman Baxter, who always got the chair but actually died on it in various different ways (an electric toilet, while stuffing himself with cheeseburgers).

Without a single duff story, The Day Today is infinitely funny and endlessly quotable. Back in 1994, we never had MP3 players or sound-clips on the internet, so I actually made mix tapes of all the best bits (really hard to choose) and memorised practically every episode from beginning to end. To this Day (today) I still remember it all. Why haven't I bought the DVD yet? And remember, fact times importance equals NEWS!

Watching I.T.N. nowadays one can't help but be reminded of 'The Day Today'. Smug, patronising presenters, gaudy sets, cheesy links, gimmicky presentation, an unmistakable political bias, all were hilariously parodied by Armando Ianucci and Chris Morris over a decade ago. Morris himself is superb as the anchorman, the rest of the cast are fine too, particularly the underrated Rebecca Front. But it was Steve Coogan's verbally constipated sports commentator 'Alan Partridge' who caught the public's imagination, going onto to appear in no less than two spin-offs. The bombastic theme music and flashy graphics of 'Today' added greatly to its humour. My favourite sketch featured a convicted American killer wanting to die like his idol Elvis Presley - by gorging himself on hamburgers. It is to the credit of Ianucci and Morris that they didn't milk the concept for all it was worth - 'The Day Today' ended after only one season. Luckily for us, Morris had another great show up his sleeve - 'Brass Eye'.

The Day Today was NOT trying to fool veiwers. It was a satirical portrayal of the american style of news reporting, where the producers value ratings above the truth. Sadly, this is what UK news is becoming.

It's not really a news spoof. It is a sketch show like Monty Python's Flying Circus was. The sketches are held together by the news format. It is a reminder of the happy days of the BBC, when the suits took chances, and they paid off like this did.