Harry & Paul's Story of the 2s

Simon Schama as played by Harry Enfield takes an uneven sideways but at time hilarious look at the 50 year history of BBC2 by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.

You had the early fawning news programmes as the news presenter toadied to the Tory politicians to a succession of Oxbridge educated producers and department heads. Quiz shows were parodied with 'Ask the Ugly Family' to landmark documentaries 'The Pottering About of Man' to prestige drama 'One Clavdivs' with Larry Lovely and Brian Blessed. Its gentle and affectionate mockery.

When BBC2 were looking for a music show, the Oxbridge producer was asked to come up with a happening, vibrant music show. The producer said 'No. I want something dull.' which led to the Old Grey Whistle Test parody.

As time went on Harry and Paul had to spoof Python as well as their own creations such as The Fast Show and Harry Emery with his Scousers. They also do not forget the sex scandals that embroiled some of the BBC presenters and in recent years reality talent shows such as Bake Off and Masterchef were sent up.

As I said parts of it were inventively funny at other times it made you shrug your shoulders as the targets were missed but it was still a good celebration of BBC2.

It seems unlikely, but I've watched it at least 10 times, and it really is the most astonishingly ambitious and genius thing. Such utter care taken in every detail. It really should make everyone raise their game, or feel ashamed, but it won't because it's already been forgotten. Because it was on BBC Two. And not even a paltry DVD. Utterly more punk than Young Ones, more subversive than Python, more iconoclastic than Not the Nine O'Clock - and ruthlessly slicing its way through all of those, and themselves, Harry and Paul have created the smartest and funniest thing I've ever seen. It will forever be forgotten for some reasons. Towering genius, funniest thing ever made - oh whatever, this is only the second review of this - you're never going to watch it, even though it's freely available on DailyMotion. You deserve yourself.

It's easy to think that the mainstream British comedy scene was a pretty barren affair during these years. There were, of course, plenty of funny people making funny things - Peter Serafinowicz for example and the world of Alan Partridge which managed to survive, adapting well to the fragmenting, digital age. But such comedy seemed more like the exception rather than the rule in a comic landscape that tended towards the safer 'one size fits all' humour of panel shows or sketch shows and sit-coms that felt guided more by a fear of causing offence, rather than taking risks. However, Harry and Paul's later work, which occurred in this era, was pretty much overlooked then and has been ever since. But it shouldn't be - it's actually some of the best stuff either of them ever did. In the 90s, I was never a big fan of The Fast Show or Harry Enfield and Chums. Being so catchphrase-orientated they quickly became over-quoted and thus annoying, a plight well demonstrated in Ricky Gervais' 'Extras' (another good comedy of the 2010s). The four series of the 'Harry and Paul' sketch shows contains some of the funniest comedy of this period. One thing they do very well is lampoon British television and film institutions (Mike Leigh, Ealing etc) mixing satire with soft-surrealism in a very palatable way. So a TV movie such as this plays perfectly to that strength, allowing them to tell the (selected) story of BBC2 through a series of brilliantly inventive skits mocking not just celebrities but the way that telly works. There are impressions of people here that you never normally see, including many fellow comedians such as Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese and Stephen Fry. Pretty much all hilariously spot-on, well-observed, silly and a bit different. It's not done with negativity, it's more of an exorcism - or re-processing - of the unchallenged grease that TV fills our heads with. Full of laugh out loud moments and nicely-refined, wild ideas. They capture an impressionistic essence of things unlike anyone else. Definitely deserving of more appreciation. Ps - also check out 'Norbert Smith: a Life' which is another great comic-documentary Harry and co made in about 1989.