Larging It: 'The Day Today' Is Always With Us
Listening to last night's PM programme on Radio 4 I had a feeling of deja vu. They were reporting on the Archbishop of Canterbury's ravings about Sharia Law. Eddie Mair was interviewing The Sun's Political Editor:
Mair: How big a story is this?
Sun Political Editor: It's very, very big!
Then it hit me. Not for the first time I was hearing echoes of the wonderful The Day Today.
Thanks to cutting edge technology - VHS tape retrieved from the back of a cupboard - I can bring you The Day Today covering a punch-up between the Queen and John Major. Chris Morris is interviewing Spartacus Mills (Steve Coogan), Crisis Correspondent:
Morris: Spartacus, this is huge history happening, isn't it?
Mills: It's bigger than that, Chris. It's large!
The exchange concluded in a way that the PM one sadly didn't:
Morris: We're pushed for time. Can you sum it up in a word?
Mills: No.
Morris: In a sound?
Mills: Wurrgh!
This was followed by a soothing film to be broadcast at times of national crisis featuring, among other things, stockbrokers skipping on the steps of the Stock Exchange to the strains of Elgar. It's a small masterpiece.
If you've never seen it, The Day Today is now available on DVD from all good Amazons. Money well spent as it bears repeated viewings. The opening titles alone are worth the price.
Footnote: I noticed that the Executive Producer of The Day Today was Peter Fincham. That would be the same Peter Fincham who resigned last year as BBC1 Controller over mis-edited footage of the Queen that purported to show her storming out of a photo-shoot. Life's little ironies......life imitating art......etc.......etc
posted by Willie Lupin @ 11:29 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I am surprised at someone like John Marr resorting to a "how big a..." type question.
I listen to radio 5 where they seem to think that sportsmen have something worthwhile to say.
Hours of.
"How important was the win today?"
"It was very important".
Before I day I want to go on those programs and when they ask me "How important was ...?", I will reply "7".
That should be Eddie Mair, not John Marr.
As for Radio 5, most presenters seem to have had most of their brains removed and why do the women all have the same voices, like they gargle with grit?
Some of us find women who gargle with grit to be strangely erotic.
chacun son truc.
...and the same Peter Fincham who was Exec Producer of Green Wing.
He's certainly worked on some outstanding programmes. What a shame it was another independent producer's cock-up that ended his career at the Beeb.
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