Transmission Information

Series 1 (x6):
Wednesday 29th January 1997 - Wednesday 5th March 1997
Channel 4

Brass Eye was due to start it's run on Tuesday 19th November 1996 (10:30pm) but was postponed by Channel 4 only a couple of days prior to transmission due to internal concerns about it's content.

Brass Eye Special:
Thursday 26th July 2001
10:35pm
Channel 4

Summary

Switching focus from the mere news broadgramme to the ‘hard-hitting’ documentary, in “Brass Eye” Chris Morris managed to produce what is easily the most explosive and challenging comedy series yet seen on television. Co-written with Peter Baynham and co-produced with Caroline Leddy, each episode was structured as a serious documentary, only the centre of its study was a plausible but completely fabricated source of media panic, from killer drugs to plans to ‘get tough’ on young offenders. To add weight to the glorious fabrications of “Brass Eye”, Morris undertook innumerable interviewer disguises to persuade dozens of publicity-hungry celebrities to decry the damage that was being done to society. One such individual, MP David Amess, was so totally taken in by the ‘rise’ of a non-existent drug named ‘Cake’ that he brought the matter up in Parliament. This sparked a wave of panic inside Channel 4, who pulled the series from its intended November 1996 transmission slot for ‘further consideration’. A concerted campaign by Morris’ fans and his many admirers in the media ensured that the series resurfaced in early 1997, although by then it had been tainted by Channel 4’s uncharacteristically cowardly editing. Debates over cut material raged right up until each actual transmission, and a last-minute spat over a sketch intended for the final episode resulted in a caption card likening Channel 4 head Michael Grade to a moist area of the female anatomy being inserted in its place. With the tabloids baying for his blood and Channel 4 unsure whether he could be trusted in any way, Morris had already slipped into one of his legendary silences even before the series had finished airing, and made plans to ‘reboot’ himself with an entirely new project. A long-awaited repeat run in 2001 reinstated some of the cut material but by no means all of it, and somewhere out there is a completely uncut version, waiting to smack us all in the face with the reality of our moral panic-obsessed lives…

Brass Eye Special

Made to accompany the repeat run of the original “Brass Eye” and originally scheduled for 05/07/2001, but later pulled from the schedules for some last-minute re-editing (Channel 4 untruthfully stated that Morris wasn’t yet happy with the results and wanted to spend another while “tinkering” with it. The truth is that they apparently bottled it because of high-profile child abuse cases which happened too close to the scheduled BES transmission), this new episode took an uncompromising look at media panics surrounding child abuse cases, and proved to be Morris’ most controversial work to date. Offended viewers were up in arms, as were several MPs who later admitted to not actually having seen it themselves, and fans were divided over the show (which was noticeably different in style to the earlier episodes, and made with the participation of new and untested collaborators, and was considered by many to have been something of a disappointment). An investigation by the ITC defended Channel 4’s right to show the episode, but at the same time ordered them to apologise for not having given viewers adequate warning of the nature and content of the show.