Morris feature

[hoverdonkey]

Hello all. I haven't been around much lately - although I expect no one to have noticed - because I've been working my little butt off on Numb.

It's basically an online portfolio of what the mag will be about but the point of this thread is that I've done some Morris blurb ahead of the DVD release. That is here. There's nothing in there that you lot don't already know but then it's written for people who may not be that familiar with him.

Anyway, I'd be really grateful if some of you could have a look and tell me what you think. I have created the site in my spare time having taught myself dreamweaver/photoshop etc because time was being wasted trying to get a print version up and I wanted to get it 'out there', so go easy on any technical faux-pas.

It went live about a month ago but obviously it takes time what with trying to hold down a paying job as well.

[Darrell]

Nice article. I hope you don't mind, but here's a proofread version if you don't mind me getting all pedantic on yo ass. I'm only trying to help, don't see this as an attack, 'cause it's not.

This year* sees the long-awaited release of The
Day Today on DVD - ten years after it was
first broadcast on BBC.

Much has been written about Chris Morris,
the man most associated with the series and
the subsequent Brass Eye, much of it by the
Daily Mail, who proclaimed Morris as "the most
evil man in Britain" following the Brass Eye
Special which satirised the media's
reporting of paedophilia in 2001.

Morris copped most of the flak because he
was the face of the show – the anchorman
ably flanked both on screen and in
production by some of the finest talent in
British comedy.

The Mail, embarrassingly devoid on an ounce
of irony, spent the best part of a week
vilifying Morris for daring to "make fun of
paedophilia" with exactly the sort of headlines
he had parodied in the programme.

The Sun - a paper which ran a countdown for
when Charlotte Church would turn 16 and
become 'legal' - did the same.

As a personality, Morris remains much of an enigma. He was suspended from Radio 1 after
falsely announcing the death of Jimmy Saville and suggesting that Michael Heseltine had also
died but it was The Day Today that catapulted him into unsuspecting Mail readers' living rooms.

Like all the best comedies, The Day Today began life on Radio 4, as** 'On The
Hour'. Its surreal headlines and ridiculous stories, all packaged with great authenticity, parodied
news journalism perfectly.

After its run there, the TV version allowed Morris to launch his Paxman alter-ego and throw
himself into a relentless tirade into the packaging of TV news, with its pointless graphics, faux-
gravitas and priority of live pictures over actual news. It also allowed him to dupe a host of
attention-craving celebrities into taking part in campaigns they believed were real.

His contempt for these celebrities is exploited without shame. Witness Kim Wilde's horror as she
is told of a new scheme to clamp the homeless.

Meanwhile Collatallie Sisters (Doon MacKichan) reads the impenetrable business news
surrounded by meaningless statistics:

"Arguments broke out on the international markets today when economic talks collapsed and
Spain withdrew from the world and began trading with itself. The peseta burst open at four.

"The pound was barely audible this morning, it rotted by 3.9 points against the dollar, and there
was further bad news for coke developers Watney Heckbulb nrrrrrrrrrr, who were ordered to
cease trading because of bad burping. Chris."


Sylvester Stewart (David Schneider) the
weatherman uses increasingly convoluted
graphics, and phraseology to describe a cloudy
day in Dorset:

"Starting in the southeast, where it'll be misty
tomorrow with a droplet density of about
50,000 per spherical inch. That's rather as if
the mist were hugging the ground like an over-
affectionate and rather damp dog.

"Into the north of England and Scotland - a
strong and highly long-lasting day tomorrow,
with hail aimed down vertically from above, and
there'll be a 30% chance. In summary then -
breezes."

And sports reporter Alan Partridge (Steve
Coogan) is, well, Alan Partridge:

"It's the 6.30 Queen Henry stakes, which is
generally regarded as the litmus test for Derby
form. Jockey folklore says that if you cock up
the Queen Henry, you might as well ride the
Derby on a cow.

"Which of course would be a complete waste
of time. Let's have a look at the betting, the
going today of course moist to tricky..."

Morris' work has a persuasive lilt to it.
 
As it proudly boasted on the back of the VHS copies of The Day Today, the show made it
"impossible to watch the news without laughing like a twat." Yet TDT was more than just 30
minutes of parody, because, 10 years later, you are reminded just how astute Morris and TDT
team's observations were.

No one really imagined that TDT would be as prophetic as it was. A glance at Sky News today
suggests producers at Murdoch towers are given a VHS copy of the series as a style guide.
Lucky new recruits will get a spanky DVD version now.

Sky News has a 'news wall', where the presenter stands in front of a screen, surrounded by
graphics, bouncing statistics and pithy headlines.

After TDT came Brass Eye, which took the formula to documentary format and pushed the satire
- and controversy - up to number 11 on the dial.

Produced by Channel Four and written with Peter Baynham, Brass Eye set out to 'examine'
serious themes such as crime and animal abuse, again using unsuspecting celebrities like Clare
Rayner*** and Bernard Manning to endorse its message and expose the cult of the moral panic.

Of course, it wasn't just the issues that Brass Eye was examining, but the media reporting of
such problems. The sets, Morris' style and the approach was so authentic that many were
duped by the fake campaigns set up during the six-episode series.

One episode, which dealt with a fictitious drug, Cake, prompted the Tory MP David Amess to ask
questions in the House of Commons and that subsequently led to Morris being sacked by Michael
Grade, then chief executive at Channel Four.****

Grade's recent installation as Chairman of the BBC will not have gone unnoticed at Morris
Towers then.

What hasn't been touched on here is the
plethora of smaller side projects that have been
touched by Morris' hand with varying degrees
of success.

Indeed, his series of improvised interviews with
Peter Cook's Sir Arthur Greeb Streebling - called
'Why Bother?' - was an hour of sensational
comedy, with Morris, unlike many of his peers,
refusing to bow to Cook and giving the master
as good as he gets.

But for now, it's time to celebrate the release of
The Day Today on DVD - it's what TV was
made***** for. BR

* Using "April 26th" in the previous context suggests that was TDT's first tx date, which it wasn't. I don't think my correction is perfect either, as it eliminates the release date from the article.
** I think this is a tidier sentence.
*** Would have been good had he got Clare Short too though...
**** I'm not sure this is the correct history here, though I might be wrong.
***** Perhaps 'invented' would work better here?

Also - your DVD extras list is a bit inaccurate. Perhaps:

Six 'Mininews' segments
Original untransmitted pilot
Extended scenes
Mark Radcliffe interview with Steve Coogan
New sketches

might be better?

[benthalo]

One episode, which dealt with a fictitious drug, Cake, prompted the Tory MP David Amess to ask questions in the House of Commons and that subsequently led to Morris being sacked by Michael Grade, then chief executive at Channel Four.****

Darrell did:

**** I'm not sure this is the correct history here, though I might be wrong.

Grade resigned from Channel 4 in the week that Brass Eye premiered, which means that he'd cleared his desk by the time Cake was transmitted and Amess's press statement began to circulate on 06/02/97. As I recall, C4 didn't have anything more than an acting CEO for a while after

The second half of that sentence is nonsense. The first half's all you need, to be honest.

[hoverdonkey]

Cheers for that Darrell. I've been churning out the stuff and getting it on the site that mistakes are inevitable I spose. I just took the DVD extras from play.com and have now noticed the update here. Fuck knows where Clare Short came from though