Gove on A Stab In The Dark (Not sure whether to put in GB or CC)

[Fambo Number Mive]

Twitter user @chrismorrisbits (probably one of you)  has shared a load of videos and pictures of Michael Gove when he was presenting on A Stab In The Dark (some of it may be NSFW)

https://twitter.com/chrismorrisbits

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1132556174711250944.html

Baddiel asks two members of the audience how much they'd have to be paid to sleep with Michael Gove. The first girl says she wouldn't even for one hundred million pounds, but the second girl, without a moments hesitation, proudly answers 'Nothing.'

[buttgammon]

Having seen some of the clips in question, this thread definitely doesn't belong in Comedy Chat. Truly chilling stuff.

[Shit Good Nose]

I actually watched this when it was originally aired, mainly because I was a huge fan of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and was, blatantly, expecting MWE2 but even more naughty.

Aside from Baddiel asking questions of the audience and walking over to them with a mic, I don't remember anything about it and I can't even remember if I saw all of the episodes or not.

And that's the end of that anecdote.

[Kelvin]

I actually watched this when it was originally aired, mainly because I was a huge fan of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and was, blatantly, expecting MWE2 but even more naughty.

Aside from Baddiel asking questions of the audience and walking over to them with a mic, I don't remember anything about it and I can't even remember if I saw all of the episodes or not.

And that's the end of that anecdote.

No, please. Don't stop.

[Shit Good Nose]

No, please. Don't stop.

I got nothing else.

[Danger Man]

And that's the end of that anecdote.

Was Michael Gove in it?

[Shit Good Nose]

Maybe I'm thinking of Pob's Programme.

[Spoon of Ploff]

i remember David Baddiel going to a Real Ale festival in one episode and taking the piss out of jovial bearded folk who were just being pleasant and helpful

[Shit Good Nose]

i remember David Baddiel going to a Real Ale festival in one episode and taking the piss out of jovial bearded folk who were just being pleasant and helpful

Ironically Baddiel himself is now a jovial bearded folk into real ale.  Bet he didn't see that coming.

[Spoon of Ploff]

Ironically Baddiel himself is now a jovial bearded folk into real ale.  Bet he didn't see that coming.

Is he also pleasant and helpful?

[Shit Good Nose]

Can't answer that 100% confidently.  He's seemed pleasant on the (very) few things I've seen him on since.  But I've not seen him offer to carry an old woman's shopping home or help a blind person across the street.

If it helps, I've always been intensely jealous of him for being married to Morwenna Banks.

[Danger Man]

Ironically Baddiel himself is now a jovial bearded folk into real ale.  Bet he didn't see that coming.

Back in the olden days, real ale was on a par with trainspotting. Now every fucking pub has ten real ales on the go.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Gove's bit of unfunny and offensive standup on Scottish people is typical of middle class English "comedy" sneering at Scotland.

[Danger Man]

If it helps, I've always been intensely jealous of him for being married to Morwenna Banks.

Lucy Liu claims to have had sex with a ghost. I'm gonna get that ghost....

[Satchmo Distel]

Gove interviewing Max Clifford about whether a young women has the "potential" to do a kiss and tell. Gruesome.

[Harry Badger]

I take it we've all read this?

https://popbitch.com/2019/01/swing-vote/

[Darles Chickens]

I also watched it but have very little memory of it.  Same reason as Shit Good Nose - liked Baddiel from the MWE and thought it would be more of the same.  It was on the 11pm slot on Friday night Channel 4 so as a 15 year old I would've been glued to the TV anyway.

I do remember feeling at the time that it was genuinely "dangerous" TV, which of course was the point.  It evoked the same feeling of pushing the limits as The Word did (in fact it was probably in the same slot as The Word).  Looking at one of these clips now where Gove badly performs a joke about Eva Braun having been able to commit suicide, unlike Lady Di (or something to that effect), it's the sort of thing which would have genuinely shocked back in 1992.  Back then it was sensational just to hear the word "fuck" on TV.

I remember Baddiel's bits being OK - some bit involving swearing kids in an outside broadcast segment springs to mind.  And was there a bit where he slagged off "the pub", or was that one of his other shows?

Later in the Twitter thread they allude to an episode which is missing from the archive in which Savile was a guest.  Anyone have any memories of that, and know what happened?  Baddiel has a history of barely concealed jabs about Savile (once in Fantasy Football League, and another time in B&S Unplanned), so I wonder if that meeting was revelatory for him.

[Harry Badger]

  Baddiel has a history of barely concealed jabs about Savile (once in Fantasy Football League, and another time in B&S Unplanned), so I wonder if that meeting was revelatory for him.

I remember the B+S one. The subject of mortuaries and/or necrophilia came up and Skinner did a very recognisable Savile impression.

[paruses]

Same memories of (i.e. almost none) and motivations for (liked MWE) watching this as SGN and Darles C. Remember David Baddiel on it and the Michael Gove character but would never have recalled it was Michael Gove if you'd asked me that a month ago.

I have a foggy memory of MG interviewing a Christian man or woman on there about homosexuality and them saying it is forbidden in Leviticus to which MG says that eating shell fish is too so presumably they wouldn't eat a prawn cocktail - with 20+ years hindsight this is a trite point to make but seemed briliant at the time.

Also Tony Benn and Enoch Powell having a debate with MG chairing. Am sure it was this programme.

So, in summary I can't remember much about it either. It's really awkward and uncomfortable to watch, isn't it?

[Dr Rock]

I can remember that a lady from the Late Review or something was in it. Unlike you misogynists.

[sponk]

Probably the only time Baddiel wasn't the least funny person in a room.

[Shit Good Nose]

Probably the only time Baddiel wasn't the least funny person in a room.

Nah - he worked with Rob Newman quite a lot.


(Context - I saw Newman in a small pub in Bristol during his tweed comedy-poetry phase [very late 90s/early 00s if memory serves] with about twenty other people half of whom were just pub regulars and most of the rest walked way before the end of his set.  One of the three worst "comedy" gigs I've ever been to, so bad that me and the mate I went with ended up buying Newman a drink out of sheer sympathy)

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I can remember that a lady from the Late Review or something was in it. Unlike you misogynists.

Tracey Macleod. I distinctly remember a bit where she'd just finished spoken bit on a raised dias, then David Baddiel walked past, upon which she gave an appreciative " schwing ! " ( 1992 was also the year of the release of the " Wayne's World " film, you see. ) . She then went on to guest star in an episode of " Sean's Show ", and devise the format for " Gagtag " ( A nascent comedy panel show , the first series of which was hosted by Jonathon Ross , and the two team captains being Frank Skinner and Bob Monkhouse. Bob Monkhouse was the host in the second series ). Michael Gove and David Baddiel went on to become massive cunts.

[Petey Pate]

Tracey MacLeod wrote about her (unpleasant) experience making this program a few years ago during Gove's last Tory leadership campaign.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2016/jul/05/the-tv-show-i-made-with-michael-gove-still-gives-me-nightmares

Baddiel also mentioned it in a Richard Herring podcast. Apparently, Gove had really bad flatulence.

[rasta-spouse]

Are there any whole unedited eps of Stab in the Dark available anywhere? The Gove-centric nature of the clips make it hard to assess the feel of the show.

[Bennett Brauer]

Apparently, Gove had really bad flatulence.

Looks like his wife just caught it.

[Alternative Carpark]

Arthur Scargill turned up as a guest on one edition.  One presenter, I think it was Tracy Macleod, was explaining about how many accurate predictions he'd made over the years and read them out, while he was standing beside her - it wasn't having a go at him, they were all things that had actually happened.  Not sure now whether they interviewed him as well.

[touchingcloth]

Andrew Hunter Murray looks disconcertingly like a young Gove.

[paruses]

Tracey MacLeod wrote about her (unpleasant) experience making this program a few years ago during Gove's last Tory leadership campaign.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2016/jul/05/the-tv-show-i-made-with-michael-gove-still-gives-me-nightmares

Baddiel also mentioned it in a Richard Herring podcast. Apparently, Gove had really bad flatulence.

Tracey MacLeod charitably suggests it was heartburn.

I'm not saying acid-reflux. I'm not a doctor.

[gilbertharding]

Gove's bit of unfunny and offensive standup on Scottish people is typical of middle class English "comedy" sneering at Scotland.

Haven't seen the clip, but here's a newsflash: Michael Gove is Scottish.