This is the News.
According to Twitter wisdom, twenty-five years ago today, the satirical send up of the media 'The Day Today' first aired on BBC2; a programme that had a huge influence on me as a teenager and I still love to this day.
Until recently, I was sure I was introduced to the work of Chris Morris & Steve Coogan et al by a friend from the drama group I used to go to at the Gordon Craig Theatre, when he lent me his copy of the radio version of 'The Day Today' - 'On the Hour' - along with radio episodes of 'Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge' as a kid. I was absolutely certain of this and would have staked my life on it until I happened to see this friend again when he came to one of my shows a couple of years ago and asserted afterwards that I introduced them to him. Now I don't know what to think: it's as if the very fabric of my existence has been metaphorically ripped at source; that, or I've just got a shit memory.
Ultimately it doesn't matter who introduced it to whom, except to say I'm grateful they did as the glorious attack of it spoke to something deep inside me and made me sit up and take note. It was just so precisely observed and took down the dull establishment of TV journalism so perfectly you could almost miss the fact it was comedy if you weren't paying attention; this was fake news at its best without that teak-stained feeble excuse for a human being - let alone president - in sight.
In many ways, it hit me as hard as stumbling across The Beatles back catalogue turned me into a musician overnight; I'd alway liked situation comedy, but nothing I'd seen had had the authenticity and part-cleverness yet part-childishness of this; it was like a thunderbolt to the brain, if that thunderbolt were to inspire me as opposed to wipe me out.
From that moment on, I wanted to do comedy like this; in fact it was shows like 'The Day Today' that sealed the deal of me wanting to become an actor. And what's most striking about the show is it hasn't really dated twenty-five years later, except for the politicians it references. It's still blisteringly funny too, which rhymes with John Fashanu (that's John Fash-aaar-nu).
Until recently, I was sure I was introduced to the work of Chris Morris & Steve Coogan et al by a friend from the drama group I used to go to at the Gordon Craig Theatre, when he lent me his copy of the radio version of 'The Day Today' - 'On the Hour' - along with radio episodes of 'Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge' as a kid. I was absolutely certain of this and would have staked my life on it until I happened to see this friend again when he came to one of my shows a couple of years ago and asserted afterwards that I introduced them to him. Now I don't know what to think: it's as if the very fabric of my existence has been metaphorically ripped at source; that, or I've just got a shit memory.
Ultimately it doesn't matter who introduced it to whom, except to say I'm grateful they did as the glorious attack of it spoke to something deep inside me and made me sit up and take note. It was just so precisely observed and took down the dull establishment of TV journalism so perfectly you could almost miss the fact it was comedy if you weren't paying attention; this was fake news at its best without that teak-stained feeble excuse for a human being - let alone president - in sight.
In many ways, it hit me as hard as stumbling across The Beatles back catalogue turned me into a musician overnight; I'd alway liked situation comedy, but nothing I'd seen had had the authenticity and part-cleverness yet part-childishness of this; it was like a thunderbolt to the brain, if that thunderbolt were to inspire me as opposed to wipe me out.
From that moment on, I wanted to do comedy like this; in fact it was shows like 'The Day Today' that sealed the deal of me wanting to become an actor. And what's most striking about the show is it hasn't really dated twenty-five years later, except for the politicians it references. It's still blisteringly funny too, which rhymes with John Fashanu (that's John Fash-aaar-nu).
