Harry Shearer To Star in Sky Arts Comedy/Drama About Richard Nixon & His Secret Tapes!

The voice of Mr. Burns, to play the crooked U.S. President in the most unlikely made for television comedy I've heard all year.

By Matt Holmes /

Sky have made a determined effort this year to finance brand new and diverse original shows that they can showcase on Sky 1 and Sky Arts, seemingly because their recent HBO deal cost them a sizeable wad of cash to form Sky Atlantic, and they are getting the idea it might be cheaper in the long run to create their own UK style of HBO. The results? A shocking array of cliched British television, at least so far, that are closer to third-rate ITV sitcoms than anything that will become mainstays of television. We certainly commend Sky for looking at new British talent, greenlighting shows that other networks aren't but why put money into the Asada-style sitcom Trollied (which we tore apart here) when they should be looking for the next comedy giants like Ricky Gervais or sitcoms like Peep Show/The IT Crowd or the new Inbetweeners/Skins and more productions like their successful Strike Back? Sky Arts (!) have announced today a new 30 minute comedy drama film based on the real-life recordings from President Nixon€™s Oval Office. Yes you read that right folks. A COMEDY/DRAMA about Richard Nixon. Produced by Hat Trick Productions the t.v. film titled 'The One' will star the voice of Smithers in The Simpsons (Harry Shearer) as the crooked President and is 'drawn from more than 2000 hours of audio tapes secretly recorded by Nixon and made public since the 1980s by the US National Archives.' Henry Goodman (Assassins, The Damned United) will play Henry Kissinger. How one would make a comedy/drama based on that scandal and that man or would even want to is beyond me and talk about undermining the power that is beyond some of America's most compelling political hinged motion pictures (All The President's Men, Frost/Nixon, Oliver Stone's Nixon). Why not make a comedy about Hitler and Osama Bin Laden whilst we are at it, eh? Nobody is interested in laughing at Nixon in the oval office because there's just nothing to laugh about! Sky Arts should completely re-think their strategy here and instead finance a serious 8 part drama, something more compelling than the boring as hell The Kennedy's and deliver us the definitive account of the downfall of the most infamous of U.S. Presidents. Here's the press release for the show said to be 'a labor of love' for actor and writer Harry Shearer;
Paranoid, fearful and obsessed with power, President Nixon€™s administration was fraught with secretive dealings and characterised by an obsession with subterfuge and recordings. While the Watergate scandal is well-documented, this brand new comedy-drama is a verbatim account of what went on when the doors were closed and the tapes were rolling. Starring Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap) as President Nixon and Henry Goodman (Assassins, The Damned United) as Henry Kissinger, the 30 minute film will be broadcast on Sky Arts in the spring. The project was a labour of love by Harry Shearer and his writing partner Dr Stanley Kutler who trawled through hundreds of hours of recording, and who employed a veteran Nixon-tape transcriber who was familiar with the complexity of the tapes: €œHaving grown up in LA, I'd had Nixon in my brain my whole life and it recently struck me that the current portrayals of the man were leaving out the wonderland of his emotional complexity,€ commented Harry Shearer. To me, the key point of the comedy was that these conversations were being held, usually during working hours, by what was then usually described as the most powerful man in the world. The tapes reveal Nixon€™s struggle with growing public unrest over his waning popularity and key decisions made by his Cabinet. In installing the secret taping system, Nixon felt he was protecting his presidency, safe from any revisionist accounts of his time there. What it has provided is a fascinating account of his controversial, sometimes farcical time in office. Jimmy Mulville, Executive Producer for Hat Trick commented: €œRecreating the Oval Office at Sky Studios and populating it with Harry Shearer€™s Nixon and then watching the recreations of just a few of the thousands of hours of conversations with Kissinger, Haldeman and Ehrlichman, was a unique and wonderful experience. I think that the Sky Arts audience will be genuinely shocked and hopefully amused by some of the opinions expressed by the Nixon White House. It€™s a genuinely funny show and a startling historical document€. €œThe Nixon tapes are probably the most complex and controversial set of records from a US presidency,€ commented James Hunt, Channel Director of Sky Arts. €œThe recordings reveal such a rich picture of a man consumed with egotism, but it is also hugely funny. To have such an intriguing and complex story brought to life by this award-winning cast, and in Nixon€™s own words, is hugely exciting for Sky Arts.€
You know what would be a better idea than this? A Simpsons themed 60 minute special starring Mr. Burns as Nixon... that's what.