13. The Day Today (1994) / Brass Eye (1997+2001)
Possibly the finest news spoof ever. Like many shows on this list it only ran for a handful episodes but it portrayed British satire and surrealism at its best. Chris Morris is brilliant as the arrogant, in your face, Jeremy Paxman-inspired presenter, asking all the hard questions and shutting anyone down who disagrees with him. British comic actress Doon Mackichan is superb as the number crunching, financial correspondent Collaterite Sisters, using such tools as the currency cat and International Finance Arse. Fellow comic actress Rebecca Wintergreen is a brilliantly southern American blond foreign correspondent Barbara Wintergreen. And of course we have the first appearance of Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge as - bizarrely enough - a sports presenter. For lovers of the surreal, we have the brilliant 'bomb dogs' scare in central London (dogs that shoot vertically in to the air when detonated, leading to London police shooting all dogs on sight) to Crete being kidnapped and a secretly filmed fight between the Queen and then-Prime Minister John Major in Buckingham Palace. But my favourite has to be Chris Morris interviewing British and Australian minsters on a trade treaty with Hong Kong and goading them into all out war. Watch the clip below, it has to be seen to be believed. And while not as good as
The Day Today,
Brass Eye was a panorama-type series of 'documentaries' focus on real-world issues in the same very black comic nature that we saw with its predecessor. Everything from sex, crime and...animals was discussed, the best being a focus on drugs and the distributions of 'cake', a large yellow pill the size of your hand. It was the right balance of surrealism that prevented it from becoming ridiculous and still poked fun and the scare mongering, in your face shows of the 1990s (and still very much to this day). It returned in 2007 for a one of special - very controversially on paedophillia - entitled 'Paedogeddon!'. For some this was a step too far and indeed when I watched there were certain items that were a little uncomfortable to watch. But as a piece of satire on the panic of the populace (the show encourages parents to round up all children in stadiums for safety) it kind of worked.
SIDE NOTE: If you like these,, it might also be worth checking out
Time Trumpet a TV sketch show from 2006, by Armando Iannucci, one of the master minds behind
The Day Today. What made this show special was the fact that it was set in the future, looking back at the start of 21st Century with a historian's eyes and blending in a mix of surrealism that made the above shows so good.