The Day Today – The satire of news which will continue to be relevant for as long as news programmes think they’re more important than God.
I wrote this as part of the start of a project I’m writing about stuff that has had a massive influence on me - Chris Morris programmes definitely have. For a programme that is that is roughly 30 years old this hasn’t dated very much to my mind… whether that’s a worrying thing or not is moot but it’s still extremely funny!
I recall seeing the first trailer for this and by the end genuinely couldn’t tell whether it was real or satire - it trod that line so well.
If you took out references to 90s politicians I honestly believe it could do that now - as I mention in the piece, the sketch they did on ‘the Pound going missing’ went viral during Liz Truss’s firm hand on the economy… I reckon it only did so because it mimics what news ‘looks like’ so closely you’re not sure
(Something I’d never noticed until I was putting the clip up on the blog is they use a real piece of footage at the end of a cameraman falling over. Their attention to detail is great)