Brass Eye

Brass Eye

UK DVD cover
Genre Satire
Created by Chris Morris
Directed by Michael Cumming
Starring Chris Morris
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 7
Production
Running time 25 mins
Release
Original network Channel 4
Original release 29 January 1997 – 26 July 2001
Chronology
Preceded by The Day Today (1994)
Related shows Jam (2000)

Brass Eye is a British comedy series parodying the current affairs news programming of the mid 1990s. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created by Chris Morris, written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan and Charlie Brooker and directed by Michael Cumming.

The series satirised media portrayal of social ills, in particular sensationalism, unsubstantiated establishmentarian theory masquerading as fact, and creation of moral panics, and is a sequel to Morris's earlier spoof news programmes On the Hour (1991–92) and The Day Today (1994). The series starred Morris's The Day Today colleague Doon Mackichan, along with Gina McKee, Mark Heap, Amelia Bullmore, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Claire Skinner, John Guerrasio, Hugh Dennis and the actor Kevin Eldon.

Overview

Original series (1997)

"Drugs"

The second episode, "Drugs", has been described by Professor Michael Gossop as illustrative of the ease in which anti-drug hysteria can be evoked in the United Kingdom.[1] In the opening scene of this episode, a voiceover tells viewers that there are so many drugs on the streets of Britain that "not even the dealers know them all". An undercover reporter (Morris) asks a purportedly real-life drug dealer in London for various fictitious drugs, including "Triple-sod", "Yellow Bentines" and "Clarky Cat", leaving the dealer puzzled and increasingly irritated until he tells the reporter to leave. He also explained that possession of drugs without physical contact and the exchange of drugs through a mandrill were perfectly legal in English law.

One drug mentioned was a fictitious Eastern European drug called "Cake"; the drug purportedly affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon" (altering your perception of time), can give you a bloated neck due to "massive water retention", and was frequently referred to as "a made-up drug" during the show.[1] However, David Amess, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Basildon, was fooled into filming an elaborate video warning against the dangers of this drug,[1] and went as far as to ask a question about "Cake" in the UK Parliament, alongside real substances khat and Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid. In response, the Home Office minister incorrectly identified the fictitious drug "Cake" as a pseudonym for the hallucinogenic drug methylenedioxybenzylamphetamine.[2] Other celebrities such as Sir Bernard Ingham, Noel Edmonds, and Rolf Harris were shown holding the bright-yellow cake-sized pill as they talked, with Bernard Manning telling viewers a fictitious story about how one girl threw up her own pelvis[1] and describing how "One kiddy on Cake cried all the water out of his body. Just imagine how his mother felt. It's a fucking disgrace".

"Sex"

In one scene of the "Sex" episode, Morris posed as a talk-show host who took a starkly discriminatory attitude in favour of those with "Good AIDS" (e.g. from a contaminated blood transfusion) over those with "Bad AIDS" (caught through sexual activity or drug abuse).

"Paedogeddon!" special (2001)

A special one-off edition of the show aired four years after the series had ended. Originally scheduled to broadcast on 5 July 2001, it was later delayed as Channel 4 were unhappy with the timing in connection to the then-recent separate disappearances of two children, Bunmi Shagaya and Danielle Jones.[3] It eventually aired on 28 July 2001.

It tackled paedophilia and the moral panic in parts of the British media following the murder of Sarah Payne, focusing on the name-and-shame campaign conducted by the News of the World in its wake. This included an incident in 2000 in which a paediatrician in Newport had the word "PAEDO" daubed in yellow paint on her home.[4] NOTW's then Editor Rebekah Brooks would years later discuss this campaign at the Leveson Inquiry.[5]

To illustrate the media's knee-jerk reaction to the subject, various celebrities were duped into presenting fatuous and often ridiculous pieces to camera in the name of a campaign against paedophiles. Gary Lineker and Phil Collins endorsed a spoof charity, Nonce Sense, (pronounced "nonsense"—"nonce" being British slang for people convicted or suspected of molestation or sexual crimes), with Collins saying, "I'm talking Nonce Sense!" Tomorrow's World presenter Philippa Forrester and ITN reporter Nicholas Owen were shown explaining the details of fictional "Hidden Online Entrapment Control System", or HOECS (pronounced "hoax") computer games, which online paedophiles were using to abuse children via the internet.[6] Capital Radio DJ Neil "Doctor" Fox (himself arrested in 2014 relating to alleged historic sex offences, though completely cleared when the cases went to trial) told viewers that "paedophiles have more genes in common with crabs than they do with you and me", adding "Now that is scientific fact—there's no real evidence for it—but it is scientific fact". At one point, bogus CCTV footage was shown of a paedophile attempting to seduce children by stalking the streets while disguised as a school.

Lineker described paedophile text slang, stating that "BALTIMORA" translates to "literally, I'm running at them now with my trousers down". Labour MP Syd Rapson related that paedophiles were using "an area of internet the size of Ireland". Richard Blackwood stated that internet paedophiles could make computer keyboards emit noxious fumes to subdue children, subsequently sniffing a keyboard and claiming that he could smell the fumes, which made him feel "suggestible". Blackwood also warned watching parents that exposure to the fumes would make their children "smell like hammers". Other notable figures appearing as themselves were Sebastian Coe, Michael Hames, Andy McNab, Kate Thornton, Barbara Follett MP and Gerald Howarth MP.

Morris reported that convicted child murderer Sidney Cooke had been sent into space to keep him away from children. Prior to the launch, an eight-year-old boy had been placed on board the spaceship with Cooke by mistake.[7][8] During the programme, the studio was "invaded" by a fictional militant pro-paedophile activism organisation called "Milit-pede", and the programme appeared to suffer a short technical disturbance. When it returned, presenter Chris Morris confronted a spokesman, Gerard Chote (played by Simon Pegg), who had been placed in a pillory, asking if he wanted sex with Morris's six-year-old son (actually a child actor).[7] Hesitantly, the spokesman refused, apologetically explaining "I don't fancy him".

The episode won a Broadcast magazine award in 2002.

Broadcast and DVD release

The series was repeated in 2001 to tie in with the paedophilia special (see below), and released on DVD in a revised form. This new version reinstated most of the material cut from the original, although a few items were removed, most notably the subliminal message and an interview with Graham Bright MP in the "Drugs" episode. A disclaimer was also added to the "Drugs" episode at the request of David Amess.

Controversy

Myra Hindley

The screening of the 1997 series was postponed for nearly six months as it made comic reference to murderer Myra Hindley, who was back in the news at the time after her portrait was vandalised in the Royal Academy exhibition Sensation.[9] In a particularly infamous portrayal, Hindley was the topic of a farcical song by a fictitious indie band called Blouse (whose appearance and style closely resembled that of Pulp). The lyrics to part of the song read: "Every time I see your picture, Myra/I have to phone my latest girlfriend up and fire her/And find a prostitute who looks like you and hire her/Oh, me oh Myra." The "leader singer" of Blouse, Purves Grundy (who resembles Pulp's Jarvis Cocker), is then shown commenting on the song; "Myra is a very complex woman, you know, and this song is about her hair. I don't think there's a single reference in the song to her brain, which I think maybe, had a slight problem. I do think [if] someone's gone and bought this record just because of the fuss that's been made about it, I think they should throw it away. And then they should go and buy another copy, because they liked the song."

Michael Grade

Michael Grade, then chief executive of Channel 4, repeatedly intervened to demand edits to episodes of Brass Eye.[10] The final episode included a single-frame subliminal message reading "Grade is a cunt".[10] As part of the 25th anniversary of Channel 4, this sequence was shown again, twice, including a freeze frame for anyone who did not catch it originally. When Grade was interviewed on this he pointed out that subliminal messages are illegal under British law.

"Paedogeddon!"

Around 3,000 complaints were received concerning "Paedogeddon!", making it reportedly the most objected-to episode in British television history at the time,[11] and politicians spoke out against Morris.[12] Minister for Child Protection Beverley Hughes described the show as "unspeakably sick" but later admitted she had not seen the episode; likewise, Home Secretary David Blunkett said that he was "dismayed" but had also not seen the episode, because he was on holiday at the time.[13][14] Tessa Jowell, after watching,[15] asked the Independent Television Commission to change its procedures so it could rule more swiftly on similar programmes.[16]

There was also a tabloid campaign against Morris, who refused to discuss the issue. The Daily Star decried Morris and the show, and the Daily Mail ran a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick" (quoting Beverly Hughes). The Observer noted that the Star's article was positioned adjacent to a separate article about the 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's appearance under the headline "She's a big girl now" and featuring punning phrases like "how quickly she's grown up" and "looking chest swell", and that the Mail's was preceded by "close-ups" of the "bikini princesses" Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11 at the time.[17][18][19]

Guardian columnist Ros Coward wrote at the end of July 2001: "What's so dishonest about Channel 4's defence of Brass Eye as a satire of media forms is the implication that they (and the liberal left in general) have a better truth than the tabloids. They don't. ... [I]t suggests concern about sex abuse is exaggerated and that victims' shame and humiliation doesn't matter. That's why there were so many complaints."[8]

Episodes

Series
No.TitleOriginal air date
1"Animals"January 29, 1997 (1997-01-29)
2"Drugs"February 5, 1997 (1997-02-05)
3"Science"February 12, 1997 (1997-02-12)
4"Sex"February 19, 1997 (1997-02-19)
5"Crime"February 26, 1997 (1997-02-26)
6"Decline"March 5, 1997 (1997-03-05)
Special
No.TitleOriginal air date
7"Paedogeddon"July 26, 2001 (2001-07-26)

Celebrities appearing

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gossop, Michael (28 April 2013). Living with drugs (Seventh edition. ed.). Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate. p. 21. ISBN 9781472400079. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  2. ↑ Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster. "House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 23 Jul 1996 (pt 10)". Parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  3. ↑ Cozens, Claire. "C4 pulls Brass Eye special". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  4. ↑ "Paediatrician attacks 'ignorant' vandals". BBC News Online. 30 August 2000.
  5. ↑ "Rebekah Brooks: Anti-paedophile campaign 'could have been done better'". Journalism.co.uk. 11 May 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  6. ↑ "MPs' Brass Eye complaints rejected". BBC News Online. 31 January 2002. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
  7. 1 2 McCartney, Jenny "Are there no limits?". Daily Telegraph. 29 July 2001
  8. 1 2 Coward, Ros (31 July 2001). "It had no place on TV". The Guardian.
  9. ↑ "Sensation sparks New York storm". BBC News. 23 September 1999. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  10. 1 2 Dowell, Ben (23 April 2009). "In pictures: Michael Grade's highs and lows". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  11. ↑ Adams, Erik; Bowman, Donna; Dyess-Nugent, Phil; Koski, Genevieve; McGee, Ryan; Sims, David; VanDerWerff, Todd (July 17, 2013). "Brass Eye's 'Paedogeddon!' Inflamed the U.K.—But Was That the Point? • TV Roundtable • The A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  12. ↑ Conlan, Tara (7 September 2001). "The brass neck of Brass Eye". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
  13. ↑ "A distasteful spectacle". Daily Telegraph. 30 July 2001.
  14. ↑ "Television so gormless even Big Brother would have switched off". The Times. 30 July 2001.
  15. ↑ "Programme causes predictable storm". BBC News Online. 30 July 2001.
  16. ↑ Ward, Lucy (30 July 2001). "TV spoof to bring tougher regulation". The Guardian.
  17. ↑ "Perv Spoof Bosses Axe Wrestling". 2001. Archived from the original (copy of article from the Daily Star) on 6 August 2001. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  18. ↑ Ferguson, Euan (5 August 2001). "Why Chris Morris had to make Brass Eye". The Observer. Retrieved 17 July 2012. Mail … (headed 'Unspeakably sick', the words of one of the Ministers who hadn't watched it) was preceded by close-ups of Princesses Beatrice (13) and Eugenie (11) in their bikinis; in the Star, beside a shock-horror-sicko Morris story, sat a picture of singer Charlotte Church in a tight top ('She's a big girl now … chest swell!'). Church is 15.
  19. ↑ Howse, Christopher (31 July 2001). "Meddling ministers who can't tell satire from voyeurism". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 July 2012. Daily Mail carried a banner headline "Unspeakably sick" across a double-page … the Mail printed a large colour picture of the "bikini princesses" … in skimpy swimwear. How old are the "bikini princesses"? They are 11 and 12

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