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Brass Eye
Brass Eye is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, followed by special episode, "Paedogeddon", in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, directed by Michael Cumming and written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, and Graham Linehan. Charlie Brooker would write for the 2001 special, which was directed by Tristram Shapeero.
Brass Eye satirises media portrayal of social ills, in particular sensationalism and moral panics, and is a sequel to Morris's earlier spoof news programmes On the Hour (1991–92) and The Day Today (1994). It stars Morris, Doon Mackichan, Gina McKee, Mark Heap, Amelia Bullmore, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Claire Skinner, John Guerrasio, Hugh Dennis and Kevin Eldon.
Originally planned as a spin-off from The Day Today, the pilot (then called Torque tv™) was passed on by the BBC. Channel 4 commissioned a new pilot. The name Brass Eye mixes together the titles of two current affairs shows, (Brass Tacks and Public Eye) and is a euphemism for anus.
Each episode of the show has a similar structure, with Morris posing as various interviewers, campaigners and broadcasters as well as some of the subjects of the interviews. These segments are intercut with celebrities appealing on behalf of various nonprofit organizations with bizarre names and acronyms as well as fake news footage from various international broadcasters. Heavy use of elaborate graphical effects is used throughout.
"Animals"
The first episode, which uses much of the material filmed for the pilot centers on man's relationship with animals. In this episode Morris portrays a spokesperson from the "World Organization For Decreasing Captive Animal Problems" (W.O.F.D.C.A.P) which incorporates another organization, "Against Animal Anger And Auto-causal Abuse Atrocities in Zoos" (A.A.A.A.A.A.Z) who are trying to raise awareness of the plight of Karla, an elephant in a zoo in Germany and "Zoochosis" a condition which drives zoo animals insane. Jilly Cooper, Paul Daniels, Wolf, Britt Ekland, and Alexandra Paul appear either by phone or on video. Nicholas Parsons appears reading a poem supposedly written by Desmond Morris, while Carla Lane appears in a studio segment.
The second episode, "Drugs", has been described by Michael Gossop as illustrative of the ease with which anti-drug hysteria can be evoked in the United Kingdom. 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 asks the reporter to leave him alone. He also explains that possession of drugs without physical contact and the exchange of drugs through a mandrill are perfectly legal in English law.
One drug mentioned was a fictitious drug called "Cake", described as being from Czechoslovakia, despite the country no longer existing when the episode was screened. Morris poses as a campaigner from a pair of organizations, "Free The United Kingdom From Drugs" (F.UC.K.D) and "British Opposition to Metabolically Bistable Drugs" (B.O.M.B.D) and seeks celebrities to appear on camera appealing to the public to be wary of Cake. The drug purportedly affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon" (altering the user's perception of time), while also giving them a bloated neck due to "massive water retention", a "Czech neck", and was frequently referred to as "a made-up drug" (i.e. a designer drug) during the show. 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 regurgitated her own pelvis, and recounting that "one young kiddy on Cake cried all the water out of his body. Just imagine how his mother felt. It's a fucking disgrace".
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Brass Eye
Brass Eye is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, followed by special episode, "Paedogeddon", in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, directed by Michael Cumming and written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, and Graham Linehan. Charlie Brooker would write for the 2001 special, which was directed by Tristram Shapeero.
Brass Eye satirises media portrayal of social ills, in particular sensationalism and moral panics, and is a sequel to Morris's earlier spoof news programmes On the Hour (1991–92) and The Day Today (1994). It stars Morris, Doon Mackichan, Gina McKee, Mark Heap, Amelia Bullmore, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Claire Skinner, John Guerrasio, Hugh Dennis and Kevin Eldon.
Originally planned as a spin-off from The Day Today, the pilot (then called Torque tv™) was passed on by the BBC. Channel 4 commissioned a new pilot. The name Brass Eye mixes together the titles of two current affairs shows, (Brass Tacks and Public Eye) and is a euphemism for anus.
Each episode of the show has a similar structure, with Morris posing as various interviewers, campaigners and broadcasters as well as some of the subjects of the interviews. These segments are intercut with celebrities appealing on behalf of various nonprofit organizations with bizarre names and acronyms as well as fake news footage from various international broadcasters. Heavy use of elaborate graphical effects is used throughout.
"Animals"
The first episode, which uses much of the material filmed for the pilot centers on man's relationship with animals. In this episode Morris portrays a spokesperson from the "World Organization For Decreasing Captive Animal Problems" (W.O.F.D.C.A.P) which incorporates another organization, "Against Animal Anger And Auto-causal Abuse Atrocities in Zoos" (A.A.A.A.A.A.Z) who are trying to raise awareness of the plight of Karla, an elephant in a zoo in Germany and "Zoochosis" a condition which drives zoo animals insane. Jilly Cooper, Paul Daniels, Wolf, Britt Ekland, and Alexandra Paul appear either by phone or on video. Nicholas Parsons appears reading a poem supposedly written by Desmond Morris, while Carla Lane appears in a studio segment.
The second episode, "Drugs", has been described by Michael Gossop as illustrative of the ease with which anti-drug hysteria can be evoked in the United Kingdom. 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 asks the reporter to leave him alone. He also explains that possession of drugs without physical contact and the exchange of drugs through a mandrill are perfectly legal in English law.
One drug mentioned was a fictitious drug called "Cake", described as being from Czechoslovakia, despite the country no longer existing when the episode was screened. Morris poses as a campaigner from a pair of organizations, "Free The United Kingdom From Drugs" (F.UC.K.D) and "British Opposition to Metabolically Bistable Drugs" (B.O.M.B.D) and seeks celebrities to appear on camera appealing to the public to be wary of Cake. The drug purportedly affected an area of the brain called "Shatner's Bassoon" (altering the user's perception of time), while also giving them a bloated neck due to "massive water retention", a "Czech neck", and was frequently referred to as "a made-up drug" (i.e. a designer drug) during the show. 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 regurgitated her own pelvis, and recounting that "one young kiddy on Cake cried all the water out of his body. Just imagine how his mother felt. It's a fucking disgrace".