Brass Eye / Chris Morris...

I think this is correct.. BBC2 are having some kind of "Alan Partridge Season" where they'll be showing the whole of Day Today, followed by Knowing Me Knowing You, then I'm Alan Partridge, and then at the end of it a brand new second series of I'm Alan Partridge, which is currently being filmed now. In the new series, Lynn is still his PA, Michael the Geordie is working at a service station, and Alan is living in a caravan while his new house is being built (which he intends to share with his new wife, name of character forgotten but she's played by Ameilia Bullmore, who appeared in Jam and first series of Big Train).

So yeah; Chris Morris - semiotic terrorist, visionary, comedian, sick idiot?

(from Cook'd and Bomb'd)

As anyone who has been perusing the media sections of various broadsheet newspapers and a couple of comedy websites recently will be aware, quite a bit of information about the upcoming "Box Of Slice" has leaked out recently. Unfortunately, not all of it is necessarily that accurate. Some of it is close to the mark, some of it is obvious guesswork, and some of it was rather amusingly lifted from flippant off-topic comments on our forums! So, to stop this feeding on itself any further and to prevent the likelihood of the forum discussion of "In Bed With MeDinner" being mistaken for a leaked copy of the script of episode five, here's the current state of play as we understand it, pieced together from a couple of normally reliable sources:

Apparently, the six part series is no longer titled "Box Of Slice" but will be transmitted as "Nathan Barley" (the name of the lead character, who will already be familiar to readers of TV Go Home), which some sources had been suggesting was the official title all along. Although January is a distinct possibility, no firm date for transmission has yet been set, and it's unlikely that one will be announced in the immediate future. Contrary to rumours, it is not a sitcom as such and has a vague developing storyline that will presumably be lampooning the vacuous self-centred world of technology-obsessed young 'creatives'. The series is a Talkback production in association with Zeppotron, written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, directed by Chris Morris with director of photography Danny Cohen, and produced by Derren Schlesinger.

Despite what some reports have claimed, Nathan is not 'pornography obsessed' and neither does he work at a magazine called 'Sugar Rape'. The series does apparently feature a magazine called 'Sugar Ape' (not to be confused with long-forgotten Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Great Grape Ape, equally long-forgotten "jam" working title "Apes And Music", or 'Sugar Sugar' by The Archies), but Nathan doesn't work there. Whether or not it's a central feature or just been crowbarred in to facilitate an easy joke about mishearing it as 'Sugar Rape', though, is another question. Nathan isn't being joined by a sensible receptionist 'resembling the Lucy Davis character from The Office', an upper-class girl with a cocaine habit, or an electroclash band called The Necks. There is one character who does work as a receptionist, but apparently that's as close as the above gets, although there will be no official revelations about the main characters until the official press release arrives.

Although clearly deriving some of its inspiration from the 'scenes' in the places in question, the series is not explicitly set in either Hoxton or Shoreditch, and an insider has assured us that "you won't need to know anything whatsoever about that whole 'world' to get it. It's about characters and situations rather than references, and everything in the programme has been completely made up". Hopefully this will indeed be the case, as the world could do without another "Shoreditch Twat" or "I Am Not An Animal". It's also reported that there are no pranks or tabloid-baiting shock laughs involved, and that the last thing it could be described as is another BES-style "the satire that had to be made!!".

As for it sounding like "an updated Absolutely Fabulous for the Noughties", that was just a quote lifted from one poster taking the piss out of another on Verbwhores, and the person who posted it is certainly not an 'insider'! However, one real insider did call it "a comedy about young idiots", if that helps. Although in a broad sense that description does sound disturbingly close to "Here Come The Double Deckers".

Thankfully though, there's no 'Doughnut', 'Tiger' or 'Spring' amongst the main cast, which is reportedly as follows:

Nicholas Burns - Nathan Barley
Julian Barratt - Dan Ashcroft
Claire Keelan - Claire Ashcroft
Ben Wishaw - Pingu
Richard Ayoade - Ned
Spencer Brown - Rufus
Charlie Condou - Jonatton (sic)
Nina Sosanya - Sasha
Rhys Thomas - Toby
Noel Fielding - Jones
David Hoyle - Doug Rocket

So, that - and the fact that there is said to be a distinct absence of flashy computer effects - is as much as we know for the moment (which is, admittedly, a fair amount). Obviously it's difficult to draw any firm conclusions based on any of the above. Yes, ideally nobody should draw any firm conclusions until they've actually watched the finished show, but realistically it's impossible to avoid doing so. Much of this sounds very encouraging indeed - it's certainly quite far removed from what a lot of us round here were expecting (or in some cases fearing), and this could well prove to be a refreshing break from the tiresome post-"jam" tradition of non-jokes and arty camerawork that has ruled the roost for far too long. Then again, were the people who claimed to have seen scenes in which Nathan stared at a woman's crotch while he was on the phone just making it up? What about the presence of current 'ambient' comedy favourite Julian Barratt and the similarly inclined Verbwhores favourite Richard Ayoade, whose track record hardly suggests a break with tradition (or indeed being much cop, but that's a personal opinion and it would be nice to be proved wrong)? Will the setting and subject matter really be as relevant to those of us who have no experience of such creatives and still battle with tape walkmans in an iPodless world (or indeed live in Cramlington)? Will we all be taken for Jive Suckers? Well, come on, you didn't expect us not to hum and harr over leaked info, did you???

We've been here quite a few times before, of course, and while people have been getting understandably frustrated and jaded with recent Chris Morris projects, maybe everyone involved in this show is as keen for change as we are. Well, it's not possible for anyone else to be quite that keen, but there's always room for a bit of reckless optimism. Roll on the not-yet-fixedth of Possibly January...

I really liked I Am Not An Animal. Maybe if this show is as 'bad' as that one, I'll like it too.

Also, Patrick Marber (of The Day Today as Peter O'Hanarha-hanrahan/Jaques-'Jaques' Liverot/Chapman Baxter) wrote the upcoming movie Closer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/tuesday/ (23:00)

"Panic as European Average falls below European Average".

there was some talk (which may have been a real-life conversation) about the bbc tapes of On The Hour being different from the original broadcast. anyone know details? (i'd thought one of lee or marber had asked for their stuff to be removed but i could be mistaken. both get a credit on the bbc7 repeats)

Quotes from an interview at http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/interviews/leeherring.htm

OTT: Sorry to go over old ground, but we'd like to know a little more about your involvement with On the Hour. Does it bother you that people often seem to forget about your contributions?

RICHARD HERRING: If they do then it's a little irksome, but inevitable and also the reason that we ended up pulling out 'cos we weren't getting the credit. I think it would have been even more annoying if we'd done The Day Today 'cos the same thing would have been true. It's annoying when people think we've been influenced by The Day Today or even things like Father Ted or The League of Gentlemen, because in fact our work on On the Hour was an influence on those people (a bit). It's a shame we haven't worked with some of those people again, though I'm hopeful about working with Coogan and it's only him and Chris Morris that I would love to work with (and Rebecca Front obviously, but I am working with her).

STEWART LEE: I don't really care to be honest. Time will show (Patrick) Marber to be a dishonest opportunist and a liar, and Chris (Morris) didn't really know what was going on.

Certainly some bitterness with Marber there.

The ones they are currently repeating on BBC 7 include the L&H stuff:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/monday/rams/0430.ram

HAHAHA!! fantastic.

Budget
£500 (estimated)

David Jatt looks exactly like David Cross circa Mr Show 1996

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04sp5pq

Three hours of Chris Morris highlights

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/34433b8139cbcce073f2e525bdc8eff125df6daa/950_1283_4785_2871/master/4785.jpg

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/11/the-day-shall-come-review-chris-morris-returns-with-wild-farce?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/34433b8139cbcce073f2e525bdc8eff125df6daa/950_1283_4785_2871/master/4785.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c0a47857fa8282580c3b1bd821156b2e

Sight&Sound not as keen

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/day-shall-come-chris-morris-fake-counter-terrorism-sting

Despite evident sympathy for his beleaguered protagonists, there’s also an uncomfortable sense of Morris punching down. Moses and his crew are consistently the butt of the joke, men who believe that horses can talk and klaxons can summon dinosaurs. Riz Ahmed’s lead in Four Lions was misguided but maintained a certain dignity that’s largely absent here

Except, with the exception of the Riz Ahmed character, most of the comedy in Four Lions centred on how unbelievably stupid the protagonists were.

Seeing this on Tuesday in Glasgow with Chris Morris in the house!

"I really don't see the point of comedy unless there's something underpinning it."

Chris Morris says satire is not about being "slapped on the back by the orthodox elite", it's about wanting to "change something". pic.twitter.com/3GcUpwOQwq

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) October 2, 2019

some braindead questions there, but he's still good. I'd like to think he was talking about the likes of Iannucci/HIGNFY/M Hyde/Miles Jupp type arseholes with the "doing exotic displays for the court" jibe.

I got a free ticket to see this tonight and forgot to go ☹️

"isn't Trump, half the time, many steps ahead of you?"

stay off the snow, Snow

I saw this new film and it's not good, at all. I'd call it a misfire but I'm not actually sure what the target was.

it did look a bit dodgy from the trailer. oh well!

This is a shame. The world needed Chris Morris, but reading about this new film it felt like, as jed_ says, the target and subject matter seem a bit niche. Four Lions was quite good but even in itself was very 'God, look at these chumps', rather than the scathing surrealism of Brass Eye and TDT

When the trailer for that new Chris Morris film first dropped it looked like complete crap but now he's done a couple of interviews where he suggests he's not quite as much of a useless wolly Zone 2 dinner party liberal as his comedy contemporaries we all weep like teased vaginas

— I (@trevorbastard) October 3, 2019

lol maybe mr bastard is being a bit harsh here, but he might be onto something!

Yeah I wasn’t majorly enthused when the trailer ended with a character blurting out “fuck a crocodile” or some such iannucci style “creative swear” but you know trailers are shit. Still wanna see it

has he fallen out with Iannucci now or something?

nah surely not, he was plenty involved with Veep wasn't he?

yeah no

He was a recurring director on Veep and took over from Armando as the interlocutor on Comedy Vehicle, but they haven't originated anything together since The Day Today in 1994 (or possibly the new audio sketches on The Day Today DVD in 2004, if Ianucci produced those)

This was their last original joint material i think, although yeah possibly the DVD extras for The Day Today

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/17/september11.terrorism

This was earlier this year:

The Day Today, 25th anniversary dinner. We’ve lost the news.@RebeccaFront @Aiannucci @Pmarber @PeterBaynham pic.twitter.com/9esJ9uPDzL

— David Schneider (@davidschneider) February 12, 2019

Peter Baynham has quite the collection of writing credits now.

pisces - oh yeah! that was kinda a followup to The Smokehammer

http://web.archive.org/web/20011228224857/http://www.thesmokehammer.com/

and was followed by the Bushwhacked cut-ups

12th February 2003
http://web.archive.org/web/20030320043339/http://thesmokehammer.com/

Some kind of film about Brass Eye (with unseen footage) on tour:

http://www.michaelcumming.co.uk/oxide%20ghosts/

lol, it's me the Chris Morris fan who wants to see David Walliams introduce a film about brass eye

lol i was gonna say there's a few wrong'uns on that list

Can’t wait to hear what Flea has to say.