Monday, October 31, 2005
This just in
CURRENT! Broken News, BBC2, 9.30pm
We've been looking forward to this one for ages. In the same way that The Day Today was the perfect foil to nightly news programmes and Brass Eye to Panorama/World in Action-esque shows, Broken News is set to spoof the ridiculousness of the many, many rolling news channels that exist these days.
It sounds like one heck of a challenge to pull off; rather than mocking the idiosyncrasies of rolling news on one fake rolling news station, the team behind the show have created lots, which will be flicked between at will. It's full of smartly-suited anchorpeople who read improbable sounding headlines from an autocue, frequently throwing the show over to on-the-spot reporters who are standing around with nothing to report on because nothing has happened yet, so they fill the time with random speculation and confusing doublespeak. On top of that we've got camp entertainment news presenters to look forward to, and sports fixtures for thousands of bizarrely-named teams and surely nonexistent sports.
There's a cast of thousands (well, over a hundred, anyway) and it looks like a lot of time and effort has gone into getting the feel of this one just right. Producer Paul Schlesinger was behind People Like Us, one of our all-time favourite programmes, so we've got every bit of faith in his capabilities. Tonight on the show, a horrific outbreak of tomato flu hits the nation, and the various stations propose their own solutions to this pressing problem.
Also tonight: Les and Cilla get married in Coronation Street. We advise that you watch from behind the sofa.
By Steve :: Post link
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