Brass Eye was a UK television series of satirical spoof documentaries. A series of six aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001.
The series was created by Chris Morris, and written by him, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan. It was a sequel to Morris's earlier spoof news programmes On the Hour and The Day Today. It satirised media portrayal of social ills, in particular sensationalism and creation of moral panics. The series starred Morris's The Day Today colleague Doon MacKichan and Gina McKee, Mark Heap, Simon Pegg and Kevin Eldon.
The second episode was called "Drugs" and is one of the most successful. A voice tells viewers there are so many drugs on the streets that "not even the dealers know them all". An undercover reporter (Morris) asks a purportedly real-life drug dealer in London for fictitious drugs, including Triple-sod, Yellow Bentines and Clarky Cat, leaving the dealer puzzled and irritated. He also asks the dealer if he is the Boz-Boz and says he doesn't want his arm to feel "like a couple of fortnights in a bad balloon". Later, Morris dressed as a baby with a nappy on and a red balloon-like hat on his head and again asked for Triple-sod and then says "last time I came here a friend of mine just got triple-jacked over a steeplehammer and jessop jessop jessop jessop jessop". He explained that possession of drugs without physical contact and the exchange of drugs through a mandrill were legal.
David Amess, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Basildon, was fooled into filming an elaborate video warning against the dangers of a fictional Eastern European drug called Cake and asked a question about it in Parliament. 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 (allegedly known in the then non-existent Czechoslovakia as "Czech Neck") and was frequently referred to as "a made-up drug" (a drug, they were told, not made from plants but made up from chemicals).
Sir Bernard Ingham, Noel Edmonds and Rolf Harris held the yellow cake-sized pill as they talked, with Bernard Manning telling viewers that "One kiddy on Cake cried all the water out of his body. Just imagine how his mother felt. It's a fucking disgrace" and that "…you can puke yourself to death on this stuff — one girl threw up her own pelvis-bone… What a fucking disgrace". Manning, with other participants, told the public that Cake was known on the street as "loonytoad quack", "Joss Ackland's spunky backpack", "ponce on the heath", "rustledust" or "Hattie Jacques pretentious cheese wog", and told anyone offered it to "chuck it back in their face and tell them to fuck off".
Other episodes dealt with science, animals and sex. Morris posed as a talk-show host in favour of those with "good" AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion against those with "bad AIDS" caught through sexual activity or drugs.
The 1997 series was postponed nearly six months as it made reference to murderer Myra Hindley, who was in the news after her portrait was vandalised in the Royal Academy exhibition Sensation.
Gary Lineker and Phil Collins endorsed a spoof charity, Nonce Sense, ("nonce" is British slang for people convicted or suspected of molestation or sexual crimes), Collins saying, "I'm talking Nonce Sense!" Tomorrow's World presenter Philippa Forrester and ITN reporter Nicholas Owen were tricked into explaining the details of HOECS (pronounced "hoax") computer games, which online paedophiles were using to abuse children via the Internet. Capital Radio DJ Neil "Doctor" Fox 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".
Lineker described paedophile text slang, claiming "BALTIMORA" translates to "literally, I'm running at them now with my trousers down." Labour MP Syd Rapson said paedophiles were using "an area of internet the size of Ireland". Richard Blackwood said internet paedophiles can make computer keyboards emit noxious fumes to subdue children. Blackwood sniffed a keyboard and said he smelt the fumes, which made him feel "suggestible"); Blackwood also warned watching parents that exposure to the fumes would make their children "smell like hammers".
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 has been placed in a pillory. He asked if he wants sex with Morris's six-year-old son. Hesitantly, the spokesman refused, apologetically explaining "I don't fancy him". Morris said the child was not present but added digitally. The scene led to a media backlash.
Around 2000 complaints were received and politicians spoke out against Morris. Beverley Hughes described the show as "unspeakably sick" but later admitted she had not seen it, and David Blunkett said he was "dismayed" by it. Tessa Jowell, after watching, asked the Independent Television Commission to reinstate censorship to ban similar programmes. There was also a tabloid campaign against Morris, who refused to discuss the issue. The Daily Star decried Morris and the show, placing the story next to a separate article about the 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's breasts under the headline "She's a big girl now". The Daily Mail pictured Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11, in their bikinis next to a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick". Defenders of the show argued that media reaction to the show reinforced its satire of the media's hysteria and hypocrisy on the subject of paedophilia.
The episode won a Broadcast Magazine award in 2002.
;"Animals"
;"Drugs"
;"Science"
;"Sex"
;"Crime"
;"Decline"
;"Paedogeddon"
Category:1997 in British television Category:1997 television series debuts Category:2001 television series endings Category:1990s British television series Category:2000s British television series Category:Channel 4 comedy Category:Satirical television programmes Category:Parodies Category:Mockumentary television series Category:Television series about television
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| Name | Noel Edmonds |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Noel Ernest Edmonds |
| Birth date | December 22, 1948 |
| Birth place | Ilford, Essex, England |
| Occupation | Broadcaster |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Spouse | Gillian Slater (1971–82) (divorced)Helen Soby (1986–2004) (divorced) |
| Website | http://www.NoelEdmonds.tv/ |
In the late 1970s, his Radio 1 Sunday show used to feature a send-up called "Musty Mind" where a phone-in contestant would be asked ludicrous questions on a parody of a serious subject, such as the "Toad Racing" or, on another occasion, "The Cultural and Social History of Rockall" - Rockall being a bald lump of uninhabited rock in the eastern Atlantic.
Edmonds left Radio 1 in March 1983, In December 2004, Edmonds played a detective on a radio murder mystery play on local station BBC Radio Devon.
Edmonds was one of the original presenters of the BBC's motoring series Top Gear during the 1970s. During his time on the programme, he rubbished the Fiat Strada, saying it "wasn't very good", which caused Fiat to threaten to sue the BBC unless he apologised for the comments. Edmonds reappeared in one episode of Top Gear in the 1990s, to road test the classic 1960s Ford GT40 supercar, because current host Jeremy Clarkson - at tall - was unable to fit into the cockpit. Edmonds is one of a few people in the UK to privately own a GT40. In September 2006, Edmonds admitted to men's magazine Loaded that he had travelled at speeds of up to in the car in the mid-1980s on the Tring Bypass in Hertfordshire, and to having sex in the back of a Range Rover. In keeping with motor vehicles, Edmonds also starred in an advert for Austin Rover cars on British television during the mid 1980s . In the early 1980s he hosted a series on BBC1 called "The Time Of Your Life", where celebrities recalled the time they were at their happiest professionally. It ran for three seasons from 1981.
Noel's House Party was a staple of BBC1's autumn and spring schedules for more than eight years. Several reformats failed to reverse its declining popularity, and in the final programme, broadcast on 20 March 1999, Edmonds appealed that viewers' memories should be kind to the programme.
On 16 March 2007, Edmonds made a cameo appearance as himself in a sketch with Catherine Tate who appeared in the guise of her character Joannie "Nan" Taylor from The Catherine Tate Show. Nan appeared on a special episode of Deal or No Deal, where she ended up cheating. The sketch was made for the BBC Red Nose Day fund raising programme of 2007.
Edmonds had in fact presented the very first National Lottery in 1994 before handing over to Anthea Turner and Gordon Kennedy.
In 1997, Edmonds was involved in an episode of the Chris Morris spoof documentary series Brass Eye, in which he unwittingly pledged his allegiance on camera to a campaign to rid the country of a new killer drug, the entirely fictitious 'cake', which apparently made 10 seconds appear as a few hours to a user.
The Curse of Noel Edmonds, a documentary tracing the rise and fall of his showbiz career, was transmitted by Five on 9 November 2004, with former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read being one of the contributors to the programme.
He was also a guest host for the fourth-series episode of The Friday Night Project, broadcast on 26 January 2007.
Noel was a guest on BBC One The One Show on Wednesday 10 September 2008.
He was visited by Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor in 1993 in the introduction of the 30 year Doctor Who anniversary Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, during which The Doctor mentioned that Noel would still be on television in the year 2010.
He coordinated the Heart of Devon campaign to provide information for farmers affected by the foot and mouth epidemic in 2000.
On the basis that Britain's energy resources are stretched Edmonds has called for a total ban on migrants coming into Britain saying, "I'm very straightforward on immigration - the bus is full."
After his second divorce, Edmonds started a relationship with Marjan Simmons, a French estate agent. They dated for a year until summer 2006. Simmons later went to the press, telling how she was left heart-broken after he dumped her, claiming she felt "discarded" by him after he battled to regain his television career.
It was reported that Edmonds was involved with English teacher and former Miss England Pauline Bull, who lives in Monaco, close to his £3m home in Magagnosc, near Grasse, in the South of France. However, Edmonds stated that he was not ready to get seriously involved in a relationship so soon after his second divorce.
Edmonds is a licensed helicopter pilot, and one of his early personal aircraft was registered G-NOEL He was president of the British Horse Society between 2004 and 2007 Edmonds was one of the trio Brown Sauce, along with Maggie Philbin and Keith Chegwin, who released the single "I Wanna Be a Winner" in 1981, reaching number 15 in the UK singles chart.
Edmonds has engaged in property development. Edmonds bought a country house in Devon that was in need of repair in order to develop new properties on the land. After disagreements, with two business partners over payments Edmonds is suing for a reported £400,000.
Category:1948 births Category:BBC people Category:English television executives Category:English radio DJs Category:Deal or No Deal Category:Deputy Lieutenants of Devon Category:English radio personalities Category:English television presenters Category:English game show hosts Category:Living people Category:People from Ilford Category:Pranksters Category:Top of the Pops Category:Top Gear Category:Old Brentwoods
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| Name | Emily Maitlis |
|---|---|
| Caption | Maitlis in April 2010 |
| Birthname | Emily Maitlis |
| Birth date | September 06, 1970 |
| Birth place | Canada |
| Occupation | Journalist, Newsreader |
| Credits | BBC News BBC News at Five BBC News at One |
Previously, she spent six years with NBC Asia, initially as a business reporter creating documentaries, and then as a presenter in Hong Kong covering the collapse of the Tiger Economies in 1997. She also covered the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong with Jon Snow for Channel 4. She then moved to Sky News in the UK as a business correspondent, and then to BBC London News when the programme was re-launched in 2001.
She is now one of the main presenters of Newsnight on BBC Two, with Jeremy Paxman, Kirsty Wark and Gavin Esler. She also presents regular relief shifts on the BBC News at One, the BBC News at Five the BBC News Channel, and shares Sunday night bulletins with Mishal Husain on BBC One national news at the weekend. Maitlis was a regular presenter on BBC News during 2006, joining as part of a new line-up in April to present alongside Ben Brown from 7-10pm during the week, but was replaced by Joanna Gosling when she went on maternity leave.
During 2005 Maitlis appeared as the question mistress on the game show The National Lottery: Come And Have A Go. She has also presented BBC Breakfast.
From May 2006 until July 2007 , she presented STORYFix on BBC News, a more light-hearted look at the week's news set to up-beat music.
In July 2007 Maitlis was appointed as a contributing editor to The Spectator magazine, an unpaid post. This had been approved by her immediate boss, the head of BBC TV news Peter Horrocks, but the decision was subsequently overturned by his superior, the BBC News director Helen Boaden.
In March 2007, David Decoteau, a 45-year-old convicted rapist, was sentenced to four life sentences whilst on probation, following another assault that had remained unsolved since 1996. During the trial, it was revealed that Decoteau had an "unhealthy fixation" with Maitlis, and although not shown to have engaged in actual stalking, it was noted that he possessed photographs of Maitlis on the wall of his probation hostel room and had previously written to her from prison. He was also described as being "fascinated" with TV newsreaders Fiona Bruce and Nina Hossain, though he was not found to have made any attempt to stalk either of them.
Category:1970 births Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Category:BBC newsreaders and journalists Category:British Jews Category:Living people Category:Old Edwardians (Sheffield) Category:British broadcast news analysts Category:British reporters and correspondents Category:People from Sheffield
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