Hunt for Tony Blair
I watched the much anticipated return of the Comic Strip Presents last night - and their latest offering - 'The Hunt for Tony Blair'.
I'm sad to say that it wasn't at all funny.
More like a bunch of public schoolboys being let loose with a good idea - which came unstuck because they were trying to make an all too obvious political point.
Only people with a love of Alfred Hitchcock films - combined with the knowledge of a political anorak - would have followed what was going on.
I enjoyed Ford Kiernan's performance as as deranged - 'Don't call me psychotic' - Gordon Brown - who pursued his nemesis relentlessly - in an ill-fitting suit, gruff Glasgow accent and cheap wig.
Apart from that there was nothing that made me laugh out loud.
And I was puzzled about identity of the drunken union leader who was thrown off the train - was that supposed to be Arthur Scargill?
Because if so it didn't make any sense - since Arthur Scargill is famously teetotal.
The writers set out to prove that they were more liberal and 'left-wing' than Tony Blair - but I don't think we really needed a TV programme to tell us that.
For satire to work - it has to contain a ring of truth - a sense of the ridiculous is simply not enough.
I'm just glad it wasn't made by the BBC - since that would have been a terrible waste of public money.
I'm sad to say that it wasn't at all funny.
More like a bunch of public schoolboys being let loose with a good idea - which came unstuck because they were trying to make an all too obvious political point.
Only people with a love of Alfred Hitchcock films - combined with the knowledge of a political anorak - would have followed what was going on.
I enjoyed Ford Kiernan's performance as as deranged - 'Don't call me psychotic' - Gordon Brown - who pursued his nemesis relentlessly - in an ill-fitting suit, gruff Glasgow accent and cheap wig.
Apart from that there was nothing that made me laugh out loud.
And I was puzzled about identity of the drunken union leader who was thrown off the train - was that supposed to be Arthur Scargill?
Because if so it didn't make any sense - since Arthur Scargill is famously teetotal.
The writers set out to prove that they were more liberal and 'left-wing' than Tony Blair - but I don't think we really needed a TV programme to tell us that.
For satire to work - it has to contain a ring of truth - a sense of the ridiculous is simply not enough.
I'm just glad it wasn't made by the BBC - since that would have been a terrible waste of public money.
