TV Cream

TV: H is for...

Hot Metal

“PAPER! NEWS, NEWS! Paper! News, News!” screamed the blustering, bombastically-obvious signature tune, so as to avoid anyone tuning in expecting a meditation on sizzling metallurgy. And 28 minutes of blustering, bombastically-obvious journo-satire ensued, but of defiantly broadsheet-bristing quality thanks to a) Andrew Marshall and David Renwick (WHOOPS APOCALYPSE, END OF PART ONE) on script duties b) the likes of ROBERT HARDY, GEOFFREY PALMER, RICHARD WILSON and JOHN GORDON-SINCLAIR peddling their wares and c) infamous “moving breast” glasses gimmick of playground legend. The Daily Crucible was where it all went down, ditto circulation, governments trousers, generous helpings of whisky and super soaraway punchlinery.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Richardpd

    January 17, 2022 at 10:10 pm

    Supposedly David Renwick came up with the idea of If You See God Tell Him while still working on this, & envisaged Richard Wilson in the lead role.

    This project was back burnered while One Foot In The Grave was being developed & ironically Richard Wilson felt he was too young to play Victor Meldrew at first as he felt to was too young.

    Once One Foot In The Grave was a ratings winner If You See God Tell Him was green lit but without Richard Wilson as I presume the BBC didn’t want to jinx things by having him play too many eccentric old men.

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