By way of doffing a Dog On Wheels-sized cap to BBC4’s superb 1997 Week, five of the best programmes of that year:
Ant And Dec Unzipped
“Got…got…got…got…got…got…NEED!”
Adam And Joe’s Fourmative Years
If only for their top ten most preposterous appearances of the word “fuck” in Channel 4’s history (with, at number one, The Camomile Lawn: “May I…fuck you now? Now, at once?”)
Election 97
The most exciting and entertaining TV of the year, if not the decade. “…Asteroid hitting the earth”…”Are you ready to drink hemlock yet?”…”There they all go, buried”…”So, we lost”…”It’s been fun!”…”Tory telecom reforms!”…”I think that’s what you’d call champagne socialism!”
The Show
Bob Mills does Larry Sanders without the budget, guests or noticeboard covered in multi-coloured post-it notes. Where to begin? Bob testing out libellous jokes on Andi Peters in the LWT bar; Bob and executive producer Jeff being told C4 would either recommission them or courtroom series Nothing But The Truth; Danny Baker coming on the week he was fired from the BBC; people dropping out at the last minute (Mills: “If we do this again, we won’t book any guests in advance, we’ll just phone them up two hours before the programme”); Sandra Bernhard being slagged off by the audience…
This Life
“Outstanding.”
Tiggerboy0301
March 12, 2007 at 12:54 am
The Show, man is this another show that was on before its time.
We need more Bob Miles!