Armando Iannucci on The Day Today, 30 years later - from RHLSTP 509

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[@666deadman1988]

I wrote an essay on the IRA sketch at university as an example of political satire. Even though I had to watch it like 100 times while I was writing it, I still laughed at it every time. The Day Today was a brilliant show.

[@EBGBeee]

That sketch is, IMHO, the most perfect example ever of its type. Like you, I can watch it endlessly, and still hoot with laughter. The reality was obviously begging to be mocked, but to do it so elegantly and efficiently ... *MWAH*

[@ramonek9109]

Terrierism.

[@gentleken7864]

Armando is my comedy hero, end of.

[@stewartcohen-jones2949]

The Day Today was my generation’s Monty Python.

[@fod2011]

BALTIMORA

[@MT-kx2uc]

Say it in German

[@chickenbento]

@@fod2011P2PBSH "I'm running at them now with my trousers down."

[@KaitainCPS]

@@chickenbento @fod2011 Those are both from "Brass Eye", not "The Day Today".

[@pjl8119]

It was better than Monty Python.

[@nickyfield137]

New Adventures of The Birmingham Six, that was funny !

[@richstuart6816]

The Day Today was such a great piss-take of pompous self-important news coverage, it's just a shame that the real news programmes didn't take the hint.

[@EBGBeee]

I will go to my grave swearing that contemporary news producers grew up on TDT (and Brass Eye), and considered them training, rather than warning.

[@RalphBrooker-gn9iv]

This is the NEWWWWWSSS. Episode 3 intro. Among the delights of TDT are the names. I watched CNN recently and the 7pm anchor was called Wolf Blitzer. He was talking to a reporter called Coy Wire. What on earth is the etymology of these names? One of favourite recurring TDT names is Eugene Fraxby. The rogue pronunciation of names (Fa_Shanoo) is carried over by Alan Partridge. I remember the show with Jennie Greaham. Partridge is covering the death of John Baskell (he pronounces ‘Baskell’ in the received way). He then mentions that his widow Franba Skell is continuing his charity work. Even writing this has me dying with laughter. A special mention for Rebecca Front. Tirelessly outstanding across a range TDT roles.

[@frankbrodie5168]

Wisest words from both Armando and Richard at the end there. Never respond to people attempting to goad people into starting word wars. I am proud to say that I have lived my actual offline real life like that. Just let stuff go. No response annoys the trolls way more than any reasoned response ever will.

[@hanumaniam]

Oh really?!? Want to say that to my face??

[@frankbrodie5168]

@@hanumaniam Very good :p

[@BillOdyssey]

Haha 'Weekending' - my parents wrote a sketch that appeared on that - about 'fox hunting keeping the vermin down' (when the toffs have riding accidents)

[@gamesafoot]

Dear Richard, serioud question; what do you look for in a chair for something like this? Whats the ratio of comfort:aesthetics that you look for? Im just curious.

[@pixelfrenzy]

Armando, the original AI. So many original and genius contributions to UK comedy. Thank you sir!

[@MabDarogan2]

I still do the helium sketch to myself 30 years later

[@tenderhooligan7580]

The day today asks........are these the real Birmingham bombers?

[@ryanbrownnew]

The New Adventures of The Birmingham Six - Each week they infiltrate the criminal underworld to expose wrong-doings only to be ultimately and unfairly accused of the very cases they are investigating. Each episode could end with a Prisoner series homage sequence with the gates clanking shut over their six faces and cue title sequence.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

Herring suits a beard.

[@ryiin]

The day today and Friday Armistice were my favourite shows growing up.

[@I_Am_The_Paulrus]

Great to see Armando gushing like a fanboy over the Sinn Fein skit. Coogan was truly brilliant in that one

[@thefxautopilot]

The Day Today was utter genius. Calatterly Sisters and Brian O'Hanra-O-Hanrahan - brilliant!

[@SimonHeartfield]

Brian? It's Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan

[@JoseRodriguez-m4g]

Hall Betty Wilson Karen Thomas Eric

[@brokenstyx]

super sweet - thank you!

[@belbrighton6479]

Brilliant. My coffee came out of mouth!

[@aukondk]

Wish we were getting another Election Night Armistice this year.

[@92RedRevolver]

Yes! Thank you! I've been whining about this for a while. As someone who loves both politics and comedy, I need a proper comedy alternative. I was also (not even) five in 1997 so I didn't get the joy of watching it with any particular insight that year.

[@steverob5]

@@92RedRevolver 1997 was the first election I was eligible to vote in, except I was out of the country! (had to vote by proxy instead). I got my parents to record Election Night Armistice for me and watched it two weeks later when I got home - would love it if there was something similar this year.

[@zangeejoe]

Fucking Gods, him an Morris FUCKING GODS!!!!!!

[@bengolious]

The 'war' episode of The Day Today made me laugh so much my face physically ached. I believe I'm owed some compensation.

[@garyrigby21]

The Day today was brilliant I wished they did more episodes

[@SUBCITIZEN666]

They did, brasseye 👍

[@zetetick395]

Do they not film the full show anymore: I've been here / Spotify / Rich's website / Acast - it's just audio

[@Herring1967]

For full videos become a badger at gofasterstripe.com/badges or join acast plus at top tier. Works out at around 60p a video - otherwise the audio and this 10 mins a week are FREE

[@stevenmorcom2247]

I bought the cassette tapes of On The Hour in the late 90's and played them in my cab, I played it as rolling news.

[@MartinHiggins1972]

Morris-esque!

[@johngreenwood1972]

Such an astute man.

[@Bootrosgali]

th exclusive juice! Exjluisive! dont know where to put the c so i chucked it

[@WOOOPdoctorFROGhere]

breezes

[@ReeTM]

Still flogging the dead horse that is this podcast. How the mighty have fallen.

[@Herring1967]

When was I mighty?

[@WOOOPdoctorFROGhere]

​@@Herring1967some time between now and 1967

[@albertbrammer9263]

Some parts were great, others very poor. Hit and miss.

[@bonglesnodkins329]

The Day Today? Bollocks. 98% gold.

[@albertbrammer9263]

@@bonglesnodkins329 if we all agreed on comedy we would not have as much variety.

[@bonglesnodkins329]

@@albertbrammer9263 Stick to Mrs. Brown’s Boys.

[@MrJohnQCitizen]

​@@albertbrammer9263Stick to your Jeff Green DVDs

[@dianemessias5689]

I don't know why @RichardHerring you've been so obsessed - for the past 30 years - with my not putting your sketches on my shows. Your material didn't fit with the style of satire I was producing, and clearly it didn't impact your career, but here you are (again), slagging off my producing. Your entitlement - that someone could turn down your complete genius! - is staggering. But that still doesn't explain why you can't let it go after three whole decades. Can I recommend a good therapist?

[@Herring1967]

Hi Diane. I tell that story just cos it's interesting that one producer can give you 20 seconds in 8 weeks and another can give you 13 minutes in one show. No entitlement at all. I entirely accept that our styles didn't fit and don't think you not liking our stuff is any indication of whether you were a good or bad producer. It's just an interesting lesson for other writers to not got downhearted because one person doesn't like your work. I hold you no ill will and only mention it when Weekending comes up in conversation (which is not very often) so I don't think I need any therapy for this particular issue. It was frustrating at the time as I relied on that tiny amount of work to get some food, but as you say it didn't really have much impact in the long term, so no hard feelings here. Hope all is going well with you and sorry if you feel me telling this story impacts on you personally. That's not my intention.

[@dianemessias5689]

​@@Herring1967 Hello Richard. Thanks for the reply. 

In 2016, you and I were both interviewed (separately) for a Radio 4 programme called The Frequency of Laughter: A History of Radio Comedy, 1990-1995. Can’t leave a link on here, but it’s still available on BBC Sounds. Once again you brought up my name, though with a pointedly dismissive “don’t know what happened to *her*” quip after it. 

I know what it’s like to rely on tiny amounts of work, as prior to the BBC I spent years in profit share in theatre, when my rent was £45 a week, and taking home 25 quid from the show was a triumph (and unusual), but do you really expect a producer to put in material that is incongruous with the overall style of her series? I had a job to do, I wasn’t a social worker, and actually, I gave lots of people (writers, actors) opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have had with the BBC. In fact, my son happened to meet one such writer a couple of years ago, and he was full of gratitude for the leg up I’d given him. 

 And it’s nothing to do with liking your work! As you yourself said, different producers have different styles. What I take particular exception to in your conversation with Armando is the knowing chuckle when ‘Diane Messias’ is mentioned (who knew I’d be remembered for nothing other than someone who had the nerve to turn down your material?!), and Armando’s follow-up comment describing my shows as “pompous and serious satire” - I’d like to see that conversation between him and Ian Hislop - and then (this is the killer line from him): “You wrote funny stuff”. If that’s not a damning appraisal of someone’s producing, I don’t know what is. And what an indictment on the very fine (and funny) writers who wrote the majority of my shows from someone seemingly looking down on lesser mortals from a (deserved) stellar career. Frankly, I would have expected a touch more charm and grace. Incidentally, my Week Ending series during the First Gulf War won many plaudits from the media and BBC management, with one particular message from the then Controller of Radio 4, Michael Green, saying “your writers are doing you proud”. But then, what did he know?

[@Herring1967]

@@dianemessias5689 You seem to think I expected you to put my work in regardless. i did not. As I say when I mention you, seemingly once every decade or so, it's just to point out that you didn't use our stuff, not to say you should have. And it is surely interesting that opinions can vary so wildly that one producer put in one quicky in 8 weeks and then (maybe the very next one - can't be sure about that, but it was Harry Thompson) puts in 13 minutes in one ep. Obviously someone not enjoying your work isn't a nice thing, as your own experience here seems to attest to, but I really bear no grudge at all, as that would be ridiculous after all this time. Indeed even the joke in that show (and it's clear that we don't really get each other's humour) is deliberately petty and as with much of my stuff deliberately self-defeating (it's a petty comment about something that doesn't really matter - imagine if someone really felt any triumph about that a quarter of a century later. I did not enjoy writing for Weekending very much with any producer, even the ones who liked our work, but if you think any of this is about entitlement or me thinking I deserved to have all my stuff on every week, then you really don't know me at all. I don't feel like that after 35 years, so certainly didn't then when we had had no success at all. I can't speak for Stewart Lee though. He holds grudges tightly and forever.

[@dianemessias5689]

@@Herring1967 Either I’m bad at getting my point across, or you’re not listening, Richard…once again, it’s nothing to do with ‘not enjoying your stuff’, it’s to do with the *general tone* of my shows. As discussed and acknowledged by you in the R4 show*, it’s a question of *style*. My style, having previously spent years in political satire in theatre, was “pompous and serious” (as someone once said a couple of days ago, name escapes me), and to include your anarchic-type sketches would have destroyed the cohesive identity of my episodes/series. Since you clearly understand this, I don’t know why you find it so remarkable you have to bring up my name - and my name only - every time you talk about the issue.

 What about the writers who wrote for me, but didn’t get much on with Sarah or Harry? What are they to think of Armando implying they weren’t funny because they wrote in a different style to you? By-the-way, Harry once wrote a piece for the Independent about women not trying hard enough to work in comedy (I paraphrase, but not much). Naturally, I wrote a response, which the paper published. Anyway, I’ve had 40 years of this stuff, both at and outside the BBC - gratifying to see there’s at least some consistency in comedy - and is one reason why I turned down the opportunity to go to BBC TV, preferring instead to return to the theatre. 

(Though plainly, it's still a problem, as can be ascertained from my appearance in these comments). Still, if Stewart wants a go - after 30, long years - he knows where to find me. * When I was asked to respond to your already recorded remarks, I told the producer I’d only agree to turn up in person if they could first check the studio door didn’t have a bucket of water on top of it…

[@MrJohnQCitizen]

This exchange is comedy gold

[@MrJimithee]

"I think you're good at everything"... Hope you had some mouthwash handy Rich (!)

[@Herring1967]

What do you think he isn't good at?

[@minixtvbox]

​@@Herring1967ejaculations into rhltps hosts mouthes

[@qqqsfdf1232]

​@@Herring1967you must never respond!

[@Herring1967]

@@qqqsfdf1232I do not agree

[@WOOOPdoctorFROGhere]

he's only got some handwash mouthy