everyone who's a fan of comedy has heard of the brilliance of the day today (mostly in criticism of that awful news parody from last year :lol:), however heres the characters and some other shows on a similar theme that you might have forgot

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/The_Day_Today.jpg

 

The Day Today

 

Chris Morris (Chris Morris) - The anchor man. Chris is a professional, and knows what he is talking about. His vast desk has several computers giving him the news instantly from around the world. He is always confrontational and aggressive. Possibly based on Jeremy Paxman.

 

Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) - Sports correspondent. Alan is an old-school Tory who will often say the worst thing at the worst possible time. He has no knowledge of the sports he is covering, and mostly gets away with it by using complex metaphors, endless cliché and sheer bluff.

 

Collately Sisters (Doon Mackichan) - Business correspondent. Collately seemingly suffers from a bizarre series of tics, and talks complete nonsense about the world of business. She uses big graphics to get her points across, mainly when doing the currency market, using such things as the, "Currency Cat." Hated by Chris.

 

Sylvester Stuart (David Schneider) - The weatherman. The only part of Sylvester we see is his head, which often floats on a graphic background. He never describes the weather forecast straighforwardly, instead using metaphors such as "That's about as warm as going into a heated drawing room after chopping some wood."

 

Barbara Wintergreen (Rebecca Front) - Correspondent on The Day Today's American sister channel CBN. Barbara often reports on very strange stories, most of them concerning the executions of mass murderer Chapman Baxter (Patrick Marber). Her reports also include a lot of rather poor puns.

 

Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan (Patrick Marber) - Economic correspondent. Of all the characters, it is Peter who is clearly more incompetent than any other member of the team, perhaps even more than Alan. He is constantly making stupid mistakes, and often incurs Chris' displeasure.

 

Rosy May (Rebecca Front) - Environment correspondent. Bearded lady Rosy May presents the, "Enviromation," slot. Her stories are always impossible, from the sky becoming loose from the horizon, to liquid fire.

 

Jacques-"Jacques" Liverot (Patrick Marber) - Resident French commentator. Jacques will comment on the news throughout the program, using a series of impenetrable pseudo-existentialist bons mots.

 

Valerie Sinatra (Rebecca Front) - Travel correspondent. Valerie works in The Day Today travel tower, located a mile above the centre of Great Britain. The traffic reports cover accidents that are truly bizarre, such as a piece of pie blocking the road. She is the object of Chris' unrequited desire.

 

Brant (David Schneider) - The psychical cartoonist from The Daily Telegraph. Brant satrises the news using cartoon backgrounds and then acting what is going on in the cartoon itself. Each cartoon ends with his signature.

 

Ted Maul (Chris Morris) - The roving reporter who later appears in Brass Eye made his first appearance here as a roving reporter. A moustachioed veteran who speaks in an overblown, aggressive way and makes big stories from other peoples' suffering.

 

other shows:

 

The Glam Metal Detectives

 

The Glam Metal Detectives was a comedy show combining both sketch and sitcom elements, produced by the BBC in 1995. It was heavily promoted by the BBC but, possibly due to its attempts to innovate and combine genres, failed to catch the public imagination and only lasted one series of six episodes.

 

It was directed by Peter Richardson and starred Gary Beadle, Phil Cornwell, Doon Mackichan (playing most of the female roles), Sara Stockbridge, George Yiasoumi, and Mark Craven.

 

The show was designed to appear as if the viewer was channel surfing through a multi-channel wasteland, happening upon spoof adverts, short sketches, and recurring show elements. Like other BBC content of the mid-1990s (most notably KYTV), it often lampooned the harsh and low-quality satellite television available in the UK at the time.

 

Show segments included:

 

The Glam Metal Detectives themselves. A rock group charged with the mission of "saving the planet's ecology with your top-selling records", they would fight the evil media mogul Royston Brockade in between gigs. This segment combined elements of the cultish, kitsch and televisual trash in an unpredictable manner.

Betty's Mad Dash - a supposed 1950s adventure serials, set in the 1930s, about two flappers, Betty and Maisie on the run from the police. Each episode involved hiding from the police in some period location and robbing from people at gunpoint.

 

Bloodsports - a short segment portraying violent UK topics such as ram raiding as if they were recognised sports, complete with commentators.

 

Running From Death - an innovative attempt at self-parody, which saw the group running from the Grim Reaper. Each episode would include this sequence, which always bore a remarkable similarity to the chase sequence in the Betty's Mad Dash section, ending with the group robbing the Grim Reaper at gunpoint. The appearance of the Grim Reaper in the show is said to have been inspired by that of the director's friend Allan Yates.

 

The Big Me - a chat show parody featuring Morag, who was extremely self-obsessed and egomanaical, ignoring her guests and instead talking about herself.

 

Colin Corleone - a nondescript Londoner who acted as if he was as a mafia godfather, complete with henchmen; for example, when his dole is cut off because he refuses to work in Do It All, he arranges a 'hit' on the DSS office worker, shooting him with a water pistol while he has his lunch.

 

In other media

 

A record single, video of the first series and magazine was produced by Marvel UK to accompany the series.

 

The one shot magazine special was published by Marvel UK to conincide with the launch of the show. It mirrored the channel hopping style of the show by featuring various different magazine formats and comic book styles. The Special was co-written by Peter Richardson, Robert Popper, the cast of the show and the mag's editor - David Leach. It featured the artwork - of among others Lew Stringer, David Leach and the late Art Wetherall. The Magazine - also used the same artwork for its cover that was used for the show's opening titles and subsequent video release. The special was intended to test the waters for a regular title should the show have been a success, but alas it wasn't.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Kytvlogo.jpg

 

KYTV was a UK television comedy show that ran on BBC2 from 1989 to 1993, which satirised satellite television in the UK at the time.

 

History

 

The show was effectively the TV version of Radio Active, which spoofed local radio stations, and was developed by the same team.

 

It was written by Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins, produced by Jamie Rix, directed by John Kilby and John Stroud, and with music by Philip Pope.

 

It starred:

 

Angus Deayton as Mike Channel

Helen Atkinson-Wood as Anna Daptor

Michael Fenton Stevens as Martin Brown

Geoffrey Perkins as Mike Flex

Philip Pope as various characters

 

The pilot show was broadcast on 12 May 1989, and a series of 6 programmes began on 3 May 1990. A second season of 6 began on 17 March 1992, and a final 6 episodes was broadcast between 17 September and 22 October 1993, plus an additional Children in Need special, for a total of 19 episodes.

 

In 1992 the series won the Silver Rose and the Special Prize of the City of Montreux at the Festival Rose d'Or for the "Good Morning Calais" episode. Also, in the DVD commentary for The Micallef Programme, lead writer and performer Shaun Micallef cites this series as an inspiration for his show's format.

 

 

Format

 

KYTV combined irreverent sketches and variety elements (such as song and dance routines) with a broad-based satire of the public perception of UK satellite television - that of opportunistic entrepreneurs producing cheap, low quality television in order to exploit viewers.

 

KYTV was supposedly a low-budget satellite television station named after its alleged owner Sir Kenneth Yellowhammer, and bore a suspicious similarity to Sky Television. The name KYTV is actually a joke itself which becomes more apparent when it is pronounced in full, i.e. KY Telly to sound like KY Jelly (a lubrication used for sexual purposes).

 

In the second series KYTV merged with "BSE Television", just as Sky merged with BSB. The third series featured parodies of Carlton Television's early logos.

 

Each episode featured a central theme (for example, a terrorist siege, the Channel Tunnel, or a costume drama) which sketches could revolve around.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/640/kytv_1.jpg

 

Comedic elements included:

 

malfunctioning equipment

 

rolling news channels with little content or analysis (a similar technique to that later used in Brass Eye)

sensationalist and dumbed down shows ("Murder. Gruesome, bloody murder. Coming right up, after the break. Tell your neighbours.")

 

underpaid, incompetent and amatuerish staff

 

lavish "showcase sequences" compared to shoddy, makeshift visuals or unfinished sets

 

endless repeats of imported or old (and therefore cheap) programmes as an attempt to fill yawning gulfs of airtime

 

relentless commercial instrusions, including plugs for shopping channels ("By the way Mike, that's a very smart tie you have on!" "Yes, and it's only £18.99 at Sofa Shop!")

 

There was also an unacknowledged political element; terrestrial television was in the early stages of competing with companies such as Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting and BSB, and the series can be read as indirect criticism of satellite programming.

 

Interestingly, in following years the BBC expanded into the arena of digital television, and using similar strategies to that lampooned in the programme.

 

so what's your fave chris morris moment?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/640/daytoday_2.jpg

 

Best Alan Partridge line?

 

Did Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan do it for you?

 

and do the other shows ring any bells (no doubt they will be out on nettwork dvd before long!!!! well when they've run out of 1970s episodes of bless this house!!! :lol: :lol: )

chris martin was very funny, yip, i love tdt...