The Colbert Report - UK

Last year I commented on how we in the UK are poorly served in terms of topical satirical comedy on television by comparison to the US.

Since then, Marcus Brigstocke’s The Late Edition on BBC4 has continued to stagger on with only occasional success. Comedian and musician Mitch Benn, (and colleague of Brigstocke on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show), has a theory on why there’s no true British equivalent of Real Time with Bill Maher or The Daily Show.

the main reason we can’t reproduce Real Time or The Daily Show (particularly The Daily Show) is the fundamental difference between US TV news and UK TV news… There’s an odd sort of inversion between Britain and America, news-wise; we have some of the worst newspapers in the world in terms of bias, sensationalism and prurience, but by and large our TV news is calm, objective and responsible. Over there their newspapers pride themselves on mature and serious journalism while their TV news consists of hysterical punditry, speculation, editorial and (in the case of Fox News) straightforward propaganda. Marcus can aspire to Jon Stewart’s level of wit and perspicacity but what he simply doesn’t have is CNN, MSNBC and Fox shoveling material at him on an hourly basis. Our TV news just isn’t that ridiculous.
Mitch Benn

This could change, if David Cameron’s policy on scrapping impartiality rules for news broadcasting except the BBC are to be believed. Thankfully however, the Fox News style hasn’t reached British shores yet, but the parody already has, as cable channel FX has bought the UK rights to air American satirical news show The Colbert Report.

Between them, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are two essential viewings for me, and being able to watch them on UK screens is fantastic. They are, far and away the best television programs broadcast on either side of the Atlantic.

In my earlier post, I asked why we didn’t have a British version of either show, and didn’t really come to a satisfactory answer. Well British comedian John Oliver, who works on the Daily Show, wrote the following in The Independent which I think answers the question perfectly

Why can we not produce a show like this in Britain? That’s the question continuously posed by TV executives shortly before destroying any attempt to do so. The answer is that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why we can’t. But it takes standing by the courage of your artistic convictions. The whole script on The Daily Show passes through Jon Stewart, which gives the show a sense of integrity and a unified voice. To get yourself into the kind of position where you can demand this from a broadcaster takes hard work and cojones of steel. Especially when the broadcaster is Viacom - hardly a company known for its philanthropic investment in cutting-edge comedy.
John Oliver, The Independent

I honestly believe The Late Edition could become the British answer to Colbet/Daily Show, but it needs access to News 24, and Sky News to find its comedy material.

For example, last week Sky News’ Kay Burley interviewed Alyson Rudd, (Times Sports Writer) who, stated that the Manchester riots were due to: “no border controls from Scotland”. This is where a true journalist should have jumped in and questioned this point, but Burley didn’t challenge Rudd on this claim, and smiled like an idiot whilst Rudd went on to state that if you have 200 lawyers at a conference, “one or two would go overboard with the alcohol and beat up a Police Man”.

Let us not forget that when Burley interviewed Pamela Wright, the estranged wife of the Ipswich murderer Steven Wright, Burley asked, “…so you think if you’d had a better sex life, he wouldn’t have done this?”

Burley has a history of poor judgement, and yet remains on the screen.

The Colbert Report is on FX, Tuesdays to Fridays at 11pm. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is on More 4 Monday-Friday at 8.30pm.