The Day Today

This is a satirical parody of news and current affairs television programmes. Chris Morris, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Front, Doon Mackichan, Patrick Marber and David Schneider play various characters.

There are six episodes. They were shown in January and February 1994 on BBC Two.

The Day Today was NOT trying to fool veiwers. It was a satirical portrayal of the american style of news reporting, where the producers value ratings above the truth. Sadly, this is what UK news is becoming.

It's not really a news spoof. It is a sketch show like Monty Python's Flying Circus was. The sketches are held together by the news format. It is a reminder of the happy days of the BBC, when the suits took chances, and they paid off like this did.

The day today was recently repeated on the British cable/satellite channel UKG2. I didn't manage to see the programme before, but I am a fan of Chris Morris and had been awaiting this repeat for some time. I thought it was brilliant and I think the BBC should have repeated it, as they were the network that originally screened the show. The absurdity of some of the "reports" was fantastic. The ideas of a soap opera being set in a bureau de change or the war correspondent kicking the door down of a house, shooting a woman and setting up broadcasting equipment was so surreal, it made it obviously not a real news report. The closest things to reality were the graphics and Chris Morris' portrayal of the newsreader [the graphics only were if you ignored the voiceovers of stupid phrases and the newsreader only if you ignored the madness of the news stories.]It was excellently written with a near-perfect cast and it even spawned a major character, Alan Partridge [whose segments were not that funny in my opinion.] Going back to previously, most of the acting was realistic, the things the actors were depicting wasn't.

The first time I sat down to watch The day today,it was by accident as I was looking for the news... I got the news but with a hysterical slant on this country with it! I continued to watch every week and enjoyed it more each week. (Although I didn't think it would be possible) Chris Morris' mix of news and complete jiberish has you not only laughing wildly but also wondering if you will come out of the other end of this episode with your sanity in tact... then enters spoof sports presenter Alan Partridge, just like every sports news presenter he appears to know about as much about sport as a bunch of grapes in a bag, but still gives an incredibly enthusistic report on Luton, um... "Hitting a goal!" At this point you KNOW that your sanity will at least be dented! Along with spoofs of green reports, an in-studio philosopher +even a "Day today exclusive war" you learn nothing about day to day news, (although you don't from most other news shows either!) but you do realise how odd the things are that make you laugh.

The only criticism I could possibly have of this great programme is it's one season running time. It was a loss to british comedy.

This is the greatest piece of news-spoofery ever made. The team behind it have made many satirical programmes for the UK, bu this is their finest outing.

Based on news broadcasting in the UK, this programme mocked, spoofed and ridiculed all those involved in sloppy and lazy news. Although over 4 years old, the videos still sell, and more discover the genius of Chris Morris.