The Day Today : Complete BBC Series (2 Disc Set) [1994]

First broadcast in 1994, the show's format is Newsnight-meets-Crimewatch in Hell. A ridiculously protracted title sequence and melodramatic headline announcements introduce Morris' demented, Jeremy Paxman-a-like anchorman, who simpers to the viewers while castigating on-air his useless reporter Peter O'Hanraha'hanrahan. The vacant Collatallie Sisters turns financial news into a Dadaist nightmare of meaningless statistics, graphically illustrated by the currency cat or the finance arse; while American journo Barbara Wintergreen's reports from Death Row are just scary and absurd enough to be completely believable. Also making his TV debut here is Steve Coogan's legendary sports caster Alan Partridge, with his appalling sports reporting, his cringe-inducing misunderstandings and his sheer blunt-headed stupidity (many of the same team, sans Morris, would reunite the following year for Knowing Me, Knowing You). Sketches such as the spoof soap "The Bureau" and the spoof docu-soap "The Pool" also betray the writing skills of Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews, creators of Father Ted.

On the DVD: The Day Today arrives as a two-disc set with all six episodes on the first disc. The second disc has a handful of fairly brief but still enjoyable extras: here you will find "Mini News" features in full and the complete versions of "The Pool" and "The Office" documentaries--the latter now looking like a brilliant premonition of the more famous Ricky Gervais vehicle. There's a rather dull Open University programme about the craft of TV journalism which uses extracts from The Day Today and is truthfully entitled "Po-Faced Analysis". Best of all is the complete original Pilot episode, plus a marvellous post-programme update in which Morris telephones a befuddled American McDonald's employee as if he was a crewmember of a sunken US submarine. Picture and sound quality are standard for a BBC show from the early 1990s. In summary: dispassionate. --Mark Walker

Other gems include Alan Partridge reporting live from the rally driving championships, Barbara Wintergreen's report from Florida state penitentiary and the coverage on the outbreak of "War!". But there are really far too many classic moments to list. It's all one long laugh from beginning to end and is a must for anybody who enjoys top class comedy!

Peter, you're lying in a news grave!


Playing Game Warden to the news Rhino.   May 5, 2004
russell clarke (halifax, west yorks)
22 out of 27 found this review helpful

This DVD has been released on the 10th anniversary of “The Day Today”, a programme that evolved from a Radio 4 show “On the Hour”. It was originally shown on BBC2 with so little fanfare that many people watched the first show convinced it was a rather surreal current affairs programme.
The wonderful thing about “The Day Today” as a parody is it is barely discernible from its source material which allied to its forensic attention to detail makes it such rewarding viewing, not to mention the fact it’s as funny as a well oiled wombat in a ball pool.
It,s blessed with a rich array of comic creations from Chris Morris’s Paxmanesque anchor person to it’s incompetent reporter Peter O,Hanraha-Harahan (“Peter….you’ve lost the news”) to the wincingly accurate financial jargon spewed out by the robotic Collaterly Sisters to of course blundering sports reporter Alan Partridge, whose TV debut this was. The programme like “Blackadder”before it uses language brilliantly. From the ridiculous headlines-”Simon Rattle lost in cress”- to its wonderful cast of supporting characters, Ted Maul, Beverly Smax, Remedy Malahide it twists the narrative of the news genre to spectacular new shapes.
Technically it’s fantastic too. The shows look perfectly mirrors that of a frontline news programme right through to its use of the eye-popping totalitarian graphics that spew from Chris Morris’s mouth or unfold like some Dadaist nightmare on the opening titles. American news footage has that queasy yellow tone that we are so familiar with while the music always has that air of portentous self importance so beloved of the news media.
The material is carefully balanced on the edge of the credible, but some of it is scarily prescient. It’s docu-soap “The Pool” seems eerily familiar in this age of reality TV while the fact its tacky soap “The Bureau “so resembles “Eastenders should be of concern to the producers of that particular show….”Eastenders” that is , not “The Bureau” Some of the segments are so good as to enter the realms of the dazzlingly fabulous. Morris’s exceptional parody of MTV is something else. With it’s wacky Euro presenter and its rapper “Far Q” (Whose song “Uzi Lover” is so accurate yet hilarious that I nearly choked on my supper the first time I saw it) who comes to the conclusion “You cant kill everyone..cos there’ll be no one left to respect” its satire so spot on you’d think MTV would shut down in shame. Partridge’s World Cup Special is…well..special. With his incomprehensible method of explaining the group system he ties himself in more knots of his own creation, while his commentary is priceless, “T***” he screams as one goal flies in. One game of football “Cannot be stopped”.
The DVD has some great extras with original trailers plus some new items. Morris interviewing a McDonalds employee in the belief he’s a crewman on a stricken submarine , and some new audio pieces one of which is the hapless O Hanraha Hanrahan covering events on 9/11 while being totally unaware that anything momentous has occurred.
What “the Day Today” most accurately captures is the po-faced solemnity and gravity with which the news is covered yet the almost rapacious glee it takes when events of major importance occur. This is best illustrated when Morris relentlessly harangues a guest until she is reduced to tears and when he cleverly plays two nations off against each other till they declare war in which event the studio instantly springs into war-mode with smart cameras on bombs and reporters that actually join in the fighting.
The news has recently been shunted sideways in the schedules as if it realised how ridiculous it had become and wanted to avoid further embarrassment. Can you take the weather seriously after Sebastian Stewart’s forecasts?” In summary then….Breezes” Every one of these six episodes is a gem “Top Gits” in my house..


Those are the headlines, God I wish they weren't   May 12, 2004
22 out of 23 found this review helpful

Yes, well, I don't normally write about things with loads of reviews already like this but I was just reading through them and didn't understand half of the things they say. Never mind.

The Day Today is a brilliantly observed spoof news programme. Featuring Chris Morris, one revered by his fans and unheard of by most normal people, it also contains Alan Partridge's TV debut and a strong cast and writing team that almost all went on to become big names in "alternative" comedy.

It's main strength is it's accuracy. Ever since watching it, I can rarely watch the news without laughing at how like TDT these programmes are. Morris's arrogant anchorman is more like Jeremy Paxman than Jeremy Paxman, and his various reporters' voices are absolutely spot on, reading their reports with solemn self-important authority. The rest of the cast are brilliant too, most have been mentioned but I absolutely adore Rebecca Front as Babara Wintergeen and the way she pouts at the end of all of her reports!

They also manage to satarise the whole "fly on the wall" documentary brilliantly, as well as the soap opera and MTV. All in just six episodes!

Other than that, the humour is very surreal, with reports about the Bank of England losing the pound and making an emergency currency based on the Queen's eggs. Sounds strange? You should hear some of the headlines, "Bouncing Elephantitus destroys central Portsmouth" being one of my favourites.

The extras are very good, though it's a shame rumours of a cast commentary in character turned out to be false. Still, the extended versions of 'the pool' and 'the office' are nice, and the Pilot episode is very interesting.

I would recommend this whole-heartedly to anyone, I'm sure everyone would recognise all the characters in it from the news and find it funny. Fans of silly surreal humour would like it particularly, as would anyone who finds self-important news programmes annoying! Believe the hype, this is a satirical gem.


Pure Genius   May 1, 2004
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

This is the funniest TV series ever! It's like Newsnight on acid. From Alan Partridge's pathetic sports slots to Eugene Fraxby's report on Bomb Dogs (my fave) make sure you have a spare face because you'll wear yours out laughing. I laughed so much I now have a six-pack arnie would be proud of. This DVD is pure comedy genius and it should be illegal not to own it. Even if the DVD only had Chris Morris's superb skit on 999 for 3 hours it would still be worth buying. There is also a few morsels of new material in the shape of conversations between Morris and Alan Partridge and Morris and Peter O'Hanaraha-Hanarahan if you leave the menu screen alone for a few minutes.

However, you may find this DVD produces a very powerful sensation in your brain and body because fact into doubt won't go.


utterly stupid, utterly brilliant   March 24, 2004
11 out of 39 found this review helpful

Anyone familiar with Steve Coogan ("24 Hour Party People" and "I'm Alan Partridge") will surely appreciate his comic genius. His embarrasingly clumsy and niave character, Alan Partridge, is one you will either love or hate. His hilariously offensive language and manner (similar to David Brent of equally brilliant "The Office") will have you both cringing and wanting more.

From the word go the audience is presented with the superbly over-the-top introduction and memorable catchphrases such as "fact me till i fart" and "ULTRA news". The utterly stupid and pointless news stories perfectly reflect the irrelivent news stories sometimes featured in real life; in both news and to a greater extent the press. It is a shame that so few episodes were made but each and every one is satirical gold dust.

The Day Today is one of those rare comidies that stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of "Faulty Towers" and "Monty Python". In other words they should never have been discontinued.