Put your rain coats on everyone...

[Paul]

...Monty's going to get very "excited":

 

Now Chris Morris sees the funny side of suicide bombers

By Cahal Milmo

 

The Independent, 17 March 2007

 

First there was drug use as comedy. Then came paedophilia as entertainment. Now it seems the satirist Chris Morris is preparing to demolish one last comic taboo - suicide bombers.

 

Channel 4 has confirmed that it is working on a film with Morris, variously seen as the genius and villain behind the Brass Eye series, which will examine what a casting sheet describes as "a bunch of Pakistani lads living in Britain now".

 

The channel, which is still feeling the reverberations of the race row surrounding Celebrity Big Brother, insisted the television film was "in the early stages" and no script had yet been written.

 

But the leaked casting note for the project, due to start filming this summer and directed by Morris, describes one of the characters as being "the sort of guy who'd protest against cartoons in a bomb belt". Another source said the film would look at "suicide [attacks] with at least some of the dark humour that Chris excels at".

 

News of the project comes after Morris, who famously parodied the mainstream media's attitude to paedophilia in a Brass Eye special in 2001, told an audience last week that he wanted to make "the comedy version of United 93" - the award-winning film about the airliner destined for the White House on 9/11 which crashed in a field after a passenger revolt. Members of the audience at Bournemouth University said that the remark was laden with irony, but it is the latest evidence that the comedian, who has kept a low profile since the height of Brass Eye's popularity, is looking to explore Islamic extremism.

 

He was seen at a debate on what motivated al-Qa'ida. When asked about the "war on terror", he has said: "There are many eminently mockable things about it. I'm just not sure what you could do with it all."

 

Unknown actors for the film are being sought in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow ahead of shooting in the capital and the north of England.

 

The casting note, obtained by a fan website, Cookd and Bombd, states: "A TV film about a bunch of Pakistani lads living in Britain now. It's about what they do for work, for play, what they believe, how they relate to their parents, families, the culture around them, their sense of heritage." The document describes seven characters aged from 17 to 38 who are variously described as not good with people, fearless, mouthy and mad and brooding. The youngest character is "insanely intense, bright, very focused, blind to anything he's not focused on, small seething boffin".

 

A Channel 4 spokesman said yesterday: "Chris Morris is currently at the early stage of development of several projects with Channel 4. No script has been written. He always involves actors at an early stage to develop his ideas."

 

The satirist has previously said he is not interested in returning to the stunt parody style perfected in Brass Eye, which lampooned celebrities by persuading them take part in spoof documentaries on subjects such as "cake", a fictitious narcotic.

 

More recently he has been involved in more-mainstream entertainment with two Channel 4 sitcoms - Nathan Barley, about an objectionable web designer, and The IT Crowd, focused on a computer support team in the basement of a corporation in London.

 

But news that Morris, who once announced the deaths of Michael Heseltine and Jimmy Savile as a joke, is returning to more hard-hitting subject matter is likely to lead to nervousness in the higher echelons of broadcasting.

 

The Brass Eye special on paedophilia provoked one of the greatest volumes of complaint in Channel 4's history. The programme, described by the Daily Mail as "the sickest TV show ever", featured child actors and various celebrities, including Phil Collins, backing the cause of a fictitious charity called Nonce Sense.

 

Broadcasting watchdogs later ruled that the programme should be shown on the ground of public interest. Channel 4 has also remained a staunch supporter of its arch controversialist. After the special edition was broadcast, a spokesman said: "We justify the programme because we think of it as a serious piece of satire. Satire is comedy with a serious purpose."

 

Breaking taboos: his highlights

 

*"CAKE", BRASS EYE, 1997: The spoof documentary featured a show about a dangerous - and fictional - drug. Public figures were persuaded to speak on camera about its evils. Bernard Manning told the show: "If you're sick on this stuff, you can puke yourself to death. One girl threw up her own pelvis."

 

* PAEDOPHILIA , BRASS EYE SPECIAL, 2001: Public figures were duped into making statements about child sex crime. The DJ Neil Fox said "paedophiles have more genes in common with crabs than they do with you and me. Now that is science fact. There's no actual evidence for it, but it's a fact."

 

* MYRA HINDLEY, BRASS EYE, 1997: Morris performed a spoof song in the style of Pulp. The lyrics included the line: "Every time I see your picture, Myra/I have to phone my latest girlfriend up and fire her/And find a prostitute who looks like you and hire her/Oh me, oh Myra."

[G Richards]

Chris Morris is a brave man. There's plenty of scope for this to go wrong.

[Strontium]

There'll be the usual tabloid outcry, but the tabloid media are the biggest bunch of hypocrites on the planet. Who can forget this genius piece of juxtaposition last time?

[Stu Monty]

He's peerless so it should make interesting watching.

[Neil G]

Chris Morris is a brave man. There's plenty of scope for this to go wrong.

 

Yep. If anyone can pull it off it's him, but this will be by far the toughest thing he's attempted.

[Stu Monty]

Yep. If anyone can pull it off it's him, but this will be by far the toughest thing he's attempted.

 

Don't see how it can be any tougher than the peadophile issue, Niel. That was more of a taboo in my opinion.

[Neil G]

Don't see how it can be any tougher than the peadophile issue, Niel. That was more of a taboo in my opinion.

 

It's not just whether something is taboo, it's the reaction it's likely to provoke from different sets of people. Paedophilia wasn't an issue that was causing friction between communities across the country.

 

It's not just Middle England who could get pissed off this time, this has the potential to be another Salman Rushdie / Danish cartoons episode. Not saying for one moment that he or anyone else should shy away from tackling things because people will get upset, but he has to get the balance spot on with this otherwise things could get ugly. He'll know that though, which is why I'm sure he's relishing the challenge.

[bri]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=W7fPu-ywN00

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gNWwLwhwP_Q

 

there are others but canne find em

[Neil G]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=W7fPu-ywN00

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gNWwLwhwP_Q

 

there are others but canne find em

 

Quality. I thought of the Brummie Terrorists when I read the thread.

 

Didn't know there was a third series of Monkey Dust, I'll have to invest in the DVD.

[Thants]

At last, something to get excited about.

[Paul]

It's not just whether something is taboo, it's the reaction it's likely to provoke from different sets of people. Paedophilia wasn't an issue that was causing friction between communities across the country.

 

It's not just Middle England who could get pissed off this time, this has the potential to be another Salman Rushdie / Danish cartoons episode. Not saying for one moment that he or anyone else should shy away from tackling things because people will get upset, but he has to get the balance spot on with this otherwise things could get ugly. He'll know that though, which is why I'm sure he's relishing the challenge.

 

Indeed he will, which is why I expect this to go closer to the bone than anything he's done before. I think it will get a massive inflammatory reaction. Isn't that the nature of true satire?

[sh#t waffle]

It was the obvious next target for Morris, and I'm sure he can pull it off. In actual fact, my only slight concern is that I think the last few things he's done have been his least funny, and I'd include the paedophilia episode of Brasseye in that, which I thought was a brilliant choice of subject but the weakest episode of Brasseye.

[Slam Daniels]

Chris Morris is a brave man. There's plenty of scope for this to go wrong.

 

Also plenty of scope for this to go right.

 

Brass Eye was hilarious and anything Chris Morris touches turns to gold.

[Neil G]

Indeed he will, which is why I expect this to go closer to the bone than anything he's done before. I think it will get a massive inflammatory reaction. Isn't that the nature of true satire?

 

Not always. True satire is about exposing hypocrisy and making people feel uncomfortable, and that can be done effectively without causing a massive outcry. With the paedophile episode, he knew there would be an outcry because he made a bunch of celebrities look like tits - that was as much the cause of the outrage as the subject matter.

 

Reading the summary of the new project though, I get the feeling it might be different, and that he won't be going all out for an outraged reaction. I really hope that's the case, because I would love to see Morris produce a really intelligent, thoughtful but vicious and biting satire, one which exposes uncomfortable truths but doesn't give people an excuse to build up a wall of noise and bluster which they can then hide behind. In other words, to leave his critics silent with no possible comeback. If he can do that it will be his greatest work yet.

[Stu Monty]

It was the obvious next target for Morris, and I'm sure he can pull it off. In actual fact, my only slight concern is that I think the last few things he's done have been his least funny, and I'd include the paedophilia episode of Brasseye in that, which I thought was a brilliant choice of subject but the weakest episode of Brasseye.

 

I'd say it was the pinnacle of the Brass Eye series. Even though he managed to get questions asked in the house of commons about the fake drug, Cake, I think that the way that they ridiculed the hysteria around peadophilia and the way it is discussed in the media was superb. I think other episodes were possibly funnier but that was the one that really showed how important those shows were. The papers the next day couldn't have proved his point more if they had actually been written by him and Iannucci.

[sh#t waffle]

I'd say it was the pinnacle of the Brass Eye series. Even though he managed to get questions asked in the house of commons about the fake drug, Cake, I think that the way that they ridiculed the hysteria around peadophilia and the way it is discussed in the media was superb. I think other episodes were possibly funnier but that was the one that really showed how important those shows were. The papers the next day couldn't have proved his point more if they had actually been written by him and Iannucci.

 

I meant it was the least funny. Not only is Brasseye the most imprortant show of the last 15 years, it's also the funniest. I'm not saying the Paedophilia episode wasn't a masterstroke in terms of highlighting the rank hypocrisy in reporting of a very sensitive subject, but I am saying it was less funny than the original episodes.

[Thants]

I meant it was the least funny. Not only is Brasseye the most imprortant show of the last 15 years, it's also the funniest. I'm not saying the Paedophilia episode wasn't a masterstroke in terms of highlighting the rank hypocrisy in reporting of a very sensitive subject, but I am saying it was less funny than the original episodes.

 

I cried for 30 mins. Honestly, my stomach hurt. Never has comedy been darker and funnier than the story of the convicted paed been sent into space, unfortunately a 6 year old boy managed to get on board.