Series 2 didn't pull into the platform until 2002, by which time Graham Linehan was absent writing Black Books. But Arthur Matthews maintains the quality of the first series on the whole--the man with oversized hands, the creepy cult questionnaire, the zookeeper's recruitment agency--adding some spot-on French ar...
WHAT A CAST, 2010-03-26
Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap, Amelia Bullmore, Julia Davis, Rebecca Front, Traceyann Oberman, Phil Cornwell and Catherine Tate, with this cast alone its got to be worth seeing never mind the brilliant writing by the now legendary writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews. This is not for everyones taste so My family fans you may want to stay away, but if you like silly, surreal or over the top sketch show humour this could be for you.
And for this price its a laugh a minute bargin

The appalled look on actor Kevin Eldon's face in the opening sketch of the series, as a young couple invite him to endure being buggered by a mutual acquaintance ("I need a break"), sets the tone. Rape, chemotherapy, wanton urination--as a naked "Robert Kilroy-Silk" goes insane in a sketch full of detestation for the oleaginous TV presenter--and recurring sketches involving callously authoritarian NHS doctors, all go to make up these annals of the...
Classic, 2010-07-19
Missed it when it was first aired.
Jam is now a classic surreal comedy.
10/10

Brass Eye satirises a media far too interested in generating dramatic heat and urgency for its own sake than in shedding light on serious issues. Morris mimics perfectly the house style of programmes such as Newsnight and Crimewatch, with their spurious props and love of gimmickry. Meanwhile his presenter--an uncanny composite of Jeremy Paxman, Michael Buerk and Richard Madeley among others--delivers absurd items about man-fighting weasels in the East End and Lear-esque lines such as "the twisted brain wrong of a one-off man mental" with preposterously solemn authority. Mu...
Chris Morris at his best, 2010-07-14
Chris Morris had already made 'On the Hour' for radio and 'The Day Today' for television before he produced 'Brass Eye' for Channel 4 in 1997. 'The Day Today' had seemed like the ultimate spoof current affairs magazine when it was shown in 1994, but 'Brass Eye' was even more inspired. This series of spoof documentaries tackles a series of contemporary issues such as crime, drugs and child abuse. Given the sensitive nature of some of the topics covered, it was hardly surprising that the series came in for a lot of criticism, but it is consistently very funny, and at the same time it manages to make a lot of valid points about the way television news reporters operate.

Brass Eye satirises a media far too interested in generating dramatic heat and urgency for its own sake than in shedding light on serious issues. Morris mimics perfectly the house style of programmes such as Newsnight and Crimewatch, with their spurious props and love of gimmickry. Meanwhile his presenter--an uncanny composite of Jeremy Paxman, Michael Buerk and Richard Madeley among others--delivers absurd items about man-fighting weasels in the East End and Lear-esque lines such as "the twisted brain wrong of a one-off man mental" with preposterously solemn authority. Mu...
Chris Morris at his best, 2010-07-14
Chris Morris had already made 'On the Hour' for radio and 'The Day Today' for television before he produced 'Brass Eye' for Channel 4 in 1997. 'The Day Today' had seemed like the ultimate spoof current affairs magazine when it was shown in 1994, but 'Brass Eye' was even more inspired. This series of spoof documentaries tackles a series of contemporary issues such as crime, drugs and child abuse. Given the sensitive nature of some of the topics covered, it was hardly surprising that the series came in for a lot of criticism, but it is consistently very funny, and at the same time it manages to make a lot of valid points about the way television news reporters operate.

Aired on Channel 4 in 2000, written by Chris Morris and featuring the same team as its radio precursor, jam pushes the boundaries of television comedy further than any other show has done for many years.

jam retains the same macabre subject matter and ambient soundtracks as Blue Jam and presents the material in a sequence of distorted, disorienting visuals.