CULT FACTION

For all your cult film, tv, cartoon, comic and video game needs

The Day Today

In 1994 people got confused about the news! Was it real? How could they report this? Who would let this on the air? There was mass confusion! This was The Day Today!

The show was created  by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and spun off from their radio show On The Hour. It consisted of six episodes which were broadcast from 19th January to 23rd February 1994 on BBC2 in the UK.

The Day Today was presented to the TV audience as a real news programme which each episode presenting a combination of over-the-top news stories that were covered with a serious, pseudo-professional attitude.

Each episode revolves around one or two major stories which unravel through the length of the programme. Other stories often popped up through th show to break up the programme. In addition, the programme dips into other channels from time to time, presents clips of fictitious upcoming BBC programmes, and conducts street interviews with members of the public, in a segment titled “Speak Your Brains”.

The programme frequently comments on other programmes, most often a spoof soap opera called “The Bureau”, set in a 24-hour bureau de change, incorporating clichéd soap opera-style plots, which apparently produces and airs 2,000 episodes between the first and third segments of The Day Today and becomes a hit in Italy.
 Furthermore, the programme also contains clips from a spoof documentary series called “The Pool”, featuring a public swimming pool and its neurotic staff, Morris’ character explaining that The Day Today has funded a documentary on every public building in the country. The final episode features reports from the fictitious documentary “The Office”, which follows office workers as they go on a retreat with an efficiency expert. Other non-news segments of the programme include the occasional “physical cartoons” of current events set in the studio.
 Chris Morris frequently parodies entirely separate channels, including “RokTV” (spoofing MTV); reporting on the fictitious and psychotically violent African-American rapper “Fur-Q”; and “Genutainment”, a segment which reports on a sheepdog averting a helicopter disaster (a parody of the real-life rescue show 999).
 It also featured a Sports Caster by the name of Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) – wonder what happened to him?
Related Posts
ÅŒgon Bat

Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more

Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger

Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger was Toei Company's 37th entry in its long-running Super Sentai Series. It aired from February 17th 2013 to February 9th 2014 for 49 episodes. Long ago in the Read more

Zorro’s Fighting Legion

Zorro's Fighting Legion is a 1939 Republic Pictures film serial consisting of twelve chapters. It features Reed Hadley as Zorro. The plot revolves around his alter-ego Don Diego's fight against Read more

Zork: The Great Underground Empire – Part I (1980)

Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more

Zoolander 2 trailer released

Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more

Zontar, the Thing from Venus (1966)

At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more

Zone Troopers (1985)

In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more

Zone Fighter

Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more

Zombo – You Smell of Crime And I’m the Deodorant

When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more

Zombies-Outlive The Undead trailer released

Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more

Zombiegeddon (2003)

Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more

Zombie Hotel

Zombie Hotel ran for twenty-six episodes in 2006 and focuses on Fungus and Maggot - two child zombies who pretend to be human to get into their local school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzXhCDspKxU Read more

Zomben #1

After surviving the 'Multipocalypse', Ben tries to live a normal life, hiding the fact that he is infected with a zombie plague. His new friends have just found out ... Read more

Zombee

A dutiful Samurai, a madcap Ninja and a bizarro Zen Monk team up to battle the undead in Feudal Japan. Can these unlikely allies stay friends long enough to stop Read more

Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999)

Based on Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen's book of the same name, Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century was directed by Kenneth Johnson and set in the year 2049. It Read more

Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010)

Arriving in 2010, Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City was the sequel for 2004's Zebraman, and starred Show Aikawa once again as Shinichi Ichikawa/Zebraman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqnYJugzaiU As the film opens it Read more

Zebraman (2004)

Directed by Takashi Miike, Zebraman follows Shinichi Ichikawa (Shô Aikawa), a man whose life is unravelling before his eyes. At work he is a failing school teacher and at home he Read more

Zazie Beetz to Play Domino in Deadpool 2

Ryan Reynolds announced via Twitter that Zazie Beets (Atlanta) will play Domino in the upcoming Deadpool sequel: https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds/status/839947701487796224 Deadpool 2 will be directed by David Leitch (John Wick), with original Deadpool scripters Rhett Reese Read more

Zardoz (1974)

Zardoz, often referred to as "the one where James Bond is in his pants," is set in a future post-apocalypse Earth in the year 2293. By this point in history Read more

Zapped Season 3 Ep. 1: Circus

Dave's obscure fantasy series Zapped returns for a third season where Brian (James Buckley) is still trapped in Munty but has managed to escape the assassin who was trying to kill Read more

Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...

Discover more from CULT FACTION

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading