Wozza
Shite Supporter
Chris Morris returns with C4 sitcom
John Plunkett
Wednesday December 8, 2004
It is three years since Chris Morris last scandalised certain quarters of the media with a satire on newspapers, particularly the News of the World's treatment of paedophiles.
Now Morris, who is arguably author of some of Britain's darkest comedy, is set to hit the screens again with a satire on the style-obsessed "Hoxton" culture and the London media scene.
The six-part Channel 4 sitcom, Nathan Barley, is set in the fictional district of Hosegate and features the titular Barley, a webmaster, guerrilla film-maker and "self-facilitating media node".
Other characters include Dan Ashcroft, a columnist for Sugar Ape style magazine, whose editor, Jonatton Yeah?, added the "?" by deed poll, and his sister Claire Ashcroft, a film-maker who is "furious that no one will fund her hard-hitting documentary about a choir of reformed junkies".
Barley has a "huge authentically cool record collection bought on eBay from a provider of huge authentically cool record collections, countless dolls including a suicide bomber Barbie and an mp3 jukebox featuring nothing but digitised versions of compilation tapes recorded by US college kids of the 80s."
As well as taking aim at style magazines such as iD and now defunct the Face, Nathan Barley also pokes fun at celebrity magazine Heat, Sunday supplements such as the Mail on Sunday magazine (satirised as Weekend on Sunday and featuring an unlikely cover story on Tom Paulin), and trendy style music channels.
Fictional Channel 7 is home to "rad chick VJ Dajve Bikinus" who presents a weekly music show "Snoopy Beats" and its commissioning editor Ivan Plapp, voted "best commissioning newcomer" in 2002.
Nathan Barley will begin on Channel 4 in February next year, and is written by Morris and Guardian TV critic Charlie Brooker, who created the Barley character for his TVGoHome satirical website.
It stars Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, the Perrier-award winning pair behind the Mighty Boosh, who starred in their own series on BBC3 and BBC2, and regular Morris collaborate Kevin Eldon, who appeared in Jam and Brass Eye. It also stars Nina Sosanya, who appeared in Channel 4's Teachers, and Nicholas Burns and Ben Whishaw.
After The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam and his one-off News of the World-inspired special on paedophiles, Nathan Barley may be Morris's most conventional work to date.
However, no preview tapes are available and the famously secretive Morris is keeping details of the show close to his chest. "Nathan, Dan and Claire work in the industrial conversions of Hosegate," explains the sparse press material.
"Claire no longer listens to Dan - which is a shame since he'd be the best person to warn her about Nathan. Claire is right about Dan; Dan is right about Nathan; Nathan is just wrong. He's an absolute f***ing tool.
"Nathan is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape magazine - his bible of cool."
The show's advance publicity also features clothing chain bumphuk, a "must browse for Harmony Korine, Chloe Sevigny, Julian Casablancas and Sally Gunnell"; gastropub Regime, where your food is chosen for you by "assessing your electrolytes on a sensor at your table" and the "beer is served in gourds"; and the Chimney Exchange bar, a "mecca for would-be trespassing renegades unable to discern that no one gives a flying f*** whether they're there or not".
Morris received a Bafta last year for his first short film, My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117, starring Paddy Considine. He was also nominated for a Bafta for his Brass Eye special about paedophilia, which became the second most complained about programme in the Independent Television Commission's history with 992 complaints. His last TV series, Jam, was broadcast in 2000.
John Plunkett
Wednesday December 8, 2004
It is three years since Chris Morris last scandalised certain quarters of the media with a satire on newspapers, particularly the News of the World's treatment of paedophiles.
Now Morris, who is arguably author of some of Britain's darkest comedy, is set to hit the screens again with a satire on the style-obsessed "Hoxton" culture and the London media scene.
The six-part Channel 4 sitcom, Nathan Barley, is set in the fictional district of Hosegate and features the titular Barley, a webmaster, guerrilla film-maker and "self-facilitating media node".
Other characters include Dan Ashcroft, a columnist for Sugar Ape style magazine, whose editor, Jonatton Yeah?, added the "?" by deed poll, and his sister Claire Ashcroft, a film-maker who is "furious that no one will fund her hard-hitting documentary about a choir of reformed junkies".
Barley has a "huge authentically cool record collection bought on eBay from a provider of huge authentically cool record collections, countless dolls including a suicide bomber Barbie and an mp3 jukebox featuring nothing but digitised versions of compilation tapes recorded by US college kids of the 80s."
As well as taking aim at style magazines such as iD and now defunct the Face, Nathan Barley also pokes fun at celebrity magazine Heat, Sunday supplements such as the Mail on Sunday magazine (satirised as Weekend on Sunday and featuring an unlikely cover story on Tom Paulin), and trendy style music channels.
Fictional Channel 7 is home to "rad chick VJ Dajve Bikinus" who presents a weekly music show "Snoopy Beats" and its commissioning editor Ivan Plapp, voted "best commissioning newcomer" in 2002.
Nathan Barley will begin on Channel 4 in February next year, and is written by Morris and Guardian TV critic Charlie Brooker, who created the Barley character for his TVGoHome satirical website.
It stars Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, the Perrier-award winning pair behind the Mighty Boosh, who starred in their own series on BBC3 and BBC2, and regular Morris collaborate Kevin Eldon, who appeared in Jam and Brass Eye. It also stars Nina Sosanya, who appeared in Channel 4's Teachers, and Nicholas Burns and Ben Whishaw.
After The Day Today, Brass Eye, Jam and his one-off News of the World-inspired special on paedophiles, Nathan Barley may be Morris's most conventional work to date.
However, no preview tapes are available and the famously secretive Morris is keeping details of the show close to his chest. "Nathan, Dan and Claire work in the industrial conversions of Hosegate," explains the sparse press material.
"Claire no longer listens to Dan - which is a shame since he'd be the best person to warn her about Nathan. Claire is right about Dan; Dan is right about Nathan; Nathan is just wrong. He's an absolute f***ing tool.
"Nathan is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape magazine - his bible of cool."
The show's advance publicity also features clothing chain bumphuk, a "must browse for Harmony Korine, Chloe Sevigny, Julian Casablancas and Sally Gunnell"; gastropub Regime, where your food is chosen for you by "assessing your electrolytes on a sensor at your table" and the "beer is served in gourds"; and the Chimney Exchange bar, a "mecca for would-be trespassing renegades unable to discern that no one gives a flying f*** whether they're there or not".
Morris received a Bafta last year for his first short film, My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117, starring Paddy Considine. He was also nominated for a Bafta for his Brass Eye special about paedophilia, which became the second most complained about programme in the Independent Television Commission's history with 992 complaints. His last TV series, Jam, was broadcast in 2000.
