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by Graham Kibble-White
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by Jack Kibble-White
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by Jane Redfern
The Shaftesbury Theatre, July 1991. Touring in a "from The Mary Whitehouse Experience ..." capacity with Rob Newman, David Baddiel is on stage. "This fucking 'New Lad' shit," he says, "I fucking hate beer!"
Half a decade later: it's BBC2's Fantasy Football League and comedy stooge Angus Loughran ("Statto!") cracks an uncharacteristic funny. Baddiel, in surprised appreciation, proffers him a bottle: "Have a victory ale, mate."
The reinvention of David Baddiel from slightly foppish stude to a knees-up mine's-a-pint lad has resulted in the complete reinvention of the comedy persona that is David Baddiel. True, some of the main concerns of a Baddiel routine remain unchanged (sex, homosexuality, the mundane) however nowadays it seems that The Mary Whitehouse Experience Baddiel - if he were to show up for a recording of Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned - would probably appear as one of those unfortunate smart-arses who pepper the studio audience and make great comic meat for the performers.
It's funny to think that only a year after Baddiel's anti-lad routine at the Shaftesbury, he and Frank Skinner were hosting/performing (what is the right term here?) Fantasy Football League on Radio 5.
For his part Skinner had risen from less fruitful stuff. Whilst Baddiel was one of the prime movers provoking reams of tedious musings on comedy as the new rock'n'roll ("Hello Wembley!") Skinner's variety show cum sitcom Packet of Three failed to have much impact, as did his low-key Blue Heaven (albeit made during the Fantasy years). The meshing of Baddiel and Skinner was at first glance an unlikely union, with the former something of a new-wave high flyer, and the latter an unreconstructed traditionalist. However, for both of them here's where their comedy story really starts, producing a body of work that far outshines their previous efforts.
Perversely, whilst the oeuvre of Baddiel and Skinner is characteristically throwaway, it remains more affecting than - for example - the thoughtfully compiled Newman and Baddiel in Pieces. The comedy duo's finest hour probably came during the Euro '96 tournament, with the cheerfully awful Three Lions not only reflecting the nation's obsession with soccer that summer, but defining it. The move to ITV in 1998 naturally raised concerns that the duo would follow The Goodies and Morecambe and Wise into not-as-good-as-they-used-to-be territory. This has been somewhat borne out critically, although it is our assertion that Fantasy World Cup was no less hit and miss than any of the BBC programmes.
Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned (aside from being a terrifically confident and exciting commission by ITV) represents a new direction for the duo. Well, perhaps not new, as both Unplanned and Fantasy Football could be described as essentially two blokes, one sofa, and no script (almost, anyway, with most of the FF highlights arising from those unscripted moments) but the format did cleverly unshackle Baddiel and Skinner from the restrictive football theme and paves the way for a new (hopefully) reoccurring and (hopefully) open-ended occasional series.
So, why the Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned episode guide (which is what the following essentially is)? Perhaps it is simply just a perverse desire to capture a programme that was designed to work specifically as a live TV event. Unplanned, more than any other programme you'll see in 2000, is about the moment. It is the definition of live TV. To document it feels a little like catching lightning in a jar and it is our belief that Unplanned laid out in a permanent, almost measurable form reveals new facets of the programme that may have otherwise been lost in the rush. Chiefly you will find in the following work Baddiel and Skinner's obsessions laid bare - themes they return to again and again (religion, homosexuality, sexuality, look-alikes, restaurants, perished septums and so on).
Now seems like as good a time as any to set out our stall. Thus, here we perform the necessary ritual and explain the (de rigour) light-hearted categories we have seen fit to file our dissections under.
IT'LL NEVER WORK:
We get it out the way first - the jokes that bomb.
SECRETARY: Here we record all that's notable about those members
of the public who take the minutes.
THAT'S YOU THAT IS: Look-alikes.
UP YER SEPTUM: References to ex-Ender Daniella Westbrook.
And her nose.
I AM FRANK SKINNER/DAVID BADDIEL: They live a show-biz life. We
don't. Here's what they do from day to day.
WHERE'S STATTO?: This question is asked whenever Baddiel or Skinner
meet their public. Here we record such encounters.
SEMITE SAY: All references to David's ethnicity.
HOMOCURIOUS: Loads of speculation and conversation about homosexuality
abound. They play "Spot The Gay", we play "Spot The Gay References".
Ms OGYNY: Punning title under which we log all things chauvinistic.
DAVE'S MUM AND DAD: Easy fodder for Baddiel's stand-up routines.
They crop up again here.
WORST/BEST QUESTION: Those dumb/plum questions from the audience.
DISGRACE/ACE IN THE CROWD: Those dumb/plum audience members.
SONG: For your Baddiel And Skinner notebooks: What they sing, and
what number in the songbook it is.
IN CONCLUSION: We conclude. This is the bit you'll probably end
up skipping to, blow the other categories. A final thumbs up or down.
With our criteria in place it only falls upon us to make one final caveat. We have no strong opinion on the moral content, or lack of, in much of Baddiel and Skinner's material. The programme is unapologetically misogynist, reductive and puerile - granted - yet if you see if in only those terms, that's your problem. We don't condone all of the comments and conclusions made in the series, but neither do we condemn them. Unplanned, to our reckoning, is ultimately an all-inclusive, television programme.
