Television series
The Day Today
Before Alan Partridge had a name, he was born here — six episodes of a fictional nightly bulletin so overproduced and self-important that it tips into glorious insanity. Chris Morris and Steve Coogan's deadpan demolition of TV news bombast — the graphics, the gravitas, the total certainty — still feels dangerously accurate. Deadly serious delivery, deranged content: satire with a perfectly straight face.
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Brass Eye1997
Same team, same weapons, now aimed at a single lurid topic per episode — drugs, paedophilia, animal welfare — with real celebrities duped into reading the maddest lines straight-faced. Morris's gonzo masterpiece, arguably funnier.
But It genuinely fooled public figures on camera, and the fallout still unsettles some viewers decades later.
Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge1994no page yet
The Day Today's hopeless sports anchor gets his own chat show to ruin. Watching Coogan build an entire tragic universe around one man's self-delusion is one of British comedy's great character studies.
But Cringe comedy this concentrated, sustained over a full series, is genuinely hard to sit through for some people.
The Thick of It2005
Armando Iannucci, another Day Today alumnus, turns the same satirical instincts on Westminster spin doctors — profane, chaotic, and somehow truer to how governments work than any documentary could manage.
But Relentless swearing and a rapid-fire style that can exhaust you before the political point lands.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Network1976
Where The Day Today plays news-as-entertainment for absurdist laughs, Network diagnoses the exact same disease as tragedy — same target, same prophetic clarity, opposite register.
Paddy Chayefsky's furious, brilliantly written drama about a news anchor's on-air breakdown becoming a ratings sensation — the film that predicted infotainment and manufactured outrage decades early.
But It's a straight drama, not a comedy — the laughs are bitter and rare, and the pacing is very much of its era.
More like this (8)
Nathan Barley2005no page yet
Chris Morris again, this time skewering media hipsters and early digital culture rather than news — cruel, oddly prophetic about online self-importance, and criminally underwatched.
But Only six episodes, and some 2005-era targets — blogs, digital cameras — now read as quaintly dated rather than dangerous.
Broken News2005no page yet
A direct descendant that spoofs 24-hour rolling news channels specifically, with the same rapid-fire absurdist energy and obsessive fake-graphics mania The Day Today pioneered.
But Never quite escapes its inspiration's shadow, and was cancelled after one series — the diminishing returns show.
Look Around You2002
Same DNA of parody-format-as-comedy, aimed at deadpan educational science programmes instead of news. Utterly straight-faced, gloriously stupid, and perfectly formed.
But A narrower joke told very well rather than a whole satirical worldview — less to chew on than Morris's targets.
W1A2014
A gentler, more recent cousin — mockumentary about BBC executives drowning in their own jargon — still carrying The Day Today's love of institutional self-importance being quietly demolished.
But Cosier and slower than Morris's anarchic energy; if you want teeth, this one mostly nibbles.
Veep2012
The American cousin: political staffers as venal, panicking children, filmed with the same total contempt for institutional dignity. Merciless if you like your satire filthy.
But Different target — US politics, not news media — and lacks the surreal format-parody trick that makes The Day Today unique.
The Larry Sanders Show1992
A contemporaneous American show mining chat-show narcissism and TV production chaos for comedy — proof the format was ripe for satire on both sides of the Atlantic.
But More warm character-driven sitcom than format parody — gentler and less scorched-earth than Morris's style.
Man Bites Dog1992
Both weaponise the deadpan documentary format as the joke itself — the crew's cameras normalise atrocity exactly the way The Day Today's anchors normalise absurdity, just with the stakes made lethal.
A Belgian mockumentary following a film crew as they document a charismatic serial killer, so committed to its deadpan format that horror and comedy blur into something you can't laugh at cleanly.
But Genuinely violent and morally punishing — satire with real menace, not a laugh-a-minute romp.
Special Bulletin1983no page yet
This is the straight-faced ancestor of the joke: total commitment to news-broadcast conventions used to generate terror rather than comedy, proving the format was always ripe for hijacking.
Shot entirely as a live news broadcast under siege, this Emmy-winning TV movie invented the format The Day Today would later spoof — real dread instead of jokes, just as formally daring.
But A product of Cold War anxiety with no gags at all — earnest, slow-building horror rather than rapid-fire absurdity.
People
Cast
Chris MorrisVarious Characters
Steve CooganVarious Characters
Rebecca FrontVarious Characters
Doon MackichanVarious Characters
Patrick MarberVarious Characters
David SchneiderVarious Characters- Michael Alexander St JohnAnnouncer
Recommended by
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Look Around You, That Was the Week That Was, I'm Alan Partridge, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Brass Eye, The Fast Show, Frontline