The Day Today

This article is about the 1994 UK TV programme. For the day, see today (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Today Is the Day or Today's the Day.

The Day Today
Created by
Directed byAndrew Gillman
Starring
Narrated byMichael Alexander St John
Music by
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6
Production
Running time30 minutes
Production companyTalkback Productions
Original release
NetworkBBC2
Release19 January (1994-01-19) –
23 February 1994 (1994-02-23)
Related
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Day Today is a British comedy television show that parodies television news and current affairs programmes, broadcast from 19 January to 23 February 1994 on BBC2.[1][2] It was created by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and is an adaptation of the radio programme On the Hour, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 9 August 1991 and 28 May 1992 and was also written by Morris, Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, David Quantick, and the cast. For The Day Today, Peter Baynham joined the writing team, and Lee and Herring were replaced by Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews. The principal cast of On the Hour was retained for The Day Today.[3][4][5]

The Day Today is composed of six half-hour episodes and a selection of shorter five-minute slots recorded as promotional trailers for the longer episodes. The series won many awards including Morris winning the 1994 British Comedy Award for Best Newcomer. All six episodes are available on BBC DVD, having previously been issued on VHS.

  1. ^ Laura Mulvey; Jamie Sexton (2015). Experimental British Television. Manchester University Press. pp. 180–193. ISBN 978-0-7190-9857-4.
  2. ^ Lucian Randall (2010). Disgusting Bliss: The Brass Eye of Chris Morris. Simon and Schuster. pp. 60–80. ISBN 978-0-85720-090-7.
  3. ^ Harrison, Phil (17 January 2019). "'You've lost the news!' How The Day Today changed satire forever". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  4. ^ Saunders, Huw (22 January 2019). "The Day Today 25 Years On: Those Are The Headlines, Happy Now?". Cultured Vultures. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  5. ^ Dylan Wray, Daniel (28 January 2019). "An oral history of The Day Today, Britain's sharpest TV satire". Huck Magazine. Retrieved 5 February 2019.