Have we not got news for you...
Here are the headlines as we turn the clock back 40 years to the start of Not The Nine O’Clock News
GERALD the smooth-talking gorilla’s chat show appearance and squashed hedgehogs were making the humour headlines 40 years ago.
Alternative comedy came to BBC2 on October 16, 1979, with anarchic sketch show Not The Nine O’Clock.
Its title evolved out of the fact that the programme was screened at the same time as the BBC News on BBC1.
The fast-moving comedy made stars of Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, who became a cast regular from series two.
The fast-moving comedy sketches sat along spoof music videos for songs such as I Like Truckin’, Nice Video, Shame About The Song and The Memory Kinda Lingers. The tracks proved so popular that the team picked up a gold disc in 1982 for reaching 250,000 album sales.
More than 18 million viewers were watching the comedy at its height and writers, including Richard Curtis, Clive Anderson, Nigel Planer, Guy Jenkin, Ruby Wax and David Renwick, all contributed to the show.
However, it was not the easiest of TV births. The original pilot was scheduled to air on April 1 but was cancelled at the last minute because of fears its political content would not be appropriate, with a General Election taking place the following month.
Victoria Wood was approached to join the Not The Nine O’Clock News family, but turned the invitation down to concentrate on her solo career, leading the way for New Zealand-born Pamela to be signed up instead, finding fame for her newsreader impressions.
Classic sketches also included non-pc PC Savage, the racist copper, and Rowan Atkinson blithely walking into a lamp-post while waving at the TV camera.
The comedy ran for four series until the four stars decided to call it a day in 1982.
An American version of the show called Not Necessarily The News with a US cast including Rich Hall, Anne Bloom and Danny Breen ran from 1982 until 1990 on the Home Box Office cable channel.