Squeamish About...
MATT BERRY presents a comedy take on British history
COMEDY BBC2 HD, 10.30pm
In a mockumentary, Matt Berry plays Michael Squeamish, who shares his take on British entertainment. Future episodes will see him look at the countryside, London and relationships.
NEW COMEDY Squeamish About... Thursday, BBC2 HD, 10.30pm
LAST YEAR’S BBC2 comedy mockumentary Road to Brexit introduced us to historian
Michael Squeamish – a man of dubious observations, as played by Matt Berry.
The character returns to our screens this week with his own series, in which he’ll be offering his unique (and deeply questionable) perspective on a variety of topics.
He begins this week with ‘entertainments’ – in which he’ll hear from the man behind famous Rochdale drag act Gracie Fields, and explore how the Northern soul scene began when Motown Records moved its headquarters to Yorkshire – with the rest of the series set to feature his take on relationships, the countryside and London.
Here, Father Ted and Toast of London co-creator Arthur Mathews, who writes the show with Berry, tells us more…
WHAT CAN AUDIENCES EXPECT FROM Squeamish About…? Some very weird archive footage! When we did Road to Brexit last year, we featured a lot of old clips in that programme. So when lockdown happened, we were asked to use the character of Michael Squeamish to present a show using archive footage again, as going out and about with a film crew wasn’t possible due to COVID-19.
WHICH FOOTAGE REALLY STOOD OUT FOR YOU? We had a brilliant researcher who found a vast amount of amazing stuff, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. Among my favourites was a programme about a ‘lonely hearts’ dating agency, and another about a trip to the seaside with members of a Yorkshire working man’s club.
Also, I really liked a series called Nairn Across Britain from 1972, presented by Ian Nairn – a sort of 1970s Jonathan Meades.
WHY DID YOU PICK RELATIONSHIPS, ENTERTAINMENTS, COUNTRYSIDE AND LONDON AS THE TOPICS FOR THESE EPISODES? They’re all fairly broad and wide-ranging subjects, so there’s more archive footage to choose from – lots of things featuring sex, music halls, animals and show business.
HOW WAS IT COLLABORATING WITH MATT BERRY AGAIN? Very good. With this show, it’s all about finding old footage that could be re-voiced and taken totally out of context, and Matt’s voice-over can make anything funny. I love seeing totally weird, off-the-wall ideas being realised on screen.