Elton, Macca and a gormless rock legend ... it’s a smash hit!
What started as a low-budget send-up, a bit of silliness with survivors from the Fast Show, has turned into pop’s biggest in joke.
Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, tom Petty and Elton John lined up to pay homage to an imaginary rock legend, played by Simon Day, in Brian Pern: The Tribute (BBC4) — the culmination of a mockdocumentary series spanning three years that has left real rock stars convulsed with laughter.
Superstar actors were clamouring to get in on the joke, too: anthony hopkins, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Douglas, Roger Moore.
Even tony Blair chimed in with an achingly sincere homily to the singer who, tragically, had steered his Segway scooter over a cliff.
and then (best joke of all) the voiceover revealed that Blair was Brian Pern’s former rhythm guitarist, who went on to ‘politics and alleged war crimes’.
the genius of the show, co-written by Day and director Rhys thomas, isn’t just the gormlessness of Brian himself, a musician so self-obsessed that he can’t even remember the names of his children.
It’s the way that every rock cliche is skewered, often in background gags that flash past in a moment. Brian’s band thotch stage a memorial concert, which means replacing the singer . . . just as Queen did when Freddie Mercury died. Look at that bored, motionless bassist — a spoof of the Rolling Stones in the Bill Wyman era.
Jane asher played Pern’s first wife, who left him for a fling with novelty songwriter Mike Batt, dressed as a Womble. the pain of that break-up spurred Brian to dismember a toy Womble over his keyboard on top Of the Pops.
If you’re a proper pop trivia nerd — and let’s be honest, millions of us are — you’ll know that Jane asher really was Paul McCartney’s first serious girlfriend... and that Phil Collins really did perform on top Of the Pops with a paint pot on his piano, after his missus had an affair with a decorator.
It’s as clever as comedy sudoku. You can be certain elderly rockers will be watching this on repeat in their studios, spotting the hidden references, when they should be recording their next album.
all the eulogies and crocodile tears echoed the splurge of grief when David Bowie died last year. the difference is that Bowie is definitely dead. Brian, on the other hand, is hiding in the amazon rainforest while his manager (the volcanically profane Michael Kitchen) cashes in with Greatest hits collections and tatty memorabilia.
this can’t be the end. there has to be a comeback.
the specialists at The Repair Shop (BBC2) have been intent on another kind of comeback as they nurse broken furniture and knick-knacks back to health, in their workshop at the Weald and Downland Living Museum in West Sussex.
Each day at teatime over the next three weeks, the craftsman (and one craftswoman) restore battered family heirlooms to mint condition and hand them back to their owners.
It’s rather like the antiques Roadshow, but all the treasures have been rescued from a dustbin.
this time, a splintered writing desk, a silver travel clock and some plastic Daleks were given loving care.
this format might work if we saw every stage of the reconstruction, the way James May reassembles household objects.
But in the rush to present three objects, too much of the process is missed out, especially the final polish. these jobs shouldn’t be hurried.
BURN-OUT OF THE WEEK: Is Michael Parkinson also a gourmet chef ? No . . . so why suppose Gordon Ramsay can host a chat show? The Nightly Show (ITV) was already toast: Ramsay has incinerated it.