Brass Eye

Brass Eye
UK DVD cover
Genre	Satire
Created by	Chris Morris
Directed by	Michael Cumming
Starring	Chris Morris
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	7
Production
Running time	25 mins
Release
Original network	Channel 4
Original release	29 January 1997 – 26 July 2001
Chronology
Preceded by	The Day Today (1994)
Related shows	Jam (2000)

Brass Eye is a British comedy series parodying the current affairs news programming of the mid 1990s. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created by Chris Morris, written by Morris, David Quantick, Peter Baynham, Jane Bussmann, Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan and Charlie Brooker and directed by Michael Cumming.

The series satirised media portrayal of social ills, in particular sensationalism, unsubstantiated establishmentarian theory masquerading as fact, and creation of moral panics, and is a sequel to Morris's earlier spoof news programmes On the Hour (1991–92) and The Day Today (1994). The series starred Morris's The Day Today colleague Doon Mackichan, along with Gina McKee, Mark Heap, Amelia Bullmore, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Claire Skinner, John Guerrasio, Hugh Dennis and the actor Kevin Eldon.

The second episode, "Drugs", has been described by Professor Michael Gossop as illustrative of the ease in which anti-drug hysteria can be evoked in the United Kingdom. In the opening scene of this episode, a voiceover tells viewers that there are so many drugs on the streets of Britain that "not even the dealers know them all". An undercover reporter (Morris) asks a purportedly real-life drug dealer in London for various fictitious drugs, including "Triple-sod", "Yellow Bentines" and "Clarky Cat", leaving the dealer puzzled and increasingly irritated until he tells the reporter to leave. He also explained that possession of drugs without physical contact and the exchange of drugs through a mandrill were perfectly legal in English law.

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