Brass Eye doc to screen at Manchester TV festival

The first headline event for the second edition of Manchester television festival Pilot Light has been announced, and it’s a doozy. The festival will come to a close on 7 May with a screening of all six episodes from the only full series of Chris Morris' iconic and controversial comedy Brass Eye. That’ll be followed by the world premiere of Oxide Ghosts: The Brass Eye Tapes, a new retrospective film from Michael Cumming, who directed the Channel 4 series.

Pilot Light’s director, Greg Walker, reckons it’s the perfect time to revisit the seminal show. “In the age of Donald Trump and the onslaught of Fake News, people are regularly pinching themselves to check Chris Morris isn’t actually writing our headlines these days,” said Walker. “In a world where satirists are openly admitting that it’s a struggle to beat real life in the current social climate, we now need Brass Eye back more than ever.”

Morris’s groundbreaking show aired 20 years ago in early 1997 and was instantly controversial, taking aim at the sensationalism of UK news media and celebrity culture. Real life celebrities and politicians such as Peter Stringfellow, Noel Edmonds and David Amess MP would come on the show to genuinely discuss and promote issues that had been completely fabricated by Morris.

Brass Eye made a return in 2001 for its most controversial episode, the Paedogeddon! special, and caused outrage with its blistering satire of the moral panic that was rife on television and the media at the time. There’s no mention of this Brass Eye special in today’s press release, but that particular episode is sure to come up in Cumming’s documentary.

Oxide Ghosts is described as being made from “hundreds of hours of unseen material from his personal archive… Part documentary, part artwork, the film is designed solely for live screenings and features never-before-seen material.” Chris Morris has reportedly given the film his blessing. Michael Cumming will be in attendance for a Q&A after the screening, and we’re told he promises to “spill beans, shatter myths and let a few cats out of the bag” surrounding the mystery and controversy of Brass Eye.

The rest of Pilot Light’s four day festival lineup will be announced 31 Mar; tickets for the Brass Eye 20th Anniversary Special will be on sale at 9am on Fri 24 Mar from www.thisisgorilla.com