Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)

Nineteen Eighty-Four was a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in the winter of 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed subversive nature and horrific content. In a 2000 poll of industry experts conducted by the British Film Institute to determine the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four was ranked in seventy-third position.

Contemporary parodies

Spike Milligan wrote a parody of Nineteen Eighty-Four for The Goon Show entitled 1985, which first aired on January 4, 1955. The cast of characters included Worker 846 Winston Seagoon (Harry Secombe), Miss Sfnut (Peter Sellers), and Worker 213 Eccles (Milligan); Big Brother was replaced by the Big Brother Corporation (aka. the BBC), and Goldstein's revolution by Horace Minikstein's Independent Television Army (aka. ITA). Jokes included such stabs at the BBC as:

Related Topics:
Spike Milligan - Parody - The Goon Show - January 4 - 1955 - Harry Secombe - Peter Sellers - BBC

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Announcer (Sellers): "Attention BBC workers! Lunch is now being served in the BBC Canteen. Doctors are standing by."

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Seagoon is tortured in Room 101 by being forced to listen to clips from Ray's a Laugh, Life with the Lyons, and the singing of Harry Secombe. However, unlike the original script, Seagoon is freed from Room 101, and the ITA overthrows the BBC after a three-day phone call and a £10 bribe.

Related Topics:
Ray's a Laugh - Life with the Lyons - Harry Secombe

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The programme was such an outstanding success that the script was performed again on February 8, 1955. This was not a repeat – this was a new broadcast of the same script with minor changes. One such change was the pre-recorded addition of John Snagge as the BBC announcer previously portrayed by Sellers.

Related Topics:
February 8 - 1955 - John Snagge

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However, like Cartier's Nineteen Eighty-Four, only one performance was recorded and preserved by the BBC. The first version exists in pristine form in the BBC archives, the second performance only as a lower-quality off-air recording which excludes the first five minutes of the programme and both musical interludes, preserving about 18 minutes of material.

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