The History Of The World Backwards - Episode 6 (BBC 4 2007)

Welcome to another edition of cultural vandalism, and this edition is about history - going backwards.

In October 2007, during my college years, BBC 4 advertised an interesting comedy sketch show with an interesting title - The History of the World Backwards. I was intrigued, but I wasn't able to watch it (I think it was because something else interesting was on another channel while it was on (and I had no recording facility at my disposable at the time).). Year later, thanks to the internet, I was able to watch it (because they didn't repeat it on TV) .... and I found out why they didn't.

The History of the World Backwards (if you haven't worked it out form the title) is about an alternate reality where time runs forward, but history runs in reverse, with the series beginning in the 21st century and ending with the Stone Age. Dates run in reverse as well, with a child born in 2007 turning 60 in 1947.

It was a TV adaptation of No Planet B or, The History of the World Backwards, a live show written and performed by Robert Newman. For everyone who wasn't into British comedy during the late-1980s and early-90s, Robert Newman was one of the significant comedians at this time. He was part of a Cambridge student comic quartet, with Hugh Dennis (of Mock the Week and Outnumbered fame), Steve Punt, and David Baddiel who came together to perform on the BBC Radio 1 topical sketch show The Mary Whitehouse Experience, which later was adapted to TV on BBC 2. With The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Newman and Baddiel became "unlikely pin-ups as, in the early 1990s, comedy was being fêted as 'the new rock and roll'," leading to their own series, Newman and Baddiel Rest in Pieces. They soon lived to "the new rock and roll" label with their "Live and in Pieces" tour with their iconic performance in a sold-out Wembley Arena in 1993, the first comedians to do so, leading a trail for later stadium-selling comedians, like Lee Evans and Michael McIntyre.

Newman's (and Baddiel's) most famous gag was the History Today skits. First appearing on the The Mary Whitehouse Experience, the skits involved two elderly historians discussing a a typical historic subject which then degenerates to a playground spat, which you can reenact with little improv skills with this simple script.

HISTORIAN 1 - Tonight's subject is [insert historical subject here]

HISTORIAN 2 - You know that [insert thing here]... That's you, that is.

HISTORIAN 1 - You know that [insert thing here]... That's you, that is.

(Then repeat those two lines for as long as you like.)

Here's a clip from YouTube for reference.

History Today sketches from The Mary Whitehouse Experience (1992)

But, all was not rosy for the duo. The partnership was widely reported as being fraught with tension. On stage and TV, they rarely perform together. Most of their work was in the form of individual monologues (with the History Today sketches been one of the exceptions). It was envidiable that after their Wembley show they went their separate ways. While Baddiel became an icon of the 1990s "new lad" culture (through his new comedic partnership with Frank Skinner and their Fantasy Football League), Rob..."disappeared."

He seemed to disappear from the television landscape, with some concerned rumours about his mental status. It seemed that Rob was becoming the Syd Barrett of comedy. But it wasn't true. Rob had been writing a few novels and performing one-man shows featuring social-consciousness, environmentalism and anti-[insert anything that is bad about the world]ism. And it was one of these live shows that led to his brief return to television in 2007 - No Planet B or, The History of the World Backwards.

The History of the World Backwards shares the themes that feature in most of his work with some added silliness. However, I should warn you that you should need some more intellect than the typical Blackadder viewer to understand the full content of this show. But, if you got a general grasp of world history, you can watch this like it was a mix of Blackadder/Horrible Histories and Monty Python. With this lens the show has its memorable moments, such as Alexander Graham Bell making the last ever premium rate phone call and Feudalism winning elections for tackling local issues. It even has two sketches about the backwards history version of Jesus, which will please the fans of Life of Brian.
But, it does have an environmental axe in it. It's the show's main theme - the gradual decline of advanced techno civilization back to the Stone Age through rejecting fossil fuels, large-scale farming, and artificial substances. People return to self-sufficiency, repairing things instead of throwing them away and buying new things from China and farming on land space that was once covered by supermarkets and multistory car parks. Despite this reversal the effects of the brief time of global affluenza remain, causing climate change that triggers the Ice Age where the remaining people (who now live in caves lit with flickering fires that serve as a flickering memory of television) collect fruit and hunt meat, occasionally falling into chasms full of what remains of their ancestors' landfill. Some of you may not like this, but I do.
But one thing that I personally thought ruined the show was the nice couple who always sound sinister sketches in episodes one and two. I didn't see the point of them! What did they got to do with the early-20th century? Was it some vain attempt to create a new version of Ray - the man who always talks in a sarcastic tone (look for series 2 of The Mary Whitehouse Experience)? To me they were a pure waste of time serving no story-telling function whatsoever. That and also I thought a few sketches were too slow and long.

Most reviews were not favorable. One reviewer said "Here, we are relying largely on Newman alone and he ends up being bogged down into too many sketches that fail to go anywhere and stretch far too long".
Another claimed the show was too confusing and that, "The sketches are nonsensically unfunny, and any serious points get lost in the absurdity." A. A. Gill said that, "It's a sketch show written by Stephen Hawking's wheelchair. It collapses under the weight and restrictions of its own concepts."
One thing that the criticism of the show features is its comparison to the 2006 BBC 2 series Time Trumpet, a sketch show by political satirist Armando Iannucci set as a 2031 retrospective of the late-2000s (which I did watch as it came out and liked a lot). Seeing both shows, I can see the similarities and their different angles. Both reinterpret and manipulate archive footage for comic and satirical effect, but Time Trumpet sees them as events that have already happened, while The History of the World Backwards sees them as things that are happening as we speak. But each show's scope of time is different. While Time Trumpet only deals with (then) recent events, which are quite easy to manipulate on the video editing suite, The History of the World Backwards stretches to all history, meaning that the image manipulators have to deal with all sorts of record, including Aztec pictographs (which were modified in episode 6 to suggest that they included elements of modern Christianity (including Pancake Day and charity fund thermometers)). On those grounds, The History of the World Backwards is a more aesthetically interesting show, but (as an experienced animation connoisseur) I know personally that aesthetics alone don't make a good TV show. The story is the most important thing of any performance. And, on that ground, Time Trumpet wins, with its contemporary references, while most people won't get the many things in The History of the World Backwards.
As a final indicator of how bad the show has performed, The History of the World Backwards has (as of the time of writing) never been released on DVD, while Time Trumpet (despite been made in 2006) was released on DVD in 2009, and in December 2011, Comedy Central announced that they were remaking the series for the US, with Iannucci as producer. Ouch!

As a sad result, The History of the World Backwards became one of those TV shows that you can now only see on YouTube (unless you know someone who's got it on tape, DVD-R or on a hard drive when it broadcasted).
Another programme that has fallen a similar fate is The Changes, a 1975 BBC kids drama based on a the Changes Trilogy by Peter Dickinson. In it the people of Britain suddenly experience a loud annoying supernatural noise coming from every piece of advanced technology, forcing the populace into smash up their machines returning Britain to a pre-industrial age (sound familiar?).

The Changes (1975)

Compared to The History of the World Backwards, The Changes was very well received. It was viewed as a sort of older kids version of contemporary adult post-apocalypse drama Survivors and was noted for its multi-ethic casting (compared to the almost all-white cast in Survivors). It did so well that the series was repeated in 1976 and shown overseas, even appearing on UK Gold in 1994. But, despite this, (as of the time of writing) it has never been released on video or DVD. Why? Is it something about environmental-themed stories involving the rejection of high-technology - like television? Could a similar fate happen to Revolution? Of course not. It's a high-budget American series, from the producer of Lost. It's bound to be released on DVD (or Blu-ray) eventually.

In the end, to conclude this review, here's an ad slogan that I have adapted that accurately sums up what I thought about The History of the World Backwards -

It's a great idea, but it's not Carling.

Rob Newman had a brilliant idea for a comedy sketch show, but it was badly executed. You could have done better Rob. It just needed some fine-tuning (like getting rid of that sinister couple). Don't judge the rest of Rob's work from this series - he's great in The Mary Whitehouse Experience and Rest in Pieces (which are all on YouTube, which is how I was able to see them and reference Ray earlier). And if Rob is happen to be reading this, I'm sorry for been a bit hurtful, but I'm just been honest about my thoughts about this show. I give it 7 out of 10, with a possible 8.

This this talk of backwards history, I might give it a stab myself... but this blog is getting long now and I should rap this up. And now a final sketch, and on the theme of backwards history, we'll take a good look back on the life of the late Cat Stevens (backwards).