April Fool

[Dick Fiddy]

Just a heads-up for those that are interested. On 1st April 2014, here at BFI Southbank we are mounting a special event: From Spaghetti Trees to Flying Penguins that will look at the best TV April 1st spoofs. A bespoke compilation of clips will be immediately followed by a complete acreening of A Question of Fact: The Face at the Window, the fantastic 1980s hoax Hitler documentary.

[Mike S]

Ooh, any chance of screening the 1/4/87 edition of Wogan with the fake Mastermind sequence?

[Dick Fiddy]

Yes that's in (or at least part of it as the whole thing is 25 mins). Very funny sets of questions and answers (all writen by Stephen Fry).

[Mike S]

Excellent, Dick. I'll be there.

[Mike S]

Nice bunch of footage this eveing, Dick - particularly great to see bits of the Mastermind spoof again. Such a weird thing to be broadcast on primetime BBC1.

What are the chances of the full programme (complete with the Wogan intro/outro) being included in the Mediatheque at some point?

[Beaker]

A Question of Fact: The Face at the Window, the fantastic 1980s hoax Hitler documentary.

I remember that, had no idea it was as long ago as 1986, though.

I think that’s the one which postulates that Hitler burnt down Crystal Palace in the mistaken belief that it was Alexandra Palace, and includes the line, spoken after we have just seen old footage of Hitler rootling around up his hooter…. ‘This is the only known footage of the Fuhrer…picking his nose.’

[Dick Fiddy]

I can suggest the inclusion of the spoof doc to the Mediatheque folk.

[Bob Richardson]

Nice bunch of footage this eveing, Dick - particularly great to see bits of the Mastermind spoof again. Such a weird thing to be broadcast on primetime BBC1.

What are the chances of the full programme (complete with the Wogan intro/outro) being included in the Mediatheque at some point?

We made the show as a stand-alone edition of "Mastermind". (I was the scorer on "Mastermind" for 15 years, and we normally did the show as a complete "as live" package with captions added during the recording). When it went out as a VT insert into "Wogan" everyone was surprised to see it with an intro and outro, "book-ending" the TX. Maybe C.BBC1 or M.D.Tel got cold feet.

The programme was recorded at Christ's Hospital in Sussex (I think!) and the audience were not in on the spoof, although I think some of them twigged what was going on. The contenders were all actors. I seem to recall that "Mastermind" delivered a complete VT package with opening titles and end credits - I remember typing Stephen Fry's name on the closing credits.

[Mike S]

It's a great piece of 'lost' comedy, and probably one of the best things Fry's ever written. He absolutely nails the rhythm of a typical Mastermind grilling, not just spoofing the show but replicating the kinds of questions and answers that are always given.

Fans of Look Around You would love it too, because it's set in this slightly strange alternate universe, but with enough real questions/answers thrown in to seriously unseat those not paying attention. I loved the woman answering questions about the non-existent novels - I wish I could recall the exact question, but Magnus asked her 'In [title], how did [character] learn of her husband's adultery?', to which the woman matter-of-factly replied 'He finds Peter Fronting's bicycle in her bed.' (Magnus: 'Correct.')

It's brilliant. Why on earth has it never been dug up before? People simply don't know about it, I guess.

[didi-5]

I agree, the Mastermind spoof is one of the classic April Fools - you wouldn't have a chance to get away with something like that today. The Hitler spoof doc was a bit hit and miss, I thought. Maybe I've been reading too much about the Mitfords to appreciate the satire!

[fatcat]

Alternative 3 was a good one from Anglia,
maybe made more credible because its April 1st transmission was canceled and it was shown later on?

[Brock]

Alternative 3 was a good one from Anglia,
maybe made more credible because its April 1st transmission was canceled and it was shown later on?

I don't think it was ever scheduled for April 1st, although the final credits bear that date. As I understand it, Anglia wanted to show it on April 1st but couldn't get a network slot for it. Rather unfair on the viewing public I thought - you didn't normally get hoax programmes randomly dropped into the schedules like that.

[Beaker]

Alternative 3 was a good one from Anglia,
maybe made more credible because its April 1st transmission was canceled and it was shown later on?

Another one I remember despite seeing it once when it was on TV originally...particularly the stirring of the Martian sand at the end just before the credits started. It was a bit scary as I was only nine!

I'm going to have to hunt this down.

[Shaqui]

Fairly sure there's a semi-official DVD floating around which also has a half-hour interview with the producers. I bought it online a year or so back, quite cheap. Was surprised to find I still had the book, which I found secondhand some time in the 90s.

I remember watching this with my parents at the time and being gobsmacked over the 'revelations', although the appearance of Shane Rimmer made us suspect there was something not quite right with all this! Being a Space:1999 fan, I recognised him as I think the episode he was in had been repeated not too long before this. It was my dad who noticed the April 1 date at the very end of the credits! Being only 12 or so, it had really terrified me!

[David Boothroyd]

Fairly sure there's a semi-official DVD floating around which also has a half-hour interview with the producers.

Soda Pictures were the distributors.

The odd thing about Alternative 3 is that it pretends to be an episode of a series called 'Science Report' and Tim Brinton starts by referring to many previous episodes. In fact there was no such series. But even today many articles about it state that Alternative 3 was an episode in an established series.

[bent_halo]

The surface shots at the end are extraordinarily good, but I though the rest of the 'documentary' was quite badly acted.