| Headcases | |
|---|---|
 Headcases intertitle | |
| Created by | Henry Naylor |
| Starring | Rory Bremner Jon Culshaw Lewis MacLeod Kayvan Novak Lucy Porter Jess Robinson Katy Wix Katy Brand Omid Djalili Phil Cornwell Lucy Montgomery Mark Perry Ben Willbond |
| Music by | Richie Webb Matt Katz |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes (including adverts) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 6 April (2008-04-06) – 15 June 2008 (2008-06-15) |
Headcases is a Britishsatirical animation show based on current affairs. It employed the same satirical style asSpitting Image,2DTV andBo' Selecta!, but using 3D animation created by UK Visual Effects and animation house Red Vision.
The programme's only series began on 6 April 2008, with weekly episodes until 11 May 2008, airing on Sundays at 10 pm. A seventh episode was televised on Friday, 30 May at 10:30 pm, and an eighth on Sunday, 15 June at 10 pm. The show included celebrities,politicians and members of theBritish royal family in their animated form, taking a role in sketches including scenarios from their own topical issues.[1]
The show's name comes from the fact that all the subjects'caricatured faces are out of scale with the rest of their bodies.
Lampooning people in the public eye, the impressionists got the chance to caricature politicians, royals and celebrities alike. These includedPrime MinisterGordon Brown, portrayed as an out of touch, weak, very austere Scrooge like Victorian and has a dark, miserable old character. His Chancellor,Alistair Darling, is depicted as a panicky cry baby who says, "We're doomed, doomed, doomed" while jumping around the room. There were also the forgetful Home SecretaryJacqui Smith, the vicious creatureDavid Miliband andTony Blair who, under the guise of Brown's adviserEd Balls, tricks Gordon for money.
TheConservative Party's leaderDavid Cameron was portrayed as insisting he is an ordinary man of the people for a press conference, before reverting into a volatile, mean spirited, snobbish public schoolboy behind closed doors. He regularly beats hisShadow Chancellor and manservantGeorge Osborne, forcing him to do various unpleasant things, i.e. lick dog muck off his shoes (a reference to "old Etonian" fagging).
Shadow Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague is portrayed as an oafish, bitter alcoholic Yorkshireman (referencing his past claims of having drunk "14 pints a day" as a teenager) and the then newly electedMayor of LondonBoris Johnson portrayed as half-man and half dog, so when he tries to talk about issues, he instead does acts of canine behaviour e.g. chasing his tail and licking hisgenitals.
Liberal Democrat, leaderNick Clegg is portrayed as a desperate leader ready to use anything (such as offers atPizza Hut suggested by his party) as an excuse for the Lib Dems' 'drive for change' influencing day to day Britain.
The Royal Family are set up in the same style as they were onSpitting Image; the reasonably sane but a senileQueen,The Duke of Edinburgh "and his dog (Poochwater)" who do everything that they can to stopPrince William from marrying "commoner"Catherine Middleton (he calls her Kate Middle class) but never succeed, and Prince William andPrince Harry who try to act as "normal blokes", but ultimately fail: in one sketch they attempt to order pizza, only to ask for caviar toppings.
There were other international politicians thatHeadcases satirised, likePresidentGeorge W. Bush,Bill Clinton and his wife,Hillary,Condoleezza Rice, incompetent farmerRobert Mugabe, strong but dark character (then) formerPresident of Russia,Vladimir Putin, and his successorDmitry Medvedev, who was portrayed as a ventriloquist's dummy, the sex mad medallion man,Nicolas Sarkozy as a flirty disco dancer who sings in French about international success andPresident of IranMahmoud Ahmadinejad who is portrayed as aBorat like character who lists reasons why his country should have nuclear technology (including destroying the entireMiddle East and most ofCentral Asia so Iran can move closer to Europe to compete inEuro 2012) calling his adversariesracists.
Celebrities impersonated include the populist and selfish former editor of theDaily Mirror newspaperPiers Morgan, who gets a heavy object dropped on him each time;Victoria Beckham, a big headed loudmouth with a speech disorder and her dumb husbandDavid, who is considerably shorter, going about their days working in America;Steven Spielberg; a transsexual version ofMadonna;Morgan Freeman; large breasted modelJordan and child mindedPeter Andre; old and senile action starsHarrison Ford,Sylvester Stallone andBruce Willis, styled as "The (Geriatric) Action Heroes", who fight their nemesis, money grabbing, snake haired old people haterHeather Mills; unintelligentBrad Pitt and his twisted wifeAngelina Jolie, who keeps adopting children and imprisoning them to a factory making hair extensions to rival the golden locks ofJennifer Aniston, veteran newsreaderTrevor McDonald; inappropriate uses forRussell Brand (e.g. as a toilet brush);Fabio Capello struggling to learn English leaving everyone confused at what he means when he speaks; far too similar footballersSteven Gerrard andFrank Lampard, whose attempts to work together for England are portrayed asLaurel and Hardy style slapstick comedy; angry, loud mouthedJeremy Clarkson making ill-informed judgements;Richard Hammond who was left drowning when global warming hit the 2050 episode ofTop Gear; sleepy, drunk and drug addledPete Doherty andAmy Winehouse; complainersBono andBob Geldof; coin operatedJonathan Ross; bachelorGeorge Clooney;Sebastian Coe presenting updates for the2012 Olympics;Mohamed Al-Fayed and his conspiracy theories involvingFiat Unos; alienTom Cruise and his robot wifeKatie, and common chavsHelen Mirren andJudi Dench, who bullyKate Winslet because they are Dames and she is not.
Sam Wollaston fromThe Guardian gave the show a mixed review, saying that the writing was good, but the animation was "soulless"[2] and theDaily Star simply called it "Hilarious". The show's debut opened with four million viewers, having the highest viewers of any programme for the first half of the show. However, the second half of the show was beaten by the news onBBC One.[3] The second episode also attracted 4 million viewers.[4]
Peter Fluck was critical of the series. His assessment was decidedly lukewarm: the CGI puppets "look pretty dead", it might not be rude enough, and, if he were younger, he would bypass television and broadcast onYouTube instead. However, he was encouraged by the likes ofRory Bremner among the impersonators.[5]
On 15 June 2008, ITV announced that the only series would be available onDVD, which was released on 7 July.[6]
