Eagle-eyed viewers of BBC3’s anarchic/subversive/puerile comedy The Revolution Will Be Televised may have spotted 2013’s ETO Show featuring heavily in last week’s programme. The second series’ second episode, first broadcast on Sunday November 17th at 10.35pm and reshown at 1.40am on Wednesday the 20th, was part shot at the NEC in Birmingham during the 9th ETO Show in June.
Fronted by Heyden Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein, the show uses a spoof documentary style to confront social issues. However, in the guise of ‘hard hitting reporter Dale Maily’ (taking a Daily Mail-like moral stand and “telling you the right way to think”) for fictional news show Inside the Story, Rubinstein tackled the “mainstream perversion” of Fifty Shades of Grey and how it’s “twisting the minds of our nation” and producing “sexually-obsessed sickos.” Ah, satire. So, how better to probe the issue than visit a trade show and literally dick about?
Referring to models on the catwalk as ‘whores’ may have made us want to give the guy a smack but, as one of the younger members of our team pointed out; you can’t make an edgy comedy omelette without breaking a few taboo eggs. Rachael McCoy, sex and relationship coach, took questions about marital duty in her stride, and Mr B’s Walter [pictured], George from Black and Blue, and various others coped admirably with Dale Maily’s ‘unique style’ in this Hat Trick-produced programme. Hat Trick also produces Have I Got News For You, You Me and Them, Room 101 and back in the day, Father Ted.
If you missed this televisual treat, it’s available in the UK via iPlayer until Sunday, December 22nd here. You’ll find the ETO Show material from 19:20 to 22:03 and again behind the end credits.
