Biffovision
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Biffovision was BBC's 'grown up take' on low-budget children's TV from the 1980s. It included satirical sketches on children's television, fictional music videos, and 'educational' segments. It was written by Paul Rose and Tim Moore. A 30 minute pilot aired on March 26, 2007 on BBC Three, and was repeated at midnight on June 5, 2007.
Segments shown in this included:
- Scranton-K - a short cartoon segment featuring a fully grown naked man who has a boot for a head. It was suggested in the opening song that this physical anomaly is divine retribution for 'real bad stuff' Scranton-K was responsible for in a former life. In the cartoon, Scranton-K and his friends drive around in a van hunting ghosts in a clear parody of Scooby-Doo, a cartoon which was a regular fixture on the British Saturday morning children's shows which Biffovision is intended to resemble.
- Kids In The Future - a sketch which involved two children from the audience being shown the far future by a character known as 'Santa Claus' who was in fact a man wearing Victorian clothing who had drawn a beard on his face. In the future, the children saw their own deaths, met 'a robot with a metal chuff' and interacted with a futuristic joke-telling machine.
- Mr. Safety - a puppet character, Mr. Safety presented the 'Biffo Tips' segment which aimed to educate children about the importance of safety. In the pilot, Mr. Safety took the opportunity to lambast a 'fat idiot' who had moistened her legs whilst 'goofing off in a weir' and had attempted to 'dry them - with flames'. He then sang a song intended to help BW and the children remember his advice but which appeared to be concerned instead with a vicious physical assault.
A full series was not commissioned by the BBC.
[edit] Recurring images and motifs
- The phrase 'Now this happens' is spoken by several characters.
- The repeated use of the words 'bosoms' and 'buttocks'.
- There are numerous instances of the words 'Vote Conservative' appearing in unexpected places (scrawled on the pages of a children's book, picked out in neon on the side of a building in the future). One wheelchair-bound character also has a banner reading 'Vote Republican'.
- Many characters (both real and animated) sport beards held on by string, although both the beards and the string are drawn on in pen.
[edit] Characters
- Mr. Hugo: (James Lance) - the presenter
- Mrs. Peggy: (Ingrid Oliver) - co-presenter
- BW: (Simon Greenall) - a puppet