Headcases

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For the Premier Episode of Boston Legal, see List of Boston Legal episodes.
For the US drama, see Head Cases.
Headcases
Format Animation, Comedy
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
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 8 (7 aired)
Production
Running time 30 minutes
(including adverts)
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Picture format 576i 16:9
Original run 6 April 2008 – 15 June 2008
External links
Official website

Headcases is an ITV satirical animation show based on current affairs. It employs the same satirical style as Spitting Image, 2DTV and Bo' Selecta! but using 3D animation.

The programme's first series began on 6 April 2008, with weekly episodes until 11 May 2008, airing on Sundays at 10pm. However, a seventh episode was televised on Friday 30 May at 10:30pm, while an eighth is due to air at 10pm on Sunday 15 June.

The show includes celebrities and politicians 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.

Contents

[edit] Characters

Lampooning people in the public eye, the impressionists get the chance to caricature politicians, royals and celebrities alike. These include Gordon Brown, Labour Prime Minister, 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 Secretary Jacqui Smith, the vicious creature David Miliband and Tony Blair who, under the guise of Brown's adviser Ed Balls, tricks Gordon for money.

On the Conservatives' side, Leader of the Conservatives, David Cameron who was portrayed as insisting he's 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 his Shadow Chancellor and manservant George Osborne and forces him to do various unpleasant things, i.e. lick dog muck off his shoes (a reference to "old Etonian" fagging). Shadow Foreign Secretary William 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 newly-elected Mayor of London Boris Johnson portrayed as half man and half dog so when he tries to talk about issues he instead does acts of canine behavior eg. chasing his tail and licking his genitals.

While on the side of the Liberal Democrats, Leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg who portrayed as a desperate leader ready to use anything (such as offers at Pizza 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 on Spitting Image: reasonable sane but senile Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip "and his dog (Poochwater)" who do everything that they can to stop Prince William from marrying Kate Middleton (he calls her Kate Middle-class) but never succeed and Prince William and Prince 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 that Headcases satirised: dimwitted warmonger President George W. Bush, blank-minded Bill Clinton with his wife, Hillary, the beautiful but unhelpful Condoleezza Rice, incompetent farmer Robert Mugabe, strong but dark character former President of Russia, Vladimir Putin and his successor portrayed as ventriloquist's dummy, Dmitry Medvedev, the sex-mad medallion man, Nicolas Sarkozy and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is portrayed as a Borat-like character who talks about why his country should have nuclear technology, calling his adversaries racists.

Celebrities impersonated include: populist and selfish Piers Morgan who gets a heavy object dropped on him each time, Victoria Beckham; a big headed loudmouth with a speech disorder and her dumb husband David Beckham, who is considerably shorter, going about their days working in America; Steven Spielberg; transsexual Madonna; Morgan Freeman; large-breasted model Jordan and child-minded Peter Andre; old and senile action stars Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis; snake-haired money-grabbed Heather Mills; unintelligent Brad Pitt and his twisted wife Angelina Jolie, who keeps adopting children and imprisoning them to a factory making hair extensions to rival the golden locks of Jennifer Aniston, veteran newsreader Trevor McDonald; inappropriate uses for Russell Brand (e.g. as a toilet brush); Fabio Capello struggling to learn English leaving everyone confused at what he means when he speaks; angry, loud-mouthed Jeremy Clarkson making ill-informed judgements; Richard Hammond who was left drowning when global warming hit the 2050 Top Gear episode; sleepy, drunk and drug-addled Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse; complainers Bono and Bob Geldof; coin-operated Jonathan Ross; bachelor George Clooney; Sebastian Coe presenting updates for the 2012 Olympics; Mohamed Al-Fayed and his conspiracy theories involving Fiat Unos; alien Tom Cruise and his robot wife Kate and Helen Mirren and Judi Dench who bully Kate Winslet because they are Dames and she is not.

[edit] Voice artists

[edit] Writers

[edit] Reception

Sam Wollaston from The Guardian gave the show a mixed review, saying that the writing was good, but the animation was "soulless".[2] The show's debut opened with 4 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 on BBC One.[3] The second episode also attracted 4 million viewers.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Headcases - About the Show", itv.com, 26 March 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. 
  2. ^ Wollaston, Sam. "The weekend's TV", The Guardian, 2008-04-07. Retrieved on 2008-04-07. 
  3. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (2008-04-07). Headcases starts with 4 million. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  4. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (2008-04-14). Foyle's War sweeps to victory for ITV. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.

[edit] External links