Headcases

Headcases was an ITV satirical animation show based on current affairs. It employed the same satirical style as Spitting Image, 2DTV and Bo' Selecta! but using 3D animation created by UK Visual Effects and animation house Red Vision. Red Vision evolved a series of unique production techniques and a sophisticated animation pipeline to deliver the weekly topical elements of the series to hitherto impossible deadlines.

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 at 10 pm on Sunday, 15 June.

The show included celebrities, politicians and members of the British 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.

Characters

Lampooning people in the public eye, the impressionists got the chance to caricature politicians, royals and celebrities alike. These included 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 e.g. 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; the reasonable sane but a senile Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh "and his dog (Poochwater)" who do everything that they can to stop Prince William from marrying "commoner" Catherine 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:President George W. Bush, Bill Clinton with his wife, Hillary, 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 as a flirty disco dancer who sing in French international success and President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is portrayed as a Borat-like character who lists reasons why his country should have nuclear technology (including destroying the entire Middle East and most of Central Asia so Iran can move closer to Europe to compete in Euro 2012) 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, styled as "The (Geriatric) Action Heroes", who fight their nemesis, money-grabbing, snake-haired old people-hater 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; far-too-similar footballers Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, whose attempts to work together for England are portrayed as Laurel and Hardy-style slapstick comedy; 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 Katie, and common chavs Helen Mirren and Judi Dench, who bully Kate Winslet because they are Dames and she is not.

Voice artists

• Rory Bremner
• Jon Culshaw
• Lewis MacLeod
• Kayvan Novak
• Daniel Maier
• Lucy Porter
• Jess Robinson
• Katy Wix
• Katy Brand
• Omid Djalili
• Phil Cornwell
• Lucy Montgomery
• Mark Perry
• Tom Hollander
• Andrew Lawrence

Writers

• Henry Naylor
• Kevin Day
• Mark Evans
• Lucy Porter
• Carl Carter
• Tony Cooke
• Simon Dean
• Richie Webb
• Marc Blakewill & James Harris

Reception

Sam Wollaston from The Guardian gave the show a mixed review, saying that the writing was good, but the animation was "soulless"^[2] and the Daily Star simply called it "Hilarious". 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]

Peter Fluck was critical of the series. His initial assessment is 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 on YouTube instead. He is encouraged by the likes of Rory Bremner among the impersonators.^[5]

DVD release

On Sunday 15 June 2008 ITV announced that the only series would be available on DVD which was released on 7 July.^[6]

See also

• Spitting Image
• 2DTV

References

External links

• Headcases at itv.com
• Headcases at the Internet Movie Database
• Headcases at the British Comedy Guide