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The History of the World Backwards

Actors in historical costume
  • Posted at 11:30am
  • 08 November 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 3 comments

It's rare for a new comedy series to lob something genuinely unexpected at you. It's usually some kind of panel game where the spontaneous wit feels tired and pedestrian. Or a sketch show desperately trying to wring the last drops of humour out of sideways glances at modern life. Or it might be a sitcom, where the jokes are flagged up about ten minutes in advance thanks to horrendous gurning on the part of the lead characters.

I was unlucky enough to catch that Only Fools and Horses spin-off sitcom, The Green Green Grass, last week. Everyone involved in its production must be completely aware that it's lowest-common-denominator dross, full of tired gags and Rentaghost-level acting.

This not only makes it supremely unamusing, it's also deeply offensive: it's a show that's been deliberately and patronisingly created for stupid people. What's the point in wasting effort on imaginative gags, when the old ones still "work"? This is the problem that blights so much British comedy, from TittyBangBang to Two Pints of Lager...oh, I could go on.

But Rob Newman's new series, The History of the World Backwards (Tuesdays, 10pm, BBC4), is astounding for two reasons. Firstly, it's a simple but unique idea: looking at the timeline of history in reverse. So we have the story of screen actors struggling to come to grips with the new era of silent film. Or a slow increase in smoking throughout the 20th century, thanks to a government target of having 90% of the population puffing away by 1940. Or Emmeline Pankhurst campaigning for women's rights to be restricted.

Secondly, and most gloriously, it dares to presuppose knowledge on the part of the viewer. This feels almost unheard of. I was watching it with barely restrained glee, as it felt like a frighteningly rare example of an entertainment programme that wasn't talking to me as if I were a six-year-old child. How did this manage to slip under the net? It actually requires you to know that the Yalta Conference was about the post-Second World War carving up of Europe rather than a desperate attempt to stave off war, or that OMD named a song after an American nuclear bomber, er, rather than the other way around.

And because you've never really thought of history in this way, Newman is way ahead of us, and you never really see any of the jokes coming in advance. It's possible that a sequence showing Ghana's leaders successfully outsourcing administrative and trade responsibility to Britain in 1957 isn't the most promising comedy idea, but it's a brilliantly funny way to highlight the absurdity of colonialism.

Pedants may complain that some of the gags don't stand up to close scrutiny – "hang on, that's not happening backwards" – but, as when those same people manage to spot digital watches in period dramas, it's kind of missing the point. Rob Newman hasn't had the greatest time of it since the days of The Mary Whitehouse Experience, and is probably remembered by most as the bloke with the catchphrase "That's your mum, that is." But as anyone who has seen him do stand-up will know, he's so much more than that. And this series is a rare and precious delight.

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  • Posted on 09 November 2007
  • at 10:39am
  • by themanwhofellasleep

I watched a few minutes of it, and clever though it was, it wasn't funny.

  • Posted on 08 November 2007
  • at 4:48pm
  • by falhawk

Mind you, "That's your mum, that is" is a bl**dy good catchphrase as they go. I've now spent all afternoon on YouTube watching History Today and not got on with any work at all.

  • Posted on 08 November 2007
  • at 1:08pm
  • by charleston51

finally some good telly! must remember to buy one.

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