This classic mockumentary reached its 15 year anniversary recently and has been watched a fair amount by yours truly, so it definitely deserves some love.
Baked Potato Changed My Life,
Baked Potato Showed Me the Way,
If you want to know what is wrong from right,
You Must Listen to what potato say.
If the opening lyrics of George Dawes’ spud serenade seem familiar, then that’s probably because of the renewed popularity gifted to the song in lockdown when Matt Lucas partnered with the NHS to create an informative video on how to avoid Covid-19. What you probably didn’t know was that I was already a veteran of the original classic for well over a decade.
That was all thanks to Shooting Stars: The Inside Story, a BBC mockumentary that combines clips from the 90s panel show with amusing talking heads commentary from real life participants as well as various characters from comedy maestros Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. We found it by chance on the TV guide recorded it, as you do, and it remained there receiving for a number of years until the unfortunate day we switched TV companies and the recordings were lost. First world problem at its finest.
But help was at hand. When I was ill, the BBC was nice enough to send over a disc copy. The documentary (and all the series, as far as I’m aware) was never released, probably due to copyright conflicts regarding lack of permissions from certain celebrity participants. Maybe Craig Cash didn’t appreciate having a massive chicken lowered onto his face. We’ll never know. But there are numerous moments which, to adopt the terminology of the gen Z crowd I’m apparently a part of, live rent free in my head. For context, the basic set up of the show involves showrunners Reeves and Mortimer asking unexpected guests bizarre questions mixed with sketches from the main crew, culminating in a final challenge round where a guest is essentially subjected to a degrading activity in the name of comedy. Essentially, its slapstick humour and general silliness was my bread and butter.
So, a few of my favourite quotes/moments below. Some of these are available on YouTube and some aren’t so won’t be fully appreciated due to lack of context. It is what it is:
A deadpan Will Self to Vic Reeves, after Reeves has insulted his books:
‘Well, when I sit down to write, I see your head and I aim above it’
‘PEANUTS’
– George Dawes, ‘Peanuts’ song
Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker gets pulled over by a rope, and the culprit on the other end is later ‘revealed’ to be a small puppy.
Check out some of these bangers on YouTube, and see some of Matt Lucas’ finest work. George Dawes ftw.