Salon.com > Ian O'Doherty

Oh, behave!

Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:00:00 +0000

It hasn't been a good summer to be a disgraced former politician in Britain.

First we had the delicious experience of seeing Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling novelist and former Thatcher acolyte, sentenced to four years for perjury during a libel trial. (Typically for Archer, he initiated the original libel case, perjured himself and only got found out when a former friend decided to teach him a lesson.)

Just when people thought it would be impossible to trump the Archer case, along comes the astonishing news that an already disgraced former Conservative MP and his wife were arrested for rape and gross sexual indecency by police in London.

Neil Hamilton was an unimpressive and relatively anonymous Conservative MP until it emerged in 1999 that he had taken cash and accepted presents and favors from Harrods owner Mohammed al Fayed in return for asking questions in the House Of Commons.

It was a charge that the eccentric Egyptian millionaire (he has repeatedly claimed that Princess Diana was about to marry his son Dodi before they were both killed in Paris, a notion that still sends members of the British establishment scurrying for their smelling salts) was happy to repeat ad nauseam, and the resulting case destroyed Hamilton's career. It also gave al Fayed the opportunity to make several wild allegations from the legally protected sanctuary of the witness box, and made a star of Hamilton's bullish wife, Christine.

What happens when you satirize hysteria?

Mon, 20 Aug 2001 19:00:00 +0000

Sick. Depraved. Indescribably evil. Vile. These words have been used a lot in Britain recently.

Following the July 26 broadcast of "Brass Eye," a satirical television program poking fun at the hysterical and sensational way the media deals with pedophilia, politicians, the public and, of course, itself, the media have been queuing up to condemn the program and "Brass Eye" creator Chris Morris.

It was always going to be a controversial program, but nobody, except perhaps Morris himself, could have predicted the deluge of recrimination, condemnation and spluttering indignation that greeted the latest installment of his scabrously funny satire.

Airing on Channel 4, Britain's most progressive and risqué terrestrial channel, "Brass Eye" has developed a reputation over the last few years as the most dangerous show on television.

Morris, a master of disguise and an expert exploiter of hubris, has made a career out of making the great and the good look stupid and vain. But his latest pastiche of an investigative news magazine program dealing with child abuse has made even some of his staunchest supporters feel uncomfortable.

Everybody must get stoned

Fri, 18 May 2001 19:00:00 +0000

On a travel junket to Zimbabwe a few years ago I was the only Irish journalist in a party of eight English female journalists. Things were fine until, oh, about the time we took off and I spent the next 11 days sulking and cursing my luck that they don't sell batteries for compact disc players in the bush. By the time we got to Victoria Falls I was moody, petulant and in desperate need of a joint.

Priding myself on my ability to score anywhere, I left the others clicking their fingers at the waiters in the hotel and went to the nearby shantytown to find some weed. Soon I had a Marlboro box stuffed with Zimbabwean green, but as I turned a corner, I was grabbed by two local cops. The pair took great delight in informing me that I was going to be deported unless I made a contribution to their retirement fund. I handed over 100 quid sterling (now about $143) and left myself completely broke, and they actually insisted that I keep the pot because, as they pointed out, between giggling at the sun-burned Irish guy in the football jersey, I had just bought the most expensive weed in history.