The Saturday Night Armistice

The Saturday Night Armistice

Infobox Television
show_name = The Saturday/Friday Night Armistice


caption = Armando Iannucci presenting the "Election Night Armistice" in 1997
format = Sketch comedy
runtime = 30 min per normal episode
creator =
starring = Armando Iannucci,
Peter Baynham,
David Schneider
country = UK
network = BBC2
first_aired = June 24 1995
last_aired = January 1 1999
num_episodes = 24
imdb_id = 0112152
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Saturday Night Armistice" (later "The Friday Night Armistice") was a 1995 satirical television comedy programme presented by Armando Iannucci with Peter Baynham and David Schneider.

Format

The show took an irreverent look back at the events in the previous week, although as with Iannucci's previous news satire "The Day Today", ideas were often taken in surreal directions by the three protagonists, for example an Orange March demanding passage through a ladies toilet because it used to be a gents 200 years ago. Iannucci was the main presenter and sat at a desk with Schneider and Baynham sitting on an adjacent black leather sofa. On Armando's desk was a rotund cuddly toy named "Mister Tony Blair," an extreme characterisation of the then-Leader of the Opposition. In a manner similar to Sooty, Mr Tony Blair could only be heard by Armando, opening up a wealth of opportunities for humour based on whatever zany comments the real-life Blair may or may not have said that week.

The programme also had a number of weekly recurring items, for example "Hunt the Old Woman", where the viewers were challenged to find the old lady of the title making an unexpected cameo appearance on national television during the previous week. Her most famous appearance was at Royal Ascot where she could be spotted wearing a large hat emblazoned with the legend "I am an Old Woman," a photograph of which actually made the front page of "The Times". The prize for spotting her appearances was originally "The Saturday Night Armistice Hors d'Œuvre Tree" complete with a different selection of Hors d'œuvres each week. This reward later changed to the much coveted set of "Friday Night Armistice Dart Flights". Other features included a bus full of Princess Diana lookalikes turning up in bizarre locations, the travels of the "Mr. Tony Blair" puppet and Peter's Miniaturised Area (complete with a miniaturised Mr. Tony Blair, and later called "What Happened Next?"), which showed a supposed CCTV clip that followed an item of news.

Like many 1990s British comedy series it included appearances and writing contributions by a large number of UK comedians including amongst others Arthur Mathews, Graham Linehan, Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon, Steve Pemberton,
Omid Djalili, Al Murray, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.

In 1996, scheduling changes and low Saturday-night ratings meant the programme became "The Friday Night Armistice". This series still featured the title music sung in the style of Frank Sinatra. The team did a live 3 hour-long 1997 Election special ("The Election Night Armistice", broadcast on BBC 2 at the same time as BBC 1's main election programme) and a third series in 1998 and several Christmas and New Year specials, the last one airing in January 1999. A fourth series was announced for broadcast in 1999 but was not produced.

None of the episodes has ever been made available on DVD and owing to their topical nature are unlikely to gain a commercial release. However, episodes have been distributed via various BitTorrent download sites.

Episode guide

*The Saturday Night Armistice
**"Episode 1", 24 June 1995
**"Episode 2", 01 July 1995
**"Episode 3", 08 July 1995
**"Episode 4", 22 July 1995
**"Episode 5", 29 July 1995
**"Episode 6", 05 August 1995
*The Saturday Night Armistice Party Bucket (Christmas special of series highlights), 22 December 1995
*The Friday Night Armistice
**"Episode 1", 14 June 1996
**"Episode 2", 21 June 1996
**"Episode 3", 28 June 1996
**"Episode 4", 05 June 1996
**"Episode 5", 12 July 1996
**"Episode 6", 19 July 1996
*The Election Night Armistice (3 hour special for the 1997 general election), 01 May 1997
*The Christmas Armistice (Christmas special of 1997 highlights and new material), 29 December 1997
*The Armistice Party Bucket (New Year special of more 1997 highlights and new material), 02 January 1998
*The Friday Night Armistice
**"Episode 1", 09 January 1998
**"Episode 2", 16 January 1998
**"Episode 3", 23 January 1998
**"Episode 4", 30 January 1998
**"Episode 5", 06 February 1998
**"Episode 6", 13 February 1998
*The Christmas Armistice (Christmas special of 1998 highlights and new material), 29 December 1998
*The New Year Armistice (New Year special of more 1998 highlights and new material), 01 January 1999

External links

*imdb title|id=0112152|title=The Saturday Night Armistice
*" [http://web.archive.org/web/20050112112820/www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/s/saturdaynightarm_7775575.shtml The Saturday Night Armistice] " at the former BBC Guide to Comedy


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