Backchat Posted Mon Sep 11 12:43:12 BST 2000 by Jon

When Bent and Simon mentioned Ghost Night, I asked them if they knew of Backchat, but they didn't, so here's what I remember from the episode of "Right To Reply" taken up with complaints about it:

It was an April Fool's one-off show, shown late night on C4 in the mid 80s. The premise was that it was an editon of a R2R-type show called Backchat. In this edition people were complaining about a documentary about new research into genetic treatment that could turn black children white.

I only saw the R2R clips of the show, which in turn featured clips from the original "doc", with actors playing parents of mixed-race kids agonizing over what to think of it all. As you can imagine, the whole thing got a stinking response from C4 viewers (apparently at the end of the show it was made clear the whole thing had been a drama).

But does anyone else know anything about it?

Subject: Re: Backchat [ Previous Message ]
Posted By RB on Mon Sep 11 13:03:48 BST 2000:

I turned on half way through and it was just weird. I didn't know it was a spoof.

It was being acted, which led to the lack of genuine spontaneity that you normally get on discussion programmes.

Saw the R2R about it.

It all seemed pretty pointless, really. If it were true it would be front-page news everywhere. As it was false, it made one point very slowly.

And spoof tends to indicate humour.

But it was really meant to make a political point - a bit like those Commission for Racial Equality posters that featured a black man on a security ad with the legend: "Because it's a jungle out there".

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