The Revolution Will Be Televised is back
- Text by Alex King
For political pranksters Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein, comedy is a powerful tool to expose the corruption, hypocrisy and greed that infects our society.
Their stunts in The Revolution Will Be Televised see them running rings around the army of PRs, press officers and security who exist to protect companies and politicians.
In the new series, TRWBT heads across the pond to take their unique brand of ambush-satire to Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin and in the Deep South.
Were there any stunts in the new series which made you think: ‘There’s absolutely no way this is going to work?’
Getting Bill Clinton was pretty hard. We had to go through about four press people and plenty of Secret Service. Also, getting into the George Bush library where he has his exhibition to put up a fake picture of him as a crusader. The gallery’s security guards and even the US police were sniffing around, but we still managed to get the picture up on the wall.
How do you decide who to target?
We read the newspapers and get really angry. The things we get most angry about we put on a big flow chart. Then we work out which ones we do something funny on. Then we ask the BBC and they tell us what we’re allowed to do!
How do you hope The Revolution Will Be Televised will have an impact?
We hope it will engage people with politics and the pressing issues the world faces, but we also hope it entertains. I think people are angry, but they also feel powerless. Hopefully our show feels empowering. We want people to go out and protest and get involved and change things for the better.
How have you tried to keep the new series fresh?
The US is a whole new world – and it was made for Dale Maily who has a lovely time with all the right wingers out there. And yes there are new characters. We have a chap called Eugene X who is a South African racist who has a lovely time with a group of bigots in in Alabama.
Catch the news series of The Revolution Will Be Televised, Tuesdays on BBC Three or on iPlayer.
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