Two of the pioneers of modern satire a. A generation which took on the establishment with TW3 in 1963 and are still relevant sixty years later. RIP John & John.
Bird and Fortune were not involved with That Was The Week That Was but were together on the two:sequel series after the 1964 General Election, Not So Much a Programme, More A Way of Life and an easier to remember title BBC3 (no connection with the digital channel). Both only had one season each in 1964 and 1965. These satirised the Harold Wilson admin, which Labour had only a wafer thin majority T he trouble prone McMillan Douglas-Home admins which were satire gold dust had even replaced by a Labour government which called an election in 1966 in order to boost their majority Of course Wilson was the target of satirists eventually!
RIP John Bird, go hunt out, John Fortune, have an utter another lifetime, of making each other giggle . I loved you both immensely. You gave me, so much happy , when my life was very sad. Bless you both , I loved you both immensely. Thank you for your silly , needed it and I loved it . You kept me going , thank you xxx
@@spiffenage1 Wells died as well. R.I.P. Excellent as actor writer and satirist worked many times with the Bird and Fortune but not exclusive. They did a few sketches and other ‘Long Johns’ versions were just Fortune and Bird like The Last Laugh. Wells did ‘Denis’ and was Bond’s Q’s assistant 🤣 As a long term private eye sub his writing is recognised there.
@@spiffenage1 Not at all. You highlighting Wells shows the talent from these guys and their losses. Saw lots of their sketches and tv series and makes us realise very little has changes on the political scene. Would be good to have seen them with scenes about Covid and current Brexit and Just Stop Oil etc. I can imagine that! 🤣👍
I worked in the NHS for thirty years. I recall wards being closed, a&e departments being shut down, streamlining the system, as we had to save six million pounds immediately. There was a massive CIP (cost improvement plan),. They closed my ward and sold it privately to save three hundred thousand. As I was then a ward manager without a ward, they dumped me into a imaginary job to liaise on a project to computerise patient records. The project lasted a year and the private sector company, Oasis, was paid three million pounds to deliver a useless system that couldn't do the most basic functions. It was scrapped after eight months. Three million shovelled into the drain. The wards are still closed.
So good to hear from someone who experienced the fatuous policies of a Tory government that probably loathed the concept of a national health system, for all its faults.
They did their research - this satire was absolutely, UNCANNILY spot-on. NPfIT was just a big national shopping list of kit and vapour-ware, with no prior planning for how it would be got into use, and the implementation costs dumped on the poor saps running the local operations. And the big consultancy companies swooped in like vampires to a kill and interposed themselves between national and local, so neither knew what the f**k was going on. Which of course, didn't matter as long as the gravy kept flowing....
Coincidentally, that's one of the pillars of making money. If the "financial positive source" don't understand what's going on or what they're paying for, they won't be brave enough to interfere with the transactions.
@@philipcamp1370 Yes! and it is a reminder of the saying that runs: "A failure is a guy who has made mistakes, but is not able to cash in on the experience". The saying is as applicable to countries and to Governments as it is to individuals.
@@falfield public money is consistently wasted in the uk . The ajax light tank the nimrod early warning plane . The NHS Computer system around 2008 . That was around 8 to 10 billion . We don't have proper oversight and accountability .
I loved John Fortune, he was a legend. Such a shame he died. I always enjoyed watching Bremner Bird and Fortune whenever I could, and I loved Rory's impressions of Tony Blair (with those funny teeth he (Rory) used to put in to impersonate Blair!). I wish there were more quality programmes on television, like this.
Sad to hear of the death of John Bird🙏🙏🙏😢😢 I remember back in the 80’s watching these on TV Proper satire with the 3 of them I did not realise John was 86 I would have said 76 but time flies 😀😀😁😁🤩🤩👍 👍 ❤️❤️🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴🏴
Such a prophetic sketch. I went for a pre-operation chat in January 2022, which duplicated almost exactly the information I had entered online in November. I asked why, and the nurse had to say that the information I had entered (on one computer system) couldn't be transferred to the system used by Sheffield Hospitals.
In 2022, one of the new On-line patient record systems used by my local health authority is called "Patients Know Best ",. This seems to be a system run by a third- party entity outwith the NHS and yet it has access to part of my NHS record. I don't believe I gave my permission for PKB to access my records. As a patient, I only found out about its existence by accident, due to a reference to it in a text I received during treatment. I received no advance notification of its introduction either as a potential client of the NHS residing in this Health District or as a new patient. Consequently, I was not trained in its use. In some cases, data entered on the Patients Know Best system does not appear to be read across to the other on-line patient record system operated by this Health District. This other system is again accessible by the patient, but nobody told me of its existence or instructed me in its use and I only discovered it whilst pursuing enquiries about the Patients Know Best system. These systems are important to the patient in that they hold details of appointments, correspondence, treatments, consultations, medications and other details of concern to the patient and, although, much of this information is also made available to the patient in the form of hard copy letters and reports, it really comes into its own when the paperwork is delayed or goes missing . . as has happened to me on a couple of occasions this year. When this has happened previously, my GP has been able to access a copy of my electronic records that are available to him and issue a replacement hard copy to me.However, I'm not sure he is able to access the Patients Know Best Service. Further, I suspect that recently, the Patients Know Best system has been used to hide notifications to patients . . from the patients, in the possible hope that they won't find them in circumstances where the paper duplicate promised appears not to have been issued. Very strange bureaucratic behaviour.
oh yes it has. it's worse today because crookery is in government and crookery & greed is now bold and in your face... no attempt to present it as anything else.
As someone who worked in the Civil Service with computers commissioned by managers and ministers who would struggle to grasp the concept of "Pong", from IT consultants who had no interest at all in what the systems were to be used for, without any consultation with the poor saps who'd have to try to do their jobs with the wretched systems, I can say this is absolutely spot on. There was only one system I ever used that worked properly and that was one where the managers for that area of work had all done the job themselces and told the IT people exactly what was required and that they wouldn't sign it off until it did that. The Civil Service is in the poor state it's in because it is run by managers who were promoted beyond their levels of competence , answerable to ministers who don't know or care what about anything other than their careers, commissioning work from private companies who only see the chance to make some easy money.
2 documentaries ''The Great NHS Heist'' ( Dr Bob Gill ) & ''The Dirty War on the NHS'' ( John Pilger ) - plus the 2 minute 39 second movie clip ''bulworth'' by Raven Van.
Channel 4, Saturday evening. about twenty past seven instead of Noel Edmonds on the other side. Funnily enough I don't think about all the politics, I just think about their partnership. Sorely missed.
The Observer reports, today in Jan 2023, the NHS regions are suggesting with,posters on display that patients pay for the treatment or tests they urgently want instead of hanging around on a months long waiting list…effectively a 2 tier NHS.
It's 2023 and this sketch is as relevant today as it was in 2004. Nothing has changed with the same government clowns ,civil servants and NHS managers totally incapable in running anything. RIP John Bird and John Fortune
Funny but so true, It was decided in the eighties to privatize and the result was that much of the technical expertise that was present in various sectors was lost or outsourced. The government then relied on private consultants who sole purpose seemed to be to screw the government for as much as they could and often left the government with systems that overran the original cost and often never worked and had to be abandoned.
I was told, many years ago by some one in the know, that in order to win a bid for the contract for a government IT project, you needed to have previously won a bid for a government IT project. Which explains why the company that fucked up the last government IT project gets awarded the contract to fuck up the next government IT project.
RIP John Fortunę and John Bird: comic genius's both. This hilarious sketch is horribly prescient given the current shambles in the NHS, Border Force, railways, postal service ad infinitum....
Things haven't changed all that much since 2004. Except that the eurosceptic is now in the driving seat. Of the bus. Which is on the wrong side of the road.
as true now in 2023 as it was then, but the numbers are of course much bigger now. Plus the fact that one no longer has to try to hide this kind of criminal activity, as we now have the concept of 'public service for private profit', plus you can lie and deceive as much as you want, as there's no responsibility or accountability - true utopia, but not for ordinary tax aying folks.
Art imitating reality. The Establishment dorks propagating the "clap for the NHS" nonsense should be force fed this satire in a padded cell 24/7 to understand how nothing about the crappy NHS has changed, and that in 2023, it might well kill you before it has time to cure. Here is one show I really miss. RIP the two of you legends.
Love these guys! Sadly truth is stranger than fiction - and under the egregious Tories, the reality in Britain has far outstripped anything made up here... :(
A sketch on food moderation consumption and finacial edu . Use internatoonal liaunguage on a person whom sang fir ww2 trooos and bombed victims. The lsnguage csn be jurustructions of nation
