Is a 40-year-old format the future of TV satire? This weekend, Channel 4 revived the cult 80s comedy floorshow Friday Night Live for a one-off screening to mark the broadcaster’s birthday. Here was the host, Ben Elton, shorn of mullet but still sparkly of jacket. Here was Harry Enfield’s Stavros, trading in his doner kebabs for “orgasmic coffee”, four decades on. But here too was the transgender comedy superstar du jour Jordan Gray, stealing the headlines with an outre moment summoning the spirit of the show’s Thatcher-era heyday. Hence the social media and critical buzz, which demanded: bring this show back, it’s as electrifying as ever.
Maybe that was just the nostalgia speaking. Certainly, viewers of a 1980s vintage – myself included – will have felt a powerful rush of yearning for yesteryear when Elton’s alternative comedy comrades (Ade Edmondson, French and Saunders, Stephen Fry) posted video well-wishes as the night began. Nothing was more thrilling than this show (originally broadcast as Saturday Live) when I was an impressionable young comedy fan. Emo Philips. The Dangerous Brothers. Emma Thompson doing standup! Denis Healey (ask your parents, youngsters) doing poetry! At a time of endless Tory rule (can you imagine?), the revolutionary energies of a new generation, and their untamed humour at the expense of the status quo, were distilled in this show.
