Monday, 12 February 2018
918 Norbert Smith : A Life
First viewed : 3 November 1989
This was a feature length mockumentary on Channel Four about a fictitious theatrical knight co-written by Harry Enfield who took the title role. It parodied a typical South Bank Show profile and Melvyn Bragg admirably took on the challenge of narrating it and "interviewing" Norbert and his peers as the straight man. Rorbert's career gave Enfield the chance to parody numerous English film genres including Ealing comedy, kitchen-sink drama, Shakespeare and the Carry On franchise. It climaxed with a fabulously offensive biopic of Nelson Mandela with Norbert in blackface, a role he researched by watching Olivier in Othello five times.
Enfield would develop many of the ideas here in his subsequent TV series.
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