TV Review: Charlie Brooker's Election Wipe, BBC2

Charlie Brooker

What does it say in the Bible about the last coming first? After an election campaign that has been crammed to the brink with satirical programmes, Charlie Brooker bowled along just as last orders were being called to show the rest how it should be done.

Election Wipe had a tough job on its hands. All the best clips had been used so many times that viewers could recite the “Hell, yes, pumped, West Ham…” dialogue themselves. So it was left to Brooker to insert the perceptive funnies between the footage and dissect the political carcass, which he did with all the skill of a veteran serial killer dismembering a festering corpse.

Best of all was his take-down of Miliband’s punchy hell yes moment: “I think I just ruptured by cringeing pipes,” said Brooker while clutching his sides in his basement lair. For balance, of course, he also had plenty of pokes at Cameron and Clegg, talking about the PM being “Villafied” and Clegg becoming uglier the more power he had. I laughed the most at the shamelessly childish insertion of swearing into speeches. I think it was the fact that the expletive was "fucking" and not "fuck" that did it for me.

Farage, of course, was a bit fish-in-a-barrel, but Brooker didn’t hold back, with a piercing pisstake of UKIP’s immigration position. The leaders of the other smaller parties and Russell Brand were also caught in his crosshairs. And it is always nice to see George Osborne trying to look like a man of the people in a hi-vis jacket and ending up looking like a twat in a hi-vis jacket.

Brooker’s supporting players also did their bit, with Philomena Cunk on top form examining the possible outcome of the election and actually being informative as well as idiotic. At one point she tried to explain what a hung parliament was. “If they lose they get hung.” If only.

Watch Charlie Brooker's Election Wipe here.

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