I think I can remember the very last show that I recorded on a VHS tape. I’m fairly sure that it was the Channel Four topical comedy show Gash, in 2003. It was one of the shows that Armando Iannucci made in between the Chris Morris years, Armistice, and The Thick Of It, and shared a lot in common with shows like The Stupid Version and Time Trumpet, more so than the sublime The Armando Iannucci Shows. Here’s the trailer that probably made me set the timer on the VCR.
Commissioned as a pilot run, it ran for four consecutive nights in the run up to the 2003 local elections. According to the Pozzitive website, Armando recieved a letter soon after saying that it ‘didn’t make the right sort of noises for Channel 4’, and no more shows were made.
It was clearly repurposed into the brilliant Radio 4 show Charm Offensive though, which you should seek out and listen to.
If you can point me in the direction of a copy of these four shows of Gash, that would be amazing, as I no longer have that last VHS tape.
