Nigel Farage Gets His Life Back

After the Brexit vote, the BBC announced it was airing a one-off mockumentary about Nigel Farage – now the show has aired, did the announcement deserve the backlash it faced?

First, the show itself. Kevin Bishop starred as Farage, doing an impression so wonderfully poor you’d be forgiven for not knowing who it was, and his snarky laugh is so annoying you’ll hate it straight away – sadly, it happens at least five times a minute. Farage, having retired as head of UKIP after achieving Brexit, spends his days doing erotic jigsaws, going down the pub and being generally discontent with his lot. I didn’t laugh once, and I laugh at almost everything – for a satire, it was a strangely toothless one.

Issues abound outside the show, though – was it right to have made it at all? There were two distinct arguments against it – that the BBC shouldn’t try to laugh about a man with toxic views for fear of normalising them, and that it’s not right to make a show solely attacking one man – and there are problematic elements with both. Suggesting certain things shouldn’t be discussed or joked about is nigh-on censorship, and attacking Farage perpetuates his narrative of ‘one man versus the establishment,’ as well as belittling the people who voted UKIP or Brexit.

There’s nothing wrong with political satire, but make it funny

A big issue here is that the show was made by the BBC, an organisation supposed to be impartial (even if, in practice, it tends to be so left-ward it is untrue). The show covers two bases – it gets to smear Farage and Brexit at the same time, because we all know what Auntie thinks of Brexit (the reporting has been so biased, top bosses will show have to face MPs’ questions).

Imagine if the BBC announced it was making At Home with Jeremy Corbyn, for example – there would be uproar, with accusations of the BBC’s bias everywhere. But there would never be a prospect of such a show airing, because they’re on safe ground with Nigel Farage – he’s a man that it’s okay to hate because, you know, he’s Nigel Farage. After all, nothing screams that you’re tolerant of other views like sneering at and mocking someone who believes in something different.

The biggest problem with the show is that it was crap, but the intentions behind it set a dangerous precedent that Auntie would be best to avoid. There’s nothing wrong with political satire, but make it funny and don’t betray your veneer of impartiality so much to do so.