Saddam gets a Groucho Marx makeover, Gordon Brown sings about macroeconomics – and Cherie is part Lily Savage, part Lili Marleen. The big-collared comic reveals all about Tony!
It’s a Tuesday morning and Harry Hill and Steve Brown are discussing their unlikely musical about the New Labour years. There’s a song “in absolutely awful taste” about Blair’s “people’s princess” eulogy, they tell me. They’ve got John Prescott and Robin Cook, played by women. “And there’s a song in it,” says Brown, “that started life as a dull speech of Gordon Brown’s.” Hill elaborates: “It’s him explaining macroeconomics. It’s a lovely song, that.”
They start singing it – and heads turn towards our table in Bafta’s Piccadilly cafe in London. “It’s one of those recitative songs,” says Brown. “It’s very stirring.” “I still don’t know what macroeconomics is,” interjects Hill. A pause. Then Brown ventures, helpfully: “It’s like macrobiotics, I think.”
