I grew up adoring Rob Newman and David Baddiel. Their sketches and the catchphrases - such as they were - from their TV shows were a sort of watchword amongst my closest schoolfriends. We all particularly loved ‘History Today’, their sketch about two cantankerous history professors debasing and abusing one another with childish insults, and I remember that the phrase ‘…that’s you, that is’, echoed endlessly around the classrooms and science laboratories of the grammar school where I was educated. Looking back, it must have driven the teachers to distraction.
In a moment of idle reflection today I decided to hunt down some of the History Today sketches on YouTube. Here’s the best of the bunch, though it’s worth watching as many as you can put up with.
I also came across this rather nice piece of analysis of the sketch and the states of mind of Newman and Baddiel when they were filming and performing it. I remember watching the Wembley gig mentioned here on television with a mawkish fascination, knowing that the pair literally despised one another and would never perform together again. That History Today drew them together on stage and screen is in that context quite interesting, and one can read endlessly into the subtext of the abuse as they trade insults. It’s rather reminiscent of the later Derek and Clive sketches, performed by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, when Cook was riven with alcoholism and jealousy of Dudley’s burgeoning celebrity, and hurling as much vitriol as he could at his partner, all under the veneer of humorous banter.
‘A man may seye full sooth in game and pley,’ as Chaucer had it.
