He, B'Stard

Before there was Eric Cartman, or even C. Montgomery Burns, there was the (dis)Honourable Alan B'Stard, British Member of Parliament in the Thatcher era - a man who was so right wing, he made Thatcher look like Tony Benn!

Of course, it was all fun and games, as B'Stard was a fictional character, played with gloriously reckless abandon by actor Rik Mayall for 29 superbly hilarious episodes of The New Statesman between 1987 and 1994 (two of the episodes were specials, outside the regular run of the series itself).

Easily one of the five funniest television series ever produced. Alas, they just don't make them like this anymore - or at least not very many of them.

Personally, I think some enterprising television producer south of the border could have a hit on his hands if he would only do what so many other American producers have done - steal (er... borrow) a great British program concept, and adapt it to the American market.

Think about it - Alan B'Stard as a young Republican congressman.

It would give the West Wing a run for it's money. Heck, one could even have an episode where he delves into the Roswell case, not to find the truth (B'Stard would never be involved in something like that), but rather to try and make a buck from it. Perhaps by claiming to have reverse engineered technology!

Or, perhaps even better, he could displace Steven Bassett as the head of exopolotics, and then make an alliance with all of Michael Salla's alien races.

The comedic possibilities are endless!

More information on one of my all-time favourite evil geniuses can be found at:

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/n/
newstatesmanthe_7774820.shtml

Paul Kimball