AFTER a few short years, the early 1980s saw a group of young comedians named by leader Peter Richardson as The Comic Strip soon graduate from seedy Soho venues to Britain’s TV screens in the shape of the newly launched Channel 4.

With the exception of older associates such as Alexei Sayle, The Comic Strip’s brand of “alternative” comedy was not especially political, but as the Thatcher years wore inexorably on, the “Great She-Elephant, she-who-must-be-obeyed, the Catherine the Great of Finchley” and her increasingly rabid Tory government presented too tempting a target not to aim at.

In a series of TV movies, the company spoofed both the Conservatives and the (largely) ineffectual Labour opposition on issues of the day, ranging from the Falklands war to the abolition of the Greater London Council.

Thatcher’s lengthy, depressing reign were the golden years for The Comic Strip, as later films became less powerful, and to be frank less funny, with the troupe ageing, becoming more mainstream and/or simply losing interest in continuing this particular strain of satirical comedy. 

Later efforts on John Major’s simultaneous career as Coco the Clown and British prime minister (The Red Nose of Courage, 1992), Tony Blair’s alleged war crimes (The Hunt for Tony Blair, 2011) and the phone-hacking scandal (Redtop, 2016) all had their moments, but weren’t a patch on the earlier shows, most of which are currently available to watch free on YouTube.

Here’s my personal selection of The Comic Strip’s three best political send-ups, appropriately enough (given this year’s 40^th anniversary) beginning with 1988’s less-than-faithful depiction of the miners’ strike of 1984-85.

The Strike! (1988)

There’s no denying that the picture’s sympathies are entirely with the striking miners, although writer/director Peter Richardson also has a swing at miscast Hollywood biopics by taking the role of Al Pacino (presumably also spoofing the actor’s 1985 Revolution debacle) — as Arthur Scargill.

Jennifer Saunders plays Meryl Streep as an entirely invented Mrs Scargill. The real Streep of course went onto play Margaret Thatcher in the dire biopic The Iron Lady (2011).

The previous year to The Strike! then movie star pin-up Mickey Rourke played an IRA bomber in Mike “Get Carter” Hodges’s political thriller A Prayer for the Dying, so Richardson’s idea wasn’t entirely divorced from reality.

The Strike! ends in the House of Commons, when after an impassioned speech by Pacino/Scargill, the assembled MPs vote unanimously to agree to all the NUM’s demands and the miners then return joyfully to the pits.

GLC: The Carnage Continues… (1990)

A follow-up of sorts to The Strike using the same central conceit, with the late Robbie Coltrane as Charles Bronson playing rebel GLC leader Ken Livingstone. 

Dawn French is Cher as Labour MP Joan Ruddock, while Peter Richardson is Lee Van Cleef /Tony Benn and Jennifer Saunders essays Brigitte “Red Sonja” Nielsen as “The Ice Maiden,” a vaguely fetishised Thatcher parody.

When PM Thatcher disbands the Ken Livingstone-led Greater London Council his fightback is reimagined as a Charles Bronson/Sylvester Stallone-style action flick, with a theme song by Kate Bush, “Who is the man we all need? (KEN!) Who is the funky sex machine? (KEN!) Who is the leader of the GLC? (KEN!) Who is the man we all need? (KEN!).”

Eat The Rich (1987)

A particular favourite of mine, whose themes abide to this day, Eat The Rich sees Lanah Pellay as Alex, a waiter in high-class London brasserie Bastards, who finally snaps after the constant abuse from the toffee-nosed clientele. Forming a group of like-minded anarchists, they kill Bastards customers and staff, taking over the restaurant and serving them up in mince-themed Eat the Rich, which attracts even greater crowds of snobs, despite the food tasting “strangely like human flesh.”

Nosher Powell plays populist Tory home secretary Nosher, a threatening, beer-swilling lout, adored by a certain section of society.

MP “30p” Lee Anderson would have been an impressionable 20-year old at the time of the movie’s release. It may well have had a formative effect on his behaviour and comportment; sadly though he lacks Nosher’s thuggish charm and roguish sense of humour. 

Also, Nosher wouldn’t have been such a wimp as to change  his Rwanda vote after being teased by Labour MPs, which our Lee did. In his own words, “I was going to vote No. I went into the No lobby to vote No, because I couldn’t see how I could support the Bill after backing all the amendments. I got into the No lobby, and I spent about two or three minutes with a colleague in there. The Labour lot were giggling and laughing and taking the mick and I couldn’t do it: in my heart of hearts, I couldn’t vote No. So I walked out and abstained.”

Anderson continued to whine, pathetically claiming: “I wanted to vote No, but when I saw that lot in there laughing there’s no way I could support them above the party that’s given me a political home. They were sniggering and pointing and laughing and saying, ‘Oh Lee Anderson’s in here, he’s coming back to the Labour Party.”

Truly a profile in courage.

Incidentally, the late Shane McGowan plays a terrorist operative in league with Spider (Lemmy from Motorhead) and sinister spymaster Commander Fortune (Ronald Allen, best known as David Hunter from Crossroads).

Other Comic Strip parodies from the era you may wish to check out include South Atlantic Raiders I & II, set during the Falklands conflict (1990) and War (1983), set in 1985, when Britain is invaded and occupied by communists.

Stephen Arnell is a writer and cultural commentator. His book The Great One: The Secret Memoirs of Pompey the Great is out now.