The team of Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Pamela Stephenson, and Griff Rhys Jones as Not the 9 O'Clock News released their second album, Hedgehog Sandwich in 1981 and it was equally as successful as their debut, reaching number five in the charts, the only time that a comedy sketch show had been inside the Top Ten. The show was conceived as a satirical alternative to the 9:00 News on the BBC and was shown weekly on BBC2 at 9:00, of course. Hedgehog Sandwich follows the same format as the weekly show: comedy sketches and songs interrupted by a pair of "newscasters" reading brief, topical stories usually in the most deadpan of voices. The album begins with a groveling apology to what appeared to be the Queen of England but turned out to be Mary Whitehouse instead. The news items are always thinly disguised jokes. In the second series, then-new U.S. President Ronald Reagan appeared to be the main butt of the joke, a couple of examples being "A new security device has been developed to prevent Ronald Reagan being shot in the brain.....bullet proof underwear." Or "Ronald Reagan has emphatically denied that his luxurious red hair was dyed, insisting that it was that color when he bought it." The sketches on Hedgehog Sandwich include "Constable Savage," a totally politically incorrect dialogue between a police constable and his inspector about why he had continually arrested a man named Winston Kadogo on charges of "Smelling of foreign food," "Walking in a loud shirt in a built up area," and "Possession of curly black hair and thick lips." There is also a studio discussion about soccer violence and how to cure that social evil. Both the eminent Professor Duff, who had studied the problem, and apparent do-gooder and social worker Sally Barnes agrees that the only solution to the thugs was to cut off their ghoulies (look it up if you really don't know). The songs include "Baronet Oswald Ernold Mosely," a ditty praising the 1930s English fascist, rhyming "He was popular and handsome as Richard Burton -- Cos I saw him on the box once with his black shirt on." The team parodies ABBA on "Supa Dupa," and Barry Manilow's style of songs on "Because I'm Wet and Lonely," and even gives Kate Bush a writing credit on "England My Leotard," sung by Pamela Stephenson to the slightly altered tune of "Them Heavy People" with, of course, the lyrics totally changed: Kate Bush would not rhyme "her hits" with "her t***." The album ends on a note of satirical comedy, lampooning Sir John Gielgud, who had been defending his appearance in the film Caligula. He claimed that there was no mention of sex or brutality when he read the original pay check. In many ways, the comedy has dated badly, but there are still nuggets of delight to be found 25 years later, maybe because of the total abandonment of political and racial sensibilities. ~ Sharon Mawer

Rovi