| It has been an unusual fit, but one that works: an irreverent sketch-comedy show airing on History Television. That’s History Bites, the series now entering its fifth season that asks the question, "What if television had been around for the last 5,000 years, and landmark moments in history were packaged and presented by the forces of modern media?"
Past episodes have featured the Roman emperor Nero crooning badly on the David Letterman show and lost explorer Henry Hudson recording his own version of The Blair Witch Project.
On Canada Day, the forces behind History Bites unleash Mother Britain, a one-hour special that tells the story of our nation through the exploits of its many prime ministers and our complicated, roller-coaster relationship with the United Kingdom.
The fast-paced special is also the most ambitious History Bites production to date. Mother Britain owes much of its tongue-in-cheek humour to Rick Green, who created History Bites and has continually shepherded its course both in front and behind the camera. Green first gained national attention as a member of the Toronto-based comedy troupe The Frantics, which had its own TV show (Four on the Floor) in the mid-’80s. Green also had a long, successful tenure on The Red Green Show as both a writer and the super-klutz series regular Bill Smith.
On Mother Britain, the snowy-haired comedian serves as writer, producer and host. "This was the most creatively challenging thing I've done," he says. "We shot in dozens of locations in many cities, and completely out of order. Keeping track of where I was and what was leading into what was mind-boggling. Often the director and I were the only ones who knew what we were doing. And even then, we actually forgot to film the final scene, and had to go reshoot it later."
However, he says, "When it was finally assembled and the cast and crew saw it, they were blown away."
The special takes some welcome creative liberties in its portrayals of Canada’s prime ministers. They are initially seen strutting across the lawn of Parliament Hill as they are introduced football-starting-lineup style.
Mackenzie King, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, John Diefenbaker and the rest of the gang are given a whimsical spin throughout Mother Britain, but the historical details of their actions and policies remain intact. It all falls in line with Green’s History Bites principle, which is to remind the viewer of what happened, but keep it as fun and absurd as possible. The re-enactment of the battle between the French and English forces on the Plains of Abraham featuring robot and mutant-lizard action figures is typical of his way of thinking.
"The problem with history is that we teach it to kids and we have to clean it up. I think we should teach history the way we teach sex – tell kids you're not old enough to know about this stuff yet, it's too shocking for you. You won't be able to handle it, because hey, history is full of sex and violence," says Green. "Remember in the movie Pulp Fiction when one character threatens the other with, ‘We're going to get medieval on your ass’? And the audience shudders, ’cause they have a sense of what ‘medieval’ means." |
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