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23 February 1996 (1996-02-23) – 22 October 2003 (2003-10-22)
The Mark Thomas Comedy Product (from series 2 onwards - known as The Mark Thomas Product) was a television show fronted by the English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter, Mark Thomas and directed by Michael Cumming. It was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4 from 23 February 1996 to 22 October 2003.
The show, described as "a brilliantly ludicrous alternative to Watchdog",[1] was a hybrid of comedy and serious politics, with Thomas often using silly or surreal methods to gain interviews with politicians and corporations and to highlight issues.
McFun at McDonald's (in which Thomas purchases 100 50p burgers then sets a burger van up outside to resell them, then turns up in a clown car, with clowns, then a tank and eventually a lorry with a rock band on the back (and gets banned)). Also features ECGD bad debts in Iraq and Nigeria.
Mark bets the production budget for the last show on a horse in the 2:30 from Doncaster, loses and has to make the last show of series one in his mate's living room, tries to give cash away at the Bank of England and raises money at the Torython.
Mark probes the ethics of the Church of England's investments and runs a float at the Lord Mayor's show.
3
04/02/1998
"Sellafield and Mice"
The friendly face of genetic engineering, DuPont's Onco mouse, radioactive pigeon guano at Sellafield, Burston Marsteller and Mark does his impression of Lord Simon.
Mark sets up a PR company at an arms fair in Greece and interviews Major General Widjojo from Indonesia. "After discussing with the Major General the Army`s involvement in the massacre of 271 innocent civilians in a churchyard, I spent the afternoon with an Iranian arms dealer talking through whether a mortar bomb could be the solution to moles on my back lawn."
After the residents of Cricklewood find out they will be getting nuclear waste in their back yard, Mark goes to Dungeness to guard a train carrying nuclear waste and add a little bit of information to the visitors' centre.
"a bit of a rag bag of a show" - William Hague at Loughbough University, Mark organises a Labour conference standing ovation, House of Lords attendance, the nutty John Battle, updates on nuclear trains, the DTI and "The showgirls of truth"!
Mark tried to take a sanctions busting teddy bear to Iraq, a beanie baby to the Whitehouse and featured a woman with a price on her head for saving lives.
In this show Mark Thomas cast his critical all-seeing eye on things nuclear, and took a peek over the fence at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, and unexpectedly became the first programme since the 1970s to be invited to film an interview from within the base.
Mark met David Shayler, found out about his own MI5 file, enlisted some acrobatic mailmen, came face to face with Jack Straw, investigated the lack of accountability of the intelligence services, and the lunacy of the Official Secrets Act.
Law enforcement under Jack Straw, freedom of information, visiting Pinochet and the Cambridge 2, imprisoned for 5 years under section 8 of the misuse of drugs act.
In this show Mark investigated corporate advertising and arranged a debate about conditions in clothing factories in Indonesia between the global affairs director of Adidas, union activists from Jakarta and Richard Howitt MEP in a school where Year 9 students were able to ask questions of the senior Adidas representative in charge of global marketing.
Mark Thomas draws up a map of Britain that reveals the places the government and the establishment do not want the public to know about, disproves the claim that the government is an 'open' institution, and looks at the secret democracy that Britain really is.
Post war Iraq is bust. The country owes $383,000,000,000 to various companies, banks and countries from loans/credit which it took to build palaces, buy weapons and such. Mark Thomas decides to try to help out by taking it onto himself to try to raise money to help them out.
References
^Upton, Sam. "Preview: The Mark Thomas Comedy Product". Select (March 1998). EMAP Metro: 100.
