The but of the joke

Frost On Satire turned out to have a rather narrower focus than the title suggested - namely, political satire on television. So, no consideration of The Onion, for instance, and instead veneration of Saturday Night Live, Spitting Image and Have I Got News For You. As engaging as parts of the programme were (not least in illustrating Frost's own status as a forefather of modern satire), I couldn't forgive some of the omissions. How a British programme could ignore Yes Minister and Armando Iannucci's modern-day equivalent, The Thick Of It, as well as the likes of Chris Morris' masterpieces The Day Today and Brass Eye, is beyond me.

As with most of these things, there would be plenty of scope for a full series rather than just a one-off hour-long programme - lots more time to cover more source material, explore the historical context (That Was The Week That Was didn't spring out of a vacuum, and there was a rich tradition of satire long before the invention of television) and consider satire in other media. It ended up feeling like a bit of a rushed job, a wasted opportunity.

The crux of the programme was an exploration of political satire's power - the conclusion being that while it never actually changes the world directly, it can at least help to shape or change perceptions. Most of those interviewed were modest and sober about satire's capacity to topple its targets. What Frost didn't draw out was the fact that they continue to plug away in spite of this, which suggests that satirists nevertheless refuse to accept their efforts might be futile, instead retaining an permanently optimistic belief that their work might make a difference, even if that's rarely borne out by the immediate reality.

Consideration of The Day Today would have provided rich material for this debate, in the sense that the show presaged many of the subsequent developments in television news - it's arguably become less satirical and more documentary since it was first screened. The programme might not have changed the world, but it saw the ridiculousness of the direction in which it was heading.