&c1=usa&c2=(none)&c3=MediaGuardian&c4=Channel+4,Television+industry+(Media),Media&c5=&c6=Claire+Cozens&c7=2001_07_05){kind=small}
- MediaGuardian,
- Thursday July 5, 2001
Morris: Channel 4 has confirmed he is developing several ideas. Photograph: Channel 4
Channel 4 has pulled a one-off special of its highly controversial Brass Eye series which is believed to have centred on the media's treatment of paedophiles.
The station is understood to have been unhappy with the timing of the broadcast in the wake of the disappearance of two children.
Since the decision to pull the show was taken, the body of schoolgirl Bunmi Shagaya, who went missing on a school trip to France, was found earlier today.
Another young girl, Danielle Jones, is still missing after she vanished on her way to school 15 days ago.
Comic satirist Chris Morris is renowned for making fun of taboo issues and Channel 4 insiders hint that this time he may have spoofed some of Fleet Street's most experienced journalists.
"It is worth waiting for. Chris Morris is always full of surprises, you will all be watching it," said one source.
The decision to pull the show was taken yesterday, and a Channel 4 manager told staff it was "too hot for Brass Eye at the moment".
Channel 4's website was this morning still advertising the one-off special of the show, which has been kept tightly under wraps.
But a Channel 4 spokeswoman confirmed that it would be replaced with a repeat of the famous "cake" brass eye, in which pundits were conned into condemning a fictitious new drug.
"We have moved the Brass Eye special further down the run of repeats," she said. "We were planning to show it tonight but I have been told it's not ready. We do not know what the exact content will be."
But sources say the much-anticipated one-off will be a satire on paedophilia and the hysterical reaction of the media.
It is not the first time Channel 4 has had last-minute second thoughts about broadcasting the controversial series, conceived by the comic satirist Chris Morris.
Four years ago a spoof about the Yorkshire Ripper was cut from the Brass Eye series on the orders of the then Channel 4 chief executive, Michael Grade.
The sketch showed how a well-known figure, whose identity has not been revealed, was duped into commenting on a fictitious plan to turn the Ripper story into a musical.
The banned scene is to be shown as part of the current series.
