NTNOCN: James Bloody Burke (1980)

January 13, 2026

Back in the old days, you used to get brainy people to befuddle your bonces on peak time telly. One the giants of this genre was James Burke ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Burke_%28science_historian%29 ) who had just done “Connections” and “The Real Thing” by the time Not the Nine O’Clock News did this sketch. I think it’s telling that although they make fun of him, there’s an element of sneaking admiration at Burke’s twists and turns.

This sketch is preceded by exactly the sort of shouty bloke that’s basically taken over since then…

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