461 – The Year of the Sex Olympics

Nigel Kneale’s dark and prescient look at the near future. Simon and Eugene review this classic work of British television. Episode synopsis:  In a future sooner than you think, the world is divided into two groups – the elite High Drives, who live in Apathy Control and the Low Drives, the masses who live outside. Those in Control spend their time living a luxurious life and providing televised media programming designed to keep the masses docile and apathetic. Nat is the producer of the top-rated daily show, Sportsex – a program of live sex acts. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] Nat is having a sexual relationship with Misch, the hostess of the program. In addition to producing the live broadcast of the program, Nat’s duties also require that he “screen” the potential contestants for the program. It’s a big year for Nat, as it will soon be time for the Sex Olympics, a program he will be in charge of. Coordinator Ugg, the controller of programming, comes to visit. He’s from the old days and he remembers why they do what they do. In the old days they used to prevent things from getting on television, something they called “censoring” but then they learned that by showing things, people made do and didn’t do things. In short, “Sex is not to do, Sex is to watch” – the brith rate of the overpopulated planet started plummeting. It’s an important job that they do, keeping the world “cool.” The latest computer assessment of Nat indicates things aren’t so good. He’s not as cool as he should be. Ugg wants to help, but Nat can’t quite express why he feels the way he does. He literally hasn’t the words. 40-45 sexual partners ago, Nat used to be with Deanie, who now runs a program called The Hungry Angry Show, where people eat and throw food at each other, which keeps food consumption down amongst the Low Drives. Deanie has concerns about their daughter, Keten, now nine years old. Children are reared in nurseries, but parents sometimes visit. Deanie things that Keten may have been identified as a Low Drive and may be cast out. Deanie also has a current sexual partner, Kin, the man who does the drapes on the Art Sex Show. (Double entendre warning, Kin really does the drapes – get your minds out of the gutter.). He’s deeply troubled and wants to do pictures. Pictures that make you hurt. Nat is fascinated with the idea of a picture that can hurt and agrees to see Kin’s work. Meanwhile, Ugg has a new mandate down from the computer. The Low Drives need something more. Computer thinks they need to laugh, so all programs are re-tooled, even Sportsex and Art Sex, to include humor. The initial efforts don’t go well. Kin shows his pictures to Nat and Misch. The are horrible, distorted drawings of faces in pain. Nat cannot take his eyes off them, Misch is repulsed by them. Nat know that they can never be shown to the Low Drives and tells Kin to give it up. Kin cannot give up, he is driven to convey his feels to the people, so he breaks into the Sportsex studio during broadcast and attempts to lower himself down in front of a camera and show his pictures. Security chases him and he falls to a horrible death on camera. The audience loves it because it’s funny. Something bad happens to someone else, not them. Another case of Watching, not Doing. Laser, the clearly ambitious sub-producer of Sportsex suggests that maybe that’s the angle they need. People watching random things happening to other people. Nat comes up with the idea of putting a few people on an island, with no contact with the outside world, and broadcasting what they do 24X7. Deannie, distraught over Kin, volunteers to go. Nat agrees to go, too. Perhaps this is his answer to the yearning that he’s had? It will be called the “Live Life Show” Deannie and Nat take Keten with them so that they can form something that used to be called “a family.” On the island, they have a hut, with no modern conveniences, wild sheep and rabbits, minimal supplies and seeds to get the started and a self-destructing guidebook to get them started. They also have a camera in the ceiling of their hut, which broadcasts continually. The “family” begins to bond, but then, they find Grells and Betty in their hut. They are inhabitants from the other side of the island. Nat feels betrayed by Control and is upset, but Deannie suggests they could learn a lot from people who already know how to survive and eat on the island. Ugg is concerned that Laser has broken the deal with Nat, but Laser explains, I’m just setting the scenery. It’s a show, stuff’s gotta happen. Back on the island, Grells teaches Nat to catch crabs, but while he’s gone, Keten falls and seriously injures herself. Deannie does an impromptu job of sewing her wound shut, but they have no knowledge of medicine. Keten had been scared by something, which we learn was Betty trying to muster up the courage to come warn them about Grells. Nat, now outraged at the interference of having others on the island, destroys the watching eye in their hut. He does not know that there are other, hidden cameras. Laser remarks, “they think the show has ended, now it has just begun.” Control is ecstatic about the audience reaction. Fear & worry…. The audience are eating it up because they can experience it without it happening to them. Laser thinks soon, they’ll get to experience grief, too. Next morning, they find a strangely docile Grells sleeping on their doorstep. He explains that Betty is dead, perhaps she fell getting eggs. They run him off, believing that he had something to do with her death. Back at Control, this is confirmed. Grells is psychopath, who was put into exile 12 years ago when he killed someone during auditions for the Sex Olympics. If only that murder had been televised, they’d have know about this breakthrough in television 12 years earlier! Grells gets a temporary sense of peace after a kill, but Control know he’ll soon be coming back for more murder. Keten dies of infection. Deannie and Nat, in particular, struggle with understanding grief. He feels it but cannot understand it. They bury Keten and while they are out, the suspect Grells is nearby. Nat goes defensive and send Deannie back to the hut. Inside, Grells is waiting. He bolts the door and begins killing her. Nat desperately tries to break down the door and when he does, he brutally murders Grells. The audience is over the moon with excitement. When Grells is dead, he turns to Deannie and discovers she, too, is dead. His grief in unconsolable, the audience’s appreciation is a a peak and Laser’s triumph of television is complete. Only Controller Ugg stands in horror screaming, “he’s still alive!” [/expand]