Adam Curtis's thrilling, maddening and soul-destroying portrait of a faithless, jaded nation
To try to explain what Adam Curtis's latest documentary series is about is like trying to build an igloo out of jelly. In one sense, Shifty (BBC iPlayer) has a simple premise – a jaunty yet thumpingly depressing trot through 20 years of British politics and economics (1979-1999), from Thatcher and monetarism to Blair and the Private Finance Initiative. It is, as the blurb has it, about how 'extreme money and hyper-individualism… undermined the fundamental structures of mass democracy'; it's about how and why British society is now so fragmented, atomised and siloed. Yet that barely scratches the surface of this gloriously obtuse series. It's like being talked at for six hours by a coked-up bipolar genius at an aggressively loud house party. It is a thrilling, maddening, brilliant and soul-destroying portrait of a faithless, jaded nation.
As the five episodes take us chronologically through 20 years of British economic policy, leaning heavily on Thatcher's premiership, Shifty has a more traditional shape than many of Curtis's other works (Hypernormalisation, Can't Get You Out of My Head). It also does not feature Curtis's languid, oft-parodied voiceover, relying instead on his trademark stark-white subtitles to give some shape to his traditional carnival of scintillatingly edited archive footage. There is less of the nightmarish incongruousness that marks his work, but it's no less chilling and disorienting for it.
There is still plenty, however, of Curtis's mind-boggling leaps. In the first episode, introducing us to Thatcher's policy of monetarism – reduce the amount of money circulating, inflation falls, wages stabilise, industry booms – you'll spend a long time scratching your head wondering what links the death of the Irish author JG Farrell, the remains of a Second World War fighter pilot found in a bog in Sheppey, a transgender dog called Bruno, the National Front and the cheese and onion crisp production line at the Golden Wonder factory. Each episode is like a Magic Eye picture – you just have to relax your eyes and stare and stare and stare. It all comes clear eventually. Well, some of it.
The rest of the series is a phantasmagoria of 1980s and 1990s home video and documentary and news footage, with Stephen Hawking, the Old Kent Road, hairdressers, the Duke of Westminster and house parties becoming surreal recurring themes. The picture it paints of the UK, then and now, is utterly bleak, with our institutions being shown as at best hollow. The police come out particularly badly – anyone wincing at Donald Trump's recent heavy-handed approach to protestors will be agog at the scenes of police violence here, while one sequence in which detectives in Reading interview a female rape victim is horrifying.
Despite this, Curtis finds an impish gallows humour in the decaying remains of 150 years of British exceptionalism. The first image we see, for instance, is Jimmy Savile introducing some schoolchildren to Thatcher, while a segment on the synthetised pop music of the 1980s warns us not to trust the past because it can be edited, remixed and repackaged – before launching into a pastiche of Curtis's documentaries. Those unconvinced by him will find it all simplistic and cynical, but Curtis has never claimed to be a historian. Instead, Shifty is a remarkable, unreliable and potent chronicle of a society in freefall. 'We are living [Thatcher's] version of Churchill's version of British history,' says Patrick Cosgrave, Thatcher's closest adviser. Shifty is Curtis's version.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
Millions of Freeview watchers hit by big Channel 4 change and must re-scan TV boxes to keep popular channel
MILLIONS of Freeview watchers have been hit by a big channel change as viewers are urged to re-scan their TV boxes. Channel 4 has boosted Freeview coverage for one of its channels this month, meaning you'll need to retune to continue watching. As part of Freeview's monthly channel update, 4seven transitioned to a new frequency as of Wednesday 18 June. This is because of an important technical change to the way the Channel 4 offshoot channel is broadcast on Freeview. It will give more Freeview users access to the channel at a time when 4seven is increasingly used as an overspill for live events. 4seven has recently become the home of a selected number of men's European Championship U21 games, including Netherlands v Ukraine and Slovenia v Czechia. They have previously broadcast coverage of the Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies. But for the time being, 4seven is broadcasting on both new and old frequencies. At the end of this transition period, the old copy of 4seven will carry a retune caption. But you can retune today to ensure continued reception of 4seven on channel 49. Following your retune, you should see 4seven on channel 49 and the old copy of 4seven on channel 790. What's better is the channel now has universal coverage on Freeview. It's now available to all viewers in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man in addition to UK viewers who can only receive a reduce Freeview channel line-up. If you're a viewer who only receives around 20 basic Freeview channels at your address, you can retune to add 4seven to channel 49. It's a big bonus to some viewers as some remote locations with reduced access to Freeview are also affected by poor internet speeds meaning they can't stream TV either. This follows a reconfiguration of the frequency that carries the main Channel 4 service on Freeview, meaning the 4seven signal can now be aired alongside its parent channel. Kay Burley joins This Morning in TV return after departure from Sky News It's not the only Freeview change seen this month either. Just last week it was announced that Rewind TV is now on channel 81. It has swapped places with Blaze +1 and is now the next-door channel to the vintage Talking Pictures channel. There's also a new shopping channel with Must Have Ideas setting up shop on channel 96. The service was previously exclusive to satellite TV such as Sky and on YouTube but a retune will now add the channel to your service. Millions of Freeview watchers can also enjoy three new channels this month. Starting from this week, viewers will be able to tune into a number of channels including ITV Quiz, a fresh channel dedicated to quizzes.
BBC News
32 minutes ago
- BBC News
TV's Britain's Got Talent dinosaurs entertain Grantham children
Families will be able to enjoy a "jaw-dropping experience for children" when semi-finalists from Britain's Got Talent bring their prehistoric puppets to is an interactive entertainment experience taking place in Grantham Market Place, the act appeared on the TV show in free to attend event will take place on 17 August and include three sessions at 11:00 BST, 12:30 and 14: Kesteven District Council's deputy leader, councillor Paul Stokes, said: "This interactive educational experience promises a combination of fun and learning." With over 1.6m subscribers on social media platform YouTube and 1.5m followers on TikTok, the prehistoric act claims to have the largest dinosaur collection in the UK, from animatronic T-Rexes to baby dinosaur ranger Chris Roberts will share his expertise on palaeontology, bird evolution, and prehistoric added: "The revamped Grantham Market Place is really coming alive thanks to a series of activities and events brought to you by our imaginative team". Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
BBC News
32 minutes ago
- BBC News
New Ice Age exhibit opens in Keighley during City of Culture
A new exhibition which showcases the skill of Ice Age artists and craftspeople has opened in West Ice Age Art Now exhibit features more than 75 exhibits, which date back up to about 20,000 exhibition, which went on show at Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley on Saturday, includes items borrowed from the British Museum as part of a partnership during Bradford's City of Culture Cook, from the British Museum, helped create the exhibition. She said: "It's been great to share the knowledge and expertise but it's also great to say that, almost 20,000 years after these things were made, they are still relevant today." When asked what it was like having transport some of this fragile items for the first time, Ms Cook said it was "totally nerve-racking""I refused to loan some of these item to France on a number of occasions, these are very special items," she added. James Steward, head of museums at Bradford Council, said they were "thrilled" to host the exhibits."This is one we've been particularly excited about due to the partnership with the British Museum."It's a real privilege to have these items for the first time and to hold it during the City of Culture year makes it extra special.""This exhibit tells a fantastic story and each on of these items has its own story to tell."The exhibition runs until 14 September. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
