Jack Whitehall presented this two-hour slog through the hits and misses of 40 years of Brit Awards ceremonies
The Brits at 40, ITV ★★
With the 40th edition of the UK’s annual pop awards scheduled to take place at The O2 in London on Tuesday, ITV (who will broadcast the ceremony live) warmed up with The Brits at 40, a protracted historical highlights compilation.
It was narrated by Jack Whitehall (also next week’s presenter) in a tone of boggling admiration for such glittering musical magnificence, and was drearily structured as a long list of clips under headings such as “Girl Bands”, “Boy Bands”, “Collaborations”, “Risqué Routines” and so on. It never had a hope of justifying its two-hour slot, though you could probably make an EP of The Brits’ Greatest Hits.
Interviewees gasped as they recalled Madonna toppling backwards down a flight of stairs in 2015, and Jarvis Cocker’s sabotage of Michael Jackson’s bombastic stage routine in 1996.
The catastrophic 1984 Brits, when hosts Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood kept announcing artists who didn’t appear, has become part of music biz folklore, while the moment in 2012 when host James Corden cut off Adele in mid-speech outraged Little Mix. “You wouldn’t interrupt the Queen’s speech, so why would you interrupt Adele?” demanded one member, indignantly.
Many a pop legend has graced the Brits stage, from Prince and the Spice Girls to Beyoncé and Amy Winehouse, but it’s the drunken confrontations and loutish idiocy we remember best.
These included the simmering antagonism between Robbie Williams and Liam Gallagher, with Williams proposing a sponsored boxing match, and the onstage fight between Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and the blind-drunk DJ Brandon Block. Thirty minutes of The Brits’ Best Bust-ups could have been a ratings sensation.
