"Norbert Smith, A Life" is a 1989 Mockumentary charting the life and career of the fictitious British actor Sir Norbert Smith. It stars Harry Enfield in the title role.
It was first transmitted on Channel-4 on 3 November 1989.
The programme was written by Harry Enfield and Geoffrey Perkins and superbly directed by Geoff Posner.
The show is an absolutely priceless send-up not only of British films over the years, but of the worshipful documentaries that cable and public TV companies crank out endlessly seemingly from a sausage factory.
Using Melvyn Bragg as the narrator, doing exactly the kind of thing he was doing at the time on The South Bank Show was an inspiration, and kudos to Lord Bragg for being a good sport to create this Mockumentary, which even sends hims up in a way.
The film parodies are all spot-on, but the scene from the World War II action flick with Sir Norbert finding an excuse to guzzle a glass of wine in every single shot, and the identical scenes from each of Sir Norbert's composer Bio-Pics (Beethoven, Man of Music, Lizst, Man of Music and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Man of Music were heavenly inspired.
There's a perfect representation of Will Hay films then they go on to cover staid institutions such as Olivier's Shakespeare and even Carry-On films.
Enfield is well supported by Renee Asherson playing the long- suffering Lady Norbert.
Moray Watson has spots as a recurring interviewee called Sir Donald Stuffy, whose recollections of the theatre seem much more interesting to him than us and he usually realises this himself when he gets to the end of his story.
Then there's the crass joke-cracker Dick Doty played by Mike Kelly. Stop me if you've seen this sort of character before.
This is a 3/4 hour masterpiece no British film fan, Harry Enfield devotee, Melvyn Bragg supporter or British Comedy aficionado should miss.
