History Of The World Backwards

Episode One

Comedian Rob Newman returns to television with a unique perspective on historical events, in this brand-new, innovative comedy series. Fusing comedy sketches, history, archive and music the programme is a time warp in which the world moves in reverse, but time still flows forwards. This is history in a way it has never been seen before – backwards. Today's opener sees Nelson Mandela enter prison as a sweet-natured Spice Girls fan, but emerge from a long incarceration as a terrorist bent on the armed overthrow of the state. From 2007, and through the Nineties, there is a steady decline in IT jobs and, from the Nineties to the Seventies, there is competition to have an even bigger computer than your neighbours. Viewers also feel the pain of geneticists Watson and Crick as, every day, they get further away from understanding the secret workings of DNA. In Brazil, the mop-topped Bororo and Kayapo people claim descent from Beatles tribute bands, whose plane crash-landed on its way to a Beatles tribute band convention. In Britain, closure of the M6 and Gatwick airport in response to climate chaos means an end to supermarkets. In this new, economic climate, Dr Sigmund Freud diversifies the business, combining psychiatry with a Veg Box delivery scheme with the slogan "Tastes As Good As Mother's Milk". This episode also introduces, for the first time, Galileo, Kepler and the Duchess of Padua, who are bent on solving the mysteries of salvage technology. Viewers find them sifting through junk antique technology from our time, trying to work out its meaning. Galileo solves the riddle of the lean, mean, fat-reducing grilling machine. But Kepler keeps secret his re-discovery of how to make electricity – selfishly hoarding the illicit joy of being the first person for hundreds of years to dance to the disco classic Ain't No Stopping Us Now, by McFadden & Whitehead.