Time Trumpet

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Time Trumpet is a six-episode satirical TV series that aired on BBC Two in August 2006. It was created by Armando Iannucci, Roger Drew, and Will Smith, and stars Richard Ayoade, Matthew Holness, Adam Buxton, Jo Enright, Stewart Lee, Jo Neary, Mark Watson, and David Sant.

The show is set in the year 2031 and tests viewers’ memory of the first 30 years of the 21st century. Actors play the “older selves” of today’s stars and are interviewed as if they are celebrities thirty years from now. The famous figures portrayed include David Beckham, Anne Robinson, David Cameron, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Kate Middleton, and many others.

Comedians appear as “top cultural commentators” who discuss past events, with regular appearances from Stewart Lee (as “Stu Lee”), Richard Ayoade, Jo Enright, Matthew Holness, Adam Buxton, Mark Watson, and David Sant. Katy Wix and Tim Key appear in sketches throughout the series. The show is narrated by Iannucci, who also appears in interviews, and Will Smith helps run the project.

Each episode focuses on a different theme, such as the Olympics or the Iraq War. A running gag follows an increasingly odd Tom Cruise offering bizarre updates. In 2006, Episode 3, which depicted a jumbo jet crashing into the British Houses of Parliament and the assassination of Tony Blair, was pulled from broadcast after the real-life transatlantic aircraft plot; it was later shown without Blair’s footage. A related 9/11–themed sketch aired instead.

A DVD of Time Trumpet was released on 27 April 2009, with the Blair assassination sketch and some Olympic footage removed. In 2011, Comedy Central announced plans to remake the series in the United States with Iannucci as producer, but the project was not picked up.