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Friday Flashback: Inspektor Herring

A look back to Micallef's Perestroika parody which screened on Newstopia.

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This week’s flashback is to Micallef’s Inspektor Herring, a Perestroika-parody inspired by Euro-crime Inspector Rex, complete with a confected Stroganoff language and subtitles.

It featured as a regular segment in Newstopia on SBS across 2007 – 2008 and ended with a one-off elaborately staged Herring drama, which ran for 30 minutes (who DOES that these days?).

Herring included cast members Kat Stewart, Francis Greenslade, Nicholas Bell, Tony Martin, Stephen Hall. I could only find this low-grade copy online….

7 Responses

  1. Thank you for bringing up Inspecktor Herring. I saw the “movie” and I think I saw a V/Line train, which meant that it was actually shot in Victoria. This was the best bit of Newstopia. Bring on the Enid Swink telemovie.

  2. I had always thought that Herring was more a part parody of the old German series ‘Derrick’ with some of the Scandinavian detective stuff thrown in as well and just a dash of Ingmar Bergmann. Achingly funny

  4. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. I can’t sing my praises enough. Weirdly, as much as I love Shaun Micallef, I was never able to get into Mad As Hell, though I also love him in TAYG, and he absolutely makes the show as far as I’m concerned.

    At the time, Newstopia was unmissable TV. Part of me still yearns for a complete Blu-ray/DVD release. Being on SBS, I thought that Madman would have jumped on it, but sadly not, and it may be too late given the very topical nature of the show (though it did contain many pre-recorded sketches). Like The Chaser’s War on Everything, the “desk” portion of the programme was filmed the night before broadcast.

    What a bizarre and fine half-hour of television Inspektor Herring was. Nothing else produced in this country could compare. I gratefully and respectfully extend my best wishes to all involved.

  5. This was a classic, loved it every week. Much better than that fake series from last season’s Mad as Hell with the outback location thing. Mostly fast forwarded through that each week.

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