It has been called the "sickest TV show ever". But in CHRIS TITLEY'S personal view, Brass Eye is the television highlight of the year.

MOST of the people reading this will not have seen the Brass Eye spoof paedophilia documentary. It was shown late on Channel 4, a slot that will have restricted its audience to a couple of million at most.

That hasn't stopped the world and his wife commenting on the programme. Topping the pile of ill-informed rent-a-quotes are, predictably, Government ministers. Fearful that their masters in mythical Middle England were outraged, they didn't hesitate to stick the boot in.

Child protection minister Beverley Hughes condemned Brass Eye as "unspeakably sick"- even though she admitted she hadn't seen it. Home Secretary David Blunkett interrupted his holiday to say he was dismayed by the programme.

Tessa Jowell has gone further. The Culture Secretary has signalled her intention to shake-up the rules governing TV watchdogs after the Independent Television Commission chose not to prevent Brass Eye being repeated in the early hours of Saturday morning.

If this were not the most humourless of Governments, it would be tempting to think that the ministers were in on the joke. Chris Morris, the genius behind Brass Eye, aimed to expose the mindless hysteria whipped up over paedophilia. Thanks to the frenzied cant of certain tabloids, and headline-obsessed New Labour, Morris has succeeded beyond even his unfettered imagination.

Of the few of us who did watch Brass Eye last Thursday night - delayed from earlier in the month because of sensitivity about its content - none will have been left unmoved by it. This was truly thought-provoking television, always uncompromising, often uncomfortable. How different to Channel 4's other high profile show, the no-brain-required Big Brother.

Clearly many viewers were appalled by what they saw on Brass Eye. Neil Screams, a 17-year-old from Acomb, York, is one of a record 2,500 people to register a complaint.

"I just thought it was utterly disgusting," said Neil, who is soon to be a father. "I didn't think there was any call for it."

A friend who had been abused told him the show had "made her feel quite distraught".

Viewers were warned about the shocking content of the programme beforehand: couldn't they have just switched off or switched over?

"Yes, you could have done. But they didn't need to show that kind of thing on TV at all, even though people could switch it off. You shouldn't have to make that choice."

Neil's distaste is widespread. Yet there is another point of view. Many of the people watching the show found it shocking, but also shockingly funny.

Brass Eye was categorically not making fun of paedophilia. None of us finds child abuse anything other than abhorrent.

Instead, the programme had many valid targets. First among these are the tabloid television shows that are passed-off as serious journalism. Take ITV's sensationalist Tonight With Trevor McDonald. Its downmarket subject-matter and melodramatic presentation makes it barely distinguishable from Brass Eye.

Morris is also satirising the worst excesses of Britain's newspapers. One of the inspirations for his latest show was undoubtedly the News Of The World campaign of "naming and shaming" paedophiles which led directly to mob violence, often against innocent people.

In real life, a paediatrician was hounded out of her home.

On Brass Eye, Morris reported how a man called Peter File had his car petrol-bombed.

Demonstrating a remarkable ability to miss the point, this Sunday's News Of The World said that Channel Four "thinks child abuse is a joke". Not so. Brass Eye was making a black joke about the paper's brand of irresponsible reportage that panders to our basest instincts.

Perhaps the funniest moments of what was a very funny programme involved the duped celebrities. All were made to look utter fools by backing spoof child support causes.

Those caught out howled in anguish. Phil Collins threatened to sue. Comedian Richard Blackwood said the joke was "on us - and also on every other charity working in the field of child protection".

He is right on the first point. The joke is on the vanity of those celebrities who will endorse anything, no matter how ludicrous, if it makes them look good.

Consider what they were prepared to read out on camera. Phil Collins wore a T-shirt with the slogan "Nonce Sense", and said: "I'm talking Nonce Sense".

Richard Blackwood told us how online paedophiles could release toxic vapours from computer keyboards "that actually make you more suggestible".

After sniffing his keyboard he said: "Now I actually feel more suggestible. And that was just from one sniff."

Gary Lineker held up a picture of a hillside, explaining that the tiny "blue speck" in the middle was actually a child: "If you attempt to show this to a paedophile he will try and attack it in an attempt to get to the child," he assured viewers.

Tomorrow's World presenter Philippa Forester held up a T-shirt that would enable a paedophile to "disguise himself as a child". And TV presenter Kate Thornton even spelled out the dangers of an Internet computer game designed to entice children: the Hidden Online Entrapment Control System: or HOECS (pronounced "hoax").

So desperate were they to jump on the bandwagon, these celebrities did not bother checking the validity of the charity they so wholeheartedly endorsed. More damning still, they did not listen to the words coming out of their mouths.

Morris's other prey included gangsta rappers, whose lyrics glorify rape and denigrate women; those highly dubious American beauty pageants involving young girls; and Britain's utterly arbitrary censorship laws. These are all deserving targets.

And for those concerned about a scene in which Morris's "six-year-old son" was introduced to a paedophile imprisoned in stocks, there is no need to worry about the child actor involved. Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that the footage was shot so that the child did not have to be present when paedophilia was mentioned.

Morris is a brilliant satirist, and deserves to be recognised as such. His work belongs in the same league as Jonathan Swift, who, in 1729, suggested the Irish poverty problem could be solved by the population eating babies; and James Gillray, the 18th century political caricaturist who mercilessly attacked the political classes.

The true satirist smashes taboos and outrages the establishment. Morris has achieved both rather better than the chummy panellists on Have I Got News For You? He has pushed backed the boundaries of taste to great effect. No one is forced to watch.

The most telling fact is this. Three Government ministers were instantly moved to condemn Brass Eye, to the point of talking about increasing censorship.

Yet they failed to make a similar fuss about Radio 5 Live's recent revelation that child prostitution is spiralling out of control.

As long as our legislators' priorities remain so warped, we will need people like Chris Morris.

Updated: 10:56 Tuesday, July 31, 2001