A short film about extraordinary political cartoonist Peter Brookes

Peter Brookes is a demigod among political cartoonists. The septuagenarian is now in his 22nd year at The Times where he still produces a cartoon every day, distilling the frustrations, jibes and political unrest of the nation into one biting image to a looming and unmoveable deadline. This short film The Art of Satire examines Peter’s work in the contexts both of political cartooning and of The Times, who recognise Peter’s exceptional skill by allowing him to contradict the editorial direction of the paper in favour of following his own line.

Beautifully shot, the film lingers over Peter’s extraordinary mastery of watercolours, a medium infamously difficult to master, and the time restraints he works to, showing him gazing silently out of his window over London’s skyline while he waits for a hook to come to him. “Usually you have it by two or three o’clock,” he explains. “If you still don’t know by four then you’re starting to panic.” It also discusses the slow but sure character assassination committed by political cartoonists every day. “It’s like the slave in ancient Rome that used to whisper in the ear of the conquering hero, ‘you are mortal, you are mortal,’” fellow cartoonist Martin Rowson tells the camera. “But what we do is say ‘you are mortal, and you’ve got really stupid ears.’”

It’s a fascinating insight into a craft that remains concealed behind the square of paper on which the final cartoon is printed, which is exactly what The Unquiet Films series sets out to show. “The real-life tales of how world-changing exclusives … are brought out into the open can be just as extraordinary as the articles that end up in the newspaper.”