BRITISH TV IS HIGHLIGHT OF FEST

“Beyond the Pale: Provocative British Television,” just one of the many offerings in the ongoing National Video Festival at the American Film Institute, makes you sit up, take notice and even laugh out loud. In this program there are hilarious, corrosive segments from the notorious satirical puppet show, “Spitting Image” (screening Friday at 5 p.m.), which wreak havoc with celebrities, both in show business and politics.

Just imagine a federation of celebrities, chaired by Ed McMahon, with Walter Cronkite, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Henry Kissinger and Bill Cosby serving as his board, charged with determining who will run for President of the United States.

At 10:30 a.m. Friday there will be a chance to see some choice moments of Britain’s Channel 4’s “Right to Reply,” in which listeners are able to step into “The Video Box” and challenge, on TV, the channel’s programming practices. (What an endless source of inspiration for Monty Python this could be!)