Two videos were actually made for this amazing song. The first 1984 release of this single has a completely different video, which showed the band performing and that was all. The second and now most famous released video was directed by Steve Barron, filmed at Kim’s Cafe and on a sound stage in London and was released in 1985. The video uses a pencil sketch animation and live action combination which has the very cool name of “Rotoscoping”, in which the live-action parts are traced over frame by frame to give the characters realistic movements. They rotoscoped around 3,000 frames of action for this, which took over 16 weeks.
The fella who chases Morten Harkett around with a pipe wrench is English actor Philip Jackson, who played Chief Inspector Japp in Poirot. The girl in the cafe is Bunty Bailey, who was Morten’s girlfriend at the time.
The video has won countless awards over time and regularly tops polls of the greatest music videos of all time. It was also spoofed in Family Guy. I personally love it, I also love the song and think that “The Sun Always Shines on TV” and “The Living Daylights” are often forgotten gems of the 80’s. And naturally, of course, need I even say it, Morten Harkett is a slamming hottie and I want to lick the screen when he’s on it.
From the album: Hunting High and Low
Released: 1 June 1985
http://youtu.be/djV11Xbc914&h=420&w=620
