photoGr AphS: rE x fE AtUrES, pA photo,
corBiS, BBc
torture to toughen them up for “the difficult
tasks ahead”. Sure enough, if there was one
member of Saddam’s house who was feared
more than the dictator, it was Uday. Saddam’s
eldest son was a sadistic madman: vicious,
drunken, narcissistic – a terrifying walking
parody of his father’s id. Saddam tolerated
him until he murdered one of the Great Uncle’s
top aides at a party. Uday immediately tried to
kill himself with sleeping pills. As his stomach
was being pumped, Saddam stormed into the
emergency room and struck Uday in the face,
shouting, “Your blood will flow like my friend’s!”
But Saddam would rarely raise his voice
when speaking to those close to him, always
polite and calm. “i lost count of the number of
The cast of House Of
Saddam, one of the BBC’s
most ambitious projects
people who told me Saddam had a very special
relationship with them,” says holmes. “‘he
trusted me’, ‘i was the one who could tell him
the truth’... After you’ve heard that four or five
times, you start to think he had the unique
capacity to make the person feel special.”
Saddam had been married for three
decades to his wife Sajida. Saddam gave her
million-pound shopping sprees and beautiful
clothes. She remained loyal, despite her
husband’s relationships with other women.
there are stories that he took virgins to his
bed each night and that he even had one young
woman killed after a decadent affair. Everyone
knew about his long-time mistress and future
wife, Samira. Not least her husband.
But no one – not his wives, his sons or his
aides – knew what Saddam was thinking. “his
perspective on history was far longer than the
average perspective,” says holmes. “he liked
to dream about what his regime would look
like in 300 years’ time. But it wasn’t to be.”
House Of Saddam begins 30 July, BBC Two
at 9pm and runs for four weeks
The Iraqi leader had
“a complete inability to
trust anyone close to him”
the real tyrant
Saddam’s place
in pop culture
As with any tyrant, he’s been
immortalised for the masses
The Daily Show Reporting live
from Baghdad, Jon Stewart’s
‘senior hangmanalyst’ John
Oliver reveals there was more
than one person recording
Saddam’s hanging on a mobile
phone. “These things are
incredible! I recorded the
execution while Googling
the nearest hookah bar.”
Stewie Griffin:
The Untold Story
Family Guy’s
youngest’s “brief
foray into politics”
doesn’t work out as
tanks tear down
a giant statue of
the Quahog infant
(dressed in full military garb) for
angry Middle-Eastern citizens to
beat joyously with sticks. Armed
US marines discover Stewie in
a tin-covered hole in the ground;
grey-haired and bearded.
The Simpsons Yet again,
Saddam escapes an
assassination attempt, this time
with the help of Krusty. A day
after falling for the shock-haired
funnyman during one of his
shows in the Gulf, a female
soldier is about to obliterate
Saddam with a rocket launcher
– only for Krusty to tackle
her on a sand dune, claiming
Saddam is “half his act”.
South Park: Bigger, Longer
& Uncut Still obsessed with
world domination, Saddam
emerges from the pits of Hell
as Satan’s gay lover. The former
dictator’s appetite for rough,
empty sex upsets his partner,
despite musical insistences that
“I can change, I can chaaange...”
US marines apparently forced
Saddam to watch the film
repeatedly while in prison.
Alec Baldwin The Departed
star explained to news reporters
how former spouse
Kim Basinger likened
him to the Iraqi
tyrant. “My ex-wife
once said, ‘He’s
Saddam Hussein,’”
said Baldwin.
“I thought, ‘Do I like
to shoot firearms in
a celebratory way?
Do I hide myself underground?
Did I execute whole villages of
people? What are you saying?
Explain this.’” No one could.
www.ShortLiSt.com / 27
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.