The real story behind Count Binface
He has fought many elections, worn many bin-masks and was forced to change his name. But what do we really know about Count Binface?
The London Mayoral Election are on the 6th fo May, and a record of 20 candidates are taking part. The main candidates are former Mayor Sadiq Khan for Labour, Shaun Bailey for the Conservative Party and Laurence Fox for the Reclaim Party. Nevertheless, the most controversial candidate is still Count Binface. The name may not sound familiar (he changed it lately) but his face is unforgettable: it’s a shiny garbage bin.
Who is the man behind the mask though?
We cannot be 100% sure. Count Binface is a self-described “intergalactic space lord” who’s here to conquer the Hearthlings and to bring back Ceefax, the world’s first teletext information service. The character looks like a very famous intergalactic villain, and he was created by American filmmaker Todd Durham for his 1984 science fiction film Hyperspace (called Gremloids in UK), a low-budget parody of Star Wars. It was destined to be remembered only as “the fake Darth Vader”, until he became one of the most recognisable opponents through out the history of British Elections.
In 1987, he took on Margaret Thatcher in the general election and lost with just 131 votes.
Allegedly, the British video distributor Mike Lee adopted Lord Buckethead without really asking permission from Durham. He decided to run against Margaret Thatcher, wearing Lord Buckethead’s costume. He was the representative for the Gremloids Party, and fought against Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher in her own constitution in Finchley, London. He actually gained only 131 votes, but this didn’t stop him to run again.
In the 1992 general election, he stood once more against a Conservative Prime Minister.
He was up against John Major, and gained 107 votes (0.1%). Mike Lee then decided to “retire” the Lord from the political scene.
Until he reappeared in 2017 general election.
But this time, under the bin-helmet there was comedian Jonathan Harvey. He decided to pick up again the character of Lord Buckethead, after watching the movie Hyperspace. In an interview with Carol Off during a broadcast of As It Happens, Harvey explained that after watching the movie, he read the trivia online and he discovered that the brave story of the previous Lord, who fought with his custom twi elections.
I was like, “What? There he is again.” And so that’s when I thought, “Oh, wouldn’t be funny to bring him back?”
And so it began. Again.
At the beginning, he admitted, he was just collecting pictures.
The first one was actually during his political match against former Prime Minister Theresa May, with whom he got a picture that quickly became viral. After her, he got also a shot with Boris Johnson.
That was the only reason for doing it. I’d just assumed that that’s all that would happen is I’d have that photo. No one would notice me and then it would vanish into insignificance and that would be the end of it.
I think the fact that it happened in the internet age is what made it go viral.
In the 2017 general election, he fought against Theresa May.
His manifesto was “strong, not entirely stable”. Some of the main points being:
The abolition of all the Lords (except me)
Stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Start buying lasers from Lord Buckethead.
A moratorium until 2022 on whether Birmingham should be converted into a star base.
And a quite foreseeing take on the necessity of facial coverings, “especially bucket-related”.
That year, he actually won 249 votes in the Berkshire contest. A personal record for the character of Lord Buckethead. And this time, his story actually became viral around the world. So much so that he ended up in an epic episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He told Carol Off:
I’m the guy who took on Theresa May in the 2017 election and lost narrowly by 31,469 votes.
But then something terrible happened and Lord Buckethead decided to retire from politics.
Sadly, after many years using the infamous name of Lord Buckethead, he had to relinquish it for copyright reasons. The Hyperspace director Todd Durham decided to take back his character and lock out Harvey from the Lord’s Twitter account. Defeated in politics and on social media, Lord Buckethead decided to “retire”. Or so we thought.
Lord Buckethead is now Count Binface and in 2019 he ran against Boris Johnson.
At the 2019 general elections, presented a new manifesto, which included:
Sir David Attenborough to be on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square
Piers Morgan to be zero emissions by 2030
Legalisation of the hunting of fox-hunters
University tuition fees to be charged to any politician who has ever voted for university tuition fees, plus interest
And finally, to do another referendum, about whether there should be another referendum for Brexit. Which was actually taken in consideration by many people online, and his view was actually shared by the Liberals at some point. He actually won 125 in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, and had again the honour of taking a picture next to the current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Now Count Binface is back for the 2021 London Mayoral Election.
In truth, he is one of the few, true advocates for the city of London. In his news manifesto, he asked for London to be part of Europe again and to rename London Bridge after the beloved Fleabag screenwriter, Phoebe Waller. He even campaigned for the Royals to give up their Palaces to the homeless during the pandemic.
But at the same time, he is careful in reminding us that he is an alien trying to conquer the City of London.
Nevertheless, his popularity seems to have grown during this electoral campaign. And actually, Count Binface gathered support not only from the people who put their bins out once a week, but also from some important media outlets.
So who knows, we could actually be very close to see an intergalactic, alien Lord sit inside City Hall. And remember: your vote is power.
UPDATE: The Count has actually taken on 24,775 votes in 2021 London election! An impressive number of supporters, who are now asking to have the price of croissants fixed to £1 anyway. And according to the Count, the fight will go on…
