Whoops Apocalypse

A hilarious comedy series which is also an shrewd political commentary of the 80s, complete with a brainless US president, a robotic Soviet premier and a British PM who thinks he's a well known comic book hero. You get here John Cleese at his exasperating best, and the inclusion of comic book characters add to the ever increasing pace toward the apocalyptic climax. And watch out, it's not 1982 anymore, but the world's still just as crazy, it could still happen!

The show was made into a cinema movie (1986), but with a different cast and without the same comic flair.

This is one of the best, blackest, most satirical comedies you will ever find. Unfortunately most people will remember the abysmal big screen slapstick version. There are so many great performances, not least from Barry Morse and John Barron as the US president and his advisor; Peter Jones, Geoffrey Palmer and Richard Davies as members of the cabinet when the Labour Party wins the UK election; John Cleese as the terrorist and the brilliant double act of Bruce Montague and David Kelly as the deposed Shah of Iran and Abdab, the Shah's blindfolded manservant. You've got to see this.

No doubt much of this has aged badly since the Cold War seems well over, but Cleese's performance alone makes it worth finding. Also worth catching is the relationship between the Shah of Iran and his manservant Ahdab - a more endearing piece of subservience would be hard to imagine. Finally my favourite line is recited by one of the Soviet premiers; "Neutral countries have two options - medium or well done"! Important advice for someone living in Sweden.

As an American, my obsession with British comedy often results in multiple letdowns (e.g. getting the wrong SINGING DETECTIVE DVD for Christmas). My encounter with WHOOPS APOCALYPSE is one-of-a-kind: while I didn't get the apparently lesser theatrical-release version with Peter Cook, I did get a truncated version which turned the six-episode series into one long 138 minute film with a laugh track. While it certainly retains all of the most hilarious moments of the show, I can't feel that I've missed something.

Still, it's absolutely hilarious. Renwick and Marshall, writers of the show, are two of the greatest British comedy writers I have ever encountered. David Renwick wrote the poignant and occasionally gross-out sitcom ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. Andrew Marshall wrote the equally quirky sitcom 2POINT4 CHILDREN. Together, they wrote for the cult classic radio sketch comedy show THE BURKISS WAY and this miniseries about Cold War brinkmanship.

U.S. President Johnny Cyclops, an obvious Reagan parody, is played perfectly as a nervous, naive showbiz icon by Barry Morse. John Barron portrays his almost Cheney-esquire adviser, The Deacon, with particular pomp. Peter Jones has the quavery voice which sounds simply ridiculous as the senile Prime Minister who believes he is Superman. But there is no denying that the show's true strong point is the writing, especially shining through in Ed Bishop's portrayal of Jay Garrick, fast-talking newscaster. (On a late edition of the news, he quickly reads out "I'm Jay Garrick, and you're an insomniac.") Overall, a grand comedy. I continue to search for copies of the full six episodes (as well as the original POLICE SQUAD! series), but meanwhile I watch my version as a double bill with the darker DR. STRANGELOVE.

Allow me(...you really might as well, because I'm going to whether you personally approve of it or not) to start this off saying that what watched this as was an edited-together version of the six(?) episodes that renders it a movie of not terribly much more of a run-time than 90 minutes or so. Not having enjoyed all that much of of John Cleese's work outside of the Monty Python team and their projects, I put off my viewing of this for a while. This was purchased for me on VHS, immediately following about an hour and a half of the aforementioned group mercilessly butchering routines they did perfectly fine on their Flying Circus(yet another reason to put this off). I am, however, glad I did put it on. I was more amused, watching, than so much all-out laughing, but there are definitely some biting wit herein. The comedy varies, sometimes involving gross-out comedy. Some of the running gags should perhaps have been jogging at a more leisurely pace, because they kept popping up, and it wasn't always funny. The pacing is, presumably due to the chopping up of the episodes to make this about half as long, from what I can surmise, is wildly mixed, with parts speeding by, and others being slow. Not everything seems to pay off, which may again be caused of the cutting. Editing and cinematography are adequate TV quality. Acting is mostly good. There are some adult things in this, and it should not be seen by children. The writing manages to make fun of so many different countries and cultures that almost everyone can be offended, but they do hit the nail on the head with an awful lot of it, and points in this could easily be classified as satirical. I recommend this to fans of British humor and/or Cleese. 6/10