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Whoops Apocalypse

EARLY MASTERPIECE from DAVID “ONE FOOT” RENWICK and ANDREW “2.4” MARSHALL, set amidst lunatic upper echelons of the world’s governments balancing on cusp of World War Three. Ex-screen actor – do you see? – and newly lobotomised US President Johnny Cyclops (BARRY MORSE) squabbles noisily over nuclear supremacy with bloated Russian PM Dubienkin (RICHARD GRIFFITHS), dithering UK Prime Minister Kevin Pork (PETER JONES), his bluff Foreign Secretary (GEOFFREY PALMER, of course), international terrorist and master of disguise Lacrobat (JOHN CLEESE), and US special advisor “The Deacon” (JOHN BARRON). World is destroyed at the end, by mistake. ED BISHOP, LOU HERSCH, RIK MAYALL, ALEXEI SAYLE all in support, incredibly. Shoved out on bewildered Sunday night ITV audience. Never repeated – for shame.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. John Rivers

    October 2, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Never repeated, eh? Cos the version I downloaded from the interweb was clearly taken from a VHS of a repeat on Channel 4…

  2. R. Mageddon

    May 7, 2010 at 7:53 pm

    Funnier than Threads, but still very silly rather than sharp and satirical. Cast were brilliant, though, especially Barry Morse as The President who had a great double act going with John Barron. The last shot is surprisingly effective and sobering, too.

    David Kelly got the best lines when praising The Shah, going from “O Jewel of the Heavens!” to “O Scott of the Antarctic!”, “O Planet of the Apes!” and “O Hound of the Baskervilles!” Ed Bishop was a great newsreader too.

  3. Tom Ronson

    March 6, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    Marshall and Renwick’s best early work by a very wide margin, certainly better than End of Part One (which was effectively fourth series Python mixed with ‘look how clever we are to spot these clichés’ folderol) and easily on the same level as the equally misunderstood and sadly neglected Steam Video Company. The film version from 1986 isn’t as good but there’s still a great deal in there to enjoy, such as Peter Cook’s insane Prime Minister, Rik Mayall’s excitable SAS man and Graeme Garden taking a very long time to answer the phone.

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