Whoops Apocalypse

Whoops Apocalypse was originally a six-part 1982 sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Marshall and Renwick later reworked the concept as a 1986 movie with almost completely different characters and plot although one or two of the original actors returned in different roles.

Series

The series featured a chaotic and increasingly unstable global political situation in which nuclear alerts are accidentally triggered by malfunctioning Space Invaders machines, the naive U.S. President Johnny Cyclops (an obvious Ronald Reagan parody) is advised by an insane right-wing fundamentalist, called The Deacon, who claims to have a direct hotline to God. (although the writers claimed not to know it at the time, General Haig was known as The Vicar in the White house). and the Soviet Premier, Dubienkin, is in fact a series of clones, which keep dying and being replaced. The situation is further complicated by the development of a new super-powerful American nuclear weapon. This is originally called the Johnny Cyclops Bomb; later, when the President vetoes the name, it is renamed the Quark Bomb, Formerly Called the Johnny Cyclops Bomb.

Meanwhile the deposed (fictional) Shah of Iran, Shah Massiq Rassim, led by an advisor (Abdab) who is always blindfolded to avoid looking upon the Shah's magnificence, is shunted around the world in search of a refuge, while at the same time Lacrobat, an eccentric international arms smuggler and master of disguise, has stolen a Quark Bomb and is on his way to Iran, not realising that the Soviets have invaded it. At the same time the British Prime Minister Kevin Pork has gone insane and believes himself to be Superman, and is persuaded by the Soviets to join the Warsaw Pact.

Eventually the Quark Bomb is accidentally detonated in Israel when Lacrobat's attempt to prevent it goes horribly wrong. Meanwhile the Shah, who has temporarily been given sanctuary aboard a space shuttle, manages to crash it into Moscow. In the final scene Soviet missiles are on their way to obliterate the United States and President Cyclops has to decide whether to retaliate.

Cast:

• President Johnny Cyclops - Barry Morse
• The Deacon (Presidential Adviser) - John Barron
• Premier Dubienkin - Richard Griffiths
• Lacrobat - John Cleese
• Kevin Pork - Peter Jones
• Shah Mashiq Rassim - Bruce Montague
• Jay Garrick (newsreader) - Ed Bishop
• British Foreign Secretary - Geoffrey Palmer
• British Chancellor Of The Exchequer - Richard Davies
• Commissar Solzenitsyn - Alexei Sayle
• Abdab - David Kelly

Movie

The 1986 film version, directed by Tom Bussmann, uses an almost completely different plot from the series, but also ends with an accidentally-triggered nuclear holocaust (hence the title). A small British colony is invaded by its Communist neighbour. Newly elected female President of the United States, Barbara Adams, tried to sort out the mess but the British under the leader of PM Sir Mortimer Chris sends in a task force to seize the islands back. For revenge, General Mosquera, leader of the Communist country, hires the best terrorist in the world, Lacrobat, to kidnap the British princess Wendy to hold her to ransom to get the British out. Sir Mortimer then threatens unless she is returned in 48 hours, he will release a nuclear strike. So now Barbara has not only got to deal with Mosquera and Lacrobat, she has also to deal with Sir Mortimer, and also with the fact that Russia is looking to aid the Communist country and this whole thing could start World War III...

Loretta Swit is Barbera Adams, and, for a comical satire, plays the role straight. The film also features Peter Cook playing Sir Mortimer, an insane conservative British Prime Minister who hands out umbrellas to conservative voters to protect them from nuclear bombs, and plans to reduce unemployment by pushing the unemployed off of cliffs. However, despite the fact he is totally mad, the public adore him and follow him blindly (a satire on how Margret Thatcher was, and still is percieved to have been a brilliant leader.) He later claims that unemployment is caused by evil pixies. Princess Wendy is a parody of Princess Diana, and the film also parodies the Fawklands war, featuring Rik Mayall playing the commanding officer of a blood thirsty military group. Michael Richards plays Lacrobat, the only character from the original series to appear, though Alexi Sayle appears in a different role.