First viewed : 4 April 1982
I came to this one half way through its run as my schoolmates were telling me how good it was.
Whoops Apocalypse was a six-part black comedy about the end of the world given the geo-political situation in the early eighties. Despite the writers Andrew Marshall and David Renwick not being all that well known at the time, they assembled an impressive array of British comedy talent to bring their bleak satire to life.
US President Johnny Cyclops ( Barry Morse ) a Reaganesque imbecile faces Dubienkin ( Richard Griffiths ) head of a senile Soviet gerontocracy ( not too far from the truth ). Cyclops is advised by The Deacon ( John "C.J." Barron ) a right wing evangelical nut who seeks to restore the Shah ( Bruce Montague ) to Iran and then deliver a super-nuclear weapon, the Quark Bomb via an international terrorist known as Lacrobat ( John Cleese ). The Soviets meanwhile are busy enticing Britain's Labour government, headed by Kevin Pork ( Peter Jones ) who thinks he's Superman, into the Warsaw Pact. When all these plans fall apart, the world is plunged into nuclear catastrophe.
Whoops Apocalypse was timely but only just; when Leonid Brezhnev finally shuffled off this mortal coil just months later the tectonic plates started to move away from the likelihood of M.A.D. That's probably why it's receded from public memory although it should also be noted that David Kelly's portrayal of Abdab, the Shah's fawning valet , would now be viewed as highly offensive. Having said all that , it's still a highly inventive and rich comedy that stands up to repeat viewing.
Marshall and Renwick later produced a film with the same title but very little of the plot in 1986 but I haven't seen that. Going their separate ways they both hit gold with 2.4 Children and One Foot In The Grave respectively. I'd take Whoops Apocalypse over either.
Probably wise not to watch the film version of Whoops Apocalypse, it's a terrible pale imitation which pretty much depicts Loretta Swit's President (yeah, like America would ever have a woman in the White House!) as the only sane person around because AMERICA = BOX OFFICE. Still, that said, Peter Cook steals the whole thing as the mad British PM with a hook for a hand. Almost like Super Mac on speed.
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