They discuss how they rewrote the story to take in elements of the Falklands War and the rise of Princess Diana. Naturally it’s far more fascinating than the main feature. Ken Russell and Jim McBride were in the running to direct at certain points, before advert director Tom Bussman landed the job. Verses include 'Never flinched from duty and was never scared to act!' to which Rik adds, 'Loves-to-put-the-shits-up-The-War-saw-Pact!' It was his first in a long line of scene-stealing performances and as a consequence he was given a lot more to do in the feature film adaptation of the series that followed in 1986. In the Eastern Hemisphere, things are similarly unstable. Soviet Premier Dubienkin ( Richard Griffiths) is in fact a series of clones, which keep dying and being replaced. Meanwhile, the deposed Shah of Iran, Shah Massiq Rassim ( Bruce Montague), led by his advisor Abdab ( David Kelly) who is always blindfolded to avoid looking upon the Shah's magnificence, is shunted around the world in search of a refuge (spending most of the series in a cross channel ferry's toilet). Although Wendy is rescued, Sir Mortimer ignores Adams's pleas to call off the nuclear strike. She then calls the rear admiral, whom Lacrobat hypnotised to believe he was in a burning building when fingers are snapped. He ponders calling off the strike, but when a sailor snaps his fingers, he calls "Fire!", the strike is launched, and the film ends.

It might just be stretching belief to suggest that every one of these and the remainder of the huge cast understood all that was going on in their scripts, for certainly much of the series left viewers baffled, but, then again, since the world has always been governed by decisions of uncomprehending madness then the sitcom was merely an exaggerated but otherwise accurate reflection of the fact. The film also features Peter Cook playing Sir Mortimer, an insane conservative British prime minister (an insane PM being one of the few similarities between the film and the series), who claims that unemployment is caused by evil invisible pixies. Later, he hands out Union Flag umbrellas to Conservative voters to protect them from nuclear bombs, and plans to reduce unemployment by pushing employed people off cliffs, creating new jobs. Despite the fact he is clearly insane, the public adore him and follow him blindly. The rest of his party attempt to assassinate him, but he only loses his hand, getting a hook instead. He then takes up a new policy of crucifying disloyal party members in Wembley Stadium. The silliest humour in the entire show comes from the two-hander scenes featuring the deposed Shah of Iran ( Bruce Montague) and his faithful companion, Abdab ( David Kelly), who is blindfolded throughout the entire series, feeling unworthy to look upon his master's face. Of course, you wouldn't have a plotline like this these days, and there are a few other moments in the series, such as a real elephant painted pink and a topless newsreader, that will jar to many modern viewers. In the Shah and Abdab's scenes the humour is a little reminiscent of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, but political correctness aside, there remains something very funny - silly, rather than cruel - and oddly endearing about the pair, particularly poor Abdab. They're shafted from pillar to post as no country is prepared to grant them asylum. (Eventually, they're blasted into space.) Although the feature film (just restored and released on Blu-ray) was a bit more serious, it was also a lot more casual; for some reason, the impending apocalypse never really felt like that much of a big deal, whereas, in the TV series, it really does feel as though the end of the world is approaching. A tension builds even in the sitcom's most overblown sequences. In 1986, a film of the same title was released. The plot of the film is almost completely different from the TV series, but does share certain commonalities.

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Disastrously, in the final episode, a Quark nuclear bomb accidentally destroys Israel, sending the planet cascading towards the Third World War and nuclear holocaust.

Whoops Apocalypse is an expensive looking show featuring a towering cast. John Cleese, Peter Jones, Geoffrey Palmer and Rik Mayall are just some of the big names of British comedy that appear. No one character dominates the narrative, but if you were pushed and had to give the title of protagonist to anyone, then it would be The US President, Johnny Cyclops (played by Barry Morse). He is an obvious parody of Reagan and is advised exclusively by the Deacon ( John Barron), who seems to make all the President's decisions for him, whilst Cyclops blunders about in confusion. So, does that make the series a sort of pro-Conservative government satire? Some may be tempted to view it in that way, but with digs on all sides, and the right (or at least, aspects of it) firmly represented in its depictions of Washington life, the show is squarely apolitical - and if we're honest, that's what all good satire should be, illustrating the faults and hypocrisies in all extremes. In the case of parody, it should be so funny that for the target's attractors any malice is robbed of its potency. That's what Spitting Image and The Comic Strip did so well, that's what Dead Ringers does so well, and it's exactly what Peter Jones performs so well in the moment that defines the series. When British sitcoms ended up being transferred onto the big screen, mainly during the 1960s and 1970s, they tended to retain the same lead cast members, and take advantage of a comparatively higher budget than was available on the telly, breaking out of the confines of a TV studio, and sometimes even taking the characters on holiday (even if it was only as far as the Costa del Elstree).

Whoops Apocalypse is a 1986 British comedy film directed by Tom Bussmann and starring Loretta Swit, Herbert Lom, and Peter Cook. The film shares the same title as the TV series Whoops Apocalypse, but uses an almost completely different plot from the series.

There’s also a look at the making of the movie itself, including an interview with genius production designer Tony Noble, who went on to work on locally shot movies such as Awaiting and Solis.Cross in hand, the Bible-bashing Deacon frequently chips in one-liners throughout the series. 'If the Lord had meant for us to be sensible, then he would never have given us credit cards,' he declares in one scene. In another he pipes up, 'If the Lord had meant for us to panic, then he would not have given us clean trousers'. When later in the series, Cyclops fears for the future of the UK, the Deacon declares, 'If the Lord had meant for us to in live in the United Kingdom, he would have given us gills'. If you make it to the end, listen out for John Otway’s closing song, then go and find his extraordinary documentary ‘Otway: The Movie’, which is 100 times more entertaining. The tensions behind the panic were largely due to the opposed ideologies by which the US and the Soviet Union, alongside their respective allies, were run - part of a long period known as the Cold War. Historians cannot agree on when the (non-) conflict really began, but most conclude that it started following the end of the Second World War and ended in the early nineties. The early eighties would prove to be one of the most turbulent periods during the entire debacle, with Margaret Thatcher as Britain's Prime Minister, Michael Foot as Leader of the Opposition, and in the USA, Ronald Reagan sat in The White House. Whoops Apocalypse. Image shows left to right: Abdab (David Kelly), Shah Massiq Rassim (Bruce Montague) Peter Cook (who looks about as animated as a Thunderbirds puppet) is a barking British PM who thinks pixies are to blame for the country’s problems and launches a lemming-like scheme to improve the jobs market by having folks throw themselves off a cliff. “Uphill battle”

Princess Wendy is a parody of Princess Diana, who was at the height of her popularity when the film was made. When kidnapped by Lacrobat, Wendy is placed in increasingly odd disguises, including bondage gear and a King Kong outfit. Rik Mayall is featured playing the commanding officer of an inept SAS squad, most of whom are massacred in a shootout in a wax museum when attempting to rescue Wendy, who has been disguised as an exhibit. (Mayall had a small role in the original as Biff, a guitar player.) Michael Richards plays Lacrobat, the only character from the original series to appear. Lacrobat is partly responsible for the outbreak of war between the two countries, and is seemingly the only intelligent character in the film; he dies when a tiger, which the SAS keep for no reason, rips his throat out. Alexei Sayle, who also appeared in the original series, has a different role in the movie as a Soviet soldier who is hiding nuclear weapons on a Caribbean holiday island. Ed Bishop, who appears as a newsreader in the original series, plays an interviewer in the movie.In Whoops Apocalypse, as in then ‘real’ life, the balance of world power is held by the leaders of Russia (the ageing Dubienkin) and the United States. Some bits of it may well seem inexplicable unless you remember that it was made in Britain in 1986, with the Falklands War still fairly fresh in people's minds, Di-mania a-booming, and Margaret Thatcher still running the country in demented fashion. While not exactly slouching in the casting stakes on TV, the movie of Whoops Apocalypse musters an impressive roster of talent. Cook is just superb as the demented Sir Mortimer, someone who is patently unsuited to the role of PM due to his insanity, and his lust for popularity by launching a major military operation. While not quite as gleefully maniacal as John Cleese in the LWT version, Michael Richards (perhaps best known as Kramer in Seinfeld) still acquits himself well as eccentric master of disguise terrorist Lacrobat. Eventually the Quark Bomb is accidentally detonated in Israel when Lacrobat's attempt to prevent it being incinerated goes horribly wrong, destroying the country and killing most of the US army who were stationed there. Meanwhile, the Shah, who has temporarily been given sanctuary aboard a space shuttle, manages to crash it into the Moscow Kremlin. Believing it to be a bomb, the Russians launch their weapons at America. In the final scene Soviet missiles are on their way to obliterate the United States and President Cyclops has to decide whether to retaliate. The title sequence already showed the aftermath of the decision, Earth reduced to a nuclear wasteland. In a final twist, we discover that the woman we see in the title sequence selling buttons reading "WEAR YOUR MUSHROOM WITH PRIDE" is in fact the First Lady, who was hidden in a fallout shelter and is one of the few survivors of the war. British Prime Minister Sir Mortimer Chris ( Peter Cook), a conservative politician who goes insane, is a fusion of US President Johnny Cyclops and UK Prime Minister Kevin Pork.