Whoops Apocalypse

Whoops Apocalypse is a reasonably obscure ITV sitcom from 1982, which only ran for a single season of six episodes. However, the reason for it not being recommissioned for a second season is nothing to do with its quality, but more due to the fact that it concluded with the end of civilisation as we know it* in a nuclear "apocalypse," hence the title, as the series depicts the sequence of calamitous events that leads to a world war between the USA and Russia.

In some ways it is surprising that it is not better remembered. Partly due to the unusual subject matter (doubly so for a sitcom, although, that said, 1981's The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also saw the Earth get destroyed), but mainly due to the range of talented comedic actors who appeared in it.

The main characters were played by actors who were comfortable in both comedic and serious roles, which suited the fact that this series needed them to switch suddenly from the former to the latter at the climax. These included Barry Morse as the US President "Johnny Cyclops" (an exaggerated version of Ronald Reagan, although with hindsight probably not as exaggerated as the writers imagined), and John "CJ" Barron as his advisor "the Deacon." Barron didn't get where he was in this series without playing both comedies such as The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and dramas such as Crown Court. Ed "Ed Straker" Bishop plays the American news anchor Jay Garrick, who feeds vital exposition to viewers by way of his news reports, which are also used to recap events of previous episodes.

The British cabinet are played by Peter "voice of the book" Jones, Geoffrey "Masters" Palmer and Richard "Mr Burton" Davies as a parody of the SDP at the time - Jones is very clearly playing a thinly-veiled Roy Jenkinsalike, and (slightly less obviously) Palmer is meant to be David Owen. They are collectively portrayed as hopelessly naive and incompetent (despite having just become the government by unexpectely winning a general election), with Jones's character being insane and under the delusion that he is "Superman." Many of the best jokes that arise from this situation are based upon needlessly precise references to Superman comics continuity, which I expect would have flown over the heads of most viewers, yet which would have been unlikely to fly at all if this had been made in the more litigious times we live in now.

"I'm sorry I can't make Question Time in the House today, Brainiac has escaped from the Phantom Zone."

Replace that with a generic, non-copyrighted supervillain name and it just wouldn't be the same.

This series, being made in the early '80s, saw the established, traditional sitcom actors joined by a couple of new names from the world of Alternative Comedy that were just beginning to break through at the time. Several months before either The Young Ones or The Comic Strip Presents began their TV runs, Whoops Apocalypse featured both Alexei Sayle and Rik Mayall.

But the outstanding comic actor who gave by far the most memorable performance in the series, easily stealing every scene - every episode, really - that he was in, was John Cleese.

Only appearing in three of the shows (episodes 3, 4 and 5), and never appearing on screen with any of the other regular cast (his one encounter with another main character occurs mostly off-screen or with Cleese replaced by a double), Cleese played the master of disguise "Lacrobat" who was tasked with stealing one of the USA's most powerful atomic bombs

"The Quark Bomb (Formerly Known As The Johnny Cyclops Bomb After The President of the Same Name)"

and smuggling it to the Middle-East. Every appearance saw Cleese adopt a new set of outrageous costumes, accents and mannerisms that showed off his comic talents to best effect. While the character of Lacrobat was written to veer between supernaturally competent and hilariously incompetent at his job, depending on the needs of the plot, Cleese held it together by playing both sides of the character completely over the top.

He did have one advantage over the rest of the cast - beyond just being John Cleese at the height of his comedic powers - which is that his scenes were all filmed on location, while the other regulars were mostly limited to videotaped recordings in front of a live studio audience. These had all the pitfalls common to studio recordings of the era (as can also be seen in the likes of The Young Ones) such as audience reactions drowning out dialogue, and editing or directorial choices (close ups vs wide angles, that sort of thing) causing punchlines or visual gags to not land quite as well as they might have with a better take. The filmed material, by comparison, was of a higher professional standard all around.

Cleese's presence helps lift the entire series to another level, and it remains very funny. And with conflict in the Middle-East and senile old mannys in charge of the USA and Russia once more, it is as topical now as it has been for 40 years, so worth watching for that reason too. It does, alas, contain a lot of of-its-time material that has dated poorly, displaying 1980s attitudes to race, gender and sexuality. The second disguise that we see Lacrobat in (not any of those I have chosen to illustrate this article with) sees Cleese in brownface, though at least there it is the character who has done it - so it could have been worse.

* While not all that common as a reason for comedies to not have sequels, it does seem to be a bit of a theme for comedies featuring John Cleese.