I have just managed to acquire this series on a second hand DVD (watched all three hours of it in one session) and, despite the fact that it is around 36 years old, it is still as brilliant as I recalled it.
Yes, there is audience laughter that sometimes obscures the dialogue. Yes, there is quite a bit of ham. Yes, it is more of its time than would be allowed now. Yes, each episode features around 1.5mins of front piece/titles before the action starts (and with each episode coming in at under 28mins that does strike me as a lot). BUT...it has some great great laughs, and that is what really matters.
Stand outs: From the cast, John Cleese will always attract the most attention, the man was at his peak at the time and certainly giving it a go playing multiple characters in the guise of a nuke-smuggling mercenary.
David Kelly as the Iranian servant Abdab, blindfolded so that he does not view his Shah; a hapless yet fawning foil in the same vein as Basil Fawlty's Manuel.
Ed Bishop as motor-mouthed, omnipresent news presenter Jay Garrick, delivering the headlines at what seems like 150 words a minute.
Good old Geoffrey Palmer, stalwart, playing his standard hangdog character to perfection as the British foreign secretary to a prime minister who suddenly declares himself to be Superman.
John Barron, a US adviser running rings around his naive president by arranging for a nuclear bomb to be stolen and trying to boost the presidents miserable ratings percentage by staging an assassination attempt.
Reading the other reviews here it does appear that this comedy has been difficult to get hold of - it has been issued(?) on DVD a few times, it seems, but how many were produced in each production run? I believe I borrowed a VHS from a mate in the early 1990s - so my advice is to get it if you happen upon it, it is a gem.
My pre-owned DVD comes with the big screen 'adaptation' that I haven't yet watched (different story, different characters, different cast in a film that, by all accounts, was made for an American audience and seems to have suffered accordingly - don't think I've seen it this century, but will review it when I have), and the dust jacket does feature images from both productions, including (worryingly?) a still of topless newsreader Kirstie Pooley: wonder if she would be happy with that, all these years later!
Yes, there is audience laughter that sometimes obscures the dialogue. Yes, there is quite a bit of ham. Yes, it is more of its time than would be allowed now. Yes, each episode features around 1.5mins of front piece/titles before the action starts (and with each episode coming in at under 28mins that does strike me as a lot). BUT...it has some great great laughs, and that is what really matters.
Stand outs: From the cast, John Cleese will always attract the most attention, the man was at his peak at the time and certainly giving it a go playing multiple characters in the guise of a nuke-smuggling mercenary.
David Kelly as the Iranian servant Abdab, blindfolded so that he does not view his Shah; a hapless yet fawning foil in the same vein as Basil Fawlty's Manuel.
Ed Bishop as motor-mouthed, omnipresent news presenter Jay Garrick, delivering the headlines at what seems like 150 words a minute.
Good old Geoffrey Palmer, stalwart, playing his standard hangdog character to perfection as the British foreign secretary to a prime minister who suddenly declares himself to be Superman.
John Barron, a US adviser running rings around his naive president by arranging for a nuclear bomb to be stolen and trying to boost the presidents miserable ratings percentage by staging an assassination attempt.
Reading the other reviews here it does appear that this comedy has been difficult to get hold of - it has been issued(?) on DVD a few times, it seems, but how many were produced in each production run? I believe I borrowed a VHS from a mate in the early 1990s - so my advice is to get it if you happen upon it, it is a gem.
My pre-owned DVD comes with the big screen 'adaptation' that I haven't yet watched (different story, different characters, different cast in a film that, by all accounts, was made for an American audience and seems to have suffered accordingly - don't think I've seen it this century, but will review it when I have), and the dust jacket does feature images from both productions, including (worryingly?) a still of topless newsreader Kirstie Pooley: wonder if she would be happy with that, all these years later!