Not With A Bang

1 9 9 0 (UK)
7 x 30 minute episodes

This short-lived LWT sitcom was set after an apocalypse that destroyed Earth’s population (courtesy of clumsy Judith Hann and an accident on a science television programme) apart from two surviving stragglers holed up together in a cottage in the Lake District.

Brian Appleyard (Ronald Pickup) is a mild-mannered bespectacled would-be philosopher who tries to be in charge while Colin Garrity (Stephen Rea) is a womanising working-class oik who still likes to go to the pub and is only interested in rugby league – which no longer exists, of course.

“There were 60 million people and I’m stuck with you,” protests the pseudo-intellectual Brian who was saved from the holocaust as he was in a sealed booth at the Red Lion taking part in a pub quiz. Being a thinker he explains to Colin how good a new world would be without greed, war, and religion.

But how do you reproduce the human race with only two men left?

Fortunately, two other survivors find their way to the cottage: married couple Graham (Mike Grady) and Janet (Josie Lawrence) Wilkins, who had been pot-holing when the catastrophe happened.

As the last woman on Earth, Janet considers it her duty to start having babies to repopulate the planet – but her owlish and overweight loft conversion specialist husband sees no reason to begin a family, given that the world is all but destroyed. He also seems to be having problems in the bedroom department.

Janet wonders if stockings and suspenders might help, or maybe wearing her Akela uniform (she’s a cub scout leader).

Despite a strong start, the show fizzled out pretty quickly.

Brian Appleyard
Ronald Pickup
Colin Garrity
Stephen Rea
Graham Wilkins
Mike Grady
Janet Wilkins
Josie Lawrence

Episodes

The World Disappears | The Grand Meal to Celebrate a New Beginning | Can Graham Do It? | The Diaries | The Balloon Brainwave | The Art Gallery | Graham Plans a Murder