The Final Programme
The world is in turmoil, Amsterdam reduced to ashes and the streets of London piled high with wrecked cars; at the foot of the mountains in the wastes of Lapland Jerry Cornelius attends the funeral pyre of his geneticist father Doctor Alexander Cornelius, and ponders whether to blow up his home, brother Frank, sister Catherine and the secret research hidden within be damned. Why should he care? After all, the end of the world is imminent.
Haggard fortune tellers have said so in sideshow fairs, his mentor Professor Hira has told him that the “Kali Yuga,” the Dark Age of the cycle of time, is about to end: “The Third World War’s been going on for years, but everyone’s been so busy watching the bleeding commercials that they haven’t noticed.” And out of this crucible rises the sinister Miss Brunner, agent of unknown allegiance, but connected with a plan tied to these end days, the Final Programme.
Based upon Michael Moorcock’s novel of the same name, written in 1965 but not published for several years, The Final Programme was the first of four volumes to feature Jerry Cornelius, an aspect of the “Eternal Champion” whose other identities include Elric of Melniboné, destined to forever stand between the forces of order and chaos to bring balance but doomed to never succeed, the struggle never ending.
Directed by The Abominable Dr. Phibes‘ Robert Fuest, a veteran of The Avengers who had designed inventive sets since the first season and enlisted Diana Rigg’s costume designer John Bates to drape Jenny Runacre in translucent gowns and furs as Miss Brunner, The Final Programme, known as The Last Days of Man on Earth on its American release, has a wilful indifference to coherent plotting, preferring whimsy and frivolity which makes it difficult to invest in the impenetrable characters or the impending apocalypse.
As Cornelius, flying helicopters and driving vintage cars while drinking Bell’s whisky from plastic cups and working his way through endless packs of chocolate biscuits, The Vampire Lovers’ Jon Finch is unphased by the material despite being unable to purchase napalm on a Sunday, proceeding with utter conviction as he proceeds through a madhouse of booby traps and bouncy castles then to an underground cavern housing submarines and a sunlight powered research facility where haphazard preparations for the future are underway.
Appropriately making its Blu-ray debut as part of StudioCanal’s Cult Classics label, with supporting roles for Time Bandits‘ Derrick O’Connor, The Horns of Nimon‘s Graham Crowden, Quatermass II‘s Hugh Griffith, The Monster Club‘s Patrick Magee, Blake’s 7‘s Ronald Lacey, and, albeit briefly, Superman II‘s Sarah Douglas and The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘s Sandra Dickinson, the new edition of The Final Programme includes an interview with Runacre, Kim Newman discussing Fuest’s diverse career and an alternative main title sequence.
The Final Programme will be available on Blu-ray and DVD from StudioCanal from Monday 20th February
