British Comedy Guide
The Gravy Train Goes East. Image shows from L to R: Michael Spearpoint (Ian Richardson), Hans-Joachim Dorfmann (Christoph Waltz), Gianna Melchiori (Anita Zagaria)
The Gravy Train Goes East

The Gravy Train Goes East

  • TV sitcom / comedy drama
  • Channel 4
  • 1991
  • 4 episodes (1 series)

Satire surrounding a former soviet state's attempts to come in from the cold. Stars Christoph Waltz, Ian Richardson, Jacques Sereys, Anita Zagaria, Jeremy Child and more.

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The Gravy Train Goes East. Image shows from L to R: Michael Spearpoint (Ian Richardson), Hans-Joachim Dorfmann (Christoph Waltz), Gianna Melchiori (Anita Zagaria)

Key details

Genres
Sitcom, Comedy Drama
Broadcast
1991
Channel
Channel 4
Episodes
4 (1 series)
Stars
Christoph Waltz, Ian Richardson, Jacques Sereys, Anita Zagaria, Jeremy Child, John Dicks, Henry Goodman, Janek Lesniak and more
Writer
Malcolm Bradbury
Director
James Cellan Jones
Producers
Philip Hinchcliffe, Ian Warren, Victor Glynn, Andrew Warren and Dickie Bamber
Company

Post-glasnost jewel of the Eastern European crown, the Balkan state of Slaka is a tasty treat on The Gravy Train. Newly-liberated after years of Communist control, the little nation wants to embrace the European Community and share its bountiful fruits of capitalism and the free market.

Animosity between the East and West is now a thing of the past, so why is Slaka's entry into the E.C. so hotly-contested - enthusiastically encouraged by the Deputy President of the E.C. and violently opposed by the British Government?

The Balkan state's economic and political disarray makes E.C. entry unlikely, but perhaps only one man can perform the required economic miracle in Slaka - the naÏve, bungling European dogsbody Hans Dorfmann.

Confounded and manipulated by all parties, he finds himself out in the cold and expelled from Slaka - but doggedly in pursuit of the state's missing fortune!

Stream and download

Additional details

Production
Location
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

First broadcast
Monday 28th October 1991 at 10pm on Channel 4

Recording details

  • London, Austria and Hungary

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