Whoops Apocalypse

John Cleese and Geoffrey Palmer had worked together once prior to this series in Fawlty Towers in 1979. They then collaborated on Fairly Secret Army, Clockwise and A Fish Called Wanda and, some thirty years after they had first appeared alongside each other, Cleese was responsible for Palmer being hired to star with him in The Pink Panther 2.

The second episode features the Russian leaders playing board games as war is being discussed. This scene bears more than a passing similarity to the depiction of Field Marshal Haig in Blackadder. Coincidentally this also featured Geoffrey Palmer.

The Russian leader, played by Richard Griffiths, is replaced by a double in the opening episode. Bizarrely the same thing happened to the actor's character in the Naked Gun series.

Whoops Apocalypse is sometimes billed as Cleese's only British sitcom appearance aside from Fawlty Towers. However, whilst it is his only other starring role, he has been seen in programmes such as Last Of The Summer Wine, Ripping Yarns, and a short cameo in The Goodies.

Whoops Apocalypse was originally commissioned as a pilot by the BBC, but when they declined to turn it into a full series writers Andrew Marshall and David Renwick took it to LWT.