Hunting Venus | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama/comedy |
Written by | Nick Vivian |
Directed by | Martin Clunes |
Composer | Jools Holland |
Production | |
Executive producer | David Reynolds |
Producer | Philippa Braithwaite |
Cinematography | Paul Wheeler |
Editor | Hugh Boyson |
Running time | 115 minutes |
Production company | Buffalo Pictures for Yorkshire Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 31 March 1999 |
Hunting Venus is a British television comedy-drama starring Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey as former members of a 1980s new romantic pop group. The one-off drama was broadcast on ITV on 31 March 1999, and was produced by Buffalo Pictures for Yorkshire Television.
The plot follows former pop-star turned con artist Simon Delancey (Clunes) is kidnapped by two fans of his eighties band the Venus Hunters, and blackmailed to re-form the band for one final performance, live on television.
It features cameos from a number of new romantic pop stars, including Simon Le Bon (with his wife Yasmin Le Bon), Tony Hadley, Gary Numan, and Phil Oakey. Jools Holland also appears, as himself, and also wrote the song "Starburst", The Venus Hunters' biggest hit.
A compilation album was also released by Columbia to accompany the drama featuring songs from the 1980s. The Hunting Venus song "Starburst" was included. [1]
Sam Wollaston of The Guardian felt the film "started promisingly" and "ended splendidly", however concluded that Hunting Venus "didn't really work because it's asking too much of one joke to keep it going for nearly two hours, and pastiche isn't that funny anyway, is it?" He added: "When you've got Martin Clunes and Neil Morrissey in something, you expect it to be as good as Men Behaving Badly. Which it wasn't. And Jane Horrocks as Cassandra was better than both of them." [2]
Robert Hanks of The Independent commented that the film had a lot of "incidental pleasures" along with "one or two deft jokes about the 1980s - plus a handful of star cameos". However, he felt that the film "seemed oddly short of allusions" to the 1980s and contained "some very old-fashioned attitudes". Hanks summarised: "What the film did get right was the way that nostalgia lends cheap music its potency, and elevates our personal tragedies over world events - for the characters here, the summer of 1982 was about losing your virginity and "Hungry Like the Wolf" getting into the charts, not about the Falklands War. But it didn't need to take two hours to make that point; this was a story of lost times in a way it didn't intend." [3]
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian who is best known for his work in Hollywood films. Candy first rose to national prominence in the 1970s as a member of the Toronto branch of the Second City and its SCTV sketch comedy series. He rose to international fame in the 1980s with his roles in comedic films such as Stripes (1981), Splash (1984), Brewster's Millions (1985), Armed and Dangerous (1986), Spaceballs (1987), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), The Great Outdoors (1988), Uncle Buck (1989), and Cool Runnings (1993). He also appeared in supporting roles in The Blues Brothers (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Home Alone (1990) and Nothing but Trouble (1991).
Barbara Jane Horrocks is a British actress. She portrayed the roles of Bubble and Katy Grin in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. She was nominated for the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for the title role in the stage play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, and received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for the role in the film version of Little Voice.
Men Behaving Badly is a British sitcom that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang and his flatmates Dermot Povey and Tony Smart. It was first broadcast on ITV in 1992. A total of six series were made, along with a Christmas special and a trilogy of episodes that make up the feature-length "last orders".
Simon John Charles Le Bon is a British singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He also received an MBE from King Charles III in 2024.
Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Dr Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin, Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, and William Shawcross in William and Mary. Clunes has narrated a number of documentaries for ITV, the first of which was Islands of Britain in 2009. He has since presented a number of documentaries centred on animals. He has also voiced Kipper the Dog in the animated series Kipper.
Neil Anthony Morrissey is an English actor, businessman, narrator and presenter. He is known for his role as Tony in Men Behaving Badly. Other notable acting roles include Deputy Head Eddie Lawson in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road, Nigel Morton in Line of Duty, and Rocky in Boon. Morrissey also provided the voice of the titular character, Lofty, Roley, and others in Bob the Builder.
David Mark Joseph Morrissey is an English actor and filmmaker. Noted for the meticulous preparation and research he undertakes for each role, he has been described by the British Film Institute as one of the most versatile English actors of his generation.
"Homer the Moe" is the third episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox Network in the United States on November 18, 2001. In the episode, Moe, following the advice of his former bartending professor, decides to modernize his bar. The bar's new image attracts several customers, but leaves Moe's four regular customers, Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney, feeling alienated, which in turn prompts Homer to open his private bar, disguising it as a hunting club to avoid liquor license restrictions.
"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by guitarist Johnny Marr and lead vocalist Morrissey. Featured on the band's third studio album The Queen Is Dead (1986), it was not released as a single in the United Kingdom until 1992, five years after their split, to promote the compilation album ...Best II. It peaked at No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 22 on the Irish Singles Chart. The song has received considerable critical acclaim; in 2014, NME listed it as the 12th-greatest song of all time. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 226 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Fay Ripley is an English actress, television presenter and recipe author. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1990). Her first professional role was in the chorus of a pantomime version of Around the World in 80 Days. Ripley's early film and television appearances were limited, so she supplemented her earnings by working as a children's entertainer and by selling menswear door-to-door. After her scenes as a prostitute were cut from Frankenstein (1994), Ripley gained her first major film role playing Karen Hughes in Mute Witness (1995).
"She Don't Know Me" is a single by American rock band Bon Jovi. It was the second single from their self-titled debut album Bon Jovi (1984). It was written by Mark Avsec and charted at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100.
My Summer with Des is a 1998 comedy drama television film, written by Arthur Smith, and directed by Simon Curtis. Broadcast to coincide with the beginning of World Cup 1998, the story is set during the European football championships in 1996, where football fan Martin finds his life is going from bad to worse after losing his job and splitting up with his girlfriend. It starred Neil Morrissey and Des Lynam, with Rachel Weisz playing the role of his love interest who seems to have the ability to travel through time and know the outcome of the tournament's matches before they happen. At one point Neil Morrissey's character asks her to take him straight to the semi-final between England and Germany, which they then arrive at in the next scene.
Marlene Sidaway is a British television, film and theatre actress best known for playing Brenda Taylor in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street.
True Love is a five-episode 2012 semi-improvised BBC television drama, which began on BBC One on 17 June 2012.
Ambassadors is a three-episode British comedy-drama television serial that ran on BBC Two in 2013. Ambassadors follows the lives of the employees of the British embassy in the fictional Central Asian nation of Tazbekistan.
The Flint Street Nativity is a 1999 British television comedy film directed by Marcus Mortimer, written by Tim Firth, and starring Frank Skinner, Neil Morrissey, Jane Horrocks, John Thomson, Stephen Tompkinson, Mark Addy, Ralf Little, Julia Sawalha, Mina Anwar and Dervla Kirwan. The film is about primary school children putting on a nativity play. It was broadcast by ITV on 22 December 1999.
Marvellous is a 90-minute British drama television film first broadcast on BBC Two on 25 September 2014. Directed by Julian Farino and written by Peter Bowker, it is about the life of Neil Baldwin from Westlands, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.
Rain is an Indonesian soap opera musical comedy drama produced by Amanah Surga Productions that airs daily on SCTV. The cast includes Cassandra Sheryl Lee, Randy Martin, Stefhanie Zamora Husen, Salshabilla Adriani, Endy Arfian with cameo appearances from actors from Indonesian films and television.
Shirley Yeta Horrocks is a New Zealand documentary filmmaker, specialising in social and art topics. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to documentary filmmaking, in the 2019 New Year Honours. The citation notes that "Horrocks is a leader in documentary films on the arts in New Zealand and has directed and produced documentaries for 35 years".
Riviera is a British-Irish drama television series created by Neil Jordan. It premiered on Sky Atlantic on 15 June 2017. The series stars Anthony LaPaglia, Julia Stiles, Lena Olin, Adrian Lester, Iwan Rheon, Dimitri Leonidas and Roxane Duran. The first season of Riviera was released on 15 June 2017 on Sky Box Sets and NOW TV, and was Sky's most successful original series, with an audience of 2.3 million an episode, and more than 20 million downloads and views total. The first season premiered in the U.S. on 9 February 2019 on Ovation. The second season premiered on the network beginning on May 8, 2021 as part of the "Mystery Alley" block in a deal with Sky Studios. The second season was announced on 21 November 2017. It was renewed for a third season on 24 May 2019.