''Not with a Bang'' was a short-lived British
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
produced by
LWT
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
for
ITV in 1990. It ran for seven episodes, each 30 minutes long. The show was a dark
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
, focusing on the end of the
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
race on
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
. The title comes from the last line of
T. S. Eliot's poem
The Hollow Men
"The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post–World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles (which Eliot despised: compare " ...
''"not with a bang, but a whimper"''; The concept for the series originates from a self-contained 1986
Radio 4 afternoon play of the same title, from which
Mike Grady was the only cast member to reprise his role in the television series.
Premise
The pilot episode of Not with a Bang begins with a spoof episode of the iconic
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
is presenting a story on how scientists have apparently isolated the hormone that causes aging in humans. The chemical is then accidentally released from a vial and the effect spreads almost instantly, annihilating virtually all human life on Earth, turning people into little piles of an ash-like compound, before dissipating harmlessly.
The show then follows the plight of the four human survivors – three male, one female – who survive due to various far-fetched reasons – for example being sealed in a sound-proof booth during a
quiz when the agent strikes the vicinity. The four characters are united by chance about one year after the event, and set up a base of operations in a country
. They then spend the next six episodes looking for other survivors, adjusting to life after the end of the world, and deliberating over the repopulation of the human race.
The show relies heavily on a small cast of esoteric characters, including:
fanatic Colin; everyman Brian, who comes closest to being the group's leader; and Graham and Janet, a bland couple who struggle over the issue of having children. Conversation between Graham and Janet frequently features Graham's reluctance and Janet's determination to have children, as well as Graham's extraordinarily low
count.
The pub name is never mentioned in the show and while an interior quiz advert does reference the Red Lion in Episode 1, there is also a V for Versus above that and you can just make out a H which would suggest they did not attempt to rename the pub as in an earlier shot of the outside of the pub you can see the White Hart sign, the shots from the outside are of the White Hart in the village of
.