Time Trumpet

[Trivet]

Did anyone else watch Time Trumpet with Armando Iannucci on BBC 2 last night with a brilliant War of the Worlds homage satire on Tesco's plans for world domination. It starts with Tesco, having conquered Britain with a store every square mile, deciding to launch full scale war against Denmark complete with some very impressive tripods stomping around blowing things away with big machine guns on their undersides. if there's a repeat you've got to see this.

[nervouspete]

Agh!

I love Armando Iannucci to bits! That's why I'm really miffed that I've moved into a new house and don't have a TV currently. I needs must see this. I loved his 'Armando Iannucci' shows, and 'The Day Today' of course.

Keep your eyes on Youtube!

[David Faltskog]

Clip Here...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfSi0D7KESk



D.F.

[nervouspete]

Thanks D.F, you are a star!

Please everyone watch this clip, not only does it have tripods (in surprisingly good FX work) smashing apart towns, but it is mercilessly funny and all about...

... well, watch it, I'm not going to spoil it for you!

Pete

[Thunder Child]

Damn, those Tripods are actually pretty good! Seeing those things walk trough streets makes me want to see a decent movie adaptation with FM walking trough London.. I guess I'm not the only one around here...

[Commandingtripod]

That's brilliant! ;D

I love it!

[nervouspete]

This clip is awesome and involves tripods blowing stuff up, if you haven't clicked that link yet and applauded, why not?

....

Nope Thunder Child, you're not the only one!

C'mon BBC, make a serial of that book that we like so much! And get Armando Iannucci as the narrator/journalist. Chris Morris can play his brother...

"The tripods looked menacing, like the twisted brain wrong of a one off man-mental."

And Mark Heap as the parson, no one else can do mad like him! Maybe Nick Frost as the artilleryman and Rebecca Front as Ms Elphinstone.

The result would be scary-funny-mad.

.....

But seriously, this goes some way to proving that the BBC is ready for this, now we just have to send polite prodding letters now and again and pray that some BBC exec gets a bright idea. The FX were far better in that clip than the Pendragon production (probably work of FX geniuses 'The Mill') and I imagine Time Trumpet - being a BBC2 show - doesn't even have that big a budget.

If all else fails, I'll accept a Doctor Who episode with some tripods in.

[Lensman]

nervouspete said:

But seriously, this goes some way to proving that the BBC is ready for this, now we just have to send polite prodding letters now and again and pray that some BBC exec gets a bright idea.

I fear it's not that simple. Hallmark made arrangements with Wells' estate to produce a mini-series, but Paramount took them to court and stopped them. I expect the same thing would happen if the BBC tried the same.

tinyurl.com/ltj3b

[nervouspete]

Tch. Interestng Lensman, didn't know about that contract. However now that Paramount have their film out of the way they might be open to a televisiual interpretation, maybe as co-funders.

I agree that it is highly unlikely that the BBC would get around to making such a mini-series. I guess I typed the above comment in a flush of bizarre enthusiasm and for the purpose of name-dropping fave Brit alternative comedy actors.

A film adaptation of G K Chesterton's 'Man Who Was Thursday' would be nicer anyway, and I've already had my 'tv adaptation' wish fulfilled when the Beeb did Gormenghast.

See the clip yet, Lensman? What did you think?

[Lensman]

I don't have a broadband connection, so I rarely look at videos, sorry.

I have no doubt BBC would have an interest in doing a period production of WotW after the British/EU copyright runs out. I forget what year that is-- 2017? Hopefully the copyright period won't be extended *again* before that, but considering how many, many times it has been already, I won't hold my breath.

[nervouspete]

*Weeps at Lensman's lack of broadband and therefore subversive Brit comedy*

Never mind Lensman, but it was humour on a par with South Park's 'WalMart' episode, only with tripods and spiffily animated. Here's a transcript...

(The show is a documentary from the future doing one of those 'Hey! It's the '80's' lookback type things)

Armando Iannucci, Narrator: "By 2004 Tesco's had a superstore in every square mile of Britain."

Mark Watson: "Tesco were brokering new, world heavy weight banks, representing entertainment stars, making most of the films being made. Tesco's slogan changed from 'Every Little Helps' to 'We control every aspect of your lives'.

Armando Iannucci: "Soon Tesco's got planning permission to build anywhere in the country. Even on the side of a cliff" (Shot of Tesco store strapped vertically to side of white cliffs of Dover - shot of absailer grabbing at products heaped in a mountain on the wall/floor of the 90 degree angled supermarket)



Armando: "By then Britain was fully satuated with Tescos, and the supermarket chain concluded that it would have to look elsewhere for domination..."

Mark Watson: "And then there was the war with Denmark..."






Shot of Danish coast. Two tripods stamp onto dry land - one blows up a house, another edges over a hill, while yet another appears to stomp on the Little Mermaid statue.... The tripod's have girder like legs and their hoods are shiny Tesco Express stores. They have big gatling type guns slung under their hood. Another shot: Bashing through a building, a Tesco tripod looms up over a clock tower...






Mark Watson: "It started, of course, because Tesco needed room to expand. For years it had yearned to create a superstate that was... well, the first retail country."

Shot of chinooks carrying giant boxes on slings flying over skyline.




Armando: "At noon on January 21st 2013 Tesco's invaded Denmark with 200 superstores and one and a half thousand Tesco's expresses."

Shot of Chinook dropping box that impacts with the earth and unfolds in nano-structure construction speed to form a Tesco's supermarket - rather like a base being built in Command & Conquer.




Prince Harry: "The Tesco's thing was a shock. Because I quite like the Danes. A couple of my occassional f*cks are Danes."

Another shot of tripods blowing stuff up and gatling gunning.



Stuart Lee: "The Dane's are a proud people, they're of Viking stock. What they want is to rape, to pillage, to set fire to longships. They don't want to be walking around a supermarket, seeing a Nut's magazine at a checkout next to some chewing gum and a hairnet."

Shot of three Tesco's tripods moving forward and laying down heavy fire with gatling cannon.



Armando: "The war between Tescos and Denmark lasted just five hours. This is all that remains of Copenhagen..."




(Phew, took me a short while, but there you go Lensman. Oh, and for Tescos read WallMart)

[Lensman]

Thanks NervousPete-- ROTFLMAO!!


Wow, you must have spent some time on that!

Very kind of you to set up this "illustrated narrative" for us poor deprived people with no broadband access.

[wotwfan48]

Thanks a lot for that Nervouspete. AWSOME. Chantale.

[Poyks]

It's bloomin' fantastic!

[Refugee]

I just loved the stuff about the war on terror and Hugh Edwards' news desk. The bit where dale winto exploded had me in tears laughing.

[Rob]

I've loved the comedy of Armando for years, he is a genius.

I loved the terroism awards

[andyd4h]

HOLY COW!!!

Those tripods rocked.

IF ONLY someone would do a faithful WotW. With those kinds of things stomping around, it woul;d kick ass.