''Hunting Venus'' is a British television comedy-drama starring Martin Clunes and

Neil Morrissey Neil Anthony Morrissey (born 4 July 1962) is an English actor. 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'', ...

as former members of a 1980s

new romantic The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...

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 Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, he released his d ...

, and

Phil Oakey Philip Oakey (born 2 October 1955) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer, songwriter, and cofounder of British synth-pop band the Human League. Aside from the Human League, Oakey has enjoyed an e ...

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland, (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Jayne County, Sting, Eric C ...

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 File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

. The Hunting Venus song "Starburst" was included.

Cast

* Martin Clunes ... Simon Delancey *

... Charlotte * Jane Horrocks ... Cassandra * Esther Coles ... Jacqui * Daniel Webb ... John * Mark Williams ... Peter * Ben Miller ... Gavin *

Marlene Sidaway Marlene Sidaway (born 1937) is a British television, film and theatre actress best known for playing Brenda Taylor in the long-running soap opera '' Coronation Street''. Early life Sidaway was born in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire. On leavi ...

... Marge Beake *

Roger Watkins Roger Michael Watkins (September 17, 1948 – March 6, 2007) was an American filmmaker best known for the 1970s grindhouse movie '' Last House on Dead End Street''. He also directed several adult films, working with pornographic actors suc ...

... DI Hoardes * Jean Ainslie ... Lovely Old Lady * Ian Gain ... Car Dealer * Dermot Keaney ... Doctor * John Mackle ... Production Assistant * Stephen Churchett ... Antiques Dealer * Laura Heath ... Peter's Secretary

Reception

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." 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."

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0162996
BFI TV & Film Database - ''Hunting Venus''
ITV television dramas 1999 television films 1999 films British television films English-language television shows