''Hunting Venus'' is a British television comedy-drama starring

Martin Clunes Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series '' Doc Martin'', Gary Strang in the BBC sitcom ''Men Behavin ...

and

Neil Morrissey Neil Anthony Morrissey (born 4 July 1962) is an English actor, businessman, narrator, and television presenter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Rocky in ''Boon (TV series), Boon'', and Tony in ''Men Behaving Badly''. Other notable acti ...

as former members of a 1980s

new romantic New Romantic 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 Romantic mo ...

pop group. The one-off drama was broadcast on ITV on 31 March 1999, and was produced by Buffalo Pictures for

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

. 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 Simon John Charles Le Bon (born 27 October 1958) is an English 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 Briti ...

(with his wife

Yasmin Le Bon Yasmin Le Bon (née Parvaneh) is an English model. She was one of the highest-earning models during the 1980s and is married to Duran Duran's lead singer Simon Le Bon. Early life Yasmin Parvaneh was born in Oxford, England, the younger child ...

Tony Hadley Anthony Patrick Hadley (born 2 June 1960) is an English pop singer. He rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of the New wave music, new wave band Spandau Ballet and launched a solo career following the group's split in 1990. Hadley retur ...

Gary Numan Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as Gary Numan, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He entered the music industry as frontman of the New wave music, new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two st ...

, and Phil Oakey.

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 Marc Almond, Jayne County, To ...

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, 335px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Space Shuttle Columbia, Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union, Soviet General Secretary of the Communist Party of ...

. The Hunting Venus song "Starburst" was included.

Cast

... Simon Delancey *

... Charlotte *

Jane Horrocks Barbara Jane Horrocks (born 18 January 1964) is a British actress. She portrayed 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 pl ...

... Cassandra * Esther Coles ... Jacqui * Daniel Webb ... John * Mark Williams ... Peter *

Ben Miller Bennet Evan Miller (born 24 February 1966) is an English comedian, actor and author. He rose to fame as a member of the comedy duo Armstrong and Miller, with Alexander Armstrong. He is known for roles as Angus Jeremy Bough in the '' Johnny Eng ...

... 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 in the North Riding of York ...

... Marge Beake * Roger Watkins ... DI Hoardes * Jean Ainslie ... Lovely Old Lady * Ian Gain ... Car Dealer * Dermot Keaney ... Doctor * John Mackle ... Production Assistant *

Stephen Churchett Stephen George Churchett (10 April 1947 – 11 January 2022) was an English actor and writer. Life and career One of his most notable roles was as solicitor Marcus Christie in ''EastEnders'', on and off from 1990 to 2004. He reprised the role ...

... Antiques Dealer * Laura Heath ... Peter's Secretary

Reception

Sam Wollaston of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' 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 ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' 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''
1999 television films 1999 films British television films British English-language television shows ITV television dramas Television series by ITV Studios Television series by Yorkshire Television