Biggles

Dir: John Hugh/GB/1986/92 mins/Dolby stereo

Lps: Neil Dickson, Alex Hyde-White, Peter Cushing, Fiona Hutchinson




Forget any notions of W E Johns' famous books. The characters are only loosely based on those in the original books and, with the exception of Biggles himself, are almost totally ignored. The story revolves around Jim Ferguson, ace American advertising man, Biggles 'time twin', and the strange phenomenon that when one is in dire peril, the other is wondrously transported through time to prevent death and disaster befalling the other. During the First World War, the Germans are about to perfect a fantastic new weapon which will ensure their victory. It is left to Jim, very American, very eighties and very out of his depth, to save the world.

The mainstay of the storyline revolves around the time transport sequences, which always seem to occur at particularly inopportune moments. The transportee reappears in the same situation as that from which he was removed in his native time, and thankfully this is used to good effect without sinking to the ultimate depth of lavatorial humour. Those people who take to heart the good versus evil escapades of such as Batman, Spiderman or even the original Biggles stories could find that this film is not quite so reverent as it could be. We can all give thanks for that.

DSz

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