Bernard and the Genie

Infobox Film | name =Bernard and the Genie

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caption = Title caption featuring the lamp
director = Paul Weiland
producer = Jacinta Peel
Peter Fincham
Mary Francis
writer = Richard Curtis
starring = Lenny Henry
Alan Cumming
Rowan Atkinson
Denis Lill
Angie Clarke
music = Howard Goodall
cinematography = Roger Pratt
editing = Ian Weil
distributor = BBC
released = 23 November 1991
runtime = 70 min
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0101435

"Bernard and the Genie" was a seventy-minute British TV movie co-produced by Attaboy and Talkback for BBC Television. It was first shown on BBC1 on 23 November 1991. Written by comedy writer Richard Curtis, this comic fantasy takes its inspiration from "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights" and follows Alan Cumming as art dealer Bernard Bottle who is not having a good day.

Sacked by his avaricious boss (Rowan Atkinson) and jilted by his girlfriend, Bernard unintentionally discovers the antique lamp he was given one Christmas actually contains Josephus (Lenny Henry), a real life genie, imprisoned for the last 2000 years for accidentally killing an evil wizard's daughter whilst moonlighting as a knife-thrower.

While Bernard and Josephus struggle to come to terms with their new lives ("At least your girlfriend is buried in the arms of her lover. Mine is buried in an artichoke patch in Jerusalem!"), their attempts to cheer themselves up using magic have unforeseen consequences.

Directed by Paul Weiland, the movie featured actors such as John Gabriel (as the evil wizard), and Denis Lill (as lift attendant Frank Kepple), as well as cameos from Melvyn Bragg, Bob Geldof, Vincent Hanna, Gary Lineker and Trevor McDonald.

A DVD version of the movie was released for Region 1 on September 4 2007. [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002S64OQ Amazon.com: Bernard and the Genie] ]

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