Asylum is a British comedy series which was shown on BBC Four from 9 to 23 February 2015. The satirical comedy series revolves around a whistleblower and an internet pirate who find themselves trapped together under the threat of extradition in the London embassy of a fictional Latin American country.
| Asylum | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Kayvan Novak and Tom Thostrup |
| Written by | Peter Bowden & Thom Phipps |
| Directed by | Iain B. MacDonald |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Four (United Kingdom) |
| Release | 9 February – 23 February 2015 |
The show was inspired by Julian Assange’s two-year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy[1] and the controversial entrepreneur Kim Dotcom.[2] The show was initially conceived by fonejacker star, Kayvan Novak and Tom Thostrup, before being written by Thom Phipps and Peter Bowden.[3]
Reception edit
Reviews of the show called it "boring" and said it "just wasn't funny enough."[2]
One of the writers of the series Thom Phipps once called for the police to publicly shoot the Wikileaks founder in the head. On the day Julian Assange was given political asylum, by the government of Ecuador, Phipps tweeted: "If the met [police] want to regain my trust they should drag Assange out the embassy + shoot him in the back of th head in the middle of traf square." Emmy Butlin lodged a complaint with the BBC over its decision to employ Phipps on the basis that he "advocated for the public extrajudicial assassination" of the Wikileaks founder. The BBC's response was that: "Unfortunately Mr Philip's [sic] is not a BBC member of staff and is not representing the BBC. Therefore we will not be commenting on Twitter posts made by third parties."[4]
The series has yet to be released on DVD.[citation needed]
Cast and crew edit
Written by Thom Phipps and Peter Bowden
- Principal cast and characters
- Ben Miller as Dan Hern
- Kayvan Novak as Rafael
- Niky Wardley as Lorna
- Yasmine Akram as Rosa
- Dustin Demri-Burns as Ludo Backslash
- John Guerrasio as Mo
- Darrell D'Silva as Castillo
- David Cross as Juan Pablo
- Ayo Mary Laurent as Mary
Episodes edit
| # | Title | Directed By | Written By | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Strange Bedfellows" | Iain B. MacDonald | Peter Bowden & Thom Phipps | 9 February 2015 | |
| After a year in the El Rican embassy under the threat of arrest and a death sentence by the US, after whistleblowing CIA cover ups, Dan is bored. With little hope of getting out, Dan prepares for a newspaper interview, hoping that he will be able to leave the embassy. However the embassy want to attract people to the embassy ball, but Dan is old news and nobody wants to come. So the embassy bring in another international criminal- internet pirate Ludo Backslash to bunk with Dan. | |||||
| 2 | "Project Siren" | Iain B. MacDonald | Peter Bowden & Thom Phipps | 16 February 2015 | |
| MI6 try to lure Dan out of the embassy by setting up an online dating site trap. Meanwhile the CIA have placed a mole in the embassy who is leaking staff secrets and framing Dan for it. Ludo is eagerly awaiting for his birthday and expecting a surprise party, but things have to be put on hold as MI6 and the CIA draw closer to Dan | |||||
| 3 | "Public Relations" | Iain B. MacDonald | Peter Bowden & Thom Phipps | 23 February 2015 | |
| Dan decides to raise his public profile and promote his manifesto by holding a press conference. However he accidentally claims that the El Ricans are torturing him, which damages their world cup bid. The El Rican foreign minister is called out to persuade Dan to apologise. But with his new world popularity, Dan is not so keen. | |||||
References edit
- ^ Raeside, Julia (10 February 2015). "Asylum review: it could be a good sitcom if you could believe any of it". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ^ a b Wilson, Benji (9 February 2015). "Asylum, episode 1, review: 'boring'". Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ^ "Asylum - BBC4 Sitcom - British Comedy Guide". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
- ^ "Fury over BBC writer's 'kill Assange' tweet". Retrieved 30 January 2015.
External links edit
- Asylum at BBC Online
- Asylum at IMDb
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