The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer R

The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer is comedy and comedy, a quirky skewering of sex, the advertsing business, media, politics, the clergy, ale and you name it and featuring a motley array of talents

At the center of the gleeful goings-on is Rimmer (Cook), who begins a career at a marketing research firm and manipulates his way into upward mobility. He gets the girl. He gets the wealth and acclaim. He gets the presidency of England, a position created just for him. You get the laughs. If offbeat British '60s-era fare is your cuppa, drink up.

Like Socrates of ancient Athens, Michael Rimmer (Peter Cook) of modern England believes the key to success is to ask the right questions. Lots of questions. So he gets a job with an advertising agency that conducts polls, rises swiftly through the ranks, and eventually runs the agency. Then he bombards England with questions. His ingenious system enables him to predict the outcome of a general election. (Every voter in England had received a questionnaire.) So accomplished is Rimmer at asking questions that he finds his future wife through market research. To insure that he gets the right answers, Rimmer is not above manipulating the polls. For example, when he asks residents of Coventry their religion, 95 percent identify themselves as Buddhists, thanks to an influx of Rimmer stooges. Then he enters politics. In a short time, he gets himself elected to Parliament, becomes a cabinet minister and eventually moves into Ten Downing Street as prime minister after pushing the incumbent prime minister off an oil platform. By this time, every eligible voter in Britain can cast ballots with a television remote control. Alas, the electorate tires of the endless referendum questions that they must answer as part of their daily routine. This development serves only to catapult Rimmer to further success, for the people decide to place all decisions in his hands as dictator of England. So Rimmer keeps rising and rising and rising. And asking questions.