Studio Canal Blu-ray Film Review

The Final Programme (1973) • Blu-ray [StudioCanal, Cult Classics]

A trio of scientists plan to create a self-replicating, immortal, hermaphrodite using the Final Programme developed by a dead, Nobel Prize-winning scientist.

With The Final Programme, Robert Fuest proved himself the only director brave enough to adapt a novel by Michael Moorcock for the screen. The results are as entertaining and audaciously bonkers as one might imagine. If you’re looking for something that blends the frenetic finale of The Prisoner (1967–68) with the socio-satire of A Clockwork Orange (1971), and could just about be taken as a prequel to the camp dystopia of Zardoz (1974), then this restored print on Blu-ray from Studio Canal will make you happy.

Despite the title, The Final Programme was the first in what became a quartet of freewheeling science-fiction novels featuring hero-cum-antihero Jerry Cornelius. It was first published in 1968 with two sequels, A Cure for Cancer and The English Assassin, following in quick succession by the time the…