Bernard And The Genie (English Christmas Comedy TV Movie with Ro

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 all eternity 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 lives ("At least your girlfriend is buried in the arms of her lover. Mine is buried in an artechoke 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), plus cameos from Melvyn Bragg, Bob Geldof, Vincent Hanna, Gary Lineker and Trevor McDonald.