In a desperate attempt to regain credibility after the rock star heavy earnestness (and a costly failure of a live concert) that dogged the Amnesty benefit franchise - they knee-jerk it back to its earliest form in '89: Mostly revue sketches with only a brief bit of music. This leanness serves it very well and there's a snappy subversion throughout that's aged nicely (the truncated parrot sketch and poor John Williams being shooed off-stage by Jennifer Saunders). It's heartening to see Pete & Dud together corpsing again and the younger performers like Lenny Henry & Ade Edmondson bring some sharpness to retreads of older sketches. It's much safer than previous entries for certain but it serves as a solid bookend to the first decade or so of the format before they dump the name and change it up in the 90's.
The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball
(1989 TV Movie)
Mermaid Frolics: The Next Generation
25 March 2022