In this marvelous 19-minute educational film about the dangers of carelessly handled foodstuffs, “Basil and Desdemonia Salmonella,” ably and theatrically embodied by seasoned British actors Frank Muir and June Whitfield, manage to (SPOILER ALERT) evade a battery of dangers, such as heat, cold, soap, and so on to start a gargantuan, toxic family in the belly of some unsuspecting Briton.
Throughout, Basil explains the dangers that lie ahead while offering reassurances that the stupid humans will likely neglect to wash their knives properly, re-heat their repasts at a sufficiently low temperature, and so on. These dialogues, set in a suitably sci-fi and low-budget soundstage, are intercut with more traditional scenes of the aforementioned stupid humans committing the very transgressions that assure the microbes’ survival. Stupid humans!! We see a well-meaning butcher and, later, a somewhat quarrelsome married couple preparing a meal.
Basil, who carries around a pipe all the time, and Desdemonia both wear the silver signifiers of 1970s’ sci-fi, the type of garb that incidentally was lovingly lampooned in “App Development and Condiments,” the most recent episode of Community.
Muir was the type of older British actor (he was also a writer) who in an alternate universe might have played Alfred to Adam West’s Batman; he’s awfully familiar to me but I’ll be damned if I recognize anything in his CV. Whitfield has had a more illustrious career—she’s still active at the age of 88—and might be best known for her portrayal of “Mother” in Ab Fab and even appeared in one of those cringeworthy Friends episodes where the whole gang flew to London for a wedding or something. Interestingly, “A Tale of Two Microbes” has more than a whiff of the old Doctor Who episodes about them, so it’s fitting that she popped up in the two-part episode “The End of Time” just a few years ago.
“A Tale of Two Microbes” is dated as all hell and irredeemably British, campy and enjoyable. Just when things start to lag, Basil’s “Uncle Pedro” shows up. Trust me: you don’t want to miss Uncle Pedro.
via Weird Universe
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