Bernard and the Genie is a 1991 British fantasy comedy-drama television film directed by Paul Weiland and written by Richard Curtis. Co-produced by Attaboy and Talkback for BBC Television, the film was first shown on BBC1 on 23 December 1991, with a single BBC repeat on 19 December 1993. A comic fantasy that takes its inspiration from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, it follows Alan Cumming as an art dealer who is not having a good day. Lenny Henry won the Radio Times TV Comedy Performance of the Year award for his portrayal of the Genie.
Title card featuring the lamp
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis is a British screenwriter, producer and film director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), About Time (2013), and Yesterday (2019). He is also known for the drama War Horse (2011) and for having co-written the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley. His early career saw him write material for the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News and ITV's Spitting Image.
Curtis in 2016
Curtis in London, 1999, the year Notting Hill was released
Curtis (bottom) during filming in Trafalgar Square, London in May 2009