and attempt to disrupt Millar's presentation of his Genesis Project, in which he claims he has perfected mankind. In front of the assembled audience of Royalty and commoners, Genesis is revealed—a brain wired to machinery. Genesis is given a chance to speak and, in a robotic voice, utters the "What a piece of work is a man" speech from Hamlet, until it continuously repeats the line "How like a God". Cast The Administration Leonard Rossiter as Vincent Potter Brian Pettifer as Biles John Moffatt as Greville Figg Fulton Mackay as Chief Superintendent Johns Vivian Pickles as Matron Barbara Hicks as Miss Tinker Medicos Graham Crowden as Professor Millar Jill Bennett as Dr. MacMillan Peter Jeffrey as Sir Geoffrey Marsha Hunt as Nurse Persil Mary MacLeod as Casualty Sister The Unions Joan Plowright as Phyllis Grimshaw Robin Askwith as Ben Keating Dave Atkins as Sharkey The Media Malcolm McDowell as Mick Travis Mark Hamill as Red Frank Grimes as Sammy / Voice of "Genesis" The Palace Gladys Crosbie as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother And Richard Griffiths as Cheerful Bernie Arthur Lowe as hospital patient Alan Bates as Macready Dandy Nichols as Florrie Betty Marsden as Hermione Liz Smith as Maisie T. P. McKenna as Theatre Surgeon Michael Medwin as Theatre Surgeon Roland Culver as General Wetherby Valentine Dyall as Mr Rochester Tony Haygarth as Fraser John Gordon Sinclair as Gregory Brian Glover as Painter Mike Grady as Painter Kevin Lloyd as Picket Robert Pugh as Picket Robbie Coltrane, Patsy Byrne and Edward Hibbert had bit parts. This was the final film appearance of Arthur Lowe who died shortly after his scenes were filmed. Production Development Lindsay Anderson says the film had its origins in 1975 with a newspaper story about the "siege of Charing Cross Hospital, when there was a big demonstration against fee-paying private patients led by a union official known as Granny Brookstern. This immediately struck me as absurd. If you stand outside a hospital and stop ambulances going in in the name of humanity you are involved in a wonderfully absurd paradox. The story got even more wild with accusations that Granny Brookstern and the Labour Minister of Health had themselves been private patients; and so I started building up a private scrapbook of newsworthy absurdities." Anderson said he was inspired by Amiel's theory that the only true principle of humanity is justice. "The man who would