UK TV Interview About Historic, Deadly Heat Wave Eerily Mirrors Memorable ‘Don’t Look Up’ Scene As Host Complains, “I Want Us To Be Happy About The Weather”

Tom Tapp
·2 min read
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In the days this week before the UK suffered through all-time record temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius — or 104 degrees Fahrenheit — GB News host Bev Turner made light of a meteorologist’s warnings about the coming heatwave in a televised interview that bears a striking resemblance to the much talked-about fictional TV interview in Adam McKay’s Oscar-nominated film Don’t Look Up. In fact, one intrepid Twitter user cut the two scenes together, prompting McKay himself to weigh in. See below.

In the GB News interview last week, British meteorologist John Hammond warns that, while last week it was a near-perfect 20 degrees Celsius — or 68 degrees Fahrenheit — “By early next week you can scratch 20 degrees. It could very well be 40 degrees. I think there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of excess deaths next week. The charts that I can see in front of me are frightening.”

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After he makes a few more grim points, Turner interrupts with, “So John, I want us to be happy about the weather, and I don’t know whether something has happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic and harbingers of doom.”

She continues, “All of the broadcasts, particularly on the BBC, every time I’ve turned on, anyone is talking about the weather and they’re saying there’s going to be tons of fatalities. But haven’t we always had hot weather, John?”

A seemingly incredulous Hammond replies with scientific data and more warnings about transit snarls and workplace difficulties — most of which proved true.

You can watch it below.

Hammond was right, of course, on his primary counts, as well: the temperature topped 40 degrees at London’s Heathrow airport and over 1,500 people died across Europe as a result of the heat wave.

The exchange is eerily reminiscent of that between Jennifer Lawrence’s astronomer in Don’t Look Up exploding onscreen after listening to the blithe dismissals of Cate Blanchett’s news anchor even as a massive comet heads toward Earth.

In fact, one Twitter user cut both scenes together to devastating effect. Watch below.

McKay himself weighed in with, “There are clips like this from quite a few European countries floating around but not any from the USA. Why? Because the US for the most part doesn’t have any substantive discussions with climate activists or scientists on broadcast news.”

It’s not the first time comparisons have been made between the scene in McKay’s film and a climate change-centered interview on British television. There was another in April to which McKay also responded.

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