Thirty years ago, British director Mike Hodges, who had previously directed the classic Michael Caine thriller Get Carter, decided to helm a big screen version of the comic book hero Flash Gordon. Despite George Lucas redefining the sci-fi genre and the way outer space looked a few years earlier with Star Wars, Hodges went a different route altogether. His sci-fi adventure was powered by rock, courtesy of Queen.

On its release in 1980, it was greeted with the same level of enthusiasm worldwide as being given a present you clearly didn’t ask for or want. One small part of the world however, one island of taste embraced Flash as if one of its own: the oh-so Great Britain.

Maybe it was the anthem by one of our greatest groups, or possibly the energetic performances by many of the cast that us Brits took to our hearts. Or maybe we’re just suckers for a tale of an American Football hero saving the Earth from destruction from evil alien forces.

Dr. Zarkov (Chaim Topol) hoodwinks both our eponymous hero Flash (Sam J. Jones) and Dale Arden (Melody Anderson), into entering a space ship during a peculiar storm. Without any warning he hits the launch button and the trio find themselves hurtling into space.

They land on Mongo, a curious planet with shiny buildings. They are taken to Ming the Merciless (Max von Sydow), ruler of Mongo. Unfortunately for them, his ‘merciless’ moniker isn’t one of those ironic titles; Ming, who clearly behaves like a spoilt only child, is dead set on destroying anything that comes his way. Earth has appeared on his radar, and he wants to get rid of it.

Understandably, Flash isn’t happy with Ming’s plans to destroy the Earth, and decides he’s going to do something about it. But despite being an all-American hero, Flash is merely one man. If he’s to defeat Ming, he’s going to need help; but with Ming’s stranglehold of evil over his kingdom, as well as internal battles between Mongo’s various inhabitants, Flash has a lot of hard work ahead of him to clean up this interplanetary mess.

To think, I once played Death at chess - for this?!

Whereas Lucas went for a clinical chromatic look for his vision, Hodges appears to take his inspiration from a Gay Pride festival. Not only do many of his sets look like they could have made interesting floats, but all the costumes appear to have been created by hundreds of Quality Street wrappers. And if that wasn’t enough, many of the space-tacular backgrounds could have been created by a vomiting rainbow. It didn’t look cutting edge then and certainly doesn’t now. But no one could say that it wasn’t distinctive. A bit like the acting.

To say that the performances in the film were special would be a serious understatement. It’s no surprise that neither Jones nor Anderson went on to have glittering A-list careers in Hollywood. This is possibly due to the fact that they gave their alls here, and had nothing left to give. Even stalwart thespian types Timothy Dalton and Brian Blessed take hamming up to new porkalicious levels. The only one to come out of the experience with a modicum of respect intact is Max von Sydow, who plays Ming with a truly alarming level of menace.

The main reason for the film doing so well here in the UK is clear: it’s a space panto. It may even have a variation on a theme of a pantomime horse lurking in the background somewhere. Sprinkled on top is the essence of Doctor Who; at one point in the film, Flash is attacked by a child’s inflatable paddling pool with legs, and it doesn’t get any more horrific than that.

Thirty years on and this anniversary disc looks like it had just as much money spent on it as the original i.e. very little. With only a bonus CD of the original Queen soundtrack, and an interview and commentary from the director himself, it certainly lacks the kind of bang you would expect with such an auspicious milestone. At the very least it should have included a ‘where are they now?’ feature, along with interviews with the cast.

Still, if you’ve never experienced this gloriously camp space oddity before, this anniversary release will find you in the very safe hands of the original saviour of the universe.