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Review MPI Home Video / The Very Best of the Honeymooners [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • George Petrie
  • Audrey Meadows
  • Joyce Randolph
  • Jackie Gleason
  • Art Carney
Release date: 2000-11-07
Run time: 135 min.
Creator: Daniel Cavelli
Price: £7.21

Review The Very Best of the Honeymooners [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MPI Home Video:


Review Acorn Media / The Good Life - Backs To The Wall [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Reginald Marsh
  • Penelope Keith
  • Richard Briers
  • Felicity Kendal
  • Paul Eddington
Release date: 2002-10-07
Run time: 80 min.
Price: £12.99

Review The Good Life - Backs To The Wall [1975] / Acorn Media:

The Good Life has proved an enduring jewel in the BBC's mainstream comedy archive. More than 25 years after it first appeared in our living rooms, nostalgia must be a major reason for its appeal. A whole generation of young men-and their fathers-found the weekly sight of Felicity Kendal as Barbara Good, pert in denim dungarees, irresistible. But it's the quality of the playing that has really stood the test of time and triumphs over a premise-self-sufficiency in Surbiton-that now seems naïve. Even in 1975, a Tom Good (a masterpiece of comic eccentricity from Richard Briers) quitting the rat race would probably have sold up his semi and chanced his luck as a small holder somewhere more remote than suburban Surrey. Comic tensions arise not just from the Goods' daily struggle to beat the system on their own terms, but also from the relationship with their incredulous, often horrified, but usually supportive neighbours. Penelope Keith's Margo Leadbetter remains one of the great comic creations in British sitcom history-a simmering volcano of conservatism waging her own battle against creeping mediocrity in all aspects of life, whose human frailty somehow keeps her loveable. Paul Eddington as Jerry, her long-suffering husband, spars splendidly. -Piers Ford.

Review Granada Media PV 2227 / Les - The Very Best Of Les Dawson [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • John Cleese
  • Les Dawson
Release date: 2000-10-09
Run time: 58 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £9.98

Review Les - The Very Best Of Les Dawson [1993] / Granada Media PV 2227:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - Series 2 - Complete [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • James Dreyfus
  • Rosalind Knight
  • Kathy Burke
Release date: 2007-08-27
Run time: 208 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.18

Review Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - Series 2 - Complete [1999] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Grosse Pointe: The Complete Series [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Irene Molloy
  • Elizabeth Berkley
  • Al Santos
  • Bonnie Somerville
  • Lindsay Sloane
Release date: 2007-02-13
Run time: 359 min.
Price: £16.02

Review Grosse Pointe: The Complete Series [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount / Trekkies [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Barbara Adams
  • Roger Nygard
  • Denis Bourguignon
  • Frank D'Amico
  • David Greenstein
  • Denise Crosby
Release date: 1999-11-09
Run time: 86 min.
Creator: W.K. Border
Price: £6.62

Review Trekkies [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Paramount:


Review Pegasus Entertainment / Love Thy Neighbour - Episode 3 And 4 [1972]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Smethurst
  • Rudolph Walker
  • Tommy Godfrey
  • Nina Baden-Semper
  • Kate Williams
Release date: 2003-09-09
Creator: Vince Powell
RRP: £7.99
Price: £1.99

Review Love Thy Neighbour - Episode 3 And 4 [1972] / Pegasus Entertainment:


Review Warner Vision International / South Park: Vol. 13
Actors & Directors
  • Trey Parker
  • Matt Stone
  • Isaac Hayes
Release date: 2001-04-16
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Trisha Nixon
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.77

Review South Park: Vol. 13 / Warner Vision International:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Best Of Monty Python's Flying Circus - Vol. 1 [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Terry Gilliam
  • John Cleese
  • Eric Idle
  • Graham Chapman
  • Terry Jones
Release date: 1999-10-04
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: John Howard Davies
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.83

Review Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Best Of Monty Python's Flying Circus - Vol. 1 [1969] / 2 Entertain Video:

The coming together of the Python team is regarded as the birth of modern comedy, though each of the six members had been doing similar sketch work prior to this first, 1969 series, of whose highlights this video consists. The most revolutionary aspect of Python was its eschewal of punch lines, preferring as they did bizarre, surreal links and quantum leaps into the imagination of animator Terry Gilliam. Inevitably, Python has dated. Sketches such as the Upper Class Twit of the year and the "Wink-wink, nudge nudge" man are worn down by familiarity. There's some clunky stereotyping and "Oo, ducky"-style gay references. That said, much of this still stands up. Hells Grannies and the race to find the World's Funniest Joke are fine, idle-driven documentary spoofs while the Batley Townswomen's Guild's re-enactment of Pearl Harbour is intelligently ridiculous. John Cleese, however, stands literally and metaphorically head and shoulders above the rest. His and Chapman's sketches, involving a mountaineering expedition leader with double vision and an arts TV interviewer who can't get past the etiquette of how to refer to his guest ("Eddie baby. [+]
") are pursued to their absurd non-conclusions with the remorseless logic of a top-drawer barrister. -David Stubbs.

Review Paramount / The Odd Couple: The Third Season (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Alex March
  • Penny Marshall
  • Hal Cooper
  • George Marshall
  • Garry Marshall
  • Al Molinaro
  • Frank Buxton
  • Elinor Donahue
  • Jack Klugman
  • Tony Randall
Release date: 2008-01-22
Run time: 596 min.
Price: £20.98

Review The Odd Couple: The Third Season (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Paramount:


Review Duke Ellington / Swing Era: Duke Ellington - In Hollywood [2004]
Release date: 2004-08-03
Run time: 60 min.
Price: £5.27

Review Swing Era: Duke Ellington - In Hollywood [2004] / Duke Ellington:


Review Momentum Pictures / Spanish Fly [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Nadiuska
  • Graham Armitage
  • Terry-Thomas
  • Leslie Phillips
  • Bob Kellett
  • Frank Thornton
Release date: 2001-09-24
Run time: 82 min.
Creator: Robert Ryerson
RRP: £9.99
Price: £18.99

Review Spanish Fly [1975] / Momentum Pictures:

The opening credits of Spanish Fly promise "Leslie Phillips vs. Terry-Thomas", making this the British comic innuendo version of King Kong vs. Godzilla or Frankenstein vs. the Wolf Man, with the two masters of fnarr-fnarr lecherous English lounge lizardry pitted against each other. It's a sunstruck, terminally silly slice of fluff of the stripe that passed for a sex film in 1976 ("Go and butter yourself", someone says) but seems almost comically innocent these days. The sort of film that boasts special credits for women's fashions by Cornelia James and underwear by Janet Reger, it tells the story of a gap-toothed con man (Thomas) exiled to sunny Spain. He adds ground-up cantharides to undrinkable plonk to create a market for aphrodisiac wine, and impotent underwear tycoon (Phillips) benefits from the effects of the product as he gets to grips with four lovely models, until his wife (Sue Lloyd) shows up and a side-effect means he starts barking like a dog. The stars are game, but the material-from a story by producer Peter James, now a horror novelist-is skimpier than the starlets' bikinis and none of the pretty girls has any comic timing (though they all get topless scenes). Students of British pop culture will note the bizarre juxtaposition of hiring an uncredited Francis Matthews, the upright voice of Captain Scarlet, to dub the roles of a gay Spanish photographer and (for one bad gag) a disgusted dog. On the DVD: The picture is fullscreen. [+]
There are no extras. -Kim Newman.

Review Cinema Club / Duty Free Complete [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Keith Barron
  • Gwen Taylor
  • Neil Stacy
  • Joanna Van Gyseghem
Release date: 2004-03-08
Run time: 562 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £49.90

Review Duty Free Complete [1985] / Cinema Club:


Review Cinema Club / On The Buses - Series 1 and 2 (4 Disc Box Set) [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Reg Varney
  • Anna Karen
  • Doris Hare
  • Stephen Lewis
  • Bob Grant
Release date: 2002-08-12
Run time: 316 min.
Creator: Ronald Wolfe
RRP: £29.99
Price: £49.99

Review On The Buses - Series 1 and 2 (4 Disc Box Set) [1969] / Cinema Club:

Set around a London bus depot, On the Buses starred Reg Varney as Stan, an ageing bachelor and driver of the No 11 bus who still lives with his mum (Cicely Courtneidge in the first series, Doris Hare in the second), his plain sister Olive (Anna Karen) and disgruntled brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). At work, he fraternises with the laddish and lecherous Jack (Bob Grant), with whom he pursues innumerable (and improbable) giggly, mini-skirted "clippies" (conductors) and cheeks the beady-eyed and punctilious bus inspector, Blakey (Steven Lewis) The first series was broadcast in black and white in 1969, and the show eventually ran until 1973. Eventually, On the Buses would be both celebrated and reviled for its leery, pre-feminist sauciness, and for the exasperated gurning of Lewis' little Hitler-esque inspector. The first series in particular, however, is more keen to develop the theme of Stan as Mummy's boy, with Lewis only a secondary character. Much of the comedy derives from gender role reversal-Stan and Arthur forced to do the household chores when Olive and Mum fall ill ("Family Flu"); "The Canteen", in which the busmen decide to run the canteen themselves; or "The Darts Match", in which Stan and Jack are bested at darts by-imagine-a pair of dollybird clippies. Despite its immense popularity, On the Buses hasn't dated well. Like the buses themselves, the jokes don't arrive very often and when they do, they're visible a long way off. The studio audience whoops cathartically at anything remotely alluding to sex-even a bared male nipple-making you wonder at the repressed nature of British society in 1969. In later decades it would come to be treasured as somewhat creaky kitsch by audiences nostalgic for an age of politically incorrect innocence. On the DVD: On the Buses has no extra features here. [+]
The original black and white versions have scrubbed up reasonably well, although defects such as fading sound and poor dubbing have proven beyond amendment. -David Stubbs.

Review Nickelodeon / The Backyardigans: Tale of the Mighty Knights (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Maria Darling
  • Gianna Bruzzese
  • Jordan Coleman
  • Donald Kim
Release date: 2008-02-26
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Scott Gray
Price: £8.11

Review The Backyardigans: Tale of the Mighty Knights (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Nickelodeon:


Review Clear Vision Ltd / Minder - Series 3 - Part 4 Of 4 [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • George Cole
  • Glynn Edwards
  • Ian Toynton
  • Mike Vardy
  • Francis Megahy
  • Dennis Waterman
  • Gary Webster
  • Robert Young
  • Patrick Malahide
  • Ian Sharp
Release date: 2002-02-11
Run time: 203 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.83

Review Minder - Series 3 - Part 4 Of 4 [1979] / Clear Vision Ltd:


Review Columbia TriStar / The Jeffersons: The Complete Third Season (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Shea
  • Zara Cully
  • Sherman Hemsley
  • Isabel Sanford
  • Franklin Cover
  • Roxie Roker
Release date: 2005-04-12
Run time: 600 min.
Creator: Dixie Brown Grossman
Price: £14.28

Review The Jeffersons: The Complete Third Season (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review 20th Century Fox / That 70's Show: Season 8 (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • David Trainer
  • Wilmer Valderrama
  • Laura Prepon
  • Danny Masterson
  • Mila Kunis
  • Topher Grace
Release date: 2008-04-01
Run time: 477 min.
Creator: Gregg Mettler
Price: £21.30

Review That 70's Show: Season 8 (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - The Complete Boxset [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Kathy Burke
  • Rosalind Knight
  • Beth Goddard
  • James Dreyfus
  • Tristram Shapeero
  • Liddy Oldroyd
  • Brian Bovell
Release date: 2003-11-17
Run time: 550 min.
Creator: Sue Vertue
RRP: £34.99
Price: £39.95

Review Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - The Complete Boxset [1999] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Columbia TriStar / The Jeffersons: The Complete Second Season [1976] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Isabel Sanford
  • Marla Gibbs
  • Jack Shea
  • Sherman Hemsley
  • Roxie Roker
  • Franklin Cover
Release date: 2003-05-13
Run time: 624 min.
Creator: Dixie Brown Grossman
Price: £14.30

Review The Jeffersons: The Complete Second Season [1976] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Models & Brands:
The Very Best of the Honeymooners [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Good Life - Backs To The Wall [1975], Les - The Very Best Of Les Dawson [1993], Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - Series 2 - Complete [1999], Grosse Pointe: The Complete Series [2000] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Trekkies [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Love Thy Neighbour - Episode 3 And 4 [1972], South Park: Vol. 13, Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Best Of Monty Python's Flying Circus - Vol. 1 [1969], The Odd Couple: The Third Season (REGION 1) (NTSC), Swing Era: Duke Ellington - In Hollywood [2004], Spanish Fly [1975], Duty Free Complete [1985], On The Buses - Series 1 and 2 (4 Disc Box Set) [1969], The Backyardigans: Tale of the Mighty Knights (REGION 1) (NTSC), Minder - Series 3 - Part 4 Of 4 [1979], The Jeffersons: The Complete Third Season (REGION 1) (NTSC), That 70's Show: Season 8 (REGION 1) (NTSC), Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - The Complete Boxset [1999], The Jeffersons: The Complete Second Season [1976] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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