The Sweeney Complete Collection Box Set Purchase

I got The Sweeney box set this week, on 14 DVDs, it has every episode of the 1970s TV series on it, all 52 episodes! A bargain for £15.50 delivered!

The Green Hornet DVD Report

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: Revelation - Year: 1973/1990 - Cover: Good - Format: 4:3 - Length: 1h30m/1h33m - Before: No - Again: No - Price: £1 - Rating: 5.5/10.

In The Green Hornet, debonair newspaper publisher Britt Reid (Van Williams) fights crime as a masked superhero, The Green Hornet. At his side is martial arts expert Kato (Bruce Lee).

This is cut from episodes of the 1960s TV series of the same name, originally released to US theatres and in the mid 1990s, and you can tell, it is somewhat disjointed between stories and at the end! For fans and completions only!

Here is a clip...

League of Gentlemen Christmas Special DVD Report

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: BBC - Year: 2000 - Cover: Good - Format: 16:9 - Length: 57m/56m - Before: Yes - Again: Yes - Price: £5 But bought years ago - Rating: 6/10.

The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special is a tale of Royston Vaseys Christmas Pasts and present. A bedraggled figure demands sanctuary to Bernice and tells a tale of his own past; Germany 1975 and Herr Lipp welcomes the arrival of young English student Matthew Parker. Increasingly disturbed by the older mans desire to take pleasure from the boys, Matthew becomes convinced that the choirmaster is not just the queen in Duisburg, but is also a vampire!

A distraught Vetenary Chinnery has lost another patient, and reveals his great-grandfathers legacy, the Victorian incarnation is a prince among vets, he accepts a job in the northern town of Royston Vasey, delivered by a strangely familiar coachman Edmund Chinnerys carefully ordered life unravels as he becomes embroiled with an obsessed bicyclist, a monkeys testicles and a curse, and theres more from regular Royston Vasey characters too.

The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special is the usual mix of modern gothic horror and comedy, always great. Recommended, maybe you'll catch it ion TV this Christmas!

Here is a fan made trailer...

Men Behaving Badly Jingle Balls DVD Report

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: Prism Leisure - Year: 1997 - Cover: Good - Format: 4:3 - Length: 1h03m (full content)/34m - Before: Yes - Again: Yes - Price: £2 years ago - Rating: 6/10.

In Men Behaving Badly Jingle Balls, Gary Strang (Martin Clunes) is intent on cooking Christmas dinner and Tony Smart (Neil Morrissey) has decided to buy a lot of Christmas presents to shower his beloved Debs (Leslie Ash) with. Meanwhile Dorothy Bishop (Caroline Quentin) decides its her turn to lie in front of the telly and relax.

Gary thinks this first Christmas Day together away from their families will be different from other years, will the anticipation live up to their expectations?

Men Behaving Badly Jingle Balls is very good, and a good Men Behaving Badly Christmas how! However its awkward to find the main feature, you have to go to the extras and select CHRISTMAS CHEER, other than this, its great!

Here is a clip...

Carry On Christmas 1973

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: Daily Express - Year: 1973 - Cover: Good - Format: 4:3 - Length: 49m/50m - Before: No - Again: No - Price: Free - Rating: 5.5/10.

Carry On Christmas (1973) is almost a sketch show, Sid James is a store Santa, who recalls stories of how people once came together at Christmas, set against the unfriendly 1970s. The sketches are funny and generic carry on fare, with all the usual gang.

Barbara Windsor is a 13-year-old in school dress on Santa Sids knee. Her provocative attitude shocks mother, Joan Sims, who doesn't know how she came by such ways. We had a French student staying with us. She must have got it from him she says. There are stories from the Prehistoric, WWII, Georgian, and an odd dance routine where everyone dresses up as ballerinas!

Overall if you are a carry-on fan, you'll love Carry On Christmas 1973, but I would have preferred to have seen one long story :)

You can watch it all here.

BBC The Sherlock Holmes Collection The Hound Of The Baskervilles DVD Report

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: BBC - Year: 1968 - Cover: Good - Format: 4:3 - Length: 1h40m/1h38m - Before: No - Again: Maybe - Price: £1 - Rating: 6/10.

This is the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes The Hound Of The Baskervilles, first transmitted in 1968 starring Peter Cushing as the legendary detective, and is one of the most faithful versions of the book ever put on film or TV.

Its such a shame there are so many episodes of this series missing from the BBC archives, they are essential viewing to any Holmes fan!

Sorry, no clip or trailer...

Space DVD Report

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: BBC - Year: 2001 - Cover: Good - Format: 16:9 - Length: 6x29m/3h14m - Before: Yes on TV - Again: Maybe - Price: 50p - Rating: 7/10.

In the BBC TV Series Space, Sam Neill is your guide, as computer graphics take you on the ultimate journey beyond any known universe.

Experience the beautiful, astonishing and often dangerous phenomena of the Universe, from the vast clouds where new stars are born, to the star-guzzling black holes. This 6 part series makes you realise the vastness of space, and captures the mystery and intrigue that it inspires. Plus it tackles some of the biggest questions of all; are we alone? Where do we fit in? How did the universe begin? And most frighteningly of all, how will it end?

Space is a great BBC TV series, I remember seeing it in 2001 and was very happy to find it on DVD. Thoroughly recommended!

Here is a clip...

We Know Where You Live Remix DVD Report

Print: Good - Sound: Good - Label: Freemantle - Year: 1997 - Cover: Good - Format: 4:3 - Length: 2h55m/2h46m - Before: No - Again: Maybe - Price: 50p - Rating: 6/10.

In We Know Where You Live Remix, Simon Pegg and Sanjeev Bhaskar star in this fast paced sketch show, although the sketches have no overall theme, they are for the time, very cutting edge using such devices as security-camera footage.

The show also features Fiona Allen, Ella Kenion, Amanda Holden, and Jeremy Fowlds. This is a 7 episode highlights compilation series taken from the original 13 part series!

I really enjoyed We Know Where You Live Remix, its pretty funny!

Here is a clip...

Are You Being Served Series 1 DVD Report

Print: Pretty good, but needs remastering - Sound: Good - Label: BBC - Cover: Good - Format: 4:3 - Length: 28m a show - Before: Yes on TV - Again: Yes - Price: £1 - Rating: 6.5/10.

Are You Being Served was a hugely popular seventies BBC sitcom, set in the old-fashioned Grace Brothers department store, owned by the very old Young Mr Grace. The staff rarely sold anything, but some things where certain - Mr Humphries was free, Mrs Slocombe was worried about her pussy and Young Mr Grace would always declare You've all done very well! Alongside Captain Peacock, Mr Grainger, Mr Rumbold, Mr Lucas and Miss Brahms, they filled the store with bickering, foolish sales ideas and any excuse for hilarious costumes, helping create one of the sauciest, campest and funniest sitcoms of the decade!

This is the complete first series, Are You Being Served? (Pilot Episode), Dear Sexy Knickers, Our Figures Are Slipping, Camping In, His And Hers and Diamonds Are A Mans Best Friend!

I really enjoyed Are You Being Served in the 1970s and still do! Its dated, camp, unrealistic, silly, even childish, and I laughed long and loud! Recommended!

Here is a clip...

There Won't Be Many Reports This Week...

There won't be many reports this week, I'm following Torchwood Children Of Earth, you can read all about it on my other blog here!

The World Of Lee Evans DVD Report

The World Of Lee Evans contains the unique talents of one of Britains brightest comedy stars. Lee Evans burst onto the stand-up comedy circuit as the winner of the Perrier Award, and here he delivers his unique brand of physical humour in a series of short comedy films.

Ordinary situations are turned into a series of sketches, whether its meeting his girlfriends parents for the fist time in Meet the Folks (co-starring Prunella Scales, Tony Selby and Caroline Aherne), sharing a sleeping carriage with his girlfriend on a train in Off the Rails (co-starring Jo Unwin), or working in an all-night petrol station in Late Shift co-starring John Thomson) Mr Confidence (with Samantha Beckinsale) and Special Delivery (with Amanda Dickinson).

Although I like Evans, this is his old Channel 4 series, its very slapstick comedy, that is very hard to get right, and Evans does, but I got bored! I need to be drunk to enjoy this style of comedy, and I wasn't :)

Batman The Animated Series The Legend Begins DVD Report

Batman The Animated Series The Legend Begins - He rules the night as Gotham Citys shadowy protector - Batman, a crusading Dark Knight defending the innocent and striking fear into the hearts of evildoers. The legend of Batman begins in this collection of the first episodes of the award-winning Batman The Animated Series.

There are five episodes on this DVD, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Manbat, and two episodes with the Joker, they are all pretty good too! This DVD is a good way of killing 100 minutes!

Here is a Batman The Animated Series trailer...

The Uninvited (1997) DVD Report

In the Uninvited, a UK TV series from 1997, Steve Blake (Douglas Hodge), a photo-journalist, witnesses a horrific car accident where the driver is incinerated in a gigantic fireball, but the next day he finds the same man alive and well. Blake discovers this is not the only case of death and resurrection - and all are investigated by chief Superintendent Philip Gates (Leslie Grantham) and all are somehow linked to the drowned Norfolk village of Sweethope.

Sweethope slid into the sea five years ago, but there was no loss of life, one of the villagers becomes a Chief Superintendent and is put in charge of several cases where prominent individuals are killed but are then resurrected. Blake and his ex-wife Joanna stumble across something far more sinister than miracles and become convinced that the Sweethope survivors are taking over the country in an alien invasion, as Blake finds himself involved in a global conspiracy too terrible to consider, and possibly too powerful to stop.

The Uninvited is a tense drama that races from intriguing mystery to gripping sci-fi thriller, and as I'd never seen it before I was very impressed by the tense storyline, I almost guessed the ending, but not quite! Its over 3 hours long, and although not full blown sci-fi like Doctor Who, its certainly a great story!

Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned Live DVD Report

Baddiel & Skinner Unplanned Live from Londons West End is a straight-forward stage recreation of the TV show. Unscripted and unrehearsed, it relies on the improvisational skills of this long-standing partnership, mainly by responding to questions put to them from the audience. There is much to laugh at, particularly from Frank Skinner, who proves that he really is one of the best at this sort of comedy. But David Baddiel is funny too!

I laughed a lot, I am unsure whether I watched the original TV show, possibly it wasn't that memorable? This was funny though, recommended!

This is a clip from the TV show...

Walking With Beasts DVD Report

Walking With Beasts was originally a TV show follow-up to the classic Walking With Dinosaurs, I got the DVD at the weekend, so last night watched the entire series!

The effects are amazing, you forget its just CGI, and on top of that, the stories are equally enthralling, the three hours passed very quickly indeed! Now I want the find the rest of the Walking With series :)

Here is a fan-trailer...

Joe Pasquale Does He Really Talk Like That? DVD Report

Joe Pasquale Does He Really Talk Like That? is filmed in front of a live audience (does that mean they also use dead audiences?) at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, Joes 2005 DVD takes you on a comedy journey like no other. The self-styled love turkey introduces you to his crazy world of jokes, magic and of course a few little songs and guests.

With a mix of Tommy Cooper style magic and sophisticated infantile humor Joe made me laugh through the whole show. Definitely worth watching :)


I can't find a clip of this Joe Pasquale show, but heres Joe live...

Jimmy Call Live DVD Report

This is the first of Jimmy Carrs DVDs just called Live, I picked it up this weekend for £1.50, and have since seen it on one site at £38 so I am very happy :) But is it any good?

As Jimmys first DVD, its not as funny as others, probably because he hasn't worked out how far he can or dare go! But its still pretty funny, his adverts in newspapers are very clever, and he is at his best working with the audience!

Overall its stand-up comedy, but very good stand-up comedy, if you like this, and not easy to offend, you'll be surprised how good he is!

Here is the encore...

Jimmy Carr Comedian DVD Report

After watching Jimmy Carr In Concert DVD, I just had to buy another, and this is as good! This DVD isn't for the easily offended, in fact it makes most hard to offend people wonder sometimes, but Jimmy Carr is so nice when offending people!

The main show is about 90 minutes of madcap offensive comedy, plus theres Thumbing in a Softie, a 20 minute short featuring his take on public information films and late night TV Adverts etc. which is equally hilarious! I've seen Jimmy on TV a lot, and never thought he was very good, I now realise that is because he can't use his best material on TV!

What Jimmy Carr does best is interact with the audience, no-one would want Bernard Manning to notice them, but with Jimmy, they haven't learned yet, but they'll learn one day :) You really need to see Jimmy Carr Comedian.

Be warned these clips may be offensive...

Jimmy Carr In Concert DVD Report

This is Jimmy Carrs fourth live stand up DVD, Jimmy Carr In Concert, he walks a fine line with truly outrageous gags that would be thoroughly offensive if not so expertly delivered with an ironic glint in his eye.

I didn't use to like Carr, when he is on TV I found him pretty dull, and now I know why, he can't do this material on TV, outrageous doesn't describe it!

I laughed and laughed, but it is adult humour so you have been warned! But its great!

Here is a clip, be warned, adults only...

Harry Hill In Hooves Live DVD Report

I'm a big fan of Harry Hill for many reasons, one is he doesn't rely on swearing to get laughs (I'm looking at Chubby Brown here). Harrys comedy is almost 1970s budget humour, certainly a twist of Tommy Cooper is in there, with a zany twist.

Hooves Live is a good DVD, I laughed long and loud, particularly at the routine about ambulance drivers running over pizza delivery men :)

One gripe though, the box claims its 101 minutes, in reality its all over in 70 minutes :( Overall well worth watching!

Here is a clip...