Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1483 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-06-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 311 minutes

DVD Description
A thwarted Lady Maud runs off to her solicitor to start divorce proceedings and that gives Sir Giles his bright idea-why not run the proposed bypass for the area through their very own Cleene Gorge, thereby wrecking Lady Maud's ancestral home and copping rather a lot of compensation from the government to boot? Witness the frolics of the bumbling dundridge - the Y-front clad man from the ministry, Sir Giles' versatile Mrs Forthby - Mediterranean harlot and naughty schoolgirl extraordinaire, not forgetting Blott himself, gardener and mystery man, casting his enigmatic eye over the eccentricities of the great British aristocracy... Starring, George Cole, Geraldine James, David Suchet, Simon Cadell and Julia McKenzie

Customer Reviews

One of the best comedy mini-series
Sir Giles Lynchwood, Conservative MP, schemes to have a motorway extend over his houses and get rich in the process. His wife with the help of Blott fortifies the gatehouse to repel the construction crew. It is much more complex with subplots. You have to see to believe and them you may not.

Many videos do not live up to the expectations of the book. This one may even surpass the Tom Sharpe's book. All of the characters fit and all the irony hits you in the face. This was my first encounter with David Suchet (Blott). And you will recognize all the other major players including Geraldine James (Lady Maud Lynchwood). Now the complete series on DVD. You need to carve out the better part of a day before starting to watch because you will not be able to stop until the end.

A man’s home is his castle.

Revenge, best served with Tate+Lions!!
Utterly fabulous rendition of Tom Sharpe's book. Geraldine James is wonderful as the very forthright Lady Maud, determined to have a child to carry the family name in her ancestral home - but George Cole, as husband Sir Giles, is equally determined that this will never happen, simply by refusing to bed her.
Trying his best to get a motorway put through the 'wretched place' for the compensation money, he has to play everyone against each other to save his own face.
Up steps Simon Cadell (the weedy entertainments manager from Hi-De-Hi), as the man from the ministry - the ministry desperate to give him any job away from them, particularly after his idea to speed up the underground by having conveyor belt platforms, that way the tubes need never stop as people can 'just' jump on to the train as it passes!
And amidst all the fuss and scuffles is Blott, the odd little gardener and odd-job man from somewhere in Europe (clearly his pre-Poirot performance). Calm in a crisis, full of ideas - some of them towards Lady Maud - of how to save Handyman Hall from the bulldozers.
Buy this, and save the family name from falling into disuse!!

Is this the best-ever BBC comedy drama?
Over 20 years old and funnier than virtually anything that has been in the cinema or on TV for the past decade. Absolutely brilliant with David Suchet striding through the story as the manic, demonically ingenious and yet devoted servant of 'Lady Mowd'. There isn't a single character in this wonderful drama that doesn't work -with Simon Cadell perfectly cast as the neurotically pedantic government minister.

Right from episode 1 and the courtroom riot, right through to the end where the army tries to storm the manor gatehouse, the farce is built up with relentless energy.

A total triumph and absolutely unmissable - it makes all the current TV comedy drama series look insipid.