Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1067 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-04
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 196 minutes

Synopsis
Modern life is rubbish. Nobody talks to each other, work is dull and we are made to feel inadequate by everyone and everything around us. Features the complete series of comedy genius Ianucci's sketch shows.

Customer Reviews

Completely overlooked - where is the justice?
Like most people I think I was out when this was on first time round (I assume it was put in the graveyard slot) so brought this on faith based on his previous work. I was not disappointed! There are moments of pure genius in this series and Armando Iannucci's delivery is fantastically dry. You get a real sense of a great comedic mind at work finding humour in everyday life and then transferring that into some of the most ridiculous situations imaginable and blowing it out of all proportions. If like me you missed this the first time round then make sure your mistakes are not repeated! However don't expect the controversy or shock value of his works with Chris Morris, the humour here is far more subtle but no less amusing.

The good bits are very good indeed
Armando Iannucci is well known for his role in some of the best recent British comedy (Alan Partridge, The Thick Of It etc) but a lot of people seem to have missed this series. That's a shame as when he does his own stuff it's often brilliant, with a bit of a surreal edge. I watched most of the series when it was on telly and some bits stuck in my head for years so I was really pleased when it came out on DVD.

Each of the episodes is sposed to be on a particular theme, but you don't really need to know that! What is important is that some of the stuff in this series is genius. A common themes is people basically being rubbish and/or naff. The first episode has two brilliant bits - the witty bloke at a dinner party being literally fed his funny lines, and the 'tw*ts' bit (especially the bloke singing his song about Princess Anne's birthday). Other highlights are Armando The Great Adult, and when he does a comedy slot at the end of a conference using powerpoint slides to get across his jokes.

Sometimes - a bit like his Observer column! - the joke doesn't quite work or it goes on too long. So it's definitely a hit & miss DVD. But the best stuff is so good it's worth ploughing through to get to. And the extras are pretty good too - the commentaries are pretty funny. One word of warning - if you don't want to know the result of the Arsenal-Barcelona Champions League final don't listen to the commentaries...

Butter brings me out in ghosts.
Underrated, undershown, and finally released genious. There is no-one quite like Armando in the comedy world, and although the more recent 'Time Trumpet' was a little disapointing, don't let that put you off buying this masterpiece. Highlights include the East End Thug being deployed to solve fairly mundane problems, such as threatening a washing machine into working, Lucar the barber, and his bizarre tales of clangers and screaming fire, and the revelation that everyone with knowledge is being tipped off, either via bits of paper in their pies, or earpieces spewing football trivia.

Armando, we applaud you.