Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14942 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-14
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 80 minutes

Synopsis

The Peter Cook and Dudley Moore - The Very Best of Goodbye Again DVD features hilarious performances from the comic duo, taken from their "Goodbye Again" series of programmes, first broadcast in 1968. The DVD also contains never-before-seen colour sketches and interviews with, among others, Shaun O’Riordan and Rob Brydon.

Customer Reviews

A Quick Goodbye
Urg. So finally Goodbye Again in a format I can watch in the U.S. only to get a very expensive 90 minutes of sketches frequently cropped at beginning and end (I'm reasonably certain some portion of the cropped sketches must exist complete since the intro to one appears on the audio CD of Cook In His Own Words but doesn't appear on this DVD.) Worse still is the sketches are interspersed with pointless little snippets of interviews with Shaun O'Riordan, Bob Brydon, and Richard Ingrams that first appear seemingly out of nowhere since there is no introduction before the sketches begin. These snippets apparently are meant to provide some kind of introduction or insight into the following sketch but they are just a huge annoyance. Otherwise the full interviews with O'Riordan and Ingrams also included on the DVD are quite good to have. I'm not certain I see much point in the interview with Brydon. Do I really need to say much about how brilliant many of these sketches are? So, five stars are for Pete and Dud. DVD is only about three stars.

....But wonderful anyway
This collection is edited like a collage (slamming from black and white to color sequences, giving the endings no room to breathe) and the little snippet interviews are pointless and inane. There is nothing here that reaches the heights of half of "Not Only", almost nothing you'd hold up as their best work (maybe the Swedish interviewer, and Pete and Dud are always on game). A rudimentary Sherlock Holmes sketch was stretched into the rudimentary feature film. And yet, it's still mostly wonderful, with the usual high level of visuals on what was a television budget, and very sharp writing and characterizations. If this was the only Cook/Dudley material to be had, they'd be discussed as the equals of Monty Python, at least. So buy "Bedazzled" and "Not Only" first, but this is essential too. Hope there is more (how about a collection of the rest of the existing "Not Only" shown on the BBC as specials years ago and whatever was left off this - hell, or anything else they did).

A Rather Entertaining Compilation, But Not Impressive Editing!
Some of you may not know this, but "Goodbye Again" was never actually a series, it was infact four one-hour specials made in 1968 and 1969. As much as this DVD compilation being entertaining, I feel they could made a better job as the four shows all excist in the archives complete and in impressive condition. It just shows how ignorant many companies such as the BBC and ITV can be to classic sixties shows. Whilst the BBC are out there looking for old shows from the VT they wiped in the seventies, they never let the public see the footage they've recently found!
For example, say I found an original episode of "Z-Cars" which was missing and I contacted and handed it to the BBC, I'll proberly never see it again, the public will never see it again, and the writers will never see it again!
This is why I think that ITV should be proud that they have all four shows, and not take advantage and make a compilation instead they should realese all the shows.
Another thing I was not impressed about was the editing, I'm going to admit that I've been to a few institutes and have seen all four shows complete, and many of you many not know, but some sketches are cut.

But I guess the disc is better than nothing, so it recieves 5 out of 5 for the footage, and 2 out of 5 for the disc (interviews are rather irritating and would prefer as an extra, but the condition is outstanding on a couple of sketches so that's why it goes up one mark).