Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3250 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-06-14
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 180 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The second series of Marion & Geoff had an awful lot to live up to. That it might be as good as the mini masterpieces of pathos (and bathos) that made up the first series was all any viewer could reasonably expect; that it actually surpasses them is testament to the achievement of cowriters Rob Brydon and Hugo Blick. These six episodes (plus an hour-long special on the second disc) provide a window into an all-too-painfully familiar world of betrayal, deceit and family disintegration, as seen through the eternally optimistic eyes of Keith, a man who against all the evidence of his own senses somehow manages to retain his respect for the dignity of human nature.

Keith has put his mini-cab days behind him, and is now gainfully employed as a chauffeur to a wealthy American family. In between his duties delivering the young boy to school--and dodging the family's two Dobermans on the lawn--Keith unwittingly forms a personal bond with the boy's mother, Catherine. Slowly Keith is awakened to the truth about her unhappiness, and the activities of her wayward husband Peter, a self-proclaimed film producer much given to auditioning young actresses on his casting couch. Simultaneously, relations with Marion and his "little smashers" are improving, thanks to regular family meetings at motorway service stations. Mirroring events with his employers, Marion and Geoff are heading for trouble too, though once again Keith is the last person to realise what's really going on. Poignant personal revelations follow, leaving Keith with a surprisingly difficult choice at the end.

As before, the joy in Brydon's deadpan monologues to camera as he drives around the streets of London is not what he tells you, but what is revealed by implication. A disastrous night out with Geoff and Peter, for example, contrasts their vicious, self-serving natures with Keith's naive, almost heroic good nature: in a quandary about parking in a disabled space he remarks tellingly, "I'm not disabled, I'm disadvantaged." Marion & Geoff turns out to be a celebration of modest decency in the midst of a painfully cynical world.

On the DVD: The six episodes are presented on the first disc, though unlike Series 1 there's no commentary. On the second disc is the hour-long special episode "A Small Summer Party", in which we see in heartbreaking detail the day when Keith found out about Marion and Geoff (and we finally get to see the famous couple, with Geoff played by a not entirely unexpected guest star). --Mark Walker

DVD Description
Keith, the lovable loser and eternal optimist, returns with more cheery diary updates, from behind the wheel of his car. He may no longer be with Marion, but he’s nothing if not understanding:
"In an ideal world, I’d give Marion a call, but it wouldn’t be right … It wouldn’t be legal either …"

An ‘accident’ has led to Marion being awarded solo custody of his sons and the relationship is still fragile. But things are definitely on the up for Keith. He’s now a chauffeur to an American film producer’s young son, drives a smart new car – "nicer than anywhere I’ve ever lived" – and wears a uniform that he thinks makes him look like Richard Gere. And although his first meeting with his ‘little smashers’ in more than two years was scuppered when Keith pulled into the wrong side of the motorway service station, he was at least able to see the car’s tail lights leaving …

Special Features

• A Small Summer Party the Director’s Cut version of this special 60-minute film with guest appearance by Steve Coogan

DVD Technical Information:

• Region Code: 2, 4
  
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  
• Audio: Stereo
  
• Running Time: 168 mins approx.
  
• Subtitles: English SDH

Customer Reviews

Undeniably devastating: funny, sad and poetically beautiful
I caught a few of the first series of Marion and Geoff when they aired in 10-minute late night slots on BBC2. At first, like almost everyone, and entirely as intended by writer/actor Rob Brydon and director Hugo Blick, I wasn't sure what to make of the programme. Like The Office, but before that genius programme was ever seen, it confused reality with fiction, and showed comedy and sadness in the same shot. The second Alan Partridge series combines this a little, but is a heavy caricature, and nearly always played for laughs. About 25 minutes into the story of Keith Barrett, lonely cab driver in London who longs for his children and estranged wife in Cardiff, I was brought close to tears and smiling as broadly as the River Severn. All within the space of thirty seconds. Marion and Geoff, as anyone who loves the first series knows, can turn on a knife-edge. It is a skill very few TV programmes have ever demonstrated.

Series two is packaged differently. Instead of the 10 minutes at a time in Keith's taxi, we now have 30-minute episodes. Keith has grown in the intervening few years. He still lives a pretty solitary life, but at least he's been promoted to chauffeuring duties for a film director's wife. But he still misses his little smashers. That Alun and Rhys are growing up without their dad, and in Geoff's house, is a painful fact that continually pushes at Keith, and perhaps even more so at the viewer. Despite his cheery optimism, you can taste the scurf of defeat.

But it is impossible to ignore how funny a lot of this is. The second series, perhaps even more than the first, is sad and poignant, but it is also able to make you laugh out loud, over and over. Keith's innocent relationship with the lady of the house he drives around is played comedically at first, but you begin to sense a bond between them growing. There is a joyful, touching sense of possibility in Keith's new life. He even has a substitute son, the film's director's, whom he drives to school. The boy clearly adores him, and it helps to remind you how good a dad Keith must be. Geoff can never be the man Keith is, despite his easy success in life.

It is still in Brydon's telling of a story that the fun comes. What is left unspoken is almost tangible, giving you more metres of background than a whole film. He does this in just a few words. It is a marvel of acting and a lesson in how to tell a tale. You feel as if you know everything about Keith. The bonus episode that comes on disc two of this DVD is a good demonstration of this storytelling feat. Using a full cast, and outside the car, it plays out the day that Marion ran off with Geoff. That entire hour of TV was contained in one 10-minute episode of the first series, told by Keith direct to camera. And the shorter version is infinitely more evocative than the full-cast retelling. You don't need guest appearances from Steve Coogan when you can make a person laugh, cry, cringe and smile just with the faintest movement of an eyebrow. Brydon can do this, and it is spectacular.

A sad and beautiful story
I was surprised that there was a second series made of Marion & Geoff as the first instalment was as close to perfection as could be and the story was came to a satisfactory and heart-warming close. So I was cynically expecting this to be a disappointment.

It wasn't.

However, it is noticeably different.

Due to the extended length of each episode, the stress is firmly placed in telling the story, as opposed to try to slot in jokes in Keith's monologue. And the story is one well worth telling. Keith can no longer be described as simply 'unlucky' as in this series, he represents an oasis of decency surrounded by those who are selfish, self-centred and shallow. It is fair to say that the hardships on display here are graver than before, and yet the severity of these set-backs seems to be always lessened by Keith's unswerving optimism in the 'best in people'. Only towards the very end of this series do we see his rosy view on the world fade.
My only criticisms are that the entire story is some 3 1/2 hours in length, and whilst it is more engaging if the episodes are watched back to back this can be somewhat of a large mouthful to swallow whole. There are also some elements of the story that I feel are superflous and redundant to the narrative e.g. Mr Trapaulin becoming an insurance salesman.
However, forgetting these small imperfections, this is a moving tale, told with great sensitivity and a fine acuity of human emotions. If you are interested in laughing at rubber chickens or the word 'cock' I wouldn't recommend this. However for anyone else this is a must-purchase. This restores my faith in TV programming and the future of comedy.

Buy it and you will not be disappointed.

P.S. I challenge anyone to not shed a tear at the end.

moving, funny and sad
This is a wonderful achievment from the BBC, a one-man show that tells everything without really telling anything.
Even though the feeling was that it is not sutable for a 30 minute episdoe, the show does takes you to the wonderful wierd world of Kieth, the man who little by little realizes that he can no longer disregard the truth around him - like he did on the 1st season.
To me, the 1st season is a masterpiece, because it was short, powerful and funny as hell - and some of that disappeared in the long episodes.
Still, worth watching!