Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5426 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-07-18
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 171 minutes

Synopsis
Stephen Fry and John Bird star as spin doctors Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe as they bring the popular and satirical Radio 4 comedy Absolute Power to DVD. Machiavelli has nothing on these two. Charles Prentiss and Martin McCabe run a blue-chip London PR firm, heading up a team of ambitious young agents who work in the dark art of repackaging black as white. Whether defending a comedian caught beating up his girlfriend in the Ikea car park, or deflecting attention from a TV historian accused of faking his evidence, the company's mantra is that the public will swallow anything, just as long as it's made palatable. Exposing the inextricable collusion between press and PR, while holding a mirror up to our celebrity-obsessed times, this is a witty and satirical comedy about a world in which style triumphs over substance, tabloids are the new judge and jury, and where five minutes of fame is considered a long-term career. Features the six episodes from the first series of the television comedy. In "History Man" Charles strives to dig up a story on historian Nigel Harting which is suitable for a tabloid audience. Also features: "Pope Idol", "Tory Woman", "Mr Fox", "Country Life" and "Crash And Burn".

Customer Reviews

First Rate Humour
For years I've been of the opinion that the best comedy is to be found on the radio and more specifically Radio 4. A great deal of that comedy crosses over to the TV and becomes the best comedy on TV. Absolute Power is another in a long line of those crossovers and in my opinion it is even better on the TV than it was on the radio.

It centres around a PR company, Prentiss McCabe and each episode looks at the current client they are working with and the problems they are trying to turn to their advantage. PR has become such a big thing in recent years that it is extremely topical and you can't help but think that it is true to life.

The cast are all excellent, lead by Stephen Fry who plays Charles Prentiss, an excellent comedy character with no morals at all. You really will be stunned by the depths he will sink to. John Bird is the other lead playing Marin McCabe who like Charles is a master of spin, though he provides the occasional moral input to the partnership.

The supporting cast are all strong, with the two main secondary stars being James Lance and Zoe Telford, two junior PR executives, with Lance playing a devious schemer and Telford a slightly more naive though hard working character. They are excellent and valuable members of the cast. There are two other junors in the office who to be honest are of little importance and in my opinion could have been left out.

There are some brilliant one off parts with the most notable being Geoffrey Palmer playing an absoulutely brilliant part as a country gent who turns out to be trying to be a Nazi supporter (anything that can make that funny is clearly well written humour!)

Each episode contains many laugh out loud moments and there is not really any weak material in there. If you enjoy intelligent humour, look no further than this.

Brilliant, but the radio series was exquisite!
I adore this programme - anything that can produce the line "what she really married Nigel for is his impressive collection of modern money" or the TV concept to chose the Archbishop of Canterbury "Pope Idol" has to be wonderful. Stephen Fry and John Bird are utterly priceless. The TV series never quite reaches the heights of the radio version, but then the radio version was so unbelievably funny, that's probably only to be expected.

Where is the 2nd series on DVD? Or indeed the radio series on CD???

Superb comedy
This is intelligent humour at its best. Stephen Fry is brilliant as always, but my favourite charcter is the naive, slightly useless Zoe. Based around a PR firm it is so real life. Brilliant.