Oh, the Comic Strip DVD Box set, you guys! (Oh, and pick one, why not!)

I'd love to see these again.

and i was incorrect with my episode choice, the one I was thinking of was 'GLC'. Though i'm mostly looking forward to Mr Jolly.

Never seen 'four men in a plane' either.

"conzuela" or whatever it was called was shite. "strike" is probably my all-time favourite.

Now they've done this, maybe they'll finally issue Happy Families on DVD?

fat chance. anyway, i'd rather "set of six".

OK Mark, I'll bite.... you're doing an Open University degree on the life and works of Rik Mayall. Am I right?

http://epguides.com/comicstrippresents/cast.jpg

'The Bullshitters' wasn't as funny as I remember, but still watchable.
'Dirty Movie' I'd never seen before and reminded me of the Weekenders with its complete absurdity.

some have been really weak and haven't held the test of time but most are okay and still watchable. 'Mr Jolly' struggled at first but omg it soon found footing and i was laughing my head off.
'Susie' was mostly rubbish, tho the pop star had his moments.
'Fistful of Travellers Cheques' was just mildy okay.
'Bad News' ones were great.
'Strike' was hilarious.
'Supergrass', which I hadn't seen before, was marvellous.

still a few disks to watch.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3 out of 5 stars
HEAVILY EDITED !! Don't erase your old tapes !!, August 12, 2005
Reviewer: windowlicker2000
This would have been the DVD-release of the decade to me...
until I compared some of the episodes to my old tapes.
I haven't checked the old Channel 4 films yet, but a lot of the later episodes
have been heavily edited and messed around with. Many longer scenes are shortened,
but worse: some of the funniest dialogue is missing!!
I could only check a few shows and discovered these cuts:

SOUTH ATLANTIC RAIDERS 1 - about 2 minutes cut: a lot of the dialogue in Max' house is cut,
including the classic "My cousin's just been let out of a Lancashire cotton mill and the
Southern air and the Chateau Mignon 54 has rather gone to his Northern head";
the airport & prison escape scenes are shorter; some very funny dialogue between Billy
and Stan dressed as his mother is cut)

SOUTH ATLANTIC RAIDERS 2 - about 5 minutes (!!!) cut, too many cuts to mention, the worst are:
the whole intro sequence before the titles; most part of the flashback scenes when Stan tells the story;
some great gags in the airplane; a very funny scene, when Cathy wants to be alone with Stan and Billy
doesn't really get it; the whole dialogue between Stan & Frances, when he tells her he was wrong & loves her;
Cathy & the dead General (she originally says "Sieg heil, my darling!"); the whole scene when Billy
seems to be shot; the monologue from the Newsreporter is shortened; ...
To make matters even worse, the remaining pieces of the episode are messed around with.
The scene where Cathy goes to Frances with an axe is placed after Stan has arrived at the cottage,
which makes it look like a very stupid continuity error. Has the editor been totally drunk??!!

WILD TURKEY - 1 min. cut: the whole intro, where Ruby Wax writes Xmas cards;
the dancing scene ("have you kissed a turkey before?"); when the turkey leaves,
they hug & kiss ("I wish you were a turkey, Sue!") - you can clearly see the sloppy cut!

FOUR MEN IN A CAR - 1 min. cut: dialogue between Jennifer & Peter; the scene where Rik
tries to steal the motorbike is shorter.

GREGORY: DIARY OF A NUTCASE - I don't have an original to compare, but you can see a very sloppy cut!

Shame on the publisher for this unneccessary butchering !!!

i cannot wait to see "strike" again.

Strike was indeed brilliant, with the teaser at the end where they mention the sequel of the GLC episode.

i'm sitting in my living room watching "mr jolly lives next door" and eating a meat pie. the eternal 13-year-old inside me couldn't be happier if he'd discovered a year's worth of grumble under his dad's bed.

but WHO GIVES A FUCK, I HAVE MR JOLLY AND STRIKE ON DVD. woo!

I read an interview with Peter Richardson recently (I think it might've been in an Evening Standard I found on the Tube) and he mentioned "fixing up" a few of the later shows. I was mildly alarmed. As long as he hasn't touched a frame of Travellers' Cheques or Dirty Movie.

Watching the Ultimate Pop Star rundown repeat over Xmas - that is a young Richardson playing air guitar* in his bedroom on a 1977 Shadows' Greatest Hits ad, isn't it? (* - he's actually wielding a cricket bat).

I watched the 'documentary' first, it's a 1 hour promo film for the "comic strip live" album, filmed by Julian Temple. The on-stage stuff is great. The off-stage acting stuff is fair to middling. The 'audience' in the club seem to be J.Temple's personal wacky/outrageous friends pretending to roll around in helpless mirth on-cue.

Well, is my life long enough to watch more of this than is healthy? (I hope so!)

been watching the box set again this weekend. I'm enjoying them a lot more this time around.

and was in tears of laughter at The Crying Game ending, showing The Scum newspaper headline

Oh right, there's a Comic Strip thread. The GLC one's just been on London Live. LOL @ Neil Kinnock, portrayed as a dithering prevaricating compromiser being shot by Tony Benn, played by Lee Van Cleef. Interesting that the music in this episode was composed by Kate Bush!

Oh I knew she'd done the song for the "Ken" Livingstone one...

That's... this one

Ah I know what I think I mixed up "Strike" with "GLC" so dmm..

Yes, this is Robbie Coltrane as Charles Bronson as Ken Livingstone. Good episode this one apart from Keith Allen doing a 'gay', especially as he'd played a very sympathetic gay character in "The Crying Game" episode. Prince Charles as kind of distracted upper class hippy was good.

spent a while watching these a few years ago, they are such an odd mix of obvious classic episodes, crap am-dram pissabout parodies which just baffle (The Beat Generation, Susie, Summer School) and the occasional wonderful surprise- I'd never seen Didn't You Kill My Brother? before and was not prepared for quite how intricate / granular it was, just a brilliant piece of writing.

Kate Bush is actually in this one, getting mauled by a chocolate-covered Daniel Peacock right now.

I'd completely forgotten the existence of Daniel Peacock - who, it turns out, is the son of the recently deceased Trevor.

There was a definite family resemblance!

I also had no idea about this until Trevor passed away; Trevor also father of Daniel's much younger half-sibling Harry (Ray Bloody Purchase in Toast of London, married to Katherine Parkinson).

Has Gino: Full Story and Pics been on yet? I think more of that is imprinted in my brain than even Fistful.... "He was ranting about he was going 'get' Mrs Thatcher and I pretended to agree with him." "Oh, I could never go back to sheets and blankets."