Gimme, Gimme, Gimme-Series 1 (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	175:13
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Liddy Oldroyd Tristram Shapeero
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Kathy Burke James Dreyfus Brian Bovell Beth Goddard Rosalind Knight
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Phil Pope

    Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is a titillating, risqué British comedy in the style of your olde worlde "Blackpool postcard" updated for the late 1990s. Smut, innuendo, gross humour...and a bit more smut. The series starts out mildly amusing, but hits its stride after a couple of episodes to provide some guilty laughs. Overall, it is very amusing and the main actors are great in their roles, but ultimately it is a one-joke show and for some people this may begin to wear.

    The show centres around the lifestyle of the revolting, illiterate, trashy Linda La Hughes and her gay flatmate Tom Farrell. Linda has a hugely mistaken impression of her desirability and believes she is a super-model femme fatale. Despite sleeping with anyone she can get drunk enough, she is really only in love with one man - Liam Gallagher from Oasis. Linda has a number of menial jobs - her main one being a receptionist which suits her perfect telephone manner superbly - not! Tom is played by James Dreyfus and he is perfectly cast. His drama-queen character is as camp as a row of pink tents. He, too, is only in love with one man - Simon Shepherd from the television series Peak Practice. Fittingly, Tom is a largely unemployed, wannabe actor. The regular cast of (admittedly somewhat stereotyped) characters is rounded out with Beryl (Rosalind Knight), the retired prostitute who lives upstairs, and who always refers to herself in the third person, and finally, there's Jez (Brian Bovell) and Suze (Beth Goddard), the nauseatingly loving couple of accountants who live next door and constantly bang like a dunny door in a force ten gale.

    Let me say this loud and clear - Kathy Burke is without a doubt one of the most outstanding female British comedic actors of her day. Her performances in Absolutely Fabulous (as Magda) and - most memorably for me - The Harry Enfield Television Programme (Waynetta Slob - "I'm smoking a faaaag!") are truly hilarious. As well as her classic comedy performances, she is an accomplished theatrical actress, with numerous roles to her credit and has also appeared in several films (from Sid & Nancy to Elizabeth). Whilst she often plays a working-class, semi-literate moron, make no mistake - she is one smart and talented actor.

    The disc contains all six episodes of the first series, and includes:

• Episode 1: Who's That Boy? (29:08)

Linda and Tom awaken after a night on the turps to find a scantily clad black man in their kitchen. Each of them insists that he was their conquest from the previous night, and begin to seek out evidence to prove their case. "Hello? It's Linda La Hughes here....the ginger Jerry Hall".

• Episode 2: The Big Break (29:18)

Tom is presented with the chance of a lifetime. Offered the part of a Cockney granny-basher on Crimewatch UK (a crime reconstruction program), he sets out to hone his craft through a bit of method acting. Unfortunately, this lands him in a bit of bother down at the local pub. "It must be horrible for you inciting erections wherever you go. I bet Trafalgar Square was totally flat until you walked past".

• Episode 3: Legs and Co. (29:20)

After breaking his leg, Tom has the world's worst home-help assigned to assist him - a psychotic man, mentally twisted by the bullying he attracted growing up with the name Shirley. Linda manages to ensnare a motorcycle courier who, much to her disgust, turns out to be a Christian who wishes to save her from herself. "There's no such thing as gay...it's just laziness".

• Episode 4: Do They take Sugar? (29:17)

In a shock revelation, we discover that Linda's estranged sister is none other than the gutter press darling Sugar Walls. In a twist of fate, Tom is mistaken by the paparazzi for her latest lover. Sugar and Linda have a long-standing feud, but all is forgiven when Linda finds out that Sugar knows Liam Gallagher personally. "Oh my God, I'm ruined! They're saying I slept with someone who isn't famous".

• Episode 5: Saturday Night Diva (29:04)

Linda attempts to seduce Jez when she is left at home alone. Tom meanwhile goes out on the town, feels the effects of some illicit substances and manages to pull an Italian stud at a nightclub. "Did you have a good evening Sir? I am twatted ! Oh, is that a Welsh name Sir?".

• Episode 6: I Do, I Do, I Do. (29:06)

Linda has an hilarious dream of she and Tom appearing on the "Terry Klinger Show". Tom meanwhile gets married to an American lesbian friend to allow her to live in the UK with her girlfriend. "Yes, but most blokes say "On me head Beckham", not "Give me head Beckham"!"

    This series starts out as mildly amusing, but a couple of episodes in you will be hooked - or not. This is not a series which will appeal to everyone, but if you like the premise and can stand a bit of a repetitious theme, you will be laughing out loud once the series hits its stride. Fans of the series will be quoting the hilarious acidic one-liners for years to come. Not for fans of Terry and June, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is funny in a politically incorrect and occasionally outrageous way.

Video

    The overall video transfer of this disc is good for a television series.

    The series is presented in a letterboxed ratio of 1.56:1 which is strange given the original aspect ratio was apparently 1.78:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is typical of a television show and looks great on a small screen, but when shown on a large screen it is less pleasing, but still perfectly acceptable.

    Most of the series is brightly lit, but in the occasional darker scenes shadow detail is good. There is no low-level noise.

    Colours are natural throughout. There is no colour bleeding and skin tones are fine.

    The transfer has no significant MPEG artefacts. Mild edge enhancement can be noticed throughout but is never really distracting. Aliasing is present throughout, but other than on the frames of Linda's glasses, is not overly annoying. Dot crawl is evident on the animated introduction to each episode.

    The transfer has no film artefacts and I assume it was originally shot on video.

    There are no subtitles available.

    This is a dual layered (DVD 9) disc, with the layer change unnoticeable - presumably it is sensibly placed between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
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Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The overall audio quality of this is adequate for a television series.

    There is a single English audio track recorded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue was always clear and there were no issues with audio sync.

    Original music is credited to Philip Pope and is a raucous re-recording of the titular ABBA tune. Occasionally other ABBA songs crop up along with other, more forgettable background music.

    The soundstage is, as might be expected given the source and age, very frontal. The surround flag is enabled and the surrounds provide support for the musical numbers and canned laughter track but not much else.

    There is no LFE activity from the subwoofer but some reasonable redirected bass may be heard depending on your speaker set-up.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras on this disc.

Menu

    The menu is a colourful animation with a loop of the theme song playing in the background. It allows the meagre selection of playing individual episodes, or "Play Series".

    This series does not seem to be available in Region 1. The Region 2 disc appears to be the same bare-bones effort as the Region 4. Given this fact, I would suggest buying from the cheapest source would be the order of the day.

    Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is an outrageous BBC comedy series. It is lewd, crude, lavatorial and juvenile. In short - it's a lot of fun. Definitely not one for the kids. If you are broad-minded, non-homophobic and "get the joke" then this will provide some guilty fun.

    The video quality is reasonably good for a television series.

    The audio quality is alright but unremarkable.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall