More Great Comedy Moments (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	85:51
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Dawn French Jennifer Saunders Chris Barrie Adrian Edmondson Rik Mayall Harry Enfield Julie Walters Victoria Wood David Jason Rowan Atkinson Mel Smith Stephen Fry Hugh Laurie
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$28.95	Music	None Given

    More Great Comedy Moments is a compilation of some great (and some not so great) excerpts from BBC TV comedy series. It provides almost an hour-an-a-half of fond memories and some still funny moments.

    I could remember ninety per-cent of the shows and there were only a couple which I actually didn't like - both originally and on this trip down comedy lane. (Bottom and Filthy, Rich and Catflap - I'm looking in your direction). If you are a fan of British comedy, and fancy a disc which can be watched in tiny chunks, or enjoyed as a feature length presentation, then this may be up your alley.

    Highlights for me were French & Saunders performing a scene from Silence of The Lambs, Harry Enfield as an annoying teenager and Allan Partridge being "himself", with the absolute cream of the crop being Acorn Antiques from the excellent team of Victoria Wood and Julie Walters. The full list of shows from which sketches are included are:

    For my money, this disc would not bear too many repeat viewings and would probably be better for an evening's rental than a purchase. It certainly does whet your appetite to watch more of some of these shows though - perhaps that is the idea?

Video

    The video quality of this disc understandably varies with the age of the source material. Overall, however, it is pretty darn good with no really major flaws.

    The excerpts are presented in the original televised aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and are of course not 16x9 enhanced. The video transfer, unsurprisingly, leans toward the soft side (for example Absolutely Fabulous) but this varies between excerpts with some quite sharp (for example KYTV). Colours are occasionally a little washed out on some of the older shows, with a touch of over-brightness in the transfers (The Young Ones and Not the Nine O'clock News), but are generally of an acceptable standard. There is no significant colour bleeding. Black levels are satisfactory given the source materials.

    The transfer does have some minor MPEG artefacts from time to time (for example pixelization and ghosting during The Fast Show). There is some occasional aliasing or minor shimmer present (for example on the chairs during the Victoria Wood restaurant sketch), but it is not overly distracting. Edge enhancement was not a major issue on my set-up.

    The transfer is mercifully free from scratches and specks and this lack of significant film (or video) artefacts is impressive given the age of some of the clips.

    I sampled the English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles and found them to be legible, well timed and accurately reflective of the on-screen dialogue throughout, albeit with the odd dropped phrase or word.

    This is a single sided, single layered (DVD 5) disc so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The overall audio transfer is clean and clear throughout.

    The sole English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded at a measly 192 kbps.

    The soundtrack is serviceable, albeit a little hollow, and is without any major flaws. There are no clicks, pops or hiss evident. Dialogue is clear, despite the obligatory BBC laughter tracks, and I noticed no issues with audio sync.

    There is no musical score per se, although the menu is accompanied by a rendition of (if memory serves) Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

    As might be expected for television comedy shows, the surrounds and subwoofer are unused.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras on this DVD.

Menu

    The menu consists of photographs of some of the comedy characters accompanied by the abovementioned music and some animated titles. It allows you to either play the excerpts in sequence, individually or (cleverly) in a random sequence and also to toggle the subtitle track.

    This particular DVD does not appear to be available in Region 1. The Region 2 version appears to be identical to our own (the Region 4 is in fact also coded for Region 2). I would suggest you buy the cheapest version available.

    More Great Comedy Moments is a reasonable compilation of BBC television comedy shows from the eighties and nineties. It provides more than a few laughs and brought back many memories for me. I would suggest it has limited replay value however, and may be more worthy of an occasional rental rather than an essential purchase.

    The video quality is generally good given the source materials.

    The audio transfer is uninspiring, but technically acceptable.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall