Jamie Oliver-Oliver's Twist (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	167:37 (Case: 203)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Brian Klein
Studio Distributor	Fremantle Media Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Jamie Oliver
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	Leigh Haggerwood

    Oliver's Twist features everyone's favourite naked chef, Jamie Oliver. The DVD presents all seven episodes from the television series and is a most enjoyable watch. Oliver has a charm and charisma unlike any other television chef (well, maybe Nigella Lawson comes close) and his genuine passion for cooking comes oozing out of every frame.

    Oliver manages to make the most tricky cooking wizardry look deceptively simple, and his shows are almost always a trigger for three things when I watch them - hunger, laughter and the desire to cook something pucka. You don't need to be a fan of cooking shows to derive a great deal of pleasure from watching the young larrikin strut his culinary stuff - he is entertaining no matter what he is up to. This show presents quite a personal insight into Jamie Oliver, as it is themed around him entertaining friends and family, and presents an opportunity to learn about the man as well as the meal.

    The seven episodes presented are as follows:

• World Cup Breakfast - Jamie cooks the most fantastic fry-up and the perfect Bloody Mary for a group of his mates after a night on the town, and before settling down to watch England vs France at "football".
• Scarlet Division - It's band practice time for Jamie's bandmates. That means when Jamie isn't on the drums, he has to cook up a vegetarian dish for the gang.
• The Bill - Three of the coppers from the Sun Hill television set pop over for a fiery feast of chillies and the best looking pork ribs I have ever seen.
• Wild City - Oliver's old boss Gennaro shows Jamie how to collect free fennel, rocket and horseradish from the streets of London (no, not shoplifting). Man, does this guy like olive oil or what?
• Tiger - Granny comes to afternoon tea. Jamie cooks up a tea for his rocking old grandmother, whom he affectionately calls Tiger. Clotted cream and homemade jam anyone? How about a little quiche?
• Bollywood - Indian food...my favourite. Jamie manages to create some mouth-watering curries in what seems like a quarter of the time it takes me.
• Chocolate - A Tiramisu to end all wars. Well, maybe not, but a d*** fine looking dessert and some handmade chocolates to boot.

    Oliver's Twist is entertaining television, whether you like cooking or not. If you do enjoy cooking (or cooking shows), then this disc will be a great addition to your DVD collection. I enjoyed it very much, and will certainly watch it again. Lovely Jubbly!

Video

    The video quality of this transfer is reasonable for a television series, but is not up to the standard of modern Australian digital broadcasts.

    The series is presented in a full screen 1.33:1 ratio, which (I assume) is the original televised aspect ratio. The video transfer is rather soft at times, but there is little in the way of significant grain.

    Colours are generally clean and well rendered, with a nice bright transfer featuring some nice primary colours, great food shots and natural skin tones throughout. Colour bleeding is not a problem. Black levels are acceptable with no low level noise and reasonable shadow detail.

    The transfer is free from major MPEG artefacts. There is some noticeable aliasing which crops up from time to time (for example on car chrome, road markings and fences during the Wild City episode, or more generally on some of the kitchen backdrops). This is only slightly distracting, however, and will not spoil your enjoyment of the DVD. Edge enhancement is visible as a halo around the characters on occasion, but again is not disastrous.

    The transfer is free from scratches and flecks.

    Despite what the back cover states, there are no English subtitles present on the disc, which really is rather a shame.

    This is a dual layered, single sided (DVD 9) disc, but I assume the layer change is sensibly placed between episodes as I could not detect it.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The overall audio transfer is acceptable for a television cookery show.

    The sole English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, encoded at 224 kbps.

    Dialogue is always clear, although the accents may occasionally prove troubling for some. There are no issues with audio sync.

    The musical score is performed by Scarlet Division - Oliver's own band in which he plays drums. The music is credited to Leigh Haggerwood who, I assume, is a member of the band. The theme song is darn catchy and crops up as subtle background sound from time to time. Other than that, the soundtrack is largely dialogue only, as might be expected.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are unused.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no real extras on the disc. There is a pseudo-extra entitled "The Food", which is covered in the section below.

Menu

    The menu is a musical and animated job. It contains a window playing video clips from the show, a choice of each episode and an option entitled "The Food". Selecting this option allows you to choose Starters, Main Courses, Puddings or Drinks. These will then allow you to watch the video excerpt covering your dish of choice from the series. It is in effect just a glorified chapter selection, but will make it simpler to find the required sections more easily in future - there are unfortunately no text-based recipes provided on the disc.

    This disc does not appear to be available in either Region 1 or (very strangely) Region 2. Region 4 would appear to be the version of choice then!

    Oliver's Twist is television cookery at its most charming. This disc will stand a fair degree of repeat viewing due to the lively, humorous presentation and varied range of dishes and cooking tips on offer. Cooking never looked so much fun! A great addition to the DVD collection of any cooking fan, and a must buy for serious Jamie Oliver fans.

    The video quality is fairly good, but does have some aliasing issues.

    The audio transfer is adequate for the nature of the show.

    There are, sadly, no genuine extras present.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall