The Young Ones-Series 2 (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	205:43
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Geoff Posner
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rick Mayall Ade Edmonson Nigel Planer Christopher Ryan Alexei Sayle
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Peter Brewis

    If you haven't experienced The Young Ones, then you have missed out on one of the best British comedy shows ever. But don't worry, all that can be fixed now that we finally have the entire series available here in Region 4.

    The general story of this series loosely revolves around four college students; Rik (Rik Mayall) the amateur anarchist and people's poet, Neil (Nigel Planer) the lentil-loving hippie, Vyvyan (Ade Edmondson) the pierced metal head, Mike (Christopher Ryan) the sophisticated schemer and their landlord Jerzei (Alexei Sayle). The series was co-written by writer/comedian Ben Elton who was also responsible for other classic comedy shows such as Filthy, Rich and Catflap and Blackadder. Only two seasons of The Young Ones were made. All six episodes from the second and final season are included on this disc.

• Bambi (34:51). After an unproductive visit to the launderette, Neil announces that they are to represent Scumbag College on a popular game show, University Challenge. This episode features a musical performance by Motorhead and numerous guest stars including Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
• Cash (32:17). With winter upon them, the lads resort to extreme measures to keep their source of warmth alight. Cash flow could be the answer to their problems, so Neil is sent out into the workforce - but his choice of occupation proves to be very unpopular.
• Nasty (34:17). Mike and Vyv invest in a new video recorder and have nothing but problems setting it up. Meanwhile, a suspicious package from the Transvaal arrives and its contents begin to terrorise the flat. Only an infectious tune from The Damned can save them!
• Time (34:06). Rik wakes up to find a strange girl in his bed and tries to convince the others that he is no longer a virgin. Robbie Coltrane makes another appearance as radio DJ Captain Billy Blood and Hale & Pace appear as gambling medieval peasants.
• Sick (34:36). Neil has a bad case of the flu, and inadvertently starts a riot when he sneezes out the window. A dangerous criminal named Brian Damage (Alexei Sayle) escapes and holds the occupants of the flat hostage, just as Neil remembers that his parents are coming over for tea.
• Summer Holiday (34:56). In the final episode, summer holiday arrives and Vyvyan gets bored, destroying things at random. But it's Neil's birthday, and Jerzei the landlord pays a surprise visit, evicting the lads instantly. Mike hatches a plan to fix their financial situation by robbing a bank with water pistols. A young Lenny Henry appears as a postman and Jools Holland can be seen as a punk.

    With a veritable revolving door of special guests and popular bands of the time, this is without a doubt one of the greatest variety/comedy series to come out of the UK, and is certainly not to be missed by any lovers of British comedy.

Video

    I was pleased with this transfer. Considering the age of the source and the limited technology of the BBC in the 80s, this is a decent effort. Back in those days programmes were shot using videotape for studio scenes and film for outdoor locations. When broadcast twenty years ago, the differences between the two media would not have been that clear, however with the higher resolution of DVD the differences are glaringly obvious.

    The video transfer is presented in 1.33:1 full frame and is obviously not 16x9 enhanced.

    There are some examples of sharpness during close-ups, but there are also many instances where the camera sways in and out of focus. For the most part, this isn't the most crisp video transfer you will ever see, but it does the job. Lighting is pretty poor at times in both the outdoor and the studio scenes, making shadow detail very hard to come by. There was no low level noise present that I could see.

    Colours generally appeared true and showed very little bleeding. The limitations of the studio video equipment were apparent in artefacts such as motion trails in Time at 21:47 and a loud gunshot by Alexei Sayle triggers an example of microphony in the episode Sick at 16:07.

    There were no MPEG artefacts or compression problems to speak of. Some film artefacting appeared during location footage, consisting of tiny specks of dirt and scratches such as during Time at 1:14. There is some very poor stock footage during the opening sequence of Time, but this is very brief and necessary to set the following scene.

    The English subtitles were semi-accurate but very sterile, transferring the general feeling of what was being said and omitting a lot of slang and unnecessary dialogue in the process. Dutch subtitles are also available but are not obtainable via the menu and must be accessed manually.

    This disc is dual layered. I could not detect a layer transition pause, so I presume it must be placed at some point between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track, English Dolby Digital 2.0. This is an unimpressive, wafer-thin effort, with virtually no left to right panning and absolutely no spill to the subwoofer. Again, given the age of the source this is to be expected.

    Dialogue quality is good and always easy to understand. Some of the special characterisations were a bit hard to grasp due to their exaggerated accents, but I would expect that this is deliberate. There were no audio sync issues at all.

    The title theme is performed by the cast, and is a great rendition of the Cliff Richard hit of the 60s. There are some memorable musical interludes from popular 80s bands Madness, Motorhead and The Damned. There is some brief incidental music by Peter Brewis as well, but this was hardly noticeable.

    The surround channels and subwoofer were not utilised.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Absolutely nothing.

Menu

• Trailers for Father Ted, A League of Gentlemen, French and Saunders, Wallace and Gromit, Robbie the Reindeer, and Absolutely Fabulous.
• Featurette - Creating The Young Ones (13:24). This is a brief but entertaining look at how the series came together, with cast and crew interviews and clips of early stage performances that illustrate how some of the characters were developed.
• Featurette - The Young Ones and the Early 80s (5:41). A featurette very similar to the above, with more interviews and vintage footage.
• Rik Mayall - The Theater (3:21). An historically relevant stage performance that illustrates how the character we know as Rik began.
• Filthy, Rich and Catflap - Episode 1. Written by Ben Elton and starring Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer and Ade Edmondson.
• Bottom - Episode 1. Written by and starring Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson.
• Extensive biographies for Cast and Crew, Guest Stars and Bands that made appearances throughout the series.
• Four postcards.

    Regions 2 and 4 have received identically pathetic single disc releases of each season.

    I couldn't pick any obvious censorship or editing differences between the Region 1 and 4 discs, although the back cover of the Region 4 release does have some fine print that states "For contractual reasons certain music edits have been made". It's possible that the same music edits were made on the Region 1 release.

    The Region 4 menu graphics and navigation are virtually identical to the Region 1 disc. As far as video quality goes, I noted some regular low level noise in the Region 1 transfer, but not enough for me to discourage readers from making the obligatory Region 1 purchase. Shame on the BBC.

    The video and audio transfers are the best you will find at the moment, but there are absolutely no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall