Dead Ringers-Series 1 (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Bonus Episode-Pilot Episode
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	202:18
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Birkin Jonathan Gershfield Pati Marr
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Simon Blackwell Jon Culshaw Nev Fountain Jon Holmes Laurence Howarth Tom Jamieson Kevin Connelly Phil Cornwell Jon Culshaw Mark Perry Jan Ravens
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	John Whitehall

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Often an extra skit after credits

    I've long been a fan of good comedic impersonators, and I say "good" because there are many bad ones that have graced our screens over the years. Good impersonators, who can capture the essence of a character and also use good comic writing to add to the humour, are in my opinion a valuable commodity. Although by no means the only source of such impersonators, British television has certainly provided us with its fair share, so after my previous comment it might sound surprising that I hadn't actually seen any episodes of Dead Ringers until I received this DVD for review. The truth is that I'm never at home when the show is broadcast over here in Australia, but having watched the first season I'm tempted to buy a second hand VCR, just to record it weekly.

    Basically what we have here is a pretty standard skit-show format, with short unrelated segments delivering one or two jokes before jumping into the next one. Skits can vary in length from around 30 seconds up to a few minutes, depending on the depth of the material and the number of jokes they can get out of it. The comedy group responsible for these episodes consists of 5 impressionists, although at times you'll swear there are more of them.

    This first season of the series contains 6 episodes running very close to 30 minutes each, as well as the pilot episode, running for the same length of time. So anyone who paid attention during maths at school will realise that we have almost 3.5 hours of impressionist/sketch comedy to play with on this DVD.

    Like many similar TV shows made over here in Australia, some of these skits will have you laughing out loud (Jamie Oliver in the kitchen springs to mind), while others will leave you unmoved. However, unlike our own productions, there is also a lot of material that will be totally lost due to the viewer not being familiar with the characters or situations being parodied. I'm somewhat familiar with British TV and politics, due to family ties and connections with the old country, as well as having lived there a number of times over the years, but I still found myself going "huh?" at times (or words to that effect).

    The good news is that for every character/sketch we won't understand there's a good handful that we will. Characters such as Russell Crowe, Ozzie Osbourne, Michael Parkinson, Rolf Harris, Robbie Williams, Tony Blair, George W Bush, and so on and so on, are regular targets. Also it must be said that after watching a number of episodes you actually start to get familiar with the characters you previously didn't know, and will start to understand the jokes a little more (I understood the weapons inspection sketch much better after seeing the other David Dickinson send-ups).

    As well as standard sketches, there are also a number of hidden-camera scenarios, where one of the team will go out into the public as a famous character, such as Doctor Who, Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Michael Parkinson, and mix with real people. Some of these provide absolute classic moments.

    The DVD has each separate skit occupying its own chapter, which is great for repeat viewings when you want to skip the ones that either aren't funny or are alien to non-Brit viewers.

    If you like this sort of impersonation/skit humour, then Dead Ringers is certainly one of the better examples out there, and although not perfect, comes recommended. If you're not sure, then maybe check the show out on TV first (or rent the DVD).

    Just one final comment - as the Steve Irwin impersonation illustrates, it seems that even very talented impressionists still think the Australian accent is the same as the New Zealand accent. Is it really that hard a sound to copy?

Video

    A very recent production, this series is obviously created with widescreen television in mind, as it has been shot in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1.

    This transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness levels are very good, and despite having that slightly pale colouring that seems to be common to a lot of British television productions, black levels are still satisfactory, with good shadow detail. There are a few scenes during outdoor hidden-camera skits which display very soft images (such as Episode 1: 9:21, and Episode 6: 21:58), but these are due to the actual filming process, and are not a problem in the transfer itself.

    Colours are accurate and solid. As mentioned above, they have that characteristic softness that is often found in British television (especially outdoors where the Northern European lighting is less harsh than a lot of other countries), but there are no problems with the transfer.

    No MPEG compression artefacts are visible, despite having around 3.5 hours of 16x9 enhanced material on the one disc, which is to be applauded. Unfortunately one of the prices we pay for the sharpness of the image is frequent aliasing. It's often not too severe, but at times it can be quite noticeable (such as Episode 2: 11:55, Episode 4: 11:50, and Episode 6: 10:12). Film artefacts are absent, as you'd expect from a video source.

    There are 2 subtitle streams on this DVD; English, and English for the Hearing-Impaired. I sampled them both, and found them somewhat lacking in accuracy. A lot of words are missed out, and sometimes this can adversely affect the humour.

    This is a dual layered disc, but the layer change takes place between the episodes, so is not visible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one track on the DVD; English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (192Kb/s).

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The actors all speak very clearly, even when doing impersonations, and the only time things can get a little unclear is during outdoor hidden-camera scenes, where small microphones are being used. Audio sync is spot on.

    Music is a mixture of take-offs or direct copies from movies/shows being parodied, and patriotic background music for political satire. It does the required job admirably.

    Even using Prologic II processing there is almost no use of surrounds in this track. I only noticed any sound coming from the surround speakers during occasional applause from the audience, and a tiny bit during some musical cues.

    The subwoofer was not put to use, but then this isn't a track that uses bass to any real extent anyway.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Menus are 16x9 enhanced with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, with the show's theme music playing over the main menu.

Bonus Episode - Pilot Episode

    I'm not too sure I'd really classify this as an extra, since it's merely another episode, which in my mind makes it part of the main package. However this is an episode I found particularly funny - maybe they wanted to put their best material in the pilot. It's of note too that the runtime on the case includes this episode.

    As best I could tell there is no Region 1 version of this DVD available yet. The Region 2 offering looks to be exactly the same as ours.

    A very clever team of impressionists, with generally funny material to work with. The lack of familiarity most Australians will have with some of the characters does detract a bit, but there is still plenty here for us to laugh at.

    Video quality reflects the fact that the source has been produced so recently. In other words - it's very good for something produced for television broadcast.

    Sound does the job, with no problems.

    The extras consist of a bonus episode, which while of good quality, is hardly to be considered an extra as such.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall