The Fast Show-Series 3 (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Bonus Episode-Christmas Special
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	288:23 (Case: 287)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Birkin Arch Dyson
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Paul Whitehouse Charlie Higson Arabella Weir Simon Day Caroline Aherne John Thomson Mark Williams
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	Various

In today’s age of dangerous and daring British sketch comedy with the likes of Little Britain and League of Gentlemen, would The Fast Show had survived? Perhaps not, as today the characters seem quite tame, but that’s not to say the show has lost its charm. In fact it’s funnier than I remember. For those who have not seen The Fast Show it is exactly that - a show constructed around montages of jokes from various outlandish characters and it is fast, never outstaying its welcome. With each show we learn more about the plights of the characters and the jokes never tire. This is a smart move on the part of the team which consists of Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, Mark Williams, John Thomson, Simon Day, Caroline Hook and Arabella Weir.

Series Three aired in 1997 and this is the last official series. There were two specials which succeeded this series; that of the 1 hour Ted and Ralph special which aired in 1998 and the three part The Last Fast Show Ever which aired over Christmas 1999/2000. Sadly, those specials are not included on this DVD set but on this set are all eight episodes of Series Three and also included is the Christmas Special 1997.

The Fast Show is also famous for the number of catchphrases the show inflicted on its audience. Some of my favourite characters include Bob Fleming who has a constant cough, the Manchester youth who thinks everything is brilliant, Carl Hooper of ‘That’s Amazing’, Crafty Cockney Chris Jackson, Dave Angel Eco-Warrior, Jesse, Louis Balfour of that ‘nice’ show 'Jazz Club', Inspector Monkfish, the understated goings on in the relationship between Ted and Lord Ralph and The ‘Suit You’ Tailors of the High Street menswear retailer who are obsessed with sexual innuendo.

Video

The video quality unfortunately suffers from two issues, firstly notable aliasing and secondly heavy grain. Presented in the slightly changed aspect ratio of 1:29:1 Full Frame the picture is certainly of average quality, and is reasonably clean with an appropriate colour scheme, but nothing looks terribly inspiring.

The aliasing is most apparent on jackets and various props but it isn’t particularly distracting. There is some noticeable dirt and occasional white specks amongst the grain but there are no apparent MPEG compression artefacts with an average bitrate of 8.13 Mb/s. Edge enhancement occurs on occasion but this is also not distracting. Overall, considering the show is almost 10 years old the transfer is suitable as it is relatively smooth and natural looking with the occasional flaw. The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are true to the onscreen dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

The English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) audio is clear with no flaws. Dialogue is certainly audible amongst the canned laughter. Music is not a major feature of the show; only a few sketches rely on music composition, particularly the Channel 9 sketch based around an unidentified Mediterranean television channel. Overall this is an average and suitable soundtrack and the audio isn’t particularly encompassing surround sound-wise, but rather mostly directed to the front as expected. The subwoofer has very limited usage.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

The main menu is animated and well themed. The navigation includes 8 scene selection options for each episode.

Bonus Episode

The main extra feature is the Christmas Special 1997 at a length of 54 minutes. This Christmas Special includes some of the best jokes as some characters are combined for the single sketch with much success.

The show was retitled ‘Brilliant’ in the United States and as of writing this I believe this series is unreleased in R1.

The last official series of The Fast Show has an average presentation on DVD. One can assume the last few specials will eventually appear on DVD in the near future. The visual and audio transfers are not the best but in regards to the age of the show the production of the DVD is satisfactory.

Fans of the show should be happy with this DVD set as from what I can tell all the show’s sketches seem to be intact despite the concern on the back cover which states “For contractual reasons certain edits have been made”. Overall The Fast Show was a great show that ended all too soon but with the DVD releases you can revisit your favourite and imperfect characters any time you like.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall