Big Train-Series 2 (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio-Writers And Cast Audio Commentary-Cast And Crew Deleted Scenes Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast & Crew Featurette-Sketches From 'Geht's Noch' - German Version Of Big Train
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	194
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jonathan Gershfield Graham Linehan Christopher Morris
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Kevin Eldon Mark Heap Simon Pegg Amelia Bullmore Julia Davis Rebecca Front Tracy-Ann Oberman Catherine Tate Phil Cornwell Barry Davies Graham Linehan
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Series 1 of this classic British Comedy was released on DVD last year. That review can be found here.

    Big Train was a sketch show featuring a talented group of British comedic actors. I stress actors because what distinguishes this show from its contemporaries is not just the wit of the writing but often the brilliant performances of the regular cast. The best known of the performers is Simon Pegg, who was writing Shaun of the Dead as this Series was being shot. Other performers include Mark Heap, Kevin Eldon, Rebecca Front, Tracey-Ann Oberman and Catherine Tate. Julia Davis of Nighty Night fame is not present in this Series although she does appear in one sketch left over from the last Series.

    Season 2, which was screened in 2002, starts where Season 1 finished and takes the show to a whole new level. At one point during the Commentary the Director Jonathan Gershfield exclaims that to this day he has no idea what the sketch being shown was about. That comment fairly well summarises Season 2 which takes the surrealism of the First Series and ramps it up a notch. In Series 2 directorial duties were handed over from Graham Linehan who also wrote Series 1 with Arthur Matthews to Gershfeld. However, Matthews stays on as chief writer

    The Big Train formula is to take an absurd situation and juxtapose it with the mundane. Dracula and the Wolfman meet in the bathroom of a fancy hotel. The Wolfman has a cut and Dracula tries to help him but admits that the sight of blood makes him queasy! Instead of playing it for the obvious laugh the cast wonderfully underplay the roles so that we see these fictional horror characters as just ordinary people dealing with life’s little problems. Fans of the show will remember the classic Ming the Merciless gag from the last Series with the evil emperor of the galaxy in a public hospital ward after a fall because one of his minions “forgot to renew the insurance".

    They work at subversion of the comic form in ways that may well divide the audience. Take, for example, a long sequence where an advertising agency comes in the dark of night to a scary castle in pursuit of the mythic Tim Bishop to beg him to join their team for an ad campaign. He agrees after extracting a horrible price from one of the team. The role they want him for? Production assistant i.e. someone to make coffee and answer emails. The jokes fly by on so many levels the viewer has to work fast to keep up.

    It’s the dedication of the Big Train cast to trust the material of chief writer Matthews and his team of additional writers that gives the show its edge. Throughout the Commentary the production team debate which of the sketches were “Big Train” sketches and we know what they mean. These jokes don’t belong on any other show. Avoiding the crass humour of some of their contemporaries Big Train instead mines the vein of absurdity and stick with the strange ideas until they almost reach breaking point. Take for example the running gag in Episode 3 of a character being followed by the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. From this high concept comes a resolution firmly grounded in social etiquette. Then contrast that with the long running gag about a person with enormous hands forced to use tiny equipment.

    All in all Series 2 is more audacious and elaborate than the first Series although it is probably not as funny. There are more long sketches and many demands are made on the audience to string the elaborate pop-culture references together. The Hitchcock take-off where the menace of The Birds has been relaced by the fear of the working classes is screamingly funny but slightly obscure as are the elaborate French cinema take-offs including the love triangle featuring Mrs Potato Head!

    The humble sketch comedy has had a resurgence with The Fast Show, Little Britain and Big Train. For my money Big Train is the cleverest and funniest of these. Although Series 2 features a good deal of misses as well as hits the level of invention of the writers and the quality acting by the team make it a worthwhile investment.

Video

     Like its predecessor Series 2 of Big Train is a good looking show. However, unlike the first Series the second was shot in high definition digital. It is rendered in its native 1.78:1 aspect ratio and the transfer is 16x9 enhanced. This gives it more of a cinematic feel than Series 1.

    The image quality is clear and crisp throughout with only minor aliasing in parts.

    Colours are not bright, though skin tones are as honest as you can get considering that the cast are constantly in a variety of make-up.

    There are no artefacts or blemishes in the transfer and colours are rendered clearly and warmly.

    The only defects in the image are intentional such as in the elaborate cinema take-offs which emulate films from various eras including newsreel footage..

    There are subtitles for the hearing impaired which are accurate to the script. They are easy to read.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The sound is rendered in English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). It is appropriate to this material. The subwoofer is not needed.

    The dialogue is clear and always easy to understand. There are no problems with audio sync.

    Apart from the titles, music is used sparingly in the Series and there are only a couple of songs – including a rather obscure Frankenstein scene in which the beast is Kevin Eldon as Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners (?!?).

    As an interesting post script to the music the DVD has a curious note at the bottom which states: "Certain music substitutions have been made". This apparently refers to the fact that Status Quo allowed the use of Rockin' All Over the World for the show when telecast but refused to let the original be used for the DVD. A Status Quo tribute band performed the song.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The Main Menu and sub-menu animations are quite clever featuring tiny models of scenes from sketches in the Series.

Menu Audio

    The Menu Audio contains sound excerpts from the Series including the ominous "Tin Man" theme and the sound of a train (presumably a big one!) passing by.

Audio Commentary

    The whole Series is the subject of an audio commentary with the production team joined part of the way through by Kevin Eldon. It is particularly hard to produce a useful commentary for sketch comedy as the scenes fly past before the team can finish commenting on them. Interestingly, the director spends most of the commentary distinguishing between the sketches that worked and those that did not.

Deleted Scenes

    The deleted scenes are interesting although it is not hard to see why most were cut. There is a different version of the great "Dracula and Werewolf in the bathroom" scene from Episode 3. A funny one where an emergency occurs on board a plane when it loses the cabin crew and ground control have to talk a volunteer through tea making probably only missed the final cut due to the lack of an ending

Gallery-Photo

Biographies-Cast & Crew

Featurette

    There are also a series of excerpts from the German version of Big Train called Geht’s Noch. The sketches are from both Series and are rendered without subtitles. I assume this is for the real fans who already know the sketches. It is interesting but brings home the fact that a lot of the success of the show lies in the talent of the original Big Train cast.

    Big Train is not available in Region 1. It is available in the UK in a 2 DVD set containing both Series. The features are identical however with the exchange rate it may be just as cheap to pick up the Region 4 versions individually.

    Big Train was the wildest, most surreal and most inventive of the recent British comedies. Series 2 is an improvement on Series 1 in terms of the level of sophistication and ideas although it sometimes takes these ideas to a point where they are “beyond funny”. For sheer ideas alone this is a worthy addition to anyone’s comedy collection. More so it is a chance to see some of Britain’s finest comedic actors really hitting their straps.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall