Coogan's Run (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Geoff Posner And David Tyler (Producers)
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	172:00 (Case: 170)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Geoff Posner Patrick Marber
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Steve Coogan Graham Linehan Patrick Marber Arthur Mathews Henry Normal Geoffrey Perkins David Tyler Steve Coogan John Thomson Roger Morlidge Philip Martin Brown Derek Howard Teresa Banham
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Don Gould David Mindel Mark Lawrence

    Steve Coogan was an incredibly popular British comedian in the mid 90s; his most popular comic incarnation is Alan Partridge, a fictional character who is rumoured to have his own film debut in 2007. Coogan was on the verge of international success after his critically acclaimed turn in Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People (2002), but after the commercial failures of Around the World in 80 Days (2004) and Happy Endings (2005), Coogan become primarily known only for his tabloid lifestyle. This is a shame as Coogan is a wonderful comedian, impressionist and dramatic actor. In his 1995 show, "Coogan's Run", the performer is certainly in his domain, as this series allowed Coogan to perform no less than six of his original characters. British comedy is forever progressing and Coogan is very much of the old school. He is notably compared with the late Peter Sellers - in fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say Ricky Gervais' David Brent is a descendant of Coogan's Alan Partridge and Gareth Cheeseman.

    "Coogan's Run" is composed of 6 episodes in which we are drawn into the fictional town of Ottle, a world not unlike that of "The League of Gentlemen" (1999), although much more ordered and less grotesque. In the first episode, titled Get Calf, Coogan inhabits his well known characters of Paul Calf, an unemployed Mancunian squanderer, and his sister Pauline who is married to "Fat" Bob (John Thompson), Paul's best friend. Get Calf is centred on Paul identifying three criminal brothers in court after he foolishly recognises one assailant during the robbery. After the brothers break out of jail they seek revenge and find Paul in a bizarre cult.

    The second episode, and perhaps the best of the six, is titled Dearth of a Salesman in which Coogan is Gareth Cheeseman, a computer chip salesman who is outlandish, rude and egocentric. Cheeseman is attending a yearly conference in which he tries to socialise and climb up the business ladder. Unfortunately things turn from bad to worse for Cheeseman as he fails to finalize a substantial contract because he doesn't have a pen and drunkenly influences another worker to commit suicide, but still Cheeseman manically grins in the hope that his rental car is safe, his only pride and joy.

    A Handyman for All Seasons is the third episode and is in black and white as it features Ernest Moss, a repairman played by Coogan. Set in 1960, Moss tries to stop large new property development in his village. The fourth episode titled Thursday Night Fever centres on Mike Crystal, a hapless mediocre entertainer who wants to have top billing as "Crystal Night." Unfortunately the club owner disagrees which leaves Crystal quite miserable. In an attempt to gain respect from his boss Crystal invents Clint Stallone, a name derived from his two onscreen heroes who is given the role of managing Crystal. Everyone is quite scared of Stallone except Crystal's girlfriend who likes the new tough image, but where does that leave Crystal?

    The fifth episode titled Natural Born Quizzers is also an excellent episode which teams Coogan with Patrick Marber as the Crump brothers, a pair of trivia obsessed brothers who speak in their own language and are known to have committed terrible acts of violence. The plot centres on the brother's attempt to re-enact a children's quiz show which originally aired in 1975 by kidnapping the former contestants and host. Their motive is to win the show, as they had originally lost when they played as children 25 years ago - if they do not win they will kill everyone involved. The last episode is also quite amusing with Coogan starring as the monotonous Tim Fleck, a gallery owner. Unfortunately for Fleck his mother has suddenly passed on and the gallery it seems will be demolished for a planned and much welcomed steak house for the community. Fleck's seriously disturbed plans are to kill everyone on the opening night of the restaurant.

    Overall, I enjoyed this series. There is much love and care instilled in the episodes and often the characters briefly appear in each other's tales, which I think is a very nice touch. If you are a fan of Coogan then you should enjoy the series.

Video

    Presented in 1.29:1 Full Screen, the transfer is quite good and has no major flaws. The picture is smooth, skin tones are natural and there are no MPEG compression artefacts. There is no evident colour bleeding or aliasing but minor grain is evident. All in all, the image is as expected for a television show a decade old and the subtitles are true to the on-screen dialogue and action.

Video Ratings Summary

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Shadow Detail
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Audio

    The English Dolby Digital 2.0 track is also quite good in respects to the source material. It is clear and audible and unusually there is no canned laughter track so the soundtrack is restricted to the dialogue and atmospheric sound effects but is nevertheless well suited to the source material.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
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Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
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Main Menu Audio & Animation

    Well suited menu featuring images of the characters behind doors.

Audio Commentary

    A trivia laced track with details regarding the production and the narratives of each episode. Unfortunately there is no Coogan but director Geoff Posner and writer David Tyler make up for his absence and share their enthusiasm for the show and its unique universe.

Photo Gallery

    This title is only available in R2 and R4. Both are identical.

    An excellent series showcasing the many talents of Steve Coogan. The DVD is of average quality with suitable picture and sound quality. The extra features are minimal but accompany the series well.

Video
Audio
Extras
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Overall