Grumpy Old Men at Christmas (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	59:03
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Alan Lewens
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Stuart Prebble Stephen Bayley Bill Bryson Jeremy Clarkson Felix Dexter Bob Geldof A.A. Gill David Gower Michael Grade Jeremy Hardy Tony Hawks Simon Hoggart Noddy Holder
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Ken McAlpine James McColl Alan Tilston

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/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	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Grumpy Old Men at Christmas was a special made for the BBC in 2003. It is part of an ongoing series of shows for the BBC which started in 2003, featuring well-known men (certainly in England anyway) in their 40s, 50s and 60s b****ing about the changing world around them. Luckily, they are very entertaining and amusing while they are b****ing which makes these shows fun to watch. Scarily I often find myself agreeing with them. Maybe I am trying to prepare for turning 40 by learning how to be a grumpy old man.

    This particular special (which runs just under an hour) focuses on what the grumpy old men hate about Christmas including consumerism, family events, carollers, cards, advent calendars, pantomimes, nativity plays, gift giving, lights, Santa, songs, food, drinking, trees, office parties, crackers, the Queen's speech and the aftermath of Christmas Day. Featured grumps include journalists, chefs, comedians, DJs, musicians, actors, television presenters and more. Some are well known here and others are only really known well in England. The assembled talent includes such names as Rick Stein, Arthur Smith (a highlight), John Peel, Elliot Gould, Rick Wakeman, Rory McGrath, Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear, Will Self and others. The show is narrated in a very droll way by actor Geoffrey Palmer.

    This show is certainly entertaining and amusing and I found it enjoyable entertainment. I thought the less than 60 minute running time with no extras was a little disappointing.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was very clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Some sections included some background grain but this is not a major issue.

    The colour was very good.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were yellow, clear and easy to read.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 256 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync. In terms of this show nothing else really matters in terms of audio quality.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

Menu

    The menu was still and silent and included the ability to select scenes and subtitles.

    This Christmas special is included on the DVD of the first series in Region 2, which probably makes it a better buy. The first two series are being released here soon.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall