Grumpy Old Women-Series 1 and 2 (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	232:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Janet Street-Porter Jenny Eclair Ann Widdecombe Germaine Greer Annette Crosbie Esther Rantzen Jilly Cooper Sheila Hancock
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

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	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Grumpy Old Women is a television series made for BBC2 in the UK, which features well-known (at least in the UK) celebrities, mostly from television, radio and the print media, talking about things which annoy them. The things that annoy them vary from the modern world to young people and many topics in between. They are mostly in the 40-60 year old age group. This series is a spin-off from Grumpy Old Men and started with a Christmas special in 2004, which has so far been followed by two series of episodes. The only real difference between the two series is the gender of the interviewed celebrities and the topics they cover, although there is certainly some crossover there.

    Most of the women featured were not that well-known to me although some such as actress Linda Robson and authors Germaine Greer & Jilly Cooper I was aware of. The highlights however were Jenny Eclair, Muriel Gray (a hoot in the 2nd series) and Arabella Weir. The show is narrated by Alison Steadman. This set includes the first two series of the show, eight episodes in total.

    Specifically, the episodes are:

Series 1

1. It's all Falling Apart - Body issues, hair, beauty products, clothes, underwear, invisibility, looking like their mother, menopause and men.
2. Life's No Fun Anymore - Annoyances, career vs family, men, 'having it all', supermarkets & drinking.
3. Boiling Point - Excellent episode covering anger, children, mothers, single women, pets, driving, litter, joggers, being called love or dear, sex on TV and unexpected visitors.
4. Stuck in the Middle - Being between young and old, teenagers, computers, iPods, people they hate and oldies.

Series 2

1. Hard Work - The language of the office, meetings, PowerPoint presentations, mobiles, PIN numbers & parking.
2. Call Me Old Fashioned - Very funny episode featuring appalling behaviour from young people, language & sayings, eating in the street, spitting, urinating, tattoos and hairdressers.
3. Am I Bothered?- Mornings, fruit labels, diets, instruction books, appliances, clothes, tights & shopping. Funny stuff.
4. High Anxiety - Fairground rides, children, kid's lunches, schools, birthday parties, the gym, pampering and going to the theatre.

    There are lots of great laughs to be had here, especially if you fit the demographic (or will soon, like my wife). Recommended.

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 other than little bits of aliasing.

    There are subtitles in English. They were 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 regards to 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.

    Each series is available separately in Region 2 and not available in Region 1. Region 4 is probably the best choice.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall