An Audience with Billy Connolly (Universal) (1985)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1985
Running Time	50:25
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Alasdair Macmillan
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Billy Connolly
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	None Given

    An Audience With Billy Connolly was filmed live at the Albert Hall in 1985 for London Weekend Television. The audience is a veritable who's who of Britain - the camera moves over the audience on many occasions and each time a recognisable face is visible.

    The show only runs for 50 minutes and is extremely funny from start to finish. In fact, it is almost a disappointment to reach the end as all you want to do is start over. Billy Connolly has the ability to leave you gasping for breath with sore sides and tears in your eyes from the laughter. His skit about funny ads in the local paper including 'big slippers' is pure comedic genius.

    The chapter headings give a reasonable indication of the routines included in this show:

• I start very slow
• Wind swept and interesting
• The way ordinary people behave
• Scottish people
• The rattling of the rosaries
• I used to be a folk singer
• Far across the sea
• It's a zombie
• Father Flanagan
• The trouble with communication
• I've started touching my willy
• Lying for a living
• Cheer the world up
• Energy suit
• The national anthem is boring
• It's time for a change

    Billy Connolly fans will recognise these and remember the routines that go with them - even my typing their names out has brought back the laughter that the routines invoked.

Video

    The show is presented at 1.33:1 and of course is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is pretty much what you would expect for a TV show recorded in 1985 - pretty good for the close-ups and pretty bad for the longer shots. There is not a great deal of shadow on the Albert Hall stage with all the lighting, but the blacks that are present are more grey than black and there is fair amount of low level noise present.

    There is also not a great deal of colourful material on offer. Billy is dressed in black and white clothing and the stage does not have any colourful backdrops. This is probably intentional as you are there to see and listen to the man. Skin tones are fairly accurate albeit a little washed out under the lights.

     There are no MPEG induced artefacts present. 50 minutes worth of video material with reasonable encoding fits onto a single layer with no problems. The problems arise from the fact that the material has been through a composite link at some stage. The most obvious effect of this is cross colouration. Billy's shirt, which has a black and white leopard skin pattern, is probably the worst possible choice for something to wear on TV. Depending on the level of close-up, the black and white pattern hits just the wrong frequency and breaks up into some of the worst cross colouration that I have seen. Blues and yellows are clearly visible, and as it changes as he moves it is somewhat distracting. There also a halo around the shirt. This does not appear to be edge enhancement as no other objects have the halo but some form of video ringing. The best example of all of the problems can be seen at 1:53. This also affects other parts of the image giving us a bit of shimmer. There is also quite a bit of video noise.

    There are no subtitles.

    This is a single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Dialogue quality is spot-on throughout - you won't miss a single line of Billy's patter. There are no problems with the audio sync.

    There is no music, surround nor subwoofer activity.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

    There does not appear to be a Region 1 version of this disc.

    If this has been censored it it is great shame. Either way, it is still 50 minutes of classic Billy Connolly, even if it was aimed at a TV audience.

    The combination of composite video and Billy's shirt is not a good one.

    The audio is perfectly functional

    Where oh where are the extras?

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall