The Young Ones-Series 1 (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	198:30 (Case: 160)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Geoff Posner
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Adrian Edmonson Rik Mayall Christopher Ryan Nigel Planer Alexei Sayle
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Peter Brewis

    If you watched television during the 1980s, and you took the time to see the ABC's latest imports from England, then chances are you saw at least one or two episodes of The Young Ones. With literally no thought given to the laws of physics, logic, or sense, when one says the words "anarchic comedy", chances are they are referring to The Young Ones. There just hasn't been a series like it before or since, even when some of its stars have been involved, and I am sure that there are a lot of parents who believe in the "impressionable child" syndrome who are very grateful for that.

    This DVD contains the entire first season of The Young Ones. Only two seasons were made, each containing six episodes, so becoming a collector of The Young Ones on DVD is nowhere near as financially dangerous as it would be for most of the crap that has long passed its use-by date on television this days. In order, the episodes are:

• Demolition (33:22)
  Neil (Nigel Planer) cooks a last supper for himself, having made the decision to kill himself. Mike (Christopher Ryan) and Rick (Rik Mayall) object to what turns out to be a very expensive lentil meal, but Vyvyan (Ade Edmonson) literally crashes in with some upsetting news. The council want to knock the house down because the lads are a health hazard. Nine Below Zero drop in and play a number entitled Eleven Plus Eleven. Also featured is a great little television show entitled Nozin' Aroun'.
• Oil (32:28)
  The lads move into their new house, and begin moving their meagre belongings into new rooms. Mike discovers Buddy Holly hanging upside down from a parachute in his new bedroom. Vyvyan cracks his head on the floor and discovers oil, which results in Mike and Vyvyan setting up a fascist dictatorship. Radical Posture and Alexei Sayle turn up to present a benefit concert, at which a song about Dr. Marten's Boots is performed. This would have to qualify as one of the most hilarious product placements I've ever heard of.
• Boring (35:08)
  In spite of the three bears dropping in to visit, a terrorist siege literally happening in their living room, and a trip to the local pub in which we meet Vyvyan's mother, the four lads are bored out of their skulls. Even a visit from a rather diminutive red demon by the name of Ftumch cannot keep the lads amused, although I would agree that this is one tangent that could have been left out of the episode. Madness perform a song at the pub that everyone who lived in English-speaking society during the 1980s should remember - House Of Fun.
• Bomb (35:11)
  One of the best episodes in the entire Young Ones canon, and that is saying a lot, finds the lads waking up to discover an atom bomb blocking the door to their fridge. If that wasn't bad enough, the TV Detector man comes around for a visit, rooting this series very firmly in its time and provoking one of the most hilarious uses of a household item for comedy that I've ever seen. As Rick tries to extort Margaret Thatcher with the bomb, while Mike is trying to sell it, Dexy's Midnight Runners show up and play Jackie Wilson Said in the lavatory.
• Interesting (31:55)
  The lads are having a party, and everyone from their university is invited, resulting in sheer mayhem on a grand scale. Unfortunately, a Christian knocks on the door and subjects the lads to a forced sermon. Fortunately, the four horsemen of the apocalypse soon take care of her with a stray meat and cheese sandwich. The police come and smash the stereo within thirty seconds of them turning it on, but Rip, Rig, And Panic (featuring a very young Neneh Cherry) save the day by performing You're My Kind Of Climate.
• Flood (30:26)
  The final episode for season one begins with Neil walking past a group of pilgrims condemning a man to death for the usual apparent reasons (i.e. none) and hitting himself in the face with a frying pan. The rain is pouring down, and eventually speeds up enough to set the house adrift, when Vyvyan announces he's made a formula that will turn anyone who drinks it into an axe-wielding maniac. No prizes for guessing what happens when Jerzei Balowski (Alexei Sayle), their landlord, turns up. This episode is unique among Season One in being the only one not to feature a band of any kind.

    In case I haven't already made this clear, this is one of the best comedies that the BBC has ever produced, which is saying a lot considering how many have come out of the woodwork since the 1980s. It makes Mr. Bean seem sedate by comparison, and while some of the jokes will go right over the head of younger audiences who don't have a reasonable knowledge of politics and history, it is just as funny today as it was twenty years ago.

Video

    The Young Ones is like the majority of BBC productions in that it was filmed using reel-to-reel video for the studio sequences, and sixteen millimeter film for the location sequences. Some processing has also been done to some of the colours during a couple of sequences, but the results look a bit better than what I was expecting.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The transfer is sharp enough when the shots are close-range, which is nine out of ten times in this series (a joke is made about this in the second season). When some distance exists between the subject of a shot and the camera, however, detail and definition tends to go out the window. There is little need for shadow detail in this transfer, but it is also quite poor when shots are located outside in conditions of minimal lighting. Thankfully, there does not appear to be much, if any, low level noise in this transfer, an area where it scores a king hit over the old VHS tapes.

    The colours in this series are generally neutral and realistic, but there are occasions when they have been manipulated in order to produce some kind of effect, especially in a couple of sequences during Flood. Dot crawl is visible in the opening and closing credits. Fire is especially problematic in this transfer, with trails of false colour often appearing as flames move about in their random manner.

    MPEG artefacts were not found in this transfer, which is surprising given the amount and the quality of the source material being compressed on this one disc. Film-to-video artefacts were something of a problem, with the entire frame shimmering at 28:46 during Demolition, and Vyvyan's knife appearing rather jagged at 4:13 during Flood. The whole image wobbled vertically, and appeared discoloured for a few frames at 18:49 during Flood. Film artefacts are also frequently visible whenever the action happens outdoors, especially in the sequence when the lads are making their way to the local pub.

    English subtitles are available on this DVD. They are, quite frankly, terrible, with major variations on the spoken dialogue which lose all of the thrust of the jokes. Dutch subtitles are also available, although they have to be selected during the programme with the remote control, as no mention is made of them in the menu. They are probably much more accurate to the spoken dialogue once the hassle of translation is accounted for, anyway. Burned in subtitles are present at 5:07 and 25:55 during Interesting, the first of which is a hilarious warning against shutting people inside fridges.

    This disc is dual layered. No layer change was noticed during the episodes, so I presume it is located between them.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is one soundtrack on this DVD: a flat, unspectacular English Dolby Digital 2.0 effort. Given the music and some of the sound effects in the series, a 5.1 remix or a surround-encoded effort could have done wonders, but I expect that the necessary source materials no longer exist.

    The dialogue is generally clear and easy to understand, although there are times when Special Patrol Group (voiced by Rik Mayall) or one of the various weird forms of life in the house is speaking in a low, rapid manner that makes their lines a little difficult to discern at times. Ade Edmonson shouts almost every line, which can make him somewhat irritating to listen to, but this is intentional. There are no problems with audio sync.

    One of the most frequently asked questions about The Young Ones is why a band was featured in almost every episode. The answer is that apparently the producers could present the series as a variety program instead of a sitcom to the BBC, and thus obtain a better budget. Aside from the bands, there is some incidental music by Peter Brewis, and a rendition of the old Cliff Richard hit that the series is named after. The music sticks out like a sore thumb, but this is actually one of the things that makes the series so funny.

    The surround channels are not used by this soundtrack. They were missed during some of the gags, such as when Neil is floating off to the moon.

    The subwoofer was also not used by this soundtrack. It was especially missed during the musical sequences, and I shudder to think what the Motörhead song in the next series will sound like without it.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Not a sodding thing. Considering how much value could have been added with just an audio commentary by Ade Edmonson and Rik Mayall, this effort is disappointing to say the least.

Menu

    The menu is static, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The Region 2 and Region 4 versions of this disc are identical in that they are bare-boned single disc efforts.

    Region 1 come out way on top in this comparison, which is truly disgusting when you consider that this series was produced in the UK, yet even they do not get all of the twelve episodes split over three discs, with pilot episodes of Bottom and Filthy, Rich, And Catflap, not to mention a making-of featurette. Aside from the NTSC formatting, there is little reason for me to not recommend giving the BBC the big finger by purchasing the Region 1 multi-disc set.

    The Young Ones is proof that when one defies convention and attempts to make something different, they can create something miraculous. There is no way this show would be made in today's climate, and that is a great pity, because even if the things that the titular characters do can be considered ridiculous, at least they (the actors, anyway) do not take themselves seriously.

    The video transfer is very good considering the source materials.

    The audio transfer is unspectacular.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall