Dom Robinson reviews
Happiness Series 1
Distributed by
Producer:
Rosemary McGowan and Paul Whitehouse
Screenplay:
Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings
Music:
Cast:
Danny: Paul Whitehouse
Terry: Mark Heap
Rachel: Fiona Allen
Angus: Clive Russell
Sid: Pearce Quigley
Charlie: Johnny Vegas
Emma: Tamsin Greig
Guest appearances from Simon Day, Charlie Higson, Mark Williams, Andrew
Collins, Maria McErlane & Bob Geldof
Paul Whitehouse was part of a the massive success that was
The Fast Show,
despite the sad demise that was the largely laugh-free The Last Fast Show
Ever trilogy of episodes during Xmas 2000, but thankfully he got back on
track with the excellent Happiness, a series that may be labelled
a sitcom but gets its comedy from elements of life that we all know about
- as opposed to straight-forward sketches - and mixes in drama just at the
right time.
With this review I'll attempt to summarise the series in a few paragraphs,
as opposed to my weekly synopsis of
Series 2, being
broadcast weekly from January 2003 onwards.
Danny (Paul Whitehouse) is a man with a crisis on his hands. On the one
hand, he's the successful voice of Dexter, a kung-fu nurse bear (try imagining
that if you hadn't seen the cover of the DVD and didn't know it was created
by Wallace & Gromit's Aardman Animations), yet he's also approaching 40,
he has a low sperm count and his wife's only just died, after being run over
on a zebra crossng. The first episode begins as he wakes up on the day of her
funeral.
But in tragedy there's also comedy to be found, so don't be expecting a
wallow-fest, most notably from Johnny Vegas falling into a hole in the
ground due to roadworks.
Danny and Rachel - still ex-boyfriend and girlfriend?
Centering around Danny, we see him getting back into the dating game, particularly
dating brunette Emma
(Black Books'
Tamsin Greig), as well as a few other girls beforehand, he undergoes
a facelift with quite disastrous - but cosmetically-clever consequences,
he's introduced by man-about-town Angus (Clive Russell) to cocaine, dance
music and nubile girls half his age, once his libido appears to be on the
downturn (Note that the hard drug use in that third episode are the reason
for the DVD's 18-certificate).
Once he's out of the doldrums and on the up with Emma, things are sure to get
better... No? Well, there's her step-father's birthday party to contend with,
which seems him destroying the television and he's finally reached the age that
life begins, but can he still avoid the Big Issue seller by photocopying the
front cover and getting away with that? Skinflint!
The rest of the cast includes those that make up his friends, Smack the Pony's
Fiona Allen as his ex-girlfriend Rachel - with a rather unfortunate
mugshot on the cover, Spaced's Mark Heap
as her husband Terry, plus flatmates Sid (Pearce Quigley) and comedian
Johnny Vegas playing Charlie, a drunk. Just like real life then.
Makes you wonder at times if Sid and Charlie are a couple, the way they hang
about together drinking in the pub all the time, yet Charlie has a couple of kids from a
previous marriage so perhaps that's an untapped storyline waiting to develop.
There's also guest appearances from Fast Show regulars Simon Day, Charlie
Higson and Mark Williams, as well as Andrew Collins, Maria
McErlane and, as himself, Bob Geldof, who comes on to do a voice for
the Dexter series.
Johnny Vegas - after an accident.
There's no problems to be found with the picture here. For such a recent series
you'd expect that and you're not disappointed. It's presented in 16;9
anamorphic widescreen, as shown on TV. The sound is spot-on too. In stereo,
it's mainly dialogue-driven, with occasional songs thrown in.
With six chapters per episode, making 36 in total, there are also English
subtitles and for extras it's mainly cast interviews (33½ mins) with the main people
sat looking rather uncomfortable as they tell you basic info about the
programme, while clips are mixed in. I say "mainly cast interviews" as a
brief 30-second Easter egg shows Johnny Vegas singing "The Way We Were"
while sporting a bloodied nose, courtesy of being knocked over as a church door
opens (click on the portrait for this). Menus are static and silent, albeit with Dexter kicking and screaming
between some of them.
Now that the BBC have released a DVD of an excellent comedy/drama about adults
turning 40, let's hope they do the same with the excellent comedy/drama about
adults turning 50 that was 2002's Manchild, starring Nigel Havers
and Buffy's Anthony Head.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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OVERALL
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2003.
The following is a list of all the Happiness releases reviewed online to date :
2001 Happiness Series 1 DVD
2003 Happiness Series 2 TV broadcast
[Up to the top of this page]
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
