DVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of DVDs, Games, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more

This Week's Highlights
The King's Speech
Thor 3D
Crysis 2
Music chart
analysis w/e 14.5.11
New Blu-ray &
DVDs out 9.5.11
David Tennant
@ DVDfever Youtube

Last updated
May 11 2011

Xbox Gamertag:
DVDfever co uk

Why films on TV
in their original
widescreen ratio
is good for you

News & Views
News Archive
Announcements
All About Us
Email Dom
Write 4 DVDfever
Competitions
Music Charts
Music Chart Archive
Games Chart Archive
Cinema Chart Archive
Cinema Releases
Cinema Reviews
Press Releases
TV Issues

Frank Sidebottom's World Wide Shed

R2 DVD Reviews
Blu-ray Reviews
HD-DVD Reviews
R1 DVD Reviews
R3-6 DVD Reviews
DVD List
Xbox 360 Reviews
CD Reviews
Audiobook Reviews
PS2 Reviews
PSP Reviews
Xbox Reviews
Gamecube Revs
GBA Reviews
PC Reviews
Hardware Revs
Concert Reviews
Video Reviews
Comedy Reviews
Book Reviews
Screenplay Reviews
Movie Downloads
Interviews
TV Shows
PSX Reviews
N64 Reviews
Dreamcast Revs
Laserdisc Revs
Short Stories
DVDs In Brief

Right To Reply
Why Widescreen?
DVD Links
Music Links
WS Video List
WS PAL LD List

Me and my
Aortic Valve!

Latest News ...... DVD Reviews ...... Blu-ray Reviews ...... Xbox 360 Reviews ...... PSP Reviews ...... CD Reviews

Dom Robinson reviews

The Best Of

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Volume 1

Distributed by

    Cover
  • Cat.no: BBCDVD 1005
  • Cert: PG
  • Running time: 96 minutes
  • Year: 1969/70
  • Pressing: 1999
  • Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
  • Chapters: 30 plus extras
  • Sound: Mono
  • Languages: English
  • Subtitles: English
  • Fullscreen: 4:3
  • 16:9-enhanced: No
  • Macrovision: No
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Price: £19.99
  • Extras : Scene index, Booklet, Biographies, Palindromes, Sing-a-long Lumberjack song, Photo Gallery, Radio Times: the original billing

  • Producers:

      John Howard-Davies and Ian MacNaughton

    Animation:

      Terry Gilliam

    Scriptwriters:

      The Monty Python Team

    It's !

      Graham Chapman
      John Cleese
      Terry Gilliam
      Eric Idle
      Terry Jones
      Michael Palin


picture pic


Monty Python's Flying Circus, for anyone living with their head in the clouds for the past 31 years, was an irreverent comedy sketch show that ran from October 5th, 1969 to December 5th, 1974 and it would change the face of TV forever, blending bizarre humour with even more bizarre animation from Terry Gilliam, director of films such as Brazil and Twelve Monkeys

This compilation contains 28 sketches from the first series, prefixed by the opening titles and Michael Palin desperately crawling up to the camera after being thrown off the edge of the cliff and the closing credits are sandwiched inbetween a pet shop and a parrot.

The chapters, including the titles of the sketches on show, are :

    1. Programme Start
    2. Hell's Grannies
    3. Storytime
    4. It's the Arts
    5. Pearl Harbour
    6. Pram Animation
    7. Self-Defence
    8. Operation Animation
    9. Come Back To My Place
    10. Nudge Nudge
    11. Kilimanjaro
    12. Dirty Fork
    13. Lingerie Robbery
    14. Lion Tamer
    15. Sheep
16. Bicycle Repair Shop
17. Falling Bodies
18. Three Buttocks
19. Albatross
20. Northern Playwright
21. Unwelcome Guests
22. The Funniest Joke in the World
23. It's...Trees
24. Crunchy Frog
25. Nudity Animation
26. Upperclass Twits
27. Lumberjack Song
28. Pet Shop Sketch
29. End Titles
30. Parrot Sketch

Of the above, if I had to choose five favourites, they would be :

    Nudge Nudge: Smuttiness abound as Eric Idle winds up Terry Jones by asking if his wife is a bit of a "go-er". Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, knowworraimean? A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.

    Kilimanjaro: Cross-eyed eccentric John Cleese offers Eric Idle the chance to climb BOTH peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro...

    Dirty Fork: The late Graham Chapman complains about the dirty fork on the table in his restaurant of choice. He gets the back up of the waiter and manager, not to mention incurring the wrath of mad chef John Cleese.

    Lumberjack Song: Michael Palin: he's a lumberjack and he's okay, but he's got something else up his sleeve - and under the rest of his clothes.

    Parrot Sketch: The one about the dead parrot. If you've never seen this sketch of John Cleese complaining to Michael Palin about the dodgy livestock on sale, you must be lying.

The one sketch I would have included? Quite simply, The Larch.


picture pic


The picture quality isn't perfect, but it's as good as it's going to get. Presented in fullscreen and artifact-free I certainly recommend it. If watching on a widescreen TV though, it's perfectly comfortable to zoom the picture into 14:9. The average bitrate is a brilliant 8.17Mb/s, often holding steady close to 9Mb/s.

The sound is in mono and quite adequate with no complaints. The opening tune, Liberty Bell, still sounds as good today as it always did and for some reason, while hearing it at University in a drunken haze, I swore blind that the lyrics to "A finger of Fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat" fit the music exactly.


Extras :

Chapters :

As stated before, there is a chapter for each sketch, plus top-and-tail'ers which makes 30.

Languages & Subtitles :

The dialogue comes in English mono sound subtitles for the same language.

And there's more :

The Biographies provide brief onscreen info about how each of the crew got here today, there's a 10-strong Photo Gallery, a selection of Palindromes to the programme's theme tune, the Radio Times: Original Billing (very small but perfectly formed), a colourful Booklet containing plenty of info about the six Pythons and an excellent addition in the form of a Sing-a-long Lumberjack song. The mind boggles...

Menu :

All the menus are animated and feature sound, usually imitating the wacky humour of the show's creators. A more outlandish menu system you never did see.


picture pic


Overall :

This is definitely a fine compilation - with many more hits than misses - and serves as a perfect introduction for anyone who wants to get to know their comedy style. However, I hope the growth of DVD allows the BBC the chance to release the entire run of Python onto the shiny silver disc as they have done on video. There's no substitute for chapter-per-sketch and I'll look forward to what comes next.

Scheduled for March/April release are : Gormenghast, Walking with Dinosaurs and Tweenies.

As for which DVDs I'd like to see from the BBC in future. They include : Red Dwarf (in their original versions, not the remastered form), The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Fawlty Towers and - depending on whether I could bribe the new DG with enough cash - Eldorado...

FILM	 		: ****
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: ***
EXTRAS			: ***
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

[Up to the top of this page]

DVDfever.co.uk - Est. February 25th 2000

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on:

  • Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
  • 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