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May 11 2011

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

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Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Contender Entertainment Group

Cert:

Cat.no: CTD10390

Running time: 182 minutes

Year: 1970, 2004

Pressing: 2005

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: None

Sound: Mono, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 1.33:1

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: None

---

Director:

David McKee (1970 episodes) and Leo Nielsen (2004 episode)

Producer:

Clive Juster

Stories:

David McKee

Music:

Don Warren (1970), Duncan Lamont (2004)

Narrator:

Ray Brooks

This is Mr Benn.

As if by magic... the Shopkeeper appeared!

Anyone who matters knows what that signifies.

It all started because in the first episode, The Red Knight, he received an invitation to a fancy dress party and, so, set off to find a place that rented out such costumes. He tried the big shops, the not-so-big shops, the small shops and the side streets, but no joy at all, until he stumbled across a shop in a back lane where a suit of bright red armour sat in the window.

As the knight, a dragon complains to him that he was put out of business of lighting fires by a matchmaker, the same person who turned their hand to arso and blamed the dragon for that, too, which got him sacked from the King's castle. Mr Benn set off to get the dragon his job back (you can see how he manages that for yourself), but it's when it gets to the end and everyone's about to tuck into a big feast that the shopkeeper reappears and Mr Benn's denied the partaking of the meal. What a teasing bastard the shopkeeper is!

In other adventures he gets all 'Tony Blair' by trying to stop some posh toff from big-game hunting, he turns his hand to cooking to make a meal for the King and all the street urchins, dons a caveman outfit to build a village to protect the townsfolk from the rampaging dinosaurs, then shows local villagers how to fly a hot-air balloon and win a competition, irresponsibly frees all the caged animals from the zoo because he clearly thinks he's Dr Dolittle then goes scuba diving and chats up a mermaid.

As if by magic... the Shopkeeper appeared!

If that's not enough, he becomes a wizard to cast spells to impress yet another King, dresses up as a cowboy to resolve the differences between the real cowboys and indians, becomes a clown to help a circus troupe build a bridge - and guess who turns up as a performer(?) But not to worry as before long he goes flying on a magic carpet to deal with a bad guy who's bossing kids about and then they meet a genie who gives them three wishes. Spaceman, always wanted Mr Benn to go into space man... and he does some intergalacting looting before turning into a pirate to deal with those who do the same in ourown galaxy.

Finally, there's an episode created last year, Gladiator. He doesn't quite look like quite Russell Crowe, but still goes off to fight in an arena, challenges one of his council workmen friends, Smasher McGrue and then tricks the Emperor, who looks and sounds like John Prescott, into letting all the prisoners go free. The new episode has slightly different music, as it's in stereo. I prefer the original, as heard over the main menu, since the new version just strips the bass out of it and sounds a little too 'clean'. It is in the same old style though, so I'll let them off a bit.

Mr Benn was always one of my favourite programmes as a child and I still love it today. It's amazing to think there were only ever 13 episodes originally filmed. They all follow the same pattern, Mr Benn always saves the day and then gets brought back down to earth with a bump.

In fact, does he actually *have* a job? Is he on the dole? Given the amount of time he spends in the costume shop, is he on day release?! Oh, and he never actually hired a costume, he just played around in it for nearly 15 minutes and then handed it back to the shopkeeper after keeping something from it... to help him remember. Also, since he never actually buys anything, perhaps he'd rent this DVD from a library for free?

This Mr Benn is not on this DVD.

The picture and sound quality isn't perfect throughout but then it's no different than you'd expect for something 35 years so nostalgia wins every time, right back to the disc itself which is brilliantly designed to look like the opening credits if you turn it round. Some dialogue has been re-recorded as it sounds much cleaner than it did back then. It stands out, but I'll let them off if the original was incomprehensible.

The main menu features the theme music which is a must, but it's frustrating that there are no subtitles on this disc, nor any extras (what happened to the documentary on the Mr Benn phenomena I read was promised on Sendit.com?).

There are also no chapters? Come on, Contender. I make DVDs of many programmes I record from TV and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to add a chapter after the opening credits, one before the closing credits and then approx every five minutes during the programme to space it out.

Coming back on a high though, I did say this was one of my favourite TV shows as a child, and it might sound a bit sad, but after I finished Keele University in 1993 and got my first non-Uni email address I signed up with Demon and chose 'mcclane@festive.demon.co.uk', mcclane being from John McClane (from the Die Hard films) and the festive part came from Mr Benn's address, 52 Festive Road :)

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS	None, sadly.
OVERALL	Just buy it!

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2005.

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.

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