Cert:

Cat.no: VCD 0431

Running time: 343 minutes

Year: 1999 / 2001 / 2004

Pressing: 2004

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 35 / 35 / 12 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)

Languages: English

Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing

Widescreen: 1.77:1

16:9-enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: 2*DVD9; 1*DVD5

Price: £24.99

Disc 3 Extras: Updated Cast and Crew Biographies, "Spaced Jam", Skip to the End

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Director:

Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, TV: Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round, Asylum, French and Saunders, Is It Bill Bailey?, Mash and Peas, Murder Most Horrid, Sir Bernard's Stately Homes, Spaced)

Producer:

Nira Park

Screenplay:

Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson

Music

Various

Cast:

Tim Bisley: Simon Pegg
Daisy Steiner: Jessica Stevenson
Marsha Klein: Julia Deakin
Brian Topp: Mark Heap
Twist Morgan: Katy Carmichael
Mike Watt: Nick Frost

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This new boxset contains three discs, the first two I'm presuming are the same as the original releases (the links for which are at the bottom of this review), although only the third disc of bonus unseen material was available for review, hence why I've kept this in a separate section.

One wonders why the studio didn't go to town on a fantastic cult release like this because the stars of Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and director Edgar Wright are all in the ascendent, and upon enquiring about running a competition to coincide with the review, it seemed the distributor in question will only go for reviews OR competitions. The latter, therefore, goes to sites that don't run competitions, such as fan-sites. Pardon? Fan-sites are full of the most intricate of reviews, dissecting episodes piece-by-piece and containing episode guides, a whole list of film & TV references and just about any other bit of trivia that can be drawn out of a release.

VCI - there are some websites, like this one, which just want to promote a work of genius like this to the hilt and you're really not making it easy for us!

(And relax...)

The main extra on this supplementary disc is an 81-minute behind-the-scenes film, Skip to the End, which looks at everything about the show, divided into 12 chapters, looking at the writing, characters, filming both series, references and homages, as well as revisiting locations - actually and mentally.

As we join the three main heroes of the pieces, there's some pretend-crying as Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Edgar Wright all join up for a look back at the series, walking from location to location, interspersed with direct, off-camera interview snippets that contain a wealth of information. We also see many work-in-progress and on-location shots along the way and there's a a nice surprise at the end...

Simon and Jessica met at the audition for the sketch-show, Six Pairs of Pants - which also featured Katy Carmichael, who went on to appear in Spaced, and underrated Comedy Store Players regular, Neil Mullarkey - as well as Asylum on the Paramount Channel. They both wanted to make Spaced because no sitcoms on TV at the time spoke to the 20-something generation. Edgar Wright had previously worked with Little Britain's David Walliams and Matt Lucas on Paramount's Mash and Peas. (Please can Paramount repeat these series?)

Of the others featured in this programme, presented in anamorphic 16:9, Nick Frost was brought in by Pegg claiming he was an actor, yet he was just a waiter and both Paramount and LWT took a chance which paid off; Peter Serafinowicz guest-starred as Duane in the paint-balling episode. It's the first time they'd met him but struck up a firm friendship after that and he also went on to work with them in Shaun of the Dead, as well as Edgar returning the favour in Peter's superb BBC2 piss-take of the 'Programmes for Schools' from the '70s and '80s, Look Around You.

Others here include David Walliams who appeared as Vulva, not quite a mime artist but something more arty and post-modern, with Paul Kaye alongside who had a vacuum cleaner tied about his person. Bill Bailey played the manager of the comic book store, Reece Shearsmith as the main 'enemy' in the Robot Wars episode, Nighty Night's Kevin Eldon as 'Agent Two' in the Matrix-style episode, as well as Shearsmith's League of Gentlemen cohort, Mark Gatiss as 'Agent Smith'.

The cast and crew discuss the club scene from one episode, which also hit the mood right with its target audience, as everyone's had mad nights out where you have one, two or no more than a few classic nights in a club, depending on who you're out with, but if you try and recreate the same thing another night it never works out so it's best to just love the night for what it is.

There's an excellent self-referencing piss-take from Ain't It Cool News.com's Harry Knowles, calling geeks with memorabilia. And, talking of geeks, there's even a couple of Spaced fans featured who just happen to be taking pictures of the house as the main three go back to the house where Tim and Daisy lived.

I'm in agreement with many of those interviewed that I'd love to see a third series produced, but then if there's not the time to write it and they don't feel it could be as exact as they want it, then it's best to quit while you're ahead on that score, and use the same cast and crew on future gems like Shaun of the Dead.

The other two extras to this disc include a 3-minute 'Spaced Jam' by Osymyso, which remixes dialogue and clips from the programme to music, much like the effect given in the menu, audio-wise; and an updated cast and crew biographies section, detailing info for all the cast members listed under the packshot plus its director and producer, Nira Park.

I won't give this single disc a usual rating out of five stars, but take note that it does make a worthy addition to the two series, although if you own both of those then you're really paying full whack for an 80-minute 'making of', which could quite easily be broadcast on Channel 4 as a standalone programme if they were allowed to do so.

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2004

The following is a list of all the Spaced material online to date :

2004	Shaun of the Dead
2004	Spaced: Definitive Collector's Edition
2002	Edgar Wright interview (director)
2002	Spaced: Series 2
2001	Spaced: Series 1

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: