Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Underappreciated Genius., 16 Mar 2006
Alexei Sayle is a National Treasure that is sadly often overlooked when people talk about Britian's great Comedians. Sure, this show from the late 80's/early 90's is somewhat dated in parts but many of the sketches and Alexei's rambling monologues to camera are still fresh and sharp today. Probably could have cut down a bit on the musical numbers front though as most of the songs here are no "'Allo John Got A New Motor?".
This show is never less than watchable and Sayle is backed up by an excellant regular cast including a surprisingly good Angus Deayton. Well worth another look as some of this material was before it's time, an example of which is one throwaway gag about people in India spilling out of the pub at closing time to go for an English, a very similar concept to "Goodness Gracious Me"'s supposedly groundbreaking and hillarious sketch about a bunch of Indians going out for an English.
The man is a legend and this DVD contains comedy that can simultaneously amuse you and make you think.
Go on treat yourselves to this and the 1st volume.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who Is He Anyway?, 28 Aug 2008
Alexei Sayle came back with a second series of Stuff in 1989, this time with more monologues and capers than you could possibly want! There's also a few songs on here he did in the show, but the classic main theme saw it's first airing in this series, and to me made the show better than the one where he goes into the BBC. All 6 episodes are here, and they're as funny as the rest. The only additional stuff is the ability to put on subtitles, shame they didn't audio describe it too.
Another excellent series of episodes, with my favourite song "Panic", which scared me as a child - but now I think it's funny. Some of the things he talks about are timeless, like people getting over-bearing mortgages and his jokes about what the NHS will be like in 10 years time, though exaggerated, was very funny.
I do think the songs were getting rather silly though, and I always liked Alexei for his jokes and his "I don't care if you like it" attitude towards his humour: plus the way he wasn't regimented about the way his show ran, if he wanted the credits to roll 10 minutes in, he did it, and no one stopped him.
This is presented in the way it was aired, but thankfully now I have a better picture than back then, and the sound is mono. I quite like it really, it's nostalgic - and remastered it would look surreal.
I can't recommend this more - it's funny and has the stars, like Arabella Wier, Angus Deyton and Jan Ravens - and it's all good fun which reminds you of a different age of comedy, I'll make no comment on whether it was better, as I like comedy from different decades, but Alexei Sayle is one of my favourites from the 80s/90s.
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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Didn't laugh as much as I thought I would..., 15 Feb 2006
Used to love this show years back so I immediately got both series 1 & 2 on dvd as soon as I saw they were available.I found Series 1 to be mostly hit, sometimes miss but bearably so. Series 2 - well I have to agree with another reviewer on here - a lot of it was embarassingly poor (especially the songs which were, to a point, unwatchable) but, being a big Alexei fan, I didn't think Series 2 was all bad. I know for a fact that I found the 2nd series funnier when it originally aired back in 1989. The problem with Series 2 is that it tries to be too much like Monty Python (often blatantly copying Python material) but doesn't have the genius touch to make it work. Also, this series doesn't seem to have enough Alexei monologues (but maybe some of these have been edited out for "contractual reasons"?).
Funniest moments for me were a newsreader sketch where they quote Margaret Thatcher about meeting the Daleks (but even then they stretched it out beyond it's hilarity span) and in the first show where they tell the story of Alexei being a creation of Walt Disney (hence the "Mickey Mouse Club" titles)! And the one decent episode which I found watchable from start to finish was the fifth episode where Alexei keeps appearing as an American stand-up comedian called Larry. The good news is that Series 3 was by far the best series in every way - including the songs - such as the "I'm Pissed (Here Come The Lizards)" song mentioned by another reviewer is from series 3, not series 2) and "Who You Looking At". They kept the Python surrealness but toned down the blatant ripping off of Python material instead focusing on more original ideas such as the brilliant Mr.Bean parody "Monseur Aubergine". Unlike some shows which got worse with age, Alexei Sayle's Stuff left you wanting more after Series 3. The similar "All-New Alexei Sayle Show" was a great follow up to Stuff and bought us the brilliant "Bobby 'I'm on pills for me nerrrrves' Chariot". Series 3 is a comedy classic and I look forward to it's dvd release in the near future. Even though Series 2 is pretty poor I'd have to say if you're a fan you should get it to enjoy the scraps of brilliance which are still present and show your support so the final "Stuff" series and "The All-New Alexei Sayle Show" get dvd releases.
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