Blake's Junction 7 / 'Ant Muzak' / World of Wrestling [DVD]

Loved this, its maybe more of a share with friends than a keep and watch over and over.

Blakes 7 - This is truly funny and you need to watch it several times to really get McKenzie Crook as Servelan but its worth the effort, the humour is there people! Orac drinking beer and Jenna's little accident, hilarous! All done by the original Orac, sadly no longer with us, Peter Tuddenham. (B7 fans, get this disc for the behind the scenes recording session with Peter, its a must, must, must have fan clip, missing you already Peter!)

Ant Muzak - For me a bit of a miss but can see the humour of Adam and the Ants hitting a late night Supermarket.

World of Wrestling - If you remember Giant Haystacks or watching it on Challenge then this will tickle your funny bone. Full on wrestling with all the costumes on a night bus. VERY funny!

I'll be honest here! I'm a long time Blakes 7 fan and I've been looking for this enjoyable tribute for a while! Don't get me wrong, it was funny, I was just expecting more.

The subject matter of the crew finding themselves at a service station in the early hours of the morning, even on the limited budget, I feel, could have been a little better. There are some amazing scenes in it! Avon and Blake meeting in the toilets, and Servelan and Travis discussing where they should be (whilst the storm troopers sat by are drinking soft drinks through a straw in their gas masks) are brilliant and well executed. Also the late Peter Tuddenham reprising his roll as Orac was ... well brilliant.

As for the other films Ant Muzak was entertaining and amusing, but I don't think I actually laughed out loud once. World of Wrestling on the other hand I found very funny, especially the security camera footage on the bus!

Overall entertaining but sadly... not the genius I was hoping for!

a collection of three short films, all of which run twelve to fifteen minutes approx. All feature cult characters of years gone by [played by actors not the originals] and have the characters in mundane modern settings doing everyday things. Bickering and character comedy result. Except when the characters are seen through a camera, as only then do they act in the way they did in their original cult appearances.

An interesting concept [hopefully I've explained it adequately] which results in three highly entertaining movies.

Blakes junction seven has the characters from cult sf show blakes seven visit a motorway service station in newport pagnell in the middle of the night.

Ant Muzak has pop group adam and the ants shopping in an all night supermarket.

and world of wrestling has wrestlers from itv's wrestling show of the 70's that was on saturday afternoons at 4pm catching a night bus in croydon.

If you're familiar with the originals then there's enough here to make you laugh and ring some bells in your mind. as will happen if you only have a passing familiarity with them. If you don't, then you may still find it funny anyway.

The extras are actually of a longer running time than the films.

for blakes junction seven there is:

a commentary from mark heap, who plays avon, and paul darrow, who played the character on tv. doesnt quite work this commentary as paul darrow is a better and more enthusiastic talker and mark heap's contributions aren't as good.

there's an interview with the two of them which is stronger.

There's ten minutes worth of behind the scenes footage of the film being made, which is quite fascinating to watch, to see how much work goes into a short film.

There's a five minute feature from the bbc news interviewing one of the actors and the writers. this is a decent little chat.

And footage of peter tuddenham's recording session. he provided the voice of super computer orac in the original, and returns to do so here. it's fascinating to watch a very talented voice artist at work. if you watch this on a pc move the pointer to the left and another logo will light up. click on this and it will show you film of him singing let's all go down the strand. presumably this can be brought up with a dvd remote control as well but I've not found out how.

Ant muzak has a short trailer for the film, and just like blakes junction seven, footage of it being made.

world of wrestling has a commentary from the writer and director of the three films, which is interesting listening and does have some good facts in it.

It has behind the scenes footage like the other two.

a montage of the wrestling footage used in the film.

and some unusued footage of the wrestlers proclaiming how good they are. something that the originals always did on tv. this is hilarous and well worth watching.

the disc contains english language subtitles.

Three great films, and a very good package for them. great stuff.