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Product Description
80's comedy soap set in the north of England in the 1930's. Bradley Hardacre (Timothy West), owns the coal mine and almost everything else in the local town. His insatiable greed and lust for power, women and money knows no bounds. By contrast, the Fairchilds, at the other end of the social spectrum, live in a small house at the bottom of a hill, overlooked by the Hardacre's. When the children of both families start to discover each other, the stage is set for class war
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Box Set, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, Scene Access, Uncut, SYNOPSIS: Bradley Hardacre, owner of the brass factory as well as everything else in the town, is the most ruthless of men and enjoys a life of luxury, much to the disgust of Agnes Fairchild. However her plans to overthrow the Hardacre Empire are thwarted by her husband George who is ever the unswervingly loyal employee. Meanwhile to complicate matters further the loves and passions of the Hardacre girls and the Fairchild sons are heating up, with some truly hilarious consequences for everyone concerned! This release features every episode from all three series of Brass. ...Brass - Complete Series - 5-DVD Box Set
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By Samweath
Format:DVD
Bradley Hardacre is determined that the Lancashire town of Utterley shall not fall victim to the Great Depression. This is because he owns it - from the cottage hospital (the former cottage workhouse where he grew up on a diet of kicks and gruel) to the crutch factory where he first began to master the dark arts of capitalism and, finally, to the mine, the mill and the munitions factory from which he has earned a fortune. Now, having married a neurotic aristocrat and developed an abiding hatred of the working class among whom he spent his early years, Hardacre plans to climb to the pinnacle of British society - no matter what the cost (to be paid by others, naturally).
This is the premise of a inspired comedy from the early 1980s (apart from the final series, which was broadcast in 1990). The 32-episode series follows the fortunes of the Fairchild and Hardacre families as the relationships between their respective sons and daughters become intertwined in ever more bizarre ways. The whole thing is played very straight and deadpan, with suitably dramatic music and lots of theatrical touches.
Writers John Stevenson and Julian Roach hilariously exploit and discard one cliché after another, sending up Brideshead Revisited, Sherlock Holmes and Private's Progress among many other classic genres. In addition to the outrageously stereotyped characters themselves, brief glimpses of supposedly historical figures are also seen - `Murdoch' from the Utterley Bugle, `Fleming' in the laboratory and `von Braun' the fireworks engineer, among many others.
Quick delivery and sheer wealth of material means more than one viewing is needed to spot all the cultural and historical references. The acting is a delight throughout and the plot is enjoyably complex.... Read more ›
This is the premise of a inspired comedy from the early 1980s (apart from the final series, which was broadcast in 1990). The 32-episode series follows the fortunes of the Fairchild and Hardacre families as the relationships between their respective sons and daughters become intertwined in ever more bizarre ways. The whole thing is played very straight and deadpan, with suitably dramatic music and lots of theatrical touches.
Writers John Stevenson and Julian Roach hilariously exploit and discard one cliché after another, sending up Brideshead Revisited, Sherlock Holmes and Private's Progress among many other classic genres. In addition to the outrageously stereotyped characters themselves, brief glimpses of supposedly historical figures are also seen - `Murdoch' from the Utterley Bugle, `Fleming' in the laboratory and `von Braun' the fireworks engineer, among many others.
Quick delivery and sheer wealth of material means more than one viewing is needed to spot all the cultural and historical references. The acting is a delight throughout and the plot is enjoyably complex.... Read more ›
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I very much enjoyed this series when it was on the 1980s, so I was pleased to see all three series in one DVD set. I was keen to see the third series in particular as, for various reasons, I never got to see it when it was originally broadcast. The DVDs were a bit of a disappointment in that they didn't have any additional features and hadn't been digitally remastered in any way. Better sound quality, or sub-titles, would have been useful as, in many cases, the actors' more dramatic lines are drowned out by the music, or made indistinct by their extravagant delivery - or perhaps I'm getting a bit deaf. I loved seeing the first two series again (26 episodes in total) and the third (6 episodes) was fun in places but by this time they'd lost two of the regular cast members: Geoffrey Hinsliff who played George Fairchild and Robert Reynolds who played Autin Hardacre. Their replacements do a reasonable job, but it's impossible to compete with the originals. I wish Granada had spent a bit more money when creating this set, but I'd still recommend buying it, it's classic TV.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I used to love this series when it was on TV and am looking forward to seeing it again. It's a spot-on parody of "upstairs, downstairs" historical dramas (think Catherine Cookson, Lady Chatterley's Lover, Brideshead Revisited). There's much heaving of ample bosoms under worsted shawls as working-class heroine Agnes Fairchild and her improbably noble offspring get romantically involved with the filthy rich - and slightly deranged - Hardacres, headed by tyrannical mill-owner Bradley (Timothy West is great in this "baddie" role). A not very accurate but incredibly funny portrait of life Oop North in days gone by.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By steve b
Format:DVD
The nineteen seventies was a great time for series set between the wars in the North of England. When the Boat Comes In, Sam and The Stars Look Down spring to mind. Worthy as they may have been, and When the Boat Come Comes In would get my vote as the best British Tv series ever, Brass means that it will be a long time before we see the genre again.
Brass does for the flat cap drama what Mel Brookes did to Westerns and Frankenstein and did it in just as funny a way. Timothy West is supurb as Bradley Hardacre the ruthless owner of the mine, the mill, the munitions factory and the crutch factory. The story revolves two families, Bradley his crippled wife (or is she), two daughters and two sons named believe it or not Austin and Morris are one. The second are the working class Fairchilds, George who is loyal to Bradley and as thick as a plank, his firebrand wife Red Agnes, who hates Bradley but cannot help sleaping with him or as she puts it pressing his trousers and their two sons, who fall in love with Bradley's two daughters.
The humour is not subtle and is a send up of other nineteen thirties dramas. George for instance is pathetically grateful when Austin gives him a suger lump, 'Me own suger lunp and they said I'd never amount to anything'
Agnes has a job testing ballons by blowing them up one at a time. Bradley enquires about the dangers of ballon testers lung. Elseware Bradley complains that men trapped down the mine has spent their time waiting to be rescued rather that digging out his coal.
All in all a very funny series with Timothy West at his best as Bradley Hardacre one of the great TV comic figures.
Brass does for the flat cap drama what Mel Brookes did to Westerns and Frankenstein and did it in just as funny a way. Timothy West is supurb as Bradley Hardacre the ruthless owner of the mine, the mill, the munitions factory and the crutch factory. The story revolves two families, Bradley his crippled wife (or is she), two daughters and two sons named believe it or not Austin and Morris are one. The second are the working class Fairchilds, George who is loyal to Bradley and as thick as a plank, his firebrand wife Red Agnes, who hates Bradley but cannot help sleaping with him or as she puts it pressing his trousers and their two sons, who fall in love with Bradley's two daughters.
The humour is not subtle and is a send up of other nineteen thirties dramas. George for instance is pathetically grateful when Austin gives him a suger lump, 'Me own suger lunp and they said I'd never amount to anything'
Agnes has a job testing ballons by blowing them up one at a time. Bradley enquires about the dangers of ballon testers lung. Elseware Bradley complains that men trapped down the mine has spent their time waiting to be rescued rather that digging out his coal.
All in all a very funny series with Timothy West at his best as Bradley Hardacre one of the great TV comic figures.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Blatant and subtle
This series is an amalgum of blatantly obvious and more subtle allusions which combine to make a strong political statement while remaining vastly entertaining.
Published 3 months ago by Gingadun
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brass - The Complete Series
Is it really thirty years since this was on our television screens? Brilliantly written and superbly cast, Brass has long been one of my all-time television favourites and the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by W. Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brideshead Revisited meets Lady Chatterley's Lover
An hilarious series never repeated as far as I remember. Agnes laboriously putting peas back into their pods reminiscent of women workers placing wooden pips in ersatz strawberry... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mozza
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brass goes well with muck
Excellent series, you have to love Bradley Hardacre for being what all men would like to be in this modern world to be! Mr West is perfect
Published 5 months ago by D. I. Pratley
3.0 out of 5 stars
Final let-down
I was really enjoying this series with it's brilliant scripts and the great Timothy West in his element. That has all been covered by other reviewers. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Eyespy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lucy Mangan writes............ Guardian Thursday 24 May 2012
There wasn't much to laugh at in the 80s but there was - gloriously, unforgettably - Brass, which over the course of three series told the story of the feuding families of the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr Stephen M. Whitaker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brass
I was a big fan of this show in the 80's, and what a surprise to see it available on DVD. No canned laughter, big advantage.
Published 13 months ago by Mr. P. P. Sayer
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brass
I found this series very amusing. Must admit that I didn't see it when it came round first but well worth looking at.
Published 15 months ago by Malcolm1
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funnier Than I Remembered
Brass is funnier if you know a bit of history I think. It's set in the 1930s and has references to the Kennedy family when Joe was American Ambassador. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Shirley-Kate
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good memories
Watching this brought back great memories. Timothy West is amazing,Would love to see some outakes from Brass'shame there are non on the disc. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Andyowl
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