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Amazon.co.uk Review
Look Around You is a spoof science programme that hilariously recreates both the drab, depressing air of 1970s educational television and a bygone world of tedious school science lessons. Each of the 10-minute episodes--or "Modules"--takes the form of a number of surreal and pointless experiments based on a chosen theme ranging from "Water" and "Sulphur" to "Ghosts" and "Brains".
Look Around You's humour lies not only in an absurd take on education and the impenetrable jargon of science, but also in evoking a sense of nostalgia in the viewer. In this respect the series is helped immeasurably by faultless production and attention to detail. Narrated in austere, Queen's English, using precise scientific terminology, this is a world of scratched film inserts, dubious periodic tables, cheap, synthesised music, giant hairstyles, bulky, teak-finished technology and a proliferation of DYMO labels. Each show is even prefaced by a few seconds of the "Television for Schools & Colleges" countdown clock. The tutorial format of the series is not without its problems though--it is essentially a single, plotless joke stretched to eight episodes, and there are no characters to speak of, save glimpses of the deadpan and much-maligned lab-technician (cowriter Peter Serafanowicz). Despite these shortcomings Look Around You is still a refreshingly different comedy, which is so well put together that you can almost smell the Bunsen burners while you watch.
On the DVD: Look Around You on disc comes with a sizeable and appropriately bizarre selection of extras. The superb animated menus are designed to mimic the arcane, pastel-coloured diagrams found in any well-thumbed science textbook, and even feature the background noise of what is presumably a white-coated technician shuffling around the lab. The Additional Features include the double-length "Calcium" episode, a full-length music video of the song created in the "Music" module (the surprisingly catchy "Little Mouse" by Jack Morgan, BSc), a selection of spoof pages from Ceefax and the Test Card. The different sound modes allow you to watch with or without the narration, subtitles or an entertaining commentary from the programme makers. --Paul Philpott
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2.4 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Interactive Menu, Music Video, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Everything in social studies teacher Eugene Simonet's life is in order--every shirt, every pencil, every person in its proper place. To keep the surface placid means never having to go deeper. And no one and nothing in his life has ever asked him to. Arlene McKinney is a single mother hanging on by her fingertips, working two jobs, and struggling to raise her son, Trevor. She is trying to give him a new life, but in her absence she is losing him. Eugene gives Trevor's class an assignment: look at the world around you and fix what you don't like. But can you fix people? ...Look Around You Series 1
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Humour is a very subjective thing; I, for instance, do not find "The Office" at all funny. Whether anyone reading this will find "Look Around You" as funny as I do I can't say, but I think it's one of the finest things ever to have been broadcast, for what it is - eight ten-minute programmes. Peter Serafinowicz takes his ludicrous "experiments" absolutely seriously, and Nigel Lester's commentary similarly betrays not the slightest sign that he is reading out a spoof - even when he has to say things like "The gas was allowed to mafipulate through the water for five minutes." The programmes perfectly capture the style of those dreary Schools Programmes on science we saw in the late 70s and early 80s, and - if you didn't pay close attention - you might almost believe it was for real. Until you notice the ants building the igloo, that is. "Thanks, ants," as Nigel Lester says, politely. "Thants."
The DVD is very well presented, and allows the usual writers' and director's commentary as an alternative to the original soundtrack. From this I learned how the show was first conceived: Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz produced a one-off parody programme on "Calcium" basically to amuse themselves, and the BBC eventually took it up and commissioned the series we have now enjoyed. "Calcium" is included on the DVD; the interrogation of "intelligent calcium" is perhaps the highlight, though there are many other things to cherish. You also get a series of mock "Pages from CEEFAX", with news, farming, financial and sport reports which combine realism and madness very much as the programmes do; a quiz for what you have learned from each episode, with suitable punishments should you do badly; and a parody test card ending with a few seconds of animation from a cartoon that I wish went on for a whole five minutes. Until we see a complete edition of "The Hexagons", though, I just have to repeat their names - Moffaty, Gideon, Vincent, Slingsby and Wilson - to make myself laugh.
Highly recommended.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I watched Look Around You when it was on television 2 years ago, and tried in vain to get others interested in it, but the concept of "funny Open University" was just a little too weird for most of my friends.
And that's about all I can say about it: it's funny Open University. It captures exactly the tone, the process, the genre of programming for schools that I remember (avoiding) as a child and teenager. And yet, it's incredibly funny, without going "hey, look at the stupid people with their hair and clothes of the 70s" that this type of comedy usually reverts to. The comedy comes from the both the set pieces and the reverence it is obviously paying to the original programming.
The DVD itself is very good, with nice extras including the Little Mouse video in its entirety, but its the commentary that gets me every time. Listening to the commentary makes me want to hear the original soundtrack and listening to the soundtrack makes me want to hear the commentary. It's a nice vicious circle.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I'd seen glimpes of this weird little series when it was originally broadcast in 2002, but only when getting ready to go out so I never really paid much attention. However, after becoming hooked to series 2 on the BBC in 2005, I looked up for any DVDs of the show and found this series available. It is very different in style and execution to the later series, but the wickedly strange humour remains the same.
Of particular note, the full music video version of "Little Mouse" in the DVD extras is, quite frankly, a work of genius.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Look around you the original classic series
Having watched this programme many times on youtube I thought it was time I got it on DVD for he whole family to enjoy. Write that down in your copy books now!!!
Published 9 months ago by Dave_G
Thanks Amazon. Thamazon
Look Around You is a spoof of a genre of television programming that those of a certain age will remember well, namely the BBC's educational programmes for schools during the 70's... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Crookedmouth
look around you...
Fantastic dvd for anyone who has watched the series or any of the old school educational videos. Came really quickly and I watched it all that night! excellent value for money.
Published 17 months ago by Clare
Very educational
If you know anyone who has studied science, especially chemistry, at school then is an absolute must! It has all been so well put together, with great attention to detail. Read more
Published 19 months ago by M. G. A. Sterrick
Not enough to justify a series
The educational programmes of the 70s and 80s are good material for a short sketch, preferably one within a show containing other kinds of material. Read more
Published on 24 May 2010 by PatB
Epic
If your school science department had a video player then odds on you'll know exactly the kind of video that this so brilliantly mocks. I laughed a lot. Highly recommended.
Published on 30 Aug 2009 by Mr. J. A. Badham
Hit and miss
There are some classic sketches on this DVD, but once you've watched it through once or twice the humour dissipates and you're left with something you won't watch again. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2009 by R. R. Clayton
Very Funny .
Anyone who sat through the schools programmes during the 1970s -1980s will find this very funny . The mock experiments are sheer genius , and the "serious" commentary is spot on .
Published on 17 Mar 2008 by Egbert Souse
An absolute gem
This is a must buy item in my opinion. It's a steal, and very, very funny indeed. It is based around school science programmes of the seventies. Read more
Published on 3 Jan 2008 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Brilliant
I saw this on telly a few years ago and it captivated me, ten minute shorts with as much humour as some half hour shows. Fantastic! Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2006 by GeekZilla
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