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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent veteran creative comedy!, 4 Aug 2006
Don't miss this timeless treat - half the Pythons, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke Taylor, Jo Kendall, Barry Cryer (occasionally) and Bill Oddie (once)! You will learn that "The Four Yorkshiremen" did NOT originate with Monty Python (and Tim Brooke Taylor co-wrote the sketch) and that Mr Brooke Taylor has immense comic talents. His demonstration of the new dance craze "The Chartered Accountant" and his performance as the NHS automated hospital visitor (used for lonely patient Bill Oddie) will make you want to cheer! Cleese and Feldman are superb, of course, and the extras are interviews with Tim Brooke Taylor and Terry Jones. The latter was in "Do Not Adjust Your Set" (1967 - 1969), which was released as a companion set to this one - both interviews are in both sets.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'At Last the 1948 Show' - must-see for Oxbridge Mafia fans, 6 Jun 2007
Wow. Anarchy in the U.K. back when Johnny Rotten was still picking his nose. "At Last the 1948 Show" is absolute must-viewing for all Oxbridge Mafia fanatics. It doesn't have the glossy pop surrealism of "Monty Python," but it certainly has its moments of ragged glory. (The skit with an historical soap opera being interrupted by bands of tourists from other countries could almost have been a Monty Python skit.) My personal favourite is the skit with John Cleese and Marty Feldman on a train - a classic. As you can tell from the evidence of the digital disc, John Cleese and Graham Chapman were, in this show, well on their way to becoming, well, John Cleese and Graham Chapman. It's fun to spot the mannerisms and predelictions in these two that would be given full vent in "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Marty Feldman shows considerably more comic range here than in his later Hollywood work - hilarious. For those of us who think Tim Brooke-Taylor was one of the most underestimated comic talents of his generation(and I count myself one), this DVD contains some of his most glorious comedic moments. Some of his routines here at priceless(especially the accountant dance). Incidentally, it's really funny to watch Tim Brooke-Taylor in that skit where the police officers in drag are preparing to go undercover in a club. The other actors were changing their names and lines to mess with Tim's head and he was clearly at something of an amused loss. The audience furthermore seemed to realize what was going on. It's a great moment in live comedy. Tim should have been much more used in movies than he was. I even get a kick out of Aimi MacDonald's routines - her cheerful egotism and self-promotion. This show was a joy in itself and a harbinger of things to come. For all you students of the Oxbridge Mafia, some of this will appear on the final exam. Comedic hedonists will find much here to satiate their desires. It's a pity BBC erased so many episodes of this show. I guess they figured Posterity wouldn't be interested. They were wrong. Buy this. And also be sure to check out the "Don't Adjust Your Set" DVD. Material from both will be on the final exam. Spike Milligan was no doubt proud of his 'children'... Greg Cameron, Surrey, B.C., Canada.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Will somebody PLEASE sing something?, 13 Feb 2007
Before there was "Monty Python's Flying Circus," there were two other series produced by the legendary comedians later known as Monty Python. One of those was the hilarious "At Last the 1948 Show" -- not quite as funny as the series that came after it, but definitely hilarious and full of weird Pythonian moments.
Each episode (and most skits) are introduced by "The Lovely Aimi MacDonald," a blonde airhead who basically does nothing but pose and self-promote (such as the Make the Lovely Aimi MacDonald a Rich Lady Fund, or Aimi MacDonald songs), and occasionally make out with sailors.
Then there are the hilarious skits: a man visits a shrink because he thinks he's a rabbit, karate-chopping docs, a severely underfunded secret agent who has to burn down the Kremlin, a man who claims to be an underpaid gorilla, snake devourings, a game show where the only answer is "pork," a robotic visitor at a hospital, an invasion of tourists on a soap opera set, and others.
You can definitely see seeds of Monty Python here -- the constant chartered accountant jokes, cross-dressing, surreal sketches, mockery of the BBC, and John Cleese going ballistic ("OF COURSE YOU'RE NOT A RABBIT!"). Well, we don't have Terry Gilliam's weird animation, but at least we have Marty Feldman in a frothy dress and blonde wig.
In fact, the skits themselves are often comedy that could have been lifted from the Flying Circus -- lots of weird scenarios (Feldman desperately trying to answer the question of "Is there free speech?", but not being able to get a word in) and equally weird dialogue ("Just you and me... and an Arab"), which usually ends up in some explosive or strange confrontation. It's not quite perfect, though -- the Aimi MacDonald stuff gets old quickly, and a few skits (like the Charted Accountant dance) fall flat.
John Cleese and Graham Chapman are, obviously, hilarious -- lots of kooky stuff, like Chapman as the pitiful vicar begging the congregation to sing anything. But Tim Brooke-Taylor is also funny, albeit in a more hammy way. And there's the buggy-eyed Feldman of "Young Frankenstein" fame, who fits in seamlessly (even if he is of a different nationality).
It should be noted that this show is rather old, and apparently wasn't stored very well. As a result, the black-and-white prints have gotten a bit fuzzy over time, and occasionally the picture jumps. This apparently wasn't really reparable, but eventually you stop noticing it so much.
"At Last the 1948 Show" is not quite as hilarious as its successor, but it is a funny, surreal little show that is definitely worth watching. At last! The 1948 Show!
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