Full English - Series 1 [DVD]

Product Description

Welcome to Full English, on the surface it's about a quintessentially English family. But at its heart it's a satirical look at our popular culture, our celebrities, our monarchy, our economy, our country today. It's unashamedly rude, puerile and silly, in the tradition of British comedy but it also tells hilarious stories around identifiable characters.

Meet the Johnson family--the Dad, Edgar (voiced by Richard Ayoade) his long suffering wife Wendy (voiced by Rosie Caveliero) and their three kids the unhinged Dusty, middle child Jason (both voiced by Kayvan Novak) and the moody Goth teen Eve (voiced by Daisy Haggard). Also in the mix is the evil and horny Ken (voiced by Ollie Maltman) Edgar's father in law and boss--a multi-millionaire confectionary mogul who despises Edgar. Ken's only friend is a large green imaginary figment of his imagination called Squidge who makes him do very bad things...

From Amazon.co.uk

Animated comedies aimed at older audiences are generally the staple of American television, so it's refreshing to see a British attempt at a tricky-to-nail genre. Full English enlists the voice talents of Richard Ayoade, Rosie Caveliero and Kayvan Novak, and their tones accompany some of the members of the Johnson family.

Said family live in the south of England, living at first glance a middle class life. But under the surface, things aren't quite that straightforward. Their lives go through some bizarre twists and turns, and the script to Full English mixes in broader humour along with satirical digs.

It'd be remiss to say Full English is a raging success, though. It inevitably pales in comparison next to the likes of The Simpsons and Family Guy, which you can't help but compare it to. But it has a few problems of its own too; namely writing that doesn't fully maximise the setup.

That said, Full English is not without its moments, and there's a mixture of interesting talent at work here, that means the show does spark into life from time to time. It's also worth supporting: it does have laughs, it does have ideas, and it does have things to say. If it doesn't always say them as well as it might, it still deserves support for trying something just a little off the usual track for British TV. --Jon Foster