Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Monumental, 19 Sep 2005
I remember accidentally bumping into this on Channel 4 (I must have been fifteen or something), and thinking "What is this low budget pap?". I must have bumped into it a few more times and suddenly the penny dropped. This truly is some of the best comedy I've ever witnessed. It's pretty unique, and if you've not already had it, it may take a few episodes before you have your "Eureka" moment, but when you do, it really is fantastic. Like the other reviewers here, I'd suggest this is probably the cream of Vic and Bob's work so far, although perhaps the least accessible.I'm guessing that most people reading this probably already know that they love this series, so perhaps a little info about the DVDs themselves. It's stashed on two DVDs (not crammed onto one or anything), so the picture quality is everything it should be. There's only really one extra, and that's a nice little interview by Matt Lucas (seen as George Dawes on Shooting Stars, and star of Little Britain), which is dead interesting and reasonably long. The entire first and second series are present, but unfortunately the New Years Eve special (or maybe it was Christmas, I dunno) featuring Kim Wilde is missing. As you might guess, I'd totally recommend this - I regard it as an extraordinarily significant step in the history of British commedy (which unfortunately most people don't seem to have latched onto), and if I need to cheer myself up, this is likely to be the DVD I reach for. Either that, or the Mighty Boosh. Hey - why not buy 'em both? I did. They're well spanky.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly Alternative Comedy, 14 Aug 2005
Vic Reeves, the stage name and persona of Art School graduate Jim Moir, reinvented and revamped British comedy in the late eighties and early nineties with this show. His 'Big Night Out' had been a dadaist comedy revue in a London pub on Thursday nights until Jonathan Ross and the then heads of Channel Four saw a comedy gem and offered them the contract that took the pub-based comedy show to Friday nights on Channel Four.
Their humour was non-political, random and truly surreal - not the knowing word-association Monty Python passed off as surrealism, but more the creation of stupid and irrational situations. If any Python influence was to be cited it was Eric Idle's 'Rutland Weekend Television'
'Big Night Out' had Vic Reeves as a desk-bound master of ceremonies for a parade of infantile (in a good way) characters and impractically weird events. Bob Mortimer was his partner in crime. Both played characters and contributed to the kinetic comedy with roles ranging from the pathos-inducing Man With The Stick (a paper-mask wearing, pole-carrying man in a suit who had surreal cartoons drawn over his mask and invited audiences to beg the question "What's on the end of the stick Vic?") to the vile pervert Graham Lister. This was Vic's arch enemy, a trouserless mac-wearer whose attempts to win each week's 'Novelty Island' were dampened by Vic.
Les was the only recurring character not played by Vic or Bob, but by Fred Aylward.
Vic and Bob have lost something of the brilliance they exhibited here, but this is the two at their most iconic.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A flawed but long overdue and DVD release, 6 May 2006
Although I'm overjoyed that this sublime piece of nonsense is finally out on DVD and although I'm loath to make any negative comments, I do feel compelled to make the following points, which could potentially be amended in any future re-issue:
1. There are no extras to speak of except a low budget but quite interesting interview / documentary. BBC3 have recently shown a documentary explaining the backgroung to VRBNO and assessed it's place in the comedy pantheon which was far more illuminating.
2. The (few) swearwords are removed as they were on the early evening C4 repeats - but how old are we, 12?
3. The subtitles make the occasional howler such as "... Alan Davis and the cheeky foul-mouthed fox" instead of "... Alan Davison, the cheeky foul-mouthed fox" - pedantic I know as I'm not even hard of hearing but sloppy isn't it?
4. The halfway ad break of each episode is disguised rather clumsily and as a result a few seconds of Vic gibberish is lost each time.
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