Why the devil can't you buy "A Bit Of Fry and Laurie" on DVD...?

[Neil]

I encoded series 2 ep 1 last night, and was just having a sniff round to check for commercial releases of this highly regarded series.  As I thought, there appears to be bugger all available on DVD, why is this?!  I'm going to have to dig through dozens of unlabelled tapes to find more, watching this one just makes you realise how fab it all was.  I'm not even sure I managed to see all of them at the time, so it's a pain in the bum that these aren't available on DVD, especially when plenty of other comedy from that time has been released.  2-1 is marvellous, by the way, Fry performs some excellent physical comedy with his dancercise and Michael Jackson routines.  Hugh is as lovely as ever, but particularly great as the snappy Mr Meddlicot.

"I was going through my Grand-fathers old hair-driers the other day..."

[Jemble Fred]

If you're unbelievably lucky, you may just get the BBC to eventually release the old 'Best Of' collection of series one and two chucked onto a plain disc with an awesomelt badly designed cut-up cover.

That's life in Thatcher's Britain.

[Neil]

Thanks for the info about the VHS releases, I was wondering.  I don't understand why these aren't out on DVD though, why put Jeeves and Wooster out but not ABOFAL?!  It makes no sense.  Oh, and I'm now wondering if I'm right in saying that "lots of other stuff from around that time has been released", cause I can't think of much really except Red Dwarf?!

[Jemble Fred]

Not really. Just think of those sodding BBC releases, Young Ones, NT9ON etc. They're only just slinging out all their best work. Bear in mind that the conjuction of Christmas Night With The Stars and ABOF&L4 being flops and generating huge amounts of complaints, plus Fry's Belgium business, I think the Stephen and Hugh combo has become rather verboten since the early nineties - they've never been given any respect. This is beginning to change now so much time has passed, and they're in a great position to start sticking up for themselves as comedy greats...

Then they go and do Sherlock bleeding Holmes!

[Darrell]

Any sketch shows made before The Fast Show don't stand a chance of being released in full. It's not just ABOF&L that's in desperate need of a release either - there's KYTV, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Who Dares Wins, Rutland Weekend Television, Harry Enfield's Television Programme, Paul Merton: The Series, Alexei Sayle's Stuff (et al), Absolutely, End of Part One, etc etc...

I wish I had obscene amounts of disposable Branson so I could set up a company specifically to release these sorts of things episodically. Most of them were granted long-deleted compilation videos (largely unrepresentative) in the nineties, which are all now obscenely rare, at a time when BBC Video weren't run by incompetent cunts, and VCI weren't dismissive of anything older than 2 years that wasn't Father Ted, though some shows never even managed that.

[Pinball]

Any sketch shows made before The Fast Show don't stand a chance of being released in full. It's not just ABOF&L that's in desperate need of a release either - there's KYTV, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Who Dares Wins, Rutland Weekend Television, Harry Enfield's Television Programme, Paul Merton: The Series, Alexei Sayle's Stuff (et al), Absolutely, End of Part One, etc etc...

I wish I had obscene amounts of disposable Branson so I could set up a company specifically to release these sorts of things episodically. Most of them were granted long-deleted compilation videos (largely unrepresentative) in the nineties, which are all now obscenely rare, at a time when BBC Video weren't run by incompetent cunts, and VCI weren't dismissive of anything older than 2 years that wasn't Father Ted, though some shows never even managed that.

There's a business op for a Playback-type company there...

[weekender]

When I win the lottery I'm determined to set up a company like that.

[Manford Thirty-Sixborough]

I've now captured the whole of the first three series, and could pop them on a DVD for someone to distribute, though I won't be able to post anything until Thursday.