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Vintage TV classics available on good ol' fashioned DVD!

Started by Glebe, August 24, 2021, 08:09:08 PM

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Glebe



In this day and age when we literally have movies and TV streaming on a tap, let's not forget the joys of the good old Digital Video (or Versatile) Disc - 'DVD' for short! Yeah, I know what your saying... 'Get with the times, Grandpapa!' But there's just something wonderfully nostalgic about placing an easily-breakable disc of plastic into a DVD player tray!

DVD sales may have been steadily declining for years, but the soon-to-be-obsolete format hasn't lost the fight yet! So with this in your mind, we'll be taking a look at some cracking DVD releases of nostalgic vintage TV crackers - available NOW! Or - SOON!

Today we'll be looking at Hannah Gordon's Portal of Predictions, an ITV/ABC Australia co-production that first aired in 1995 (I say first aired but in was never repeated).

Over six fifty-minute episodes, Elephant Man actress Gordon (not to be confused with Fairy Liquid legend Nannette Newman) cast her 'knowing' eye over the ever-shifting sands of fate via a specially-created ship's portal. "I spy, with my watching eye..." she would announce as each episode opened, and her previously-unrevealed, Nostradamus-like powers would come into effect.

Sadly very few (if any) of Gordon's visions ever came to pass, with her closest prediction - that there would be "a mysterious tube-like funnel 'neath the sea connecting Britain and far-off Europe" being disqualified, as the Channel Tunnel had already opened by then. Interestingly Hannah seemed to have a curious fetish for naval battles, on one occasion suggesting (falsely, as it would prove) that "the ghost of Napoleon shall rise in the Adriatic and sink all ships there!"

As previously mentioned, the programme only lasted one series and Hannah hung up her scrying glass. "By that stage even my husband was losing faith, with all my horse racing 'tips' proving shitty!" Gordon told TV Quick during an exclusive interview in 2006.

In any case the whole caboodle is available now on Network DVD, with no bonus features! Enjoy!

Mr Farenheit

Is this available in Region 3?
Really wanna see this proph-doc

Glebe

Quote from: Mr Farenheit on August 26, 2021, 03:18:28 AMIs this available in Region 3?
Really wanna see this proph-doc

You're in luck Farenheit! For the legendary Gordon-prog is now available to all regions - NOW! On a side note, the portal-based element of the show was apparently inspired by Dickinson's Deep Sea Desires, which I understand you acted as producer on! Oh hang about, looks like we've got another DVD release coming through! Steady... steady!



2012 was a vintage year for television programming, producing as it did such eminent classics such as Fern Britton's Duck Hunt, Golf with John Craven and Mark Lamarr on Historical Murderings. But one show set itself out from the pack, in an already-stuffed home interiors genre!

That show was C4's Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's Tacky Home Makeover Intrusions!, all six episodes of which are finally available on the DVDs! WATCH IN AWE as the interior-mental dandy invades the homes of unsuspecting members of the Great British Public and causes mayhem, turning the place upside down and doing unnecessary redecorations with the assistance of his crack-team of "Home Improvement Nuttahs!"

SEE how the Llewelyn-Bowen ground force reinteriorize to gaudy effect! MARVEL at the extensive prodding and nosing about, with at least three months' extensive fuss and bother applied to each house! THRILL to the sight of Llewelyn-Bowen and squad hounding the innocent with paintbrush and plywood!

This memorable DVD is now available from the C4 store, or have a look in Poundstretcher discount bins over the coming weeks! Good luck!

Mr Farenheit

Quote from: Glebe on September 05, 2021, 05:51:08 PM
You're in luck Farenheit! For the legendary Gordon-prog is now available to all regions - NOW! On a side note, the portal-based element of the show was apparently inspired by Dickinson's Deep Sea Desires, which I understand you acted as producer on!

That's great news I've already ordered a copy for each region. Some people hate dvd regions, not me- I'm a region-nut, the only thing I hate is that there aren't more of them!

Needless to say I'll be snapping up LLBTHMITCC! I remember the summer of 2012 well, it seemed like no home in the nation was safe from the 'Home Improvement Nuttahs'!


Glebe

Ah, halcyon days... glad to hear you've gone region-mental with the discs, F!

Mr Farenheit

Criterion's under-the-radar 'top telly' series continues apace with this week's announcement of an almost forgotten series from the early 2000s. Yes, it's DIRTY DEN'S DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP!



The short lived series sadly only ever aired 3 episodes as a dispirited and disgusted crew drifted away from the production. The final 4th episode was self filmed by the show's star (yes, its Leslie Grantham!) on his own camcorder but was judged too desolate for broadcast.

Each episode would see a leary Leslie prowl the streets of east london asking innocent members of the public for small sums of money to see him do a 'dirty' deed. These deeds started off amusingly enough- such as drawing crude pictures inside copies of Paul McKenna's best seller 'I Can Make You Thin' in a Hackney Waterstones (20p).

However Grantham was at a career low point after his webcam shame and the 'dirty deeds' more often seemed aimed at himself. These included ordering an English breakfast in a greasy spoon and instructing the waiter to put the food 'in me 'air not on me plate' (35p, but he lost 3 pounds overall after paying for the food), emptying some bins behind a sports bar and rolling around in the mess (15p each from 5 of the bar's customers at half time of a football match, 5p from one of them at full time surprised to find him still there), or stuffing his clothes and underwear with pickled onion monster munch for two sweltering summer days (10p, lost 2 pounds overall paying for the monstermunch).

Most of the crew wanted nothing to do with this sick stuff and quickly left the production, leaving 'Dirty Den' to shoot the remaining footage by himself. In a talking heads bonus piece on the DVD, key grip Ken 'Keystone Grop' Gripp remembers: 'we thought it would be prank style TV but he was in a dark place at the time and most of it was him debasing himself, often in and around bins. A lot of people actually gave the money back as they felt sorry for him'

And as for the infamous self-made footage? Yes, its there in all its 174 minutes of unedited deso glory. I've watched it and its not for the faint hearted! Want to know more? You'll have to get the DVD this December- or maybe you'll find a copy in yer xmas stocking! Alternatively come to Criterion's arty launch party in 2 weeks at a secret location in an abandoned abattoir. PM me for tickets [at a reasonable hour please] and I'll see if I can get you in- no promises!

Glebe

Rostrum camera legend Ken Morse famously walked just as production began on that! In any case, I'll be looking forward to getting that as a stocking-filler this year!