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Dom Robinson reviews
Part 1 Distributed by 
- Cert:
- Cat.no: BBCDVD 1037
- Running time: 78 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 75 plus extras
- Sound: Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 16:9
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Outtakes, Extra sound bites, Alternate menu schemes
Director:
- Mark Mylod
Producers:
- Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson
Screenplay:
- Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson
Music:
- Philip Pope
Cast:
- Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson and Arabella Weir.
Known as Brilliant! on BBC America, The Fast Show was a hit sketch show on BBC2 which ran for three series, gained its own theme night on BBC2 with a new episode of sketches, “You Ain’t Seen These, Right?”, spawned a one-off special – “Ted and Ralph” – and culminated in three final 40-minute TV shows broadcast between Christmas and New Year 2000.
In the early days, the cast could count Caroline Aherne among its number but she left to write and star in another success, The Royle Family, leaving Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, Simon Day, Mark Williams, John Thomson and, yes her bum does look big in that, Arabella Weir.
I really enjoyed the first two series of The Fast Show, but by the time series 3 came along the ideas had begun to run dry, the aforementioned one-offs weren’t as funny as I’d hoped for and this final compilation, which has had a third of the material broadcast edited out, had a few jokes worth laughing at but was definitely a Christmas Special too far.
Many of the regulars returned such as: the sleazy 13th Duke of Wimbourne, Competitive Dad, Louis Balfour – presenter of Jazz Club (Nice!), the thief who’s a little bit whooo a little bit wahay (so say the subtitles), Jesse’s Experiments (moving on from his diets), Channel 9, Swiss Toni, “I’ll get me coat!”, Bob Fleming, Ted and Ralph, That’s Amazing!, “..which was nice” and scores more including a “Suits You” sketch cameo from Johnny Depp, who apparently really wanted to be in a Fast Show episode.
I don’t recall John Thomson’s astronaut character, nor the deaf stuntman being in the series before and they certainly don’t work.
The individual series were shot and presented in 4:3 fullscreen, but this was the first venture into widescreen filming for the sketch show, save for the Ted and Ralph special that concentrated solely on those two characters. The anamorphic picture looks mostly very good and certainly better than the BBC’s treatment of its bitrate on SkyDigital since they dropped it below a reasonable level last summer.
Here, the average bitrate is 7.64Mb/s – occasionally peaking close to 9Mb/s – and the bitrate-skinflints at the BBC could never hope to attain that level unless they gave that decision to someone with a brain. It used to look very good before last summer, then it was dropped to a dreadful level leaving artifacts all over the place and was slightly restored in mid-September when the olympics began. I understand that those in charge deem the current bitrate level acceptable, but it still looks awful. Programmes like Eastenders look blocky as hell at times and when some stupid programme like My Family or Office Gossip attempts to use that ‘blurry film’ look, which is added AFTER the programme has been put together thus instantly making anything unwatchable, it’s artifact-city!
The stereo soundtrack is purely functional, giving clear English dialogue, but nothing else is necessary.
There are a massive 75 chapters to this disc, covering the opening and closing credits plus each individual sketch, selectable from two menu schemes featuring DVD-related soundbites – a standard one and a Channel 9-inspired one. Subtitles are in English only.
The extras contain eight minutes of Outtakes, an alternative WWTBAMillionaire sketch and the promise of The Flesh Show! which just has Colin’s voice telling you that you’re wrong. Eh?
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.