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Dom Robinson reviews 
Series 1
PT Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PTDVD 8001
- Running time: 135 minutes
- Year: 1991
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 42
- Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Pub Quiz, Animated Menus, Out-takes
Director:
- Martin Dennis
Producer:
- Beryl Vertue
Writer:
- Simon Nye
Music:
- Alan Lisk
Cast:
- Gary: Martin Clunes (The Acid House, Carry On Columbus, It’s Good to Talk, The Revengers’ Comedies, The Russia House, Saving Grace, Shakespeare in Love, Staggered, Swing Kids, TV: All at Number 20, Demob, An Evening with Gary Lineker, Have I Got News for You, Hospital!, Hunting Venus, Lord of Misrule, Men Behaving Badly, Men Down Under, Never Come Back, Never Mind the Horrocks, Neville’s Island, No Place Like Home, Over Here, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (2000), Rik Mayall Presents Dancing Queen, Sex ‘n’ Death, Shooting Stars, Suspicion, Touch and Go)
Dermot: Harry Enfield (The Big Snog, Kevin and Perry Go Large, What Rats Won’t Do, TV: Bob’s Birthday, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Girls on Top, Harry Enfield and Chums, Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, Men Behaving Badly, Norbert Smith: A Life, Norman Ormal: A Very Political Turtle, Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire, Saturday Live (1986), Sermon From St. Albion’s, Spitting Image)
Deborah: Leslie Ash (Curse of the Pink Panther, Dead on Time, Murder: Ultimate Grounds for Divorce, Nutcracker, Quadrophenia, Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse, TV: Cat’s Eyes, Driving Force ’86, The Gentle Touch, Haggard, The Happy Apple, Men Behaving Badly, Seconds Out, Shadey, Shooting Stars, Stay Lucky, The Tube)
Dorothy: Caroline Quentin (Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, Party Party, TV: Don’t Tell Father, An Evening with Gary Lineker, The Innocent, Jonathan Creek, Kiss Me Kate, Men Behaving Badly, Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire, Up Line, Whose Line is it Anyway?)
George: Ian Lindsay (Food of Love, Little Dorrit, The Tall Guy, TV: Boon, Bramwell, Casualty, Forever Green, The Master, Men Behaving Badly, The Paradise Club)
Anthea: Valerie Minifie (Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair, Firelight, Miss Julie, The Pirates of Penzance, Queen of the Blues, TV: Alas Smith & Jones, A Dark Adapted Eye, Eastenders, A Man For All Seasons, Men Behaving Badly, One Foot in the Grave, Our Friends in the North, Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson’s…Twelve Angry Men, The Racing Game, The Railway Children (2000))
Men Behaving Badly, began life on ITV in 1991 with Harry Enfield and Martin Clunes as Dermot and Gary, two flatmates whose destiny in life is the three ‘B’s : booze, babes and more booze. Gary’s found the love of his life in the long-suffering Dorothy (Caroline Quentin, ex-wife of comedian Paul Merton), although he’s always after more and Dermot’s always on the lookout for his next love…and it always seems to be with Deborah (Leslie Ash).
From series 2 onwards, Neil Morrissey, aka Tony, replaced Harry Enfield as Gary’s flatmate always vying for Deborah’s affections, and since then the programme has gone from strength to strength, moving from ITV to BBC1 from series 3 onwards.
So what’s it all about? Gary and Tony are two flatmates whose aim in life is to drink as much as they can, be as crude as they can, and chat up as many women as they can, although in 99% of all cases, they only manage to fulfil the first two criteria.
Gary is a stressed-out supervisor for a security alarm company, working alongside the over-the-hill homely, cardigan-wearing George (Ian Lindsay) and middle-aged, rather clueless Anthea (Valerie Minifie). Tony (Neil Morrissey), the dim-witted type who’d flit from crap job to crap job to no job at all, depending on where the wind carried him.
Dorothy (Caroline Quentin) is a nurse and still lives with her parents, but spends most time with Gary – whether he likes it or not – and Deborah owns the flat upstairs. Tony would like to spend all of his time up there, but Deborah doesn’t whether Tony likes it or not. Given that her life is an equal mess to Tony’s – she has a VISA bill she can’t pay, negative equity, a feeling of no self-worth and no steady job – they should get on like a house on fire then!
The series was also shipped overseas with a new cast for the American version including Justine Bateman (Family Ties), Rob Schneider (Judge Dredd
, Demolition Man) and Ron Eldard (fireman Shep in series 2 of E.R.). It didn’t take long to get cancelled though as the men didn’t behave particularly badly at all.
Click on each of the following pictures for a sound-bite from that episode!
IntrudersIn the first episode, Dermot’s having a lot of trouble trying to be assertive, getting to the point where Gary declares him, “Very stupid or very, very stupid.” and wants to teach him where he’s going wrong by getting him to try selling a revolution in door security – it looks like the equivalent of a car’s wheel-lock, but just falls off the door handle the moment you touch it!
Gary’s thinking of splitting up with Dorothy yet again and, meanwhile, in the flat upstairs there’s a new female tenant moving in.
Click on the picture to find out what posh delicacies Gary has planned for dinner…
The BetGary and Dorothy are nearly back together – the “nearly” part meaning that he’s still moping around and she’s going out with Graham. She says they haven’t slept together – they’ve only played chess together.
Dermot has a theory that a game of “chess” is just a cover-up for shagging and this leads to a bet between the boys. A game of chess with the bet being in the form of Gary’s opera tickets… and Dorothy won’t be happy if the inevitable happens.
Gary finally gets to meet Graham later on and guess what… he doesn’t play chess!
Alarms and SetbacksThis episode starts with the first of those two as Gary decides to step up security on the house in an attempt to impress Deborah: in other words, he’s going to replace the empty shell on the front of the house with a REAL alarm!
Meanwhile, Dermot still wants to get together with Deborah himself, so sets Gary up for a reunion with Dorothy.
Why do Gary and Dermot always drink in the same pub? Click on the picture for the answer.
AnimalsThat’s all humans are when it comes down to basic sexual needs. Gary and Dorothy are still having problems, but Gary wants to complicate it further by having an open relationship.
Dermot, on the other hand, is on a training course in retailing and has met Kate (Nescafe girl Louise Hunt), the younger sister of a girl he used to date, just before he left to “join the Merchant Navy”. While he’s interested, he still pines for Deborah upstairs and thinks he should try out the method that worked for a friend of his and Gary’s at University – The “Do you want a shag or not?” routine. After all, you may get lots of “no’s”, but you may still get the odd “yes” !
What’s Dermot’s best chat-up line though?
Sex and ViolenceIn this episode, Deborah’s depressed. She’s split up with Mike who’s overseas and just doesn’t know what to do with herself. Dermot’s on hand though to organise an evening of Spanish food, an authentic Spanish flamenco guitar player, followed with a dessert of passion.
Hence, things go wrong when none of the above go to plan, Gary turns up pissed as a fart and Mike comes back from abroad – and he’s not a nice man to know at all…
Gary and Dorothy’s relationship is going from bad to worse as their plan for an open relationship means the return of Graham.
Click on the picture to find out what lovely pub grub is being served down the local.
My Brilliant CareerIn the last episode of the series, that’s not the way things are going for either Gary or Dermot.
Dermot’s been fired from the toy store for chastising a young child by dangling him upside-down and persuades Deborah to take him on at her restaurant, although he goes far and beyond the call of duty here.
Gary has had enough at his job with George and Anthea and applies for a position at a more established firm. Will his expectations be met, or will he forever have to share an office with the neurotic and bumbling pair? This question will obviously have been answered if you’ve seen any other episode of Men Behaving Badly after the first series…
Presented in a 4:3 ratio and free of artifacts, the picture looks great and everything you could ever want. It can often be comfortably zoomed in to a fill a widescreen TV without losing anything of importance. The average bitrate is 5.24Mb/s for each episode.
The sound, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround), comes across as clear as a bell. Obviously, being a TV show free of special FX it isn’t going to be one to test your speakers to the limit, but it’s spot on for what it needs to do.
Extras :
Chapters : There are 7 chapters per episode – making 42 in all – with an onscreen menu decked out like cans of lager in the fridge. In each episode, there’s one apiece for the opening and closing credits with five left for the programme itself, so the five lager cans actually lead to chapters 2-6.
Languages and Subtitles : All the episodes are in English, as you’d expect, but there are no subtitles which is a shame. I’d like to see this rectified for future releases if possible.
And there’s more… : Four Interactive Quizzes are included, in the form of a pub quiz game to test your knowledge of the series. Get it right or wrong and you’ll hear a cry of enthusiasm or jeering in a soundbite from Gary or Dermot. Complete the quizzes (3 questions apiece) and you’ll be rewarded with special out-takes.
Menu : The main menu is well-animated and scored, bringing the charm and poise of the lads’ lifestyle to life with things floating around the living room, including wine bottles and reflections on why you have to let a girl down gently when you split up – you can’t just say “You’re chucked!”
Overall, I’ve been waiting for Men Behaving Badly to be released on DVD for ages. It’s one of my favourite TV series and the tapes are getting a bit worn now.
It’d be nice to have a few more extras, even perhaps a running audio commentary from the cast and crew as the out-takes show they all clearly had a lot of fun in making it.
Although it was rejected by ITV after Series 1, it still has just as many laughs as the later series and is just as worthy, coming head-and-shoulders above most sitcoms. Due to its risque nature and the fact that ITV sitcoms are usually full of mindless pap, it’s obvious that a series with quality was too much for ITV to handle.
Series 2 through 5 will be released in June and July, so I’m looking forward to those, but I’d love to also see releases for the Xmas specials from 1997 and 1998’s three-parter “Last Orders”, but this time in anamorphic widescreen and not cropped to 4:3.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL Visit the official website at : Men Behaving Badly.com
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.