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It all started because in the first episode, The Red Knight, he received an invitation to a
fancy dress party and, so, set off to find a place that rented out such costumes. He tried the big shops,
the not-so-big shops, the small shops and the side streets, but no joy at all, until he stumbled across
a shop in a back lane where a suit of bright red armour sat in the window.
As the knight, a dragon complains to him that he was put out of business of lighting fires by a matchmaker,
the same person who turned their hand to arso and blamed the dragon for that, too, which got him sacked
from the King's castle. Mr Benn set off to get the dragon his job back (you can see how he manages that
for yourself), but it's when it gets to the end and everyone's about to tuck into a big feast that the
shopkeeper reappears and Mr Benn's denied the partaking of the meal. What a teasing bastard the shopkeeper is!
In other adventures he gets all 'Tony Blair' by trying to stop some posh toff from big-game hunting, he turns
his hand to cooking to make a meal for the King and all the street urchins, dons a caveman outfit to build a
village to protect the townsfolk from the rampaging dinosaurs, then shows local villagers how to fly a hot-air
balloon and win a competition, irresponsibly frees all the caged animals from the zoo because he clearly
thinks he's Dr Dolittle then goes scuba diving and chats up a mermaid.
As if by magic... the Shopkeeper appeared!
If that's not enough, he becomes a wizard to cast spells to impress yet another King, dresses up as a cowboy
to resolve the differences between the real cowboys and indians, becomes a clown to help a circus troupe build
a bridge - and guess who turns up as a performer(?) But not to worry as before long he goes flying on a magic
carpet to deal with a bad guy who's bossing kids about and then they meet a genie who gives them three wishes.
Spaceman, always wanted Mr Benn to go into space man... and he does some intergalacting looting before
turning into a pirate to deal with those who do the same in ourown galaxy.
Finally, there's an episode created last year, Gladiator. He doesn't quite look like quite Russell
Crowe, but still goes off to fight in an arena, challenges one of his council workmen friends, Smasher
McGrue and then tricks the Emperor, who looks and sounds like John Prescott, into letting all the prisoners
go free.
The new episode has slightly different music, as it's in stereo. I prefer the original, as heard over the main
menu, since the new version just strips the bass out of it and sounds a little too 'clean'.
It is in the same old style though, so I'll let them off a bit.
Mr Benn was always one of my favourite programmes as a child and I still love it today. It's
amazing to think there were only ever 13 episodes originally filmed. They all follow the same pattern,
Mr Benn always saves the day and then gets brought back down to earth with a bump.
In fact, does he actually *have* a job? Is he on the dole? Given the amount of time he spends in the
costume shop, is he on day release?! Oh, and he never actually hired a costume, he just played around in
it for nearly 15 minutes and then handed it back to the shopkeeper after keeping something from it...
to help him remember. Also, since he never actually buys anything, perhaps
he'd rent this DVD from a library for free?
This Mr Benn is not on this DVD.
The picture and sound quality isn't perfect throughout but then it's no different than you'd expect for
something 35 years so nostalgia wins every time, right back to the disc itself which is brilliantly
designed to look like the opening credits if you turn it round. Some dialogue has been re-recorded as
it sounds much cleaner than it did back then. It stands out, but I'll let them off if the original
was incomprehensible.
The main menu features the theme music which is a must, but it's frustrating that there are no subtitles
on this disc, nor any extras (what happened to the documentary on the Mr Benn phenomena I read was promised
on Sendit.com?).
There are also no chapters? Come on, Contender. I make DVDs of many programmes I record from TV and
it doesn't take a rocket scientist to add a chapter after the opening credits, one before the closing credits
and then approx every five minutes during the programme to space it out.
Coming back on a high though, I did say this was one of my favourite TV shows as a child, and it might
sound a bit sad, but after I finished Keele University in 1993 and got my first non-Uni email address I
signed up with Demon and chose 'mcclane@festive.demon.co.uk', mcclane being from John McClane (from the
Die Hard films) and the festive part came from Mr Benn's address, 52 Festive Road :)
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Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.